This document summarizes a presentation about using semantic annotation to improve open science. It discusses a project called EUROCORR that published correspondence from Jacob Burckhardt online in an open access format. The project annotated the digital library with metadata, transcriptions, and linked open data to make the information more accessible and interoperable. It argues this can enable new ways of conducting collaborative research by allowing analysis of networks and relationships in the data. The presentation advocates open science by encouraging funding agencies to require data sharing and documenting work online to evaluate and reward new forms of contribution.

1. Semantic annotation
of Digital Libraries
a model of science communication
Francesca Di Donato
SNS - ERC
francesca.didonato@sns.it
This presentation is released under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
Knowledge Triangle
New formulas for science communication
Pisa, May 23-24 2013

2. A new way
of carrying out research
How we produce scientific results
How we store data and results
How we disseminate them
What we can do with
How they are evaluated

3. An example as a model
EUROCORR Project (ERC -AdG , 2010-2014)
Critical edition (on paper and digital) of the unpublished
correspondence to Jacob Burckhardt (1842-97)
Coordinated by Maurizio Ghelardi (SNS, Principal Investigator), the
research group involves 5 people (3 humanists, 2 developers, 1
"digital humanist")

4. EUROCORR goals
1. publish new materials and tools for the study
of European culture of the second half of 1800
2. enrich science of new knowledge that will help
to answer interesting research questions

5. A full OA model
Access to data (physical layer)
Access to data (legal layer)
Access to data (technological layer)

6. Physical layer: manuscripts,
transcriptions, metadata, documentation
1. Manuscripts (http://www.burckhardtsource.org/box_view_url_shortener?u=Z)

7. 2. Transcriptions (XML-TEI)

8. The transcription workflow

9. 3. Metadata

10. 4. Documentation (soon on a wiki)
Transparency of the research process is essential for replicate it
1. Transcription compendium
2. Transcription workflow
3. XML - TEI Schema
4. XML - TEI Schema documentation

11. Rights on data (sources) and results
1a. Manuscripts of the
correspondence to Burckhardt
1b. Burckhardt’s letters (printed edition) (?)
2. Project results

12. Interoperability: Towards open science
1. Open source platform (muruca.org)
2. XML-TEI (standard)
3. Linked Open Data (standard)

15. open science
(in pratice)
1. Variations, frequency of relevant terms for
author
3. Salutations, dates, other (?)
tag clouds
2. B.’s correspondents on a map and a timeline
an example: http://goo.gl/5h6Vp
a second one: http://goo.gl/w5amR

16. Semantic annotation
of the DL
(thepund.it)

18. Annotations are linked to the
Web of Data
Web of Data (RDF)
mash-up
dbpedia
europeana
iconclass
bibserver
Ad hoc vocabs
ex. persons,
works of art, biblio-
graphies

19. What can we do with
annotations?
Some example:
1. Network of people discussing about a certain
topic
2. Display on a historical map the works of art
mentioned in the letters
see:
http://goo.gl/6xfUa

20. We can do more
What about the debate on the same topics in the
Republic of Letters?

21. Other examples
1. Polymath Project (2009)
A collaborative space for mathematical research
3. HapMap (2002) http://hapmap.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
The goal of the International HapMap Project is to develop
a haplotype map of the human genome which will
describe the common patterns of human DNA sequence
variation
2. GenBank (1996)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/
Genetic data are immediately shared online

22. 4. Galaxy Zoo http://www.galaxyzoo.org/
200.000 volontari collaborano con esperti alla
classificazione delle galassie
5. Wikipedia (2000)
A collaborative Encyclopedia
6. MAPPA Project (2011-14)
Study predictive computational tools applicable to the
archaeological potential of an urban area
Create the first italian open digital archaeological archive
7. Transcribe Bentham http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/transcribe-bentham/
A collaborative transcription project

23. The
open science
imperative
[M. Nielsen, Le nuove vie della scoperta scientifica, Einaudi, pp. 222-229]

24. A community of knowledge in a
republic of science

25. change
the "traffic direction"
of science

26. how groups
can work together to manage
the commons (intangible)?

27. 1. Demanding open science

28. a) Funding agencies mandate to deposit in OA
archives
(ex. ERC, FP7, Horizon2020, National Science Foundation)
b) Funding agencies mandate to document
researchers activities on the Web
Create agreement and consensus in the scientific
community
and make a long-term strategy

29. 2. Encourage open science

30. How adopting new ways of sharing can become an
imperative for scientists as it is today publishing
an article?
Science economy is based on reputation
Publications: articles/books through journals/
series
The citation leads to the assessment, which leads
to the reward, which leads to people motivated to
contribute to the science in a new way

31. Include in the evaluation
mechanisms citations of data, wikis,
comments, etc.
Altmetrics
http://altmetrics.org/manifesto/

32. Thank you
Credits
Maurizio Ghelardi (SNS)
Susanne Müller (SNS-ERC)
Costanza Giannaccini (SNS- ERC)
Alexander auf der Heyde (SNS- ERC)
Alessio Piccioli (Net7 www.netseven.it)
Michele Barbera (Net7 www.netseven.it)
Simone Fonda (Net7 www.netseven.it)
Romeo Zitarosa (Net7 www.netseven.it)
www.burckhardtsource.org
www.muruca.org
thepund.it
See also a video on Pundit and semantic annotation at the LODLAM Challenge 2013
http://summit2013.lodlam.net/2013/04/03/pundit/