Data as artifacts and as records - I Trust AI SUmmer School 2025

Editor's Notes

• #1 Image: https://flowingdata.com/2020/06/01/racial-divide/ Using updated data from the 5-year American Community Survey from 2018, this is a recreation of Jim Vallandingham’s project from 2011, which is based on Mike Bostock’s force-directed map. The greater the difference in black-to-white population between two neighboring areas, the greater the distance. The cities were chosen based on FiveThirtyEight’s integration-segregation index.
• #2 Icons: https://thenounproject.com/
• #3 Millington, James. 2016. “Analysing Drone Data: 3D Forest Point Clouds.” King’s Geocomputation (blog). June 7, 2016. https://kingsgeocomputation.org/2016/06/07/analysing-drone-data-3d-forest-point-clouds/. 8 UAV surveys over 8,500 photos over 2.5 billion point cloud data points Berbak National Park Sumatra
• #4 Icons: https://thenounproject.com/
• #5 (International Vocabulary of Metrology - Basic and General Concepts and Associated Terms. VIM, 3rd Edition, 2007) https://www.metrologyinfo.org/about.html https://www.worldmetrologyday.org/ https://www.oiml.org/en/front-page
• #6 Fundamentally an immaterial operation, that transforms a mass, volume or temperature into a numeric value – but it does need a tangible object to do so! Himbert in Réunion des musées nationaux. 2018. Made to Measure: The World’s 7 Unit. https://www.boutiquesdemusees.fr/en/exhibition-catalogues/made-to-measure-the-world-s-7-unit/14005.html. P.23
• #7 Réunion des musées nationaux. 2018. Made to Measure: The World’s 7 Unit. https://www.boutiquesdemusees.fr/en/exhibition-catalogues/made-to-measure-the-world-s-7-unit/14005.html.p25 Metre and GPS It is a social construction! Put into practice to enable commercial exchanges, taxes, quantify currency, build buildings, develop transport, science and etc.
• #8 Scribe of the Fields of the Lord of the Double Land of Upper and Lower Egypt” Fresco in the Tomb of Menna, circa 1400 BCE, measuring a field with rope stretchers extending the surveyors cord. With officers inspecting and scribes recording with the owner present who will now have to honestly report his yield as the harvest of wheat was calculated and predicted in advance! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harvest_Scenes,_Tomb_of_Menna_MET_DT207673.jpg Lauriault Photo at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, 2022 Réunion des musées nationaux. 2018. Made to Measure: The World’s 7 Unit. https://www.boutiquesdemusees.fr/en/exhibition-catalogues/made-to-measure-the-world-s-7-unit/14005.html.p. 45
• #9 https://www.bipm.org/en/home https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-development/research-collaboration/research-centres/metrology-research-centre
• #10 https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/trafalgar-square-imperial-measurements Réunion des musées nationaux. 2018. Made to Measure: The World’s 7 Unit. https://www.boutiquesdemusees.fr/en/exhibition-catalogues/made-to-measure-the-world-s-7-unit/14005.html. P.49
• #11 Customs, Salt Office, mint, armoury, other offices, schools, printing houses “ Latin elegiac couplet from the arch of the Gothic-Renaissance Sponza Palace in Dubrovnik” https://nmmu.hr/en/2022/04/04/katarina-alamat-kusijanovic-titled-measure/
• #12 Allegory of the Good Government Effects of Good Government in the City Effects of Good Government in the Country Secular frescos by Ambrogio Lorenzetti – important as this was an era of devotional art - “The Allegory of Good and Bad Government is a series of three fresco panels painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti between February 1338 and May 1339. The paintings are located in Siena's Palazzo Pubblico—specifically in the Sala dei Nove ("Salon of Nine"), the council hall of the Republic of Siena's nine executive magistrates,[2] elected officials who performed executive functions (and judicial ones in secular matters). The paintings have been construed as being "designed to remind the Nine [magistrates] of just how much was at stake as they made their decisions".[3]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Allegory_of_Good_and_Bad_Government
• #13 https://journals.openedition.org/artefact/3602 Réunion des musées nationaux. 2018. Made to Measure: The World’s 7 Unit. https://www.boutiquesdemusees.fr/en/exhibition-catalogues/made-to-measure-the-world-s-7-unit/14005.html. P.68
• #14 “Meter Bar 27.” n.d. NIST. Accessed July 9, 2023. https://www.nist.gov/image/meter27jpg. System of Units = SI
• #15 Icons: https://thenounproject.com/
• #16 Mayer-Schönberger, Viktor. 2013. Big Data a Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think. 1st ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. P.29 & 78, p.
• #17 Kitchin, Rob. 2022. The Data Revolution: A Critical Analysis of Big Data, Open Data and Data Infrastructures. Second edition. London ; SAGE.
• #18 The story was first published in the March 1946 edition of Los Anales de Buenos Aires, año 1, no. 3 as part of a piece called "Museo" under the name B. Lynch Davis, a joint pseudonym of Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares; that piece credited it as the work of "Suarez Miranda."
• #19 Kitchin, Rob. 2022. The Data Revolution: A Critical Analysis of Big Data, Open Data and Data Infrastructures. Second edition. London ; SAGE.
• #21 Greenwood, Faine, Caitlin Howarth, Danielle Escudero Poole, Nathaniel A. Raymond, and Daniel P. Scarnecchia. 2017. “The Signal Code: A Human Rights Approach to Information During Crisis.” 2017. “Principled Artificial Intelligence: Mapping Consensus in Ethical and Rights-Based Approaches to Principles for AI.” n.d. Accessed July 9, 2023. https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/42160420.
• #22 Christl, Wolfie. 2017. “Corporate Surveillance In Everyday Life. How Companies Collect, Combine, Analyze, Trade, and Use Personal Data on Billions,” June. http://crackedlabs.org/en/corporate-surveillance.
• #23 “Ukraine Destruction: Before-and-after Satellite Images | CTV News.” n.d. Accessed July 9, 2023. https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/russian-invasion-before-and%20-after-satellite-images-show-destruction-across-ukraine-1.5819898.
• #25 Lauriault, Tracey P. 2012. “Data, Infrastructures and Geographical Imaginations.” Ottawa: Thesis Ph.D. - Carleton University. Counting: #of people who speak French at home, the volumes of different phenomena, or (i.e., surfaces covered in pavement); Quantifying: turning counts into measures, rates, classifications (i.e., % of people who speak French at home ih Canadian cities, ratio of pavement to greenspace); Creating norms: establishing what might or should be expected (i.e., a bilingual city, the ratio of pavement to greenspace for rural areas would be x while urban areas would be y); Correlation: determining relationships between measures (i.e., this % would suggest more funding, remote rural areas have this particular ratio and are considered underdeveloped); Taking action: employing knowledge to tackle and treat issues (i.e., Increase grade school support, the ratio suggest further development and funding); Scientification: establishing and adopting scientific knowledge (i.e., middle French immersion, the right ratio for specific places is considered the objective formula for that kind of place); Normalization, seeking to fashion the world to fit norms (e.g., all children learn French in School, Phoenix Park is prestigious and therefore only prestigious institutions are associated with it, while the ratio of greenspace to pavement is optimal and other like places with that ratio should be created); Bureaucratization, putting in place institutions and procedures to administer the production of expectations and undertake action (i.e., School funding ensures French immersion, ensure that the factors associated with the success of Phoenix park are encoded in by-laws and adhered to); Resistance, to forms of knowledge, norms, bureaucracy by those that are affected in negative or positive ways and who suggest altering the form that makes up that (i.e., In Vancouver Chinese should be the priority, those who live on the outskirts of the Phoenix Park wall want to slow traffic speeds and increase traffic in the empty space of the park and want to increase the number of gates to make the park more accessible). Classification: or objects in this case are the grouping of things regarded as having shared characteristics; Objects of focus: in this case, are the ‘real’ material things such as buildings, trees, or roads understood by people who then act toward these through the classification; or ideas such as skin colour or where one comes from Institutions: that institutionalize classifications (ontologies, models) and manage the data infrastructures that operationalize these; census, national mapping organizations, data brokers Knowledge: that is used to formulate, reproduce and tweak classifications (ontology, model); and Experts: those within institutions who produce and exercise knowledge, implementing the classification (data base managers, modelers).
• #28 Lauriault, Tracey P. Chapter 1 Looking Back Toward a Smarter Open Data Future in Robinson, Pamela, and Teresa Scassa. 2022. The Future of Open Data. http://ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/43648.
• #29 Feenberg, Andrew. 2017. “Agency and Citizenship in a Technological Society.” In Spaces for the Future, edited by Joseph C. Pitt and Ashley Shew, 1st ed., 98–107. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203735657-10. “Datalibre.ca · CensusWatch.” n.d. Accessed July 9, 2023. https://www.datalibre.ca/census-watch/. BBC News. 2016. “Toronto ‘guerrilla’ Archivists to Help Preserve US Climate Data,” December 15, 2016, sec. US & Canada. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38324045. https://www.raa.se/omvarld-och-insikt/internationella-natverk-ska-radda-ukrainas-digitala-kulturarv/
• #30 https://www.docnow.io/archivists-supporting-activists/ http://walkingwithoursisters.ca/ https://www.endthebacklog.org/backlog/what-rape-kit-backlog https://kareningalasmith.com/2020/04/14/2020/ https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting https://unitedagainstrefugeedeaths.eu/about-the-campaign/about-the-united-list-of-deaths/
• #31 https://www.eni.com/visual-design/infographics/hpc6-longform/en/green-data-center
• #32 Icons: https://thenounproject.com/
• #33 http://interparestrust.org/terminology/term/data
• #34 https://interparestrustai.org/
• #35 Integrated artistic, scientific and government activities into the research project and required the participation of scholars and practitioners in those fields and sectors. The IP2 project was led by Canadian and US teams, with 72 academic and institutional co-investigators including archivists, artists, scientists, industry specialists and government representatives from 14 countries organized into 6 national and multinational teams. IP2 co-investigators were supported by 106 graduate student researchers, many of which continued to work on IP3, IP4 and IP5, and have since become highly qualified personnel (HQP) in archives, government and university faculty. The endeavour aimed to address the challenge presented by the “manipulability and incompatibility of digital systems, technological obsolescence and media fragility and to guarantee that society’s digitally recorded memory will be accessible to future generations”. (IP2, n.d.). The primary investigator (PI) was Dr Luciana Duranti supported by a Management Team (Eastwood and Roeder), and Post-doctoral Fellow (Blanchette). It was overseen by an international advisory board from Australia (Hurley, Commonwealth Bank), Canada (McDonald, Consultant), France (de Lamberterie, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), South Africa (Katuu, Nelson Mandela Foundation), and the U.S. (Maloney, University of Minnesota and Sawyer, NASA). The School of Library, Archival and Information Studies of The University of British Columbia (UBC) was home to the project’s office, and because of the magnitude of the project, it was administered by four project coordinators (Preston, Kozac, Min Chong & Fung), a technical coordinator (Morghese, Orr as assistant), and three post-doctoral Fellows (Mak, Blanchette and Lee).
• #36 https://interparestrustai.org/
• #37 The second phase integrated artistic, scientific and government activities into the research project and required the participation of scholars and practitioners in those fields and sectors. In addition to archives and museums, the following fields were involved: archival science, chemistry, computer engineering, computer science, dance, diplomatics, film, geography & cartography, history, information studies, law, library science, linguistics, media studies, music, performance art, photography and theatre The countries represented: Canada, United States, Australia, Belgium, China, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, the 6 teams were International, American, Asian, Australian, Canadian and European. The goal and objectives necessitated contributions from several disciplines, the integration of different forms of knowledge and expertise, the project was structured into intersecting areas of inquiry consisting of three cross domains, three foci, and four cross domains Like all the InterPARES projects, they were multiyear and complex changing preservation practices on the part of creators and preservers and brought digital preservation practices to new fields. The IP2 chapter will discuss the work of two foci the Arts (Bushey) and the Sciences (Lauriault). Today I will discuss the work I was involved in the Sciences Overview of InterPARES 2 Intellectual Framework - http://www.interpares.org/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_intellectual_framework.pdf For more details see the IP2 Methodological Approaches http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_methodological_principles.cfm
• #38 In all, there were 21 case studies and 9 general studies that provided much of the data necessary to answer the projects overall research questions including the information for the domains and cross-domains, that produced policies, guidelines, and standards, an analysis of metadata schemas, identified the rationale for accuracy, reliability, authenticity and preservation of records, and models in unique contexts. Finally, IP2 created a dictionary, a terminology database, a glossary, and a set of record ontologies, which continue to be used and expanded upon as part of IP5 I Trust AI. IP2 Domain and Cross Domain products here http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_general_studies.cfm Additional products such as authenticity benchmarks, guidelines, policies, can be found here http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_products.cfm.
• #39 CS06 - http://interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=5
• #40 CS06 - http://interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=5
• #41 Diplomatic analysis possess a fixed form and stable content affixed to a stable medium; participate in an action; possess an archival bond, which is the relationship that links each record to the previous and subsequent record of the same action; involve at least three persons: the author, addressee and writer in the digital environment, there are two more necessary persons: the creator and the originator; and possess an identifiable context (i.e., the framework in which the action in which the record participates takes place), including juridical-administrative, provenancial, procedural, documentary, and technological contexts. The research involved face to face deliberations at skilfully coordinated national (Canada & US) and international meetings that included plenaries, symposia and demonstrations. Researchers in IP2 foci identified perspective(s), research design, and methods most appropriate to their investigation. Working groups (WGs) and cross domains (CDs) developed research methods that included: surveys, case studies, general studies, modeling, prototyping, diplomatic archival analysis, and textual analysis. Case studies and general studies focussed on the activities of creating records, understanding their purpose, their phases and the component actions, their by-products and their structure, and their context, but also their technological environment and their use. To ensure comparability, 23 case study questions and a set of cross domains questions were carefully crafted, and each followed a reporting framework and were reformulated in ways that were understandable for researchers of all disciplines. Because human subjects were involved, research and ethics board approval was required as was informed consent. IP2 Case Studies and related documents http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm and general studies here http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_general_studies.cfm. 23 Questions http://www.interpares.org/ip2/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_book_appendix_05.pdf Diplomatic Analysis Template http://www.interpares.org/ip2/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_book_appendix_07.pdf Reporting Framework http://www.interpares.org/ip2/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_book_appendix_08.pdf IP1 Template for Analysis http://www.interpares.org/display_file.cfm?doc=ip1_template_for_analysis.pdf Policy Cross Domain Questions http://www.interpares.org/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_policy_research_design(200404).pdf Domain 1 Research Questions http://www.interpares.org/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_book_appendix_09.pdf Domain 2 Research Questions http://www.interpares.org/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_book_appendix_12.pdf Domain 3 Research Questions http://interpares.org/ip2/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_book_appendix_13.pdf
• #42 CS06 - http://interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=5
• #43 However, analysis of interactive, experiential and dynamic systems revealed that the digital objects produced may have the appearance of documents, but after their first manifestation, cannot be re-produced with the same content and the same form (i.e. interactive federated data atlases). Upon closer examination, the characteristics of the systems within which records were created and maintained revealed that dynamic objects drew their content from data extracted from systems which had variable instantiations; experiential objects incorporated the behaviour of the rendering systems along with subjective user interactions for their content and form; and interactive objects changed content and form in response to user intervention or input from another system. Records were therefore found in complex social and technical assemblages of interacting systems and subsystems. DURANTI, Luciana, “Reflections on InterPARES - The InterPARES 2 Project (2002-2007): An Overview,” Archivaria 64 (Fall 2007): 113-121. Building with Africa: Afrocentric AI Muhammad Abdul-Mageed https://mumageed.medium.com/building-with-africa-afrocentric-ai-4c4b20fdc219 Siku Atlas https://sikuatlas.ca/index.html?module=module.sikuatlas.clyde_river.sea_ice
• #44 DURANTI, Luciana and THIBODEAU, Kenneth, “The Concept of a Record in Interactive, Experiential and Dynamic Environments,” in International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES 2) Experiential, Interactive and Dynamic Records, Edited by, Luciana DURANTI and Randy PRESETON, Padova, IT: ANAI, 2008, p.458. https://link-springer-com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/article/10.1007/s10502-006-9021-7 Ibid, “Appendix 19 – A Framework of Principles for the Development of Policies, Strategies and Standards for the Long-term Preservation of Digital Records,” Ibid, p.703. Ibid, p.705. Creator Guidelines http://www.interpares.org/ip2/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2(pub)creator_guidelines_booklet.pdf
• #46 GS10 - http://interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=34
• #47 At a larger scale “data are the primary building block of science. Furthermore, the meaningful access to reliable scientific data merits as much attention to acquisition of data as the preservation and archiving of scientific data” (CODATA 2007). Many collected data are derived from one-of-a-kind events: a volcanic explosion, a tsunami, ocean temperature at a time and place, an experiment, or pre-election poles. Cumulative sets of data can assist with understanding trends, frequencies and patterns, and can form a baseline upon which we can develop predictions, and the longer the record the greater the confidence we can have in conclusions derived from them (NRC 1995). Cumulative datasets are essential to data models and simulations while training in science is dependent upon the accessibility of existing scientific data (CODATA 2007). With advancements in both scientific methods and computer technology we can now glean more from data than ever before and preservation of these provides the raw materials required for future unintended uses and greater advances. Furthermore, the cost of preserving data is almost always lower than the cost of recollecting them (NSF 2005), providing of course that recollection is possible. The animal, plant and human space flight data in the NASA Life Sciences Archive (IP2SF2), for instance, can never be recollected. GS10 – Report http://www.interpares.org/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_gs10_final_report.pdf
• #48 The portals selected pertained to different communities of practice in sciences such as health, astronomy, biology, engineering, statistics, genetics, geosciences, and ecology, to name a few. The study does, however, provide a deeper understanding of practices in the natural and physical sciences as these pertain to the preservation practices of scientific portals. The report also includes an exploratory literature review, which considers the importance of issues such as accuracy, reliability and authenticity in the management of scientific data exchanged through portals. The choice of the portals considered was based on recommendations from IP2 researchers in the Science Focus who were familiar with and used these in their own research work. GS10 - http://interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=34
• #49 In addition, the practices of the IP2 Case studies that included an examination of data were also examined GS10 - http://interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=34
• #50 GS10 - http://www.interpares.org/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_gs10_final_report.pdf
• #51 GS10 - http://interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=34
• #52 In the sciences, there are a number of methods used to document reliability; in cartography, for example, a reliability diagram includes the authority that produced the map and the quality of the source material. Some rely on reliability diagrams that speak to the probability that a particular model, data or experiment is accurate. Reliability measures are also closely associated with measures of error in a system or dataset, which of course is in turn associated with a degree of accuracy previously discussed. Measures of reliability are statistically complex and designed to test the probability of forecasts or a models outcome. The sections on errors attest to a datasets accuracy, and reporting on authenticity findings from the case studies shows computational methods to detect errors and to ensure reliability. GS10 - http://interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=34
• #53 GS10 - http://interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=34
• #54 GS10 - http://interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=34
• #55 Clearinghouses, directories, and catalogues are the technical embodiments of data-sharing policies. Individuals within organizations, research projects, or scientific collaborations register their data holdings in the portal via an online form generally organized according to a metadata standard or community based cataloguing standard, and then choose to make their data available for free, sale, viewing or downloading. Kenneth Thibodeau (1995), “Preserving Scientific Data on Our Physical Universe,” IASSIST Quarterly (Winter): 26, http://iassistdata.org/publications/iq/iq19/iqvol194thibodeau.pdf (accessed 1 August 2007).
• #56 https://doi.org/10.4095/292413
• #57 https://doi.org/10.4095/296299
• #58 Archivaria 64 (Fall 2007) 123-179 - https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13156
• #59 Multimedia Cartography - https://link-springer-com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/book/10.1007/978-3-540-36651-5 Further Developments in the Theory and Practice of Cybercartography https://shop.elsevier.com/books/further-developments-in-the-theory-and-practice-of-cybercartography/taylor/978-0-444-64193-9
• #60 International Perspectives on Maps and the Internet http://1seminariopreservacaopatrimoniodigital.dglab.gov.pt/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2015/08/recurso_25.pdf The Memory of the World in the Digital Age: Digitization and Preservation https://link-springer-com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/book/10.1007/978-3-540-72029-4
• #61 IP2 Book - http://www.interpares.org/ip2/book.cfm Part 3: http://www.interpares.org/ip2/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_book_part_3_domain2_task_force.pdf Part 1: http://www.interpares.org/ip2/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_book_part_1_focus_task_force.pdf
• #62 Icons: https://thenounproject.com/
• #63 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024. Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital Twins. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. (p.21) https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/foundational-research-gaps-and-future-directions-for-digital-twins
• #64 Spatial digital twins include…..; Can have various levels of accuracy,...; Can cover buildings,...; Are often used for… . Source: WGIC POLICY REPORT: 2022-01. Spatial Digital Twins: Global Status, Opportunities, and the Way Forward (p.18) (https://wgicouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/WGIC-Policy-Report-2022-01-Spatial-Digital-Twins.pdf)
• #65 Presenter: ANNA (read slide)
• #66 This research is part of the International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES), ongoing since 1998, now called the I Trust AI and the Imagining Canada’s Digital Twin project, at the Carleton Immersive Media Studio in the school of architecture funded by the New Frontier in Research Grant that supports high risk high results projects. We stated by studying the CIMS Digital Twin. https://interparestrustai.org/ https://canadasdigitaltwin.ca/
• #67 https://canadasdigitaltwin.ca/
• #68 The CIMS Spatial digital Twin is analogous to a federated spatial data infrastructure bringing together geospatial data, geometric data rendering the built environment and social/cultural data. Federated means that each data owner manages their own interoperable data from their own environments but share them via a set of standards so that they may be seamlessly viewed together when called to do so. That can be on a screen, a VR/AR, or a BIM. Note however that in the CIMS model there are no bi-directional real time data connecting the material and the digital. Image Source Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) https://cims.carleton.ca/project/imagining_canada%27s_digital_twin
• #69 The research questions that guide our exploration are: …. The goal in studying Carleton University’s Digital Twin is to better understand Digital twins for the purpose of their preservation and to identify preservation challenges,
• #70 Plotkin, David. 2021. Data Stewardship - 2nd Edition. 2nd ed. Academic Press. https://shop.elsevier.com/books/data-stewardship/plotkin/978-0-12-822132-7.
• #71 Presenter: TRACEY
• #72 To conduct this research we brought together 4 interrelated theoretical frameworks/concepts, that shaped our thinking and inform our methodological approach. Critical data studies, which accepts that data and technological systems are never independent from the institutions, systems, tools, techniques and systems within which they are created and used (Kitchin and Lauriault 2018). Digital diplomatics (Duranti 2009) which is “the study of the creation, form, and transmission of records, and their relationship to the facts represented in them and to their creator, in order to identify, evaluate, and communicate their nature and authenticity” (SAA n.d.). Social and technical assemblage theory (Lauriault 2022) which ontologically defines a specific complex data and technological system by identifying and describing the loosely coupled context and content attributes of its making to better describe how knowledge, forms of thought, actors, legalities and governmentalities, organizations, standards among others come together to create that system. A combination of the Technology Walkthrough method that helps “establish a foundational corpus of data upon which can be built a more detailed analysis of a [system’s] intended purpose, embedded cultural meanings, and implied ideal users and uses” (Light, Burgess & Duguay 2018) and digital records forensics (Diamond 1994 in Duranti 2009) whereby the researcher becomes an expert witness/research by translating the records to testify that they have not been tampered with and are authentic. Conducted 13 Interviews +/- 25 hours of recordings Documentation Photos/Screen captures Videos, Audio Participated in 3 Tours Carleton University Facilities, Plant & Control Rooms Engineering Design Centre Building Labs City Archives Round 2 of Preliminary Observations Archives Media Studies Architecture AECOO Geography Internet Infrastructure Kitchin, Rob and Lauriault, Tracey P. 2018. “Toward Critical Data Studies: Charting and Unpacking Data Assemblages and Their Work.” In Thinking Big Data in Geography, edited by Josef Eckert, Andrew Shears, and Jim Thatcher. UNP - Nebraska.  “SAA Dictionary: Diplomatics.” n.d. Accessed March 1, 2024. https://dictionary.archivists.org/entry/diplomatics.html. Duranti, Luciana. “From Digital Diplomatics to Digital Records Forensics.” Archivaria, 2009, 39–66. Lauriault, T. P. 2022, Looking Back Toward A “Smarter” Open Data Future, Chapter 1 in Scassa, T. & Robinson, P. eds, the Future of Open Data, University of Toronto Press, https://utpdistribution.com/9780776629735/the-future-of-open-data/ Light, Ben, Jean Burgess, and Stefanie Duguay. 2018. “The Walkthrough Method: An Approach to the Study of Apps.” New Media & Society 20 (3): 881–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816675438. Duranti, Luciana. 2009. “From Digital Diplomatics to Digital Records Forensics.” Archivaria, 39–66.
• #73 To answer our research questions, we followed a hybrid data collection approach followed by a content analysis. We conducted 13… and 4…. .
• #74 We interviewed the following juridical actors: CIMS home of the ICDT project that is building a digital twin. FMP is responsible for the construction, operations and management of all physical assets at Carleton University. BPRC conducts research with FMP & Delta Controls. Delta Controls is the building automation system company subcontracted by FMP. CU Archives who are responsible for the preservation of CU’s Administrative Records and will test the preservation of the CU DT The City of Ottawa BLDG Code Services issues building permits to CU FMP, The City of Ottawa GATS, incorporates the CU BIM in its 3D model of the City, it also captures imagery of the City that includes CIMS data, and it receives updates from BLDG Code Services. The City Archives is responsible for the preservation and management of the City’s records, including building permits and the plans. Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) Imagining Canada’s Digital Twin (ICDT) Carleton University Facilities and Plant Management (CU FMP) Delta Controls Carleton University Building Performance Research Centre (CU BPRC) Carleton University Corporate Records and Archives (CU A) City of Ottawa Building Code Services Geospatial Analytics, Technology and Solutions (GATS) City Archives https://brookmcilroy.com/projects/carleton-university-campus-master-plan-update/ See Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yFCl0MHUcQ&ab_channel=EsriCanada
• #75 Based on commonly held rhetoric and work on the ICDT project, we originally assumed that a digital twin had one juridical actor, CIMS. This diagram depicts the architectural technical perspective at CIMS – we identified multiple platforms, hardware systems, software management systems, asset management databases, applications, rendering engines, data conversion systems, data types and interfaces including hardware such as VR headsets, screens, and cameras.
• #76 Presenter: TRACEY We also discovered practices such as image to BIM, architectural design and drawing, photogrammetry, database creation, interoperability, and open source and of course storage. Most of these practices are to create the digital replicas of physical assets, in this case buildings and ways to render the data viewable to users – video, via a game engine on a browser, in a VR system, on a screen. These data are not interconnected with any sensors or metres but are connected to datasets at CIMs that include data CIMS created along with data from FMP, and Open Ottawa and other open data online data sources. https://cims.carleton.ca/blog/bytown_artefact_photogrammetry https://cims.carleton.ca/project/Venus_Mill https://cims.carleton.ca/project/Digital_Twin_Prototype https://cims.carleton.ca/project/VRKiosk90Wellington
• #77 Once we met with engineers and managers at FMP, researchers from the Carleton University Building Performance Research Centre, and toured facilities, plants, labs and control rooms, we discovered that the work for these actors, is informed by operations data, the automation of data captured by sensing pre-programmed environmental parameters to operate the temperature and air circulation of environments, – thus a building’s circulatory system and not 3D rendering of the building’s architectural features. The BLDG environmental view is the circulatory system of a building - such as HVac, electricity, lighting, heating/cooling as physical assets that are remotely operated by sensors and metres. https://deltacontrols.com/wp-content/uploads/cutsheets/enteliWEB%20Catalog%20Sheet.pdf https://deltacontrols.com/wp-content/uploads/enteliWEB_423_Catalog_Sheet.pdf
• #78 The BLDG environmental view is the circulatory system of a building - such as HVac, electricity, lighting, heating/cooling as physical assets that are remotely operated by sensors and metres. The Architectural View are the spatial data and the geometric data that render buildings to be datafied and viewed and interacted with while the institutional Archives is interested in what they are legally responsible to record. We also discovered an assemblage of myriad software, hardware and data and multiple sub-contractors. The City of Ottawa Digital Twin on the other hand, does not involve any real time data, and is a 3D online mapping systems created in a proprietary ESRI mapping platform. CIMS uses some of the data from the City twin. Thus we have an urban planning and GIS view. Coincidently, the City of Ottawa Archives uses Delta, Regulvar and enteliWEB to operate the vaults that contain its very environmentally sensitive records, and during our tour, we experienced a change in air flow in one of the vaults, as 3 of us entered the space and within seconds the sensors detected an increase in CO2. Carleton U also has these types of sensors including one that detects when a person/body enters a room/classroom.
• #79 We thought we were studying a unified system under the authority of CIMS. Keep in mind that most, industry & government grey literature describe DTs in technologically solutionist terms – we will solve the world’s problems with DTs – and/or in technologically optimistic way – we could do so much more if we just had DTs - rhetoric. And they almost all refer to a simple model as seen here. Also, the Academic literature, primarily from IT and data analytics fields, is mostly uncritical, descriptive, and derivative, generally from systematic or bibliometric literature reviews of grey industry and consultancy literature. These too are very optimistic, and do not involve actually examining the social, technical, and material reality of what a twin is. Image Source: https://www.pressac.com/insights/what-is-a-digital-twin-and-how-can-it-be-used-for-smart-facilities-management/
• #80 What people call digital twins, are most often, digital visual replicas of assets that may be 2d or 3d or interactive environments or maps etc. We discovered: Buildings, spaces, terrain etc. (physical assets) are visually replicated
• #81 The interaction we witnessed was in the realm of facilities management and operations. Sensors in buildings capture/sense/read parameters of a physical asset's environment & generate data Data are processed by a sensor’s AI, algorithms, and code and these trigger actions (HVAC, heating/cooling, close the blinds etc.) & are aggregated into indicators reported to dashboards & delivered to juridical actors bi/multi-directional feedback is only between the environment, the sensors and an assets circulatory system
• #82 Rhetoric vs reality! There are autonomous systems of systems under the banner of one organization Parts of these systems often are outsourced Multiple juridical actors with different responsibilities over the parts but not the whole Carleton is responsible for the procurement of the systems CIMS is responsible for research City is responsible for 3d mapping FMP is responsible for building operations There is no bi-directional communication between the digital replica and the material world
• #84 There is no bidirectional communication between physical assets to the visual replication of those assets
• #85 https://en.innovando.news/cineca-e-nvidia-gemello-digitale-salvare-garisenda/ https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/bologna-garisenda-leaning-tower-collapse
• #86 The research questions that guide our exploration are: …. The goal in studying Carleton University’s Digital Twin is to better understand Digital twins for the purpose of their preservation and to identify preservation challenges,
• #88 Icons: https://thenounproject.com/