The document discusses the need for a new digital research infrastructure called DARIAH to support humanities research in Europe. It proposes that DARIAH would provide access to digitized cultural heritage data and tools to process this information. The infrastructure would link distributed resources across Europe and support innovative, international and interdisciplinary digital humanities research through a decentralized network of national and thematic organizations. Preparation projects are underway to define DARIAH's strategic vision, business model, technical architecture and governance structure.

1. Towards a new research infrastructure for the arts and humanities Peter Doorn Director, Data Archiving and Networked Services Athens May 6 th , 2009

2. What do humanities scholars have to do with digital research infrastructures? Traditional image of the humanities scholar: a loner in his study

3. Ideas about the future may be false... Mouse? How Rand Corporation envisioned the future (2004) home computer in 1954

4. From Humanities computing to e-humanities Roots go back to the 1960s: text analysis, e.g. bible studies quantitative social and economic history linguistics archaeology E-humanities as analogy of e-science: ‘ science increasingly done through distributed global collaborations enabled by the Internet, using very large data collections, large-scale computing resources and high performance visualisation.’

5. Humanities computing

6. Aetolian Studies Project: settlement history from prehistory to modern times

7. CLIWOC-project (Climate of the World Oceans) Collaboration of historians and meteorologists

8. Journal entry, 26-29 September 1758

9. Shipping Routes 1750-1850 Courtesy of CLIWOC project, KNMI

10. Average yearly temperatures, 1750-1850 Courtesy of CLIWOC project, KNMI

11. Wind direction and speed Courtesy of CLIWOC project, KNMI

12. Wind directions and rainy days, Atlantic, 1770-1780 Courtesy of CLIWOC project, KNMI

13. Archaeology

14. Data collection in the field

15. Databases of finds

16. Photos, GIS, sherds

17. Virtual archive of finds, publications, data and documentation

18. Electronic Depot Netherlands Archaeology (EDNA)

19. Archaeological Data Service (UK)

20. POLEMON Greek National Monuments Record System Main characteristics Geographical distribution – federated architecture Administrative documentation for site monuments and moveable objects Cartographic documentation (GIS component) Connection with thematic databases and term thesauri Operation modes : distributed, centralized, mixed Easy installation and startup By: Panos Constantopoulos Installation and deployment on a national scale ~ 65 installations in Greece ~ 120,000 monuments recorded Trained personnel in every ephorate .. ΥΠΠΟ/ΔΑΜΔ . .

21. Digital Research data in the arts and humanities Digital materials collected for research purposes, e.g.: History: digitized archival sources such as population registers, shipping journals, historical censuses, judicial verdicts, medieval manuscripts Archaeology: excavation data - field reports, databases of finds, photos of objects, digital maps of sites, drawings of shards Linguistics: speech data, text corpora, video

22. What does data look like? Multitude of forms: data bases, spreadsheets, texts, audio, video, still images Multitude of formats: since 1960s! From home-grown applications (legacy data) via standard software to open standards Data is often coded or “enriched”: cannot be understood or used without ample documentation Often: difficult to use without specific software

23. Research Infrastructures (R.I.) R.I. in general: permanent and physical R.I. for the natural sciences: ice breakers for polar research, satellites, telescopes, particle accelerators, laboratories R.I. for the humanities? Cultural heritage in all forms is the main source of humanities research Libraries and archives are the traditional “laboratories” for the humanities In the digital age, essential for innovative humanities research is: Access to digitised heritage data (data bases, text corpora, speech, image collections, etc.) Tools to process this information The most important new research infrastructure for the humanities is therefore a digital one

24. European infrastructure challenges In spite of some achievements, existing infrastructures are primarily national... if they are there at all! European activities are until now funded on a project basis and carried out as voluntary activities by national partners Stable, pan-European data infrastructures for the humanities hardly exist Increasing internationalisation of humanities research puts new requirements for such infrastructures

25. ESFRI Roadmap ESFRI = European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures First Roadmap launched in autumn 2006, update in 2008 About 30 proposals for large scale research facilities Six proposals are in area of social sciences and humanities

26. The DARIAH idea The Grand Vision: Provide Access to European humanities and cultural heritage information across time A Research Infrastructure that can Coordinate, Catalyse, Enhance, Support the digital humanities Digital research infrastructure for the humanities: Provide permanent access to data collected/digitised in European projects: providing continuity for discontinuous activities Support research networks in the digital humanities Structure: a strong nucleus in a cluster of networked organisations and satellites

27. Science Case Changing research practice in a networked environment: Data (including text, images, and other media) is the laboratory of the scholar in the humanities Resources on the web are distributed (data grid) The scale of research goes up: networked projects New technologies and methods of analysis However, European projects have no continuity The existing structures are too weak (ad hoc networks, no permanence) and national in scope Answer: strong European data infrastructure

28. A digital research infrastructure for the humanities is comparable to a virtual astrophysics observatory

31. Outline of tasks of DARIAH Digitise – Curate – Preserve Standards development and promotion Preservation and digitisation support R&D, technology platforms, tools development Legal services and advice on open access and I.P.R. Discover – Access – Deliver Authentication and authorisation, Harvesting, aggregating, hosting User-friendly discovery and delivery Connect – Collaborate – Use Supporting communities of practice in digital humanities Facilitating innovative research practices Tools development and tools registries

32. Preparation Project: Overview of the Work Packages Project management Dissemination Strategic work Financial work Governance and logistical work Legal work Technical reference architecture Technical: Conceptual modelling

33. DARIAH preparation project partners

34. Aspiring Partners Italy Spain Austria Switzerland Other prospective partners in: Rumania, Bulgaria , Hungary, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Serbia, FYROM

35. Strategic, financial, organisational and legal objectives Strategic: To determine the strategic vision, goals, objectives and policies for DARIAH, ensuring they are based upon and will meet stakeholder requirements, clearly identified business drivers, and identified benefits for European research Financial: To define a sustainable business model for DARIAH that allows for the provision of long-term services to the European research community in the humanities, while ensuring adaptability to new user needs and new technological developments Logistical: To deliver a business plan that describes the organisational set-up and the management structure, the role of the institutions and persons involved (stakeholders, staff, experts, partners, expansion with new partners) Legal: To determine the rights and obligations of different types of DARIAH partners and allowing for the inclusion of new partners; draft licence agreements, products and services contracts ; ERI or non-ERI, that is the question.

36. Technical and conceptual objectives Architecture: To draft the technical reference architecture of DARIAH, consisting of draft engineering plans, as well as demonstrators for key enabling technologies. Conceptual: Develop foundation of a coherent, interlinked, and collaboratively maintained virtual infrastructure of digital resources in the partner institutes. Model and evaluate the research processes in selected digital humanities disciplines.

37. Arena Demonstrator Exemplary Service-Oriented Architecture: ARENA at ADS a Culture 2000 portal Added value of DARIAH: Migrate legacy applications Database integration: Integrate access

38. Fedora (manuscript) demonstrator The NFI collection - The manuscripts AM 366-371 fol. in the Arnamagnaean Collection contain drawings and descriptions of all the Danish and Norwegian runic monuments (stones with runic inscriptions) which were known in the 1620s

39. Arts and humanities disciplines according to European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH) and in selected countries

40. Relations to other projects and networks

41. Preparing DARIAH: time schedule 2008 2009 May 2007 Deadline Capacities call ESFRI projects Q3 2008 Agreement EC funding Q4 2008 Start “Preparing DARIAH” 2010 2007 October 2006 Publication ESFRI Roadmap December 2006 Publication relevant FP7 call Q1 2010 DARIAH conference Q1 2011 Start construction DARIAH Financial Commitment?

42. Summary Mission: to enhance the European research infrastructure in the humanities linking (and upgrading) distributed digital resources and merging them into a grid-empowered architecture designing new facilities for pioneering research, preferably of an international and interdisciplinary nature Structure : a single, distributed organisation that combines specialist knowledge of the fields with technology expertise in digital information and communication structures

43. Summary (continued) Organising principle: a decentralised network; an international core in a cluster of national and thematic satellites The core will bear responsibility for organising and supporting the network, for the basic infrastructure, and for the method and means of communication. The national ‘hubs’ will bear responsibility for the specific thematic or disciplinary expertise. The hubs will be prominent institutes and research networks with a leading role within the European context. The model is an open one and will be able to embrace new, promising fields that are as yet unable to play such a leading role in Europe.

44. Additional information www.dariah.eu