Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...
Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...
Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...
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collaborat<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g, c<strong>on</strong>textualiz<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g, gather<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g/forag<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g <strong>and</strong> manag<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g data.<br />
SEASR<br />
SEASR, or the Software Envir<strong>on</strong>ment for the Advancement of Scholarly Research, has been funded by<br />
the Mell<strong>on</strong> Foundati<strong>on</strong> as a “transformati<strong>on</strong>al cyber<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>frastructure technology” <strong>and</strong> seeks to support two<br />
major functi<strong>on</strong>s: (1) to enable scholars to <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>dividually <strong>and</strong> collaboratively pursue computati<strong>on</strong>ally<br />
advanced digital research <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g> a robust virtual work envir<strong>on</strong>ment; <strong>and</strong> (2) to support digital humanities<br />
developers with a robust programm<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g envir<strong>on</strong>ment where they can both rapidly <strong>and</strong> efficiently design<br />
applicati<strong>on</strong>s that can be shared.<br />
SEASR provides a visual programm<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g envir<strong>on</strong>ment named Me<strong>and</strong>re 771 that allows users to develop<br />
applicati<strong>on</strong>s, labeled “flows,” that can then be deployed <strong>on</strong> an already-exist<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g robust hardware<br />
<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>frastructure. Accord<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g to the project website, Me<strong>and</strong>re is a “semantic enabled web-driven, dataflow<br />
executi<strong>on</strong> envir<strong>on</strong>ment” It provides “the mach<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>ery for assembl<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g <strong>and</strong> execut<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g data flows -software<br />
applicati<strong>on</strong>s c<strong>on</strong>sist<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g of software comp<strong>on</strong>ents that process data,” as well as “publish<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g capabilities<br />
for flows <strong>and</strong> comp<strong>on</strong>ents, enabl<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g users to assemble a repository of comp<strong>on</strong>ents for reuse <strong>and</strong><br />
shar<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g.” In other words, digital humanities developers can use Me<strong>and</strong>re to quickly develop <strong>and</strong> share<br />
software applicati<strong>on</strong>s to support <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>dividual scholarship <strong>and</strong> research collaborati<strong>on</strong> as well as reuse<br />
applicati<strong>on</strong>s that have been developed by others, as SEASR ma<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>ta<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>s an exp<strong>and</strong><str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g repository of<br />
different comp<strong>on</strong>ents <strong>and</strong> applicati<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
The sec<strong>on</strong>d major functi<strong>on</strong> of SEASR is to provide a virtual work envir<strong>on</strong>ment where digital<br />
humanities scholars can share data <strong>and</strong> research <strong>and</strong> a variety of data <strong>and</strong> text-m<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g><str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g tools, <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>clud<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g<br />
frequent pattern m<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g><str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g, cluster<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g, text summarizati<strong>on</strong>, <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>formati<strong>on</strong> extracti<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> named-entity<br />
recogniti<strong>on</strong>. This work envir<strong>on</strong>ment allows scholars to access digital materials that are stored <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g> a<br />
variety of formats, experiment with different algorithms, <strong>and</strong> use supercomput<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g power to provide<br />
new visualizati<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> discover new relati<strong>on</strong>ships between data.<br />
SEASR uses both a service-oriented architecture (SOA) <strong>and</strong> semantic web comput<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g 772 to address<br />
four key research needs: (1) to transform semi- or unstructured data (<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>clud<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g natural language texts)<br />
<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>to structured data; (2) to improve automatic knowledge discovery through analytics; (3) to support<br />
collaborative scholarship through a VRE; <strong>and</strong> (4) to promote open-source development <strong>and</strong> community<br />
<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>volvement through shar<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g user applicati<strong>on</strong>s developed through Me<strong>and</strong>re <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g> a community repository.<br />
A number of digital humanities projects have used SEASR, <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>clud<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g the Networked Envir<strong>on</strong>ment for<br />
Music Analysis (NEMA) 773 <strong>and</strong> the MONK (Metadata Offer New Knowledge) project. 774<br />
TextGrid<br />
TextGrid began work <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g> 2006 <strong>and</strong> has evolved <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>to a jo<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>t project of 10 partners with fund<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g through<br />
2012. The project is work<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g to create an <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>frastructure for a VRE <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g> the humanities that c<strong>on</strong>sists of<br />
two key comp<strong>on</strong>ents: (1) a TextGrid repository that will serve as a “l<strong>on</strong>g-term archive for research data<br />
<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g> the humanities, embedded <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g> a grid <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>frastructure” <strong>and</strong> will “ensure l<strong>on</strong>g-term availability <strong>and</strong><br />
access to its research data as well as <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>teroperability”; <strong>and</strong> (2) a “TextGrid Laboratory” that will serve<br />
771 http://seasr.org/me<strong>and</strong>re/documentati<strong>on</strong>/<br />
772 http://seasr.org/documentati<strong>on</strong>/overview/<br />
773 http://www.music-ir.org/q=node/12<br />
774 http://m<strong>on</strong>kproject.org/. For more <strong>on</strong> their use of SEASR <str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g> text m<str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g><str<strong>on</strong>g>in</str<strong>on</strong>g>g <strong>and</strong> named-entity recogniti<strong>on</strong>, see Vuillemot et al. (2009).