International Cultural Informatics Collaborations: Crossing Borders Without Crossing Swords J. Stephen Downie, Professor and Associate Dean for Research, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

1. International Cultural Informatics
Collaborations: Crossing Borders Without
Crossing Swords
J. Stephen Downie
2 December 2015

2. Goals
In 25 short minutes:
Provide some context about me
Introduce Dunhuang and the Mogao Grottoes
Introduce the notion of the “Real Dunhuang” in the context
of “Digital Dunhuang”
In passing, highlight some of the cultural challenges and
lessons learned
Introduce open annotation ideas as possible metadata
enhancement strategy
Summarize and present some friendly recommendations
Special thanks to Andrea Thomer and Nic Weber for
their help in creating these slides.

3. Where is Dunhuang?
http://www.chinahighlights.com/dunhuang/map.htm

4. Mogao Grottoes
http://www.silkroadcollection.com/china-2009-camel-ride-in-the-gobi-desert.html

5. Mogao Grottoes
http://en.dha.ac.cn/list.aspx?id=241075793399

6. Cave 16: Entrance to Library Cave
Picture of Cave 16, by Aurel Stein in 1907, with manuscripts piled up beside the entrance
to Cave 17, the Library Cave. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogao_Caves

7. Famous Cave 17
Paul Pelliot examining manuscripts in the Library Cave, 1908 .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogao_Caves

8. Real Dunhuang: Beyond IDP
http://idp.bl.uk/

9. Lesson #1
Watch out for cultural appropriation issues

10. Digitizing The “Real” Dunhuang
92 caves already photographed (with
approximately 400 more to go)
14,000 square meters of murals captured
600,000 raw images
70 terabytes of data
87 caves with complete QuickTime Virtual Reality
42,000 negatives scanned
20 years of climate monitoring data on 87 caves

11. Capturing the Data

12. Visit Digital Dunhuang Site
http://en.dha.ac.cn/

13. Lesson #2
Become comfortable with differing
worldviews on goals and priorities

14. Downie, Thomer and Weber
Agenda (Spring 2015)
Observations and Recommendations
Data as Digital Dunhuang’s core asset
Develop Service layer
Building Community
Scholar-led Innovation
Digital Dunhuang as a digital humanities hub

15. Data (content) as a core asset
Number one goal is to demonstrate value of
the data – both current and potential
Create virtuous cycle
High quality data attracts high quality users
High quality users create more high quality data
Showing value to users shows value to funders
More users, stronger network effects

16. Data (content) as a core asset
Not just developing a database, but
establishing a center of research excellence

17. Building Community
Formalize needs and uses of international
community
Other key connections
Cultural heritage informatics
Computer science
Teachers and educators

18. Lesson #3
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE,
represents a different culture and speaks a
different language!

19. Lesson #4
Investing time (much time) and effort into
communications among all parties is
critical

20. Open Questions
What are the primary keys for scholarly
access?
Cave?
Murals?
Sculptures?
Icons?
Themes?

21. Different questions require
different metadata
Kickass_Chica. (2015). Dunhuang: Untold Tales, Untold Riches @Hong Kong
Heritage Museum. Out For A Long Lunch (Blog). Available at:
http://outforalonglunch.com/2015/05/07/dunhuang-untold-tales-untold-riches-hong-kong-
1. Where did this image
come from?
2. What is this a picture of?
3. Who is this guy?
4. Where is the original?
5. What is this guy doing?
6. Are there any more of
these folks anywhere
else?

22. What Metadata to Get the Job
Done?
Duncan, G. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997). Consequences of
growing up poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
http://careo.prn.bc.ca/losc/mod2t3.html
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/08/
Traditional example:

23. Lesson #5
Traditional descriptive “bibliographic”
metadata has a role: However, many user
want to know what the heck they are looking
at and how it relates to the world

24. Data Creation and Curation
Recommendations
Make development of English-language
metadata a priority
Will support international use
Citation and reference scheme
Must have unique and stable identifiers for that which
is cited
For each cave? Sculpture? Mural?

25. Social Computing
Crowd-source annotation of caves
Similar to “Old Weather” projects or “Galaxy Zoo”
3rd-party metadata creation
From folksonomies to expert annotations
Supplement physical site with digital site
Provide additional information / images with VR-like
geolocating on caves

26. Lesson #6
Resist monolithic solutions: modular
thinking and approaches can help
overcome the challenges represented in
Lessons #1-4

27. Lesson #7
All metadata is good metadata with each
type being best in some context: Find a
way to let them live in a kind of United
Nations of metadata

28. Linked Open Data and Open
Annotation As Inspiration
W3C Open Annotation Working Group
https://www.w3.org/community/openannotation/
Uses linked data principles to realize
annotation of a variety of digital objects:
Text
Images
Other annotations
Body – Target Model

29. Ciccarese, P. 2013. Open annotation model. Slideshare.
Available: http://www.slideshare.net/paolociccarese/open-annotation-model

30. Ciccarese, P. 2013. Open annotation model. Slideshare.
Available: http://www.slideshare.net/paolociccarese/open-annotation-model

31. Different questions require
different metadata
Kickass_Chica. (2015). Dunhuang: Untold Tales, Untold Riches @Hong Kong
Heritage Museum. Out For A Long Lunch (Blog). Available at:
http://outforalonglunch.com/2015/05/07/dunhuang-untold-tales-untold-riches-hong-kong-
1. Where did this image
come from?
2. What is this a picture of?
3. Who is this guy?
4. Where is the original?
5. What is this guy doing?
6. Are there any more of
these folks anywhere
else?

32. Different questions require
different metadata
Kickass_Chica. (2015). Dunhuang: Untold Tales, Untold Riches @Hong Kong
Heritage Museum. Out For A Long Lunch (Blog). Available at:
http://outforalonglunch.com/2015/05/07/dunhuang-untold-tales-untold-riches-hong-kong-
1. <http://outforlunch...>
2. <http://mogao/def/cave>
3. <http://mogao/def/buddha>
4. <http://mogao/cave/xx>
5. <http://magao/def/guard>
6. <http://mogao/library>

34. Summary
Digital Dunhaung’s greatest asset is data
Need to increase the semantic content
value of the data
Encourage users/creators from the whole
spectrum
Scholars
Students
Curious tourists

35. Summary II
Respectful internationalization key
Appropriation issues always in background
Communication is expensive but critical
Modular solutions allow the creation of
subcomponents that best match a particular
“culture”
Semantic web techniques could help reconcile
many cross cultural challenges

36. International Cultural Informatics
Collaborations: Crossing Borders Without
Crossing Swords
2 December 2015
THANK YOU VERY MUCH !
谢谢