Digital Humanities Questions & Answers

Digital Humanities Questions & Answers » Recent Posts http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Digital Humanities Questions & Answers » Recent Posts en-US Thu, 17 May 2012 01:54:45 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/search.php Trevor Owens on "Faircite: Who should we cite in collaborative DH Projects?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/faircite-who-should-we-cite-in-collaborative-dh-projects#post-1654 Sun, 13 May 2012 23:59:56 +0000 Trevor Owens 1654@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Neat project Adam. I tend to have mixed feelings about metrics writ large. Personally, I think there are two different questions here. One is about how to cite something and one is about how people get credit for their work. I don't really care that much about the citation question. I think it falls into the CMS response to <a href="http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/Documentation/Documentation12.html">this question</a>. <blockquote>Cite it the same way you would “cite” your sandwich or your miniblinds or the fluff under your bathroom rug—not by trying to pretend it is a bibliographic source, but simply by telling what it is.” </blockquote> If someone wants to cite Zotero it doesn't matter to me if I am in any way mentioned in that citation. I'm fine with not being listed in any way on the project. I didn't design it, I didn't build it, I didn't conceive of it. I did do a lot of work as part of it, but I wouldn't think of myself as an author. With that said, if someone want's to talk about some of the things I designed and developed for outreach on the project, or about it's documentation, I likely warrant some kind of mention. In terms of the question of credit, I think our best bet is to treat our work more as a artists portfolio than as a stack of things that someone counts. In general, I think the whole idea of citation metrics do more harm than good. In my experience, the moment when credit matters is when you are applying for a job, or being considered for some kind of work. It is essential that anyone is able to offer up a portfolio with a list of projects and a description of what you did on those projects and what you can offer up as the indicators of your success in that project. Being mentioned on about pages for projects I've been in is nice, but in practice largely irrelevant to me. With that said, those experiences gave me everything I need to describe demonstrable skills, knowledge and abilities when I applied for a federal job. MelissaTerras on "How are you using TEI By Example?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-are-you-using-tei-by-example#post-1653 Fri, 11 May 2012 15:23:41 +0000 MelissaTerras 1653@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Replying to @<a href='http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/profile/mdalmau'>mdalmau</a>'s <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-are-you-using-tei-by-example#post-1649">post</a>: thanks Michelle, I think we're interested in finding that out. Sure, I can do a link analysis and find out who is linking back to us, but I was wondering how people are embedding it in their teaching. Interested to hear.... MelissaTerras on "How are you using TEI By Example?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-are-you-using-tei-by-example#post-1652 Fri, 11 May 2012 15:22:40 +0000 MelissaTerras 1652@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Replying to @mark.mcdayter@gmail.com's <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-are-you-using-tei-by-example#post-1650">post</a>: This is exactly what I was hoping to get from this kind of discussion, thanks Mark. We are thinking "what next", so I think you are on to something there. I cant promise it will happen anytime soon, but thanks, got me thinking... DavidBeavan on "Faircite: Who should we cite in collaborative DH Projects?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/faircite-who-should-we-cite-in-collaborative-dh-projects#post-1651 Fri, 11 May 2012 15:21:47 +0000 DavidBeavan 1651@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Adam, In my experience it varies from institution to institution. I don't think it's ever a direct policy to preclude individuals from credit, rather it's indirect and is due to naivety. If those responsible for maintaining the repository only allow certain classes of staff (e.g. academic/research) to be featured, then this cuts out those on other contracts. So, if somebody is employed as a database/web designer; then as they don't exist in the repository brain, they don't get credited there. Of course, some repositories only list publications, and fall short of capturing resources too, which is even worse. The traditional model of who is credited for contributions to research outputs needs to be more flexible, certainly when it comes to DH. mark.mcdayter@gmail.com on "How are you using TEI By Example?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-are-you-using-tei-by-example#post-1650 Fri, 11 May 2012 15:20:11 +0000 mark.mcdayter@gmail.com 1650@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ TEI by Example is a wonderful resource. While I have never used it directly in a workshop on TEI, I invariably refer people to it, and have consulted it on occasion myself as needed. So, well done! On the principle that no good deed should go unpunished, however, it would be great to see it expanded a bit. In particular, a section on transformations, or on using the TEI stylesheet templates, would be a terrific addition. This stage in the process of text encoding remains, I think, the greatest bottleneck to new users. TEI XML is not particularly complicated and is easy to teach; XSLT, on the other hand, can be very difficult, and the TEI stylesheets are not presented in a particularly "user-friendly" way. It would be enormously beneficial to TEI noobies to have a resource that answered the inevitable question: "Ok, I have a tagged text. NOW what?" In any case, as I say, well done! mdalmau on "How are you using TEI By Example?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-are-you-using-tei-by-example#post-1649 Fri, 11 May 2012 14:42:12 +0000 mdalmau 1649@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Following on Bethany's post, I too plan to use the module on parallel segmentation to help me with a new project on the horizon, but I should also say that your post serves as a kick in the butt for me to update the training modules I have in place for my e-text interns. Currently I use a crazy concoction of resources with a paired down version of Julia's and Syd's Intensive TEI Workshop as the focus (thank goodness for that) and have been meaning to transition to TEI by Example. So, no real tales of use, just intended use, but I see great potential for TEI by Example as a training foundation for our interns and graduate assistants. Once I get organized, at our shop, 5-10 interns/GAs a year will benefit from it. I shall have more to say about it later, for sure. Stay tuned. Have others formally integrated TEI by Example in a course or as part of training workshops? If so, are you willing to share syllabi or training documentation? MelissaTerras on "How are you using TEI By Example?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-are-you-using-tei-by-example#post-1648 Fri, 11 May 2012 14:14:58 +0000 MelissaTerras 1648@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Thanks - this is very helpful to know, all! Bethany Nowviskie on "How are you using TEI By Example?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-are-you-using-tei-by-example#post-1647 Fri, 11 May 2012 12:07:50 +0000 Bethany Nowviskie 1647@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Hi, Melissa -- I used it just last week and was very glad to have it! It's been a while since I've done any TEI markup, and I had never created a parallel segmented apparatus, so needed a refresher course. Along the way, I realized how useful it could be for my Rare Book School students, so will be recommending it. Thanks to all of you who contributed to such a fantastic resource! -- Bethany martin.delaiglesia@googlemail.com on "How are you using TEI By Example?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-are-you-using-tei-by-example#post-1646 Fri, 11 May 2012 12:06:17 +0000 martin.delaiglesia@googlemail.com 1646@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I used it on my own when I got started with TEI. I found it useful as an introduction to TEI, but never used it again since then. Dorothea Salo on "How are you using TEI By Example?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-are-you-using-tei-by-example#post-1645 Fri, 11 May 2012 12:02:50 +0000 Dorothea Salo 1645@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I use it for demos of XML in introductory library-school classes, because students find it easier to assimilate than (say) a typical metadata schema. I'd like to go deeper, but at the moment I'm not teaching the right courses for that! MelissaTerras on "How are you using TEI By Example?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-are-you-using-tei-by-example#post-1644 Fri, 11 May 2012 11:57:26 +0000 MelissaTerras 1644@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Hi Folks I'd like to know a little more about how the DH community is using TEI by Example (<a href="http://tbe.kantl.be/TBE/)" rel="nofollow">http://tbe.kantl.be/TBE/)</a>. Have you used it as an individual, or in a class, or in a workshop, or That Camp? Could you sum up in a sentence or two how, where, and when you have found it useful? best Melissa acrymble on "Faircite: Who should we cite in collaborative DH Projects?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/faircite-who-should-we-cite-in-collaborative-dh-projects#post-1643 Thu, 10 May 2012 06:49:59 +0000 acrymble 1643@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Jason, thanks for your thoughts. I like your practical approach to extending the guidelines of the Medical Journal Editors. And thanks also for that twitter exchange; I had missed that. David, thanks for the correction on the REF. I'm curious about your comment that non-academic staff cannot be named alongside their work in institutional repositories. Is this a policy in UK universities? This obviously isn't an issue in the wider world. Illustrators on children's books for example are often listed in libraries despite their "alternative" role in the creative process. DavidBeavan on "Faircite: Who should we cite in collaborative DH Projects?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/faircite-who-should-we-cite-in-collaborative-dh-projects#post-1642 Wed, 09 May 2012 13:31:51 +0000 DavidBeavan 1642@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I can only speak from my experience in the UK (BTW the REF is UK wide, not just England). DH projects have included an About page, which lists those involved and their responsibilities. While that is a help, it does not necessarily constitute a citation. This is where we bump into cultural role traditions: academics do research, non academics (alt-ac) do not. This model may hold true in traditional humanities scholarship (if there is such a thing), where the research and the writing of an article is performed solely by academics. With DH project work, a diverse team is assembled, often including those who are not academics. This sadly leads to situations where non-academic staff cannot be named alongside their work in institutional repositories etc, simply because their job title or job family excludes them from that possibility. This completely ignores the collaborative processes involved in the creation of DH resources and projects. Personally, I would welcome a citation system that includes all those who have made a major contribution to the project, listing their roles or responsibilities. That seems a fair approach to me. ttasovac on "What was the book title that Busa couldn't remember?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-was-the-book-title-that-busa-couldnt-remember#post-1641 Sun, 06 May 2012 09:34:11 +0000 ttasovac 1641@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Busa (1980) writes: <blockquote> Although some say that I am the pioneer of the computers in the humanities, such a title needs a good deal of nuancing... [O]n the stacks of the IBM library in New York City I had spotted a book (whose title I have forgotten), which was printed some time between 1920 and 1940: in it someone mentioned that it was possible to make lists of names by means of punched cards. </blockquote> Has anybody figured out what book he may have had in mind? All best, Toma maedchenimmond@gmail.com on "Recommendations for introducing librarians to DH?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/recommendations-for-introducing-librarians-to-dh#post-1640 Fri, 04 May 2012 19:37:28 +0000 maedchenimmond@gmail.com 1640@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ The question was asked on my behalf. Thank you everyone for some very useful suggestions. I'll digest them over the weekend. wynkenhimself on "Recommendations for introducing librarians to DH?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/recommendations-for-introducing-librarians-to-dh#post-1639 Fri, 04 May 2012 17:42:47 +0000 wynkenhimself 1639@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Thanks, all. These are for a colleague of a colleague, so I've sent them here to see your suggestions! hepplerj on "Faircite: Who should we cite in collaborative DH Projects?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/faircite-who-should-we-cite-in-collaborative-dh-projects#post-1638 Thu, 03 May 2012 16:33:45 +0000 hepplerj 1638@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Replying to @<a href='http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/profile/acrymble'>acrymble</a>'s <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/faircite-who-should-we-cite-in-collaborative-dh-projects#post-1536">post</a>: Hi Adam, Here's a discussion that occurred on Twitter this morning that might have some relevance. I'm placing it here for reference: <blockquote> @karikraus Curious if DH tweeps are starting to adopt "order of authorship" conventions from the sciences or listing collaborators alphabetically. [+] <a href="https://twitter.com/karikraus/status/198049750166142976">[link]</a> @karikraus With a joint appt. that crosses the sciences & humanities, I have a mix of both on my CV. [-] <a href="https://twitter.com/karikraus/status/198049823902007297">[link]</a> @<a href='http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/profile/melissaterras'>melissaterras</a> @karikraus good question. I have known wars to erupt over it. <a href="https://twitter.com/melissaterras/status/198051517566169089">[link]</a> @karikraus @<a href='http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/profile/melissaterras'>melissaterras</a> What's your practice, Melissa? Also a mix, depending on venue and collaborators? <a href="https://twitter.com/karikraus/status/198051655311302656">[link]</a> @geoffrockwell @karikraus We tend to use a hybrid - first couple of authors are those that led and the rest in alpha order <a href="https://twitter.com/geoffrockwell/status/198051678979756033">[link]</a> @<a href='http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/profile/melissaterras'>melissaterras</a> @karikraus in general, person who does most writing is first author. Then list everyone (alphabetically?) & see if anyone starts shouting. <a href="https://twitter.com/melissaterras/status/198052407626829826">[link]</a> @karikraus @<a href='http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/profile/melissaterras'>melissaterras</a> Otherwise, rinse & repeat? ;-) <a href="https://twitter.com/karikraus/status/198052764893450240">[link]</a> @<a href='http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/profile/melissaterras'>melissaterras</a> @karikraus yeah. We've found @sruecker's project charter really helpful; get people to agree in advance. <a href="https://twitter.com/melissaterras/status/198053340037394433">[link]</a> </blockquote> hepplerj on "Faircite: Who should we cite in collaborative DH Projects?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/faircite-who-should-we-cite-in-collaborative-dh-projects#post-1637 Thu, 03 May 2012 16:23:09 +0000 hepplerj 1637@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Replying to @<a href='http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/profile/acrymble'>acrymble</a>'s <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/faircite-who-should-we-cite-in-collaborative-dh-projects#post-1536">post</a>: Adam, I think this is a really great topic for us to be considering. I'm involved in two different ways of citing contributors to a project, so I'll add this as fuel for thought-- At projects at the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, we use our project About pages to list the roles that everyone in a project contributes to. This includes roles that change over time (for example, I'm listed twice on the <a href="http://codyarchive.org/staff/">Cody Archive staff page</a>, first as a research editor and then as project manager). This sort of credit page, I believe, is similar across various CDRH projects. The second area where I'm having to think through these issues is with an article I'm co-authoring with some collaborators. During the fall 2011 semester, I was enrolled in the digital humanities seminar with Prof. William G. Thomas, and one of the projects we had in the class was to build an iOS application. Towards the end of the course we decided as a group that we wanted to author an article about our experience (which is currently in progress). However, not everyone in the seminar had an interest or the time to contribute to a written piece -- so, I'm working with three others to draft the essay. However, we also did not want to leave out our fellow seminar colleagues -- they obviously contributed to the iOS app and, thus, deserve credit for their contributions (even if they are not part of the essay side). So, what we have done is to list the four of us as authors alphabetically, and we cite our colleagues (alphabetically) in the footnotes as contributors to the project. We have made it clear to them that they can cite this on their C.V.'s even though their names may not appear on the byline. In this case, it's more about acknowledgements rather than authorship. My other thought on this (which I think follows other conventions) is to take a "science-y" approach and list everybody. What I would envision here is listing the author(s) that do the most writing first then follow with the rest of the contributors alphabetically. But that's for published projects. I think it's slightly more complicated with digital projects that have continual evolution and, by extension, revolving collaborators (people come and go, collaborators take on new roles, etc). Listing everyone on the Cody About page, for example, would become unwieldy to place on a C.V. I do like the general themes of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors you cite above. So, authorship for digital projects could follow similar themes and lay these out clearly in a project narrative (as Bethany notes above). Using their model, we might think about: <ul> <li>Defining authorship around 1) substantial quality intellectual content; 2) the contribution of data, analysis, or interpretation; 3) public responsibility for the quality of the project. The acquisition of funding is a contribution, but perhaps not authorship credit.</li> <li>Authorship and credit should be clearly established at the beginning of a project. The principals of a project should be generous in their shared credit and inclusion.</li> <li>Contributors not listed as authors have to claim their own stake and responsibility in a project. They perhaps cannot speak about the project as a whole (say, to the public or to a hiring committee) but can discuss their role(s) within the project.</li> <li>There should be a sense of shared knowledge production that should be conveyed in credit, no matter the rank, status, or contribution of an individual.</li> </ul> Anyways, these are some quick and dirty thoughts. There are a lot of other issues to think about (should digital centers represent large, multi-group projects?) but hopefully I've added a little food for thought. This is a topic I think about often, so I'll be closely watching FairCite and the discussions that continue around it. Miriam Posner on "Recommendations for introducing librarians to DH?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/recommendations-for-introducing-librarians-to-dh#post-1636 Thu, 03 May 2012 14:47:06 +0000 Miriam Posner 1636@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I've struggled a bit with this, too, since the field is so broad. Sometimes I'd think I'd done a great job explaining, only to have librarians tell me later that my explanation was confusing. I've learned to try to tailor my explanation to the group I'm talking to, and to spend a lot of time on a few projects rather than slaloming through a bunch. So if I'm in a presentation setting, I'll try to get a sense of what the audience might find interesting. Some of my go-to example projects are those that are easily grasped, visually impressive, and clearly accomplish something that couldn't easily be accomplished as a monograph: <a href="https://republicofletters.stanford.edu/">Mapping the Republic of Letters, </a><a href="http://www.americanpast.org/voting/">Voting America</a>, and the <a href="http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces">Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database</a>, for example. You don't need a technical background to see what these projects do and why they're cool. My favorite online directories include the <a href="http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/wiki/index.php/The_CUNY_Digital_Humanities_Resource_Guide">CUNY Digital Humanities Guide</a>, Lisa Spiro's <a href="http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/getting-started-in-the-digital-humanities/">"Getting Started in the Digital Humanities,"</a> and <a href="http://arts-humanities.net/">arts-humanities.net</a>. There are many examples of library-based DH, too: <a href="http://scholar.library.miami.edu/archivoteatral/">The Cuban Theater Digital Archive</a>, the <a href="http://livingstone.library.ucla.edu/">Livingstone Spectral Imaging Project</a>, and the <a href="http://docsouth.unc.edu/blueridgeparkway/">Digital Blue Ridge Parkway</a>, to name a few. Projects like these might provide some inspiration if your library is looking for ways to support DH. Stewart Varner on "Recommendations for introducing librarians to DH?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/recommendations-for-introducing-librarians-to-dh#post-1635 Thu, 03 May 2012 14:40:12 +0000 Stewart Varner 1635@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ In addition to what Brian said, I always point people to Lisa Spiro's amazing round-up blog post on Getting Started in the Digital Humanities. You can find it here: <a href="http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/getting-started-in-the-digital-humanities/" rel="nofollow">http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/getting-started-in-the-digital-humanities/</a> Also, the folks here at Emory's Digital Scholarship Commons would be more than happy to chat/skype/hangout with anyone who wants to talk about supporting DH as librarians. you can email me directly at <a href="mailto:stewart.varner@emory.edu">stewart.varner@emory.edu</a> briancroxall on "Recommendations for introducing librarians to DH?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/recommendations-for-introducing-librarians-to-dh#post-1634 Thu, 03 May 2012 14:14:18 +0000 briancroxall 1634@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ As a first thought, I would suggest looking at the <a href="http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/spec/complete.shtml">ARL Spec Kit #326</a>, which examines Digital Humanities in the Library. I'd also consider a number of <a href="http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports">CLIR Reports</a>, including #143, A Survey of DH Centers in the US. wynkenhimself on "Recommendations for introducing librarians to DH?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/recommendations-for-introducing-librarians-to-dh#post-1633 Thu, 03 May 2012 13:57:53 +0000 wynkenhimself 1633@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ What resources would you recommend for introducing librarians to what DH is and what it can do? Examples of DH/library projects would be great, as well as sites that explain field and link out to more resources? (other than ACH, of course!) thanks jlmcdonald@gmail.com on "Should DH matter to coders?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/should-dh-matter-to-coders#post-1632 Thu, 03 May 2012 04:45:12 +0000 jlmcdonald@gmail.com 1632@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Thanks for your thoughts (and the links), Ben. Some of my initial ideas on this topic revolve around an amalgamated form of your first and third points ... I think that DH can offer coders a way to participate in the telling of stories that have the potential to really matter (however individuals want to interpret such a sentiment). I've also been thinking back to some things that Bethany Nowviskie asked about a few months back concerning DH's "greatest hits." At that time, the community offered up some of the innovations that grew out of the DH (or Humanities Computing) solar system. I wonder if DH can play a role in influencing some core concepts going forward that will also be of vital importance to to coders; for example, machine learning and natural language processing are going to become more and more important to programming paradigms and techniques across the board, and DH is in a prime position to help steer such fields as it helped steer the development of things such as XML. But I also think that you're right to qualify the extent of this influence, and wonder what the best way might be to make such a case to coders in various developer communities (especially those outside of an academic setting). That relationship between "scholars and techies" is often an uncomfortable one, though it really isn't either side's fault. I've always held out that one of the most prescient reasons to learn to code is not for what it can do for DH, but for what it can enable DH to then do for the coding community--almost a sort of cultural bilingualism that will better enable that conversation you talk about. Conal Tuohy on "Using YAML to model historical lives or events" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/using-yaml-to-model-historical-lives-or-events#post-1631 Thu, 03 May 2012 01:06:09 +0000 Conal Tuohy 1631@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I don't know of people using YAML for such things, to be honest; ARAIK the usual practice is to use an XML-based markup language such as EAC or TEI. Regarding the readability issue of XML-based markup languages, partly I think this is just what you're used to, but of course it's not an ideal rendering for notes. Nevertheless, it's very easy to make and link an XSLT or CSS stylesheet to an XML file and use that to format the document more readably. Then it's just a matter of opening the file in a browser to view it, and a text editor to edit it. Aside from the issue of readability, the advantages of an XML-based format are too numerous to mention. Apart from EAC which Ben mentioned already, I would recommend you take a look at TEI; specifically the "Personography Module". See <a href="http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ND.html#NDPERS" rel="nofollow">http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ND.html#NDPERS</a> and also see in the formal declaration of the TEI concept of "event": <a href="http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ref-event.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ref-event.html</a> and the declarations for "person" <a href="http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ref-person.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ref-person.html</a> and "faith" <a href="http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ref-faith.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ref-faith.html</a> It's certainly worth studying the EAC and TEI models even if you do adopt a custom YAML-based format for your data, even just so as to be able to export your data in one of those standard formats. lmullen on "Using YAML to model historical lives or events" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/using-yaml-to-model-historical-lives-or-events#post-1630 Wed, 02 May 2012 19:35:03 +0000 lmullen 1630@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Replying to @Ben Brumfield's <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/using-yaml-to-model-historical-lives-or-events#post-1629">post</a>: Ben, I've been thinking about how to go about encoding the data too. Vim (EMACS too, probably) has YAML syntax highlighting and other support out of the box. It would be pretty easy for me to create a snippet for a person record and for a conversion block to keep most things standard. Vim seems to have pretty good autocomplete too, so I could probably create a controlled vocabulary list and use that with autocomplete. Replying to @Ethan Gruber's <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/using-yaml-to-model-historical-lives-or-events#post-1628">post</a>: Ethan, Thanks for the suggestions of EAC-CPF. I wasn't aware of that standard. I'm intrigued, and will have to investigate it further. I'm a little reluctant to do the encoding in XML, though, since these records have to double as regular notes. Perhaps I'll munge YAML into EAC-CPF at some point. Ben Brumfield on "Using YAML to model historical lives or events" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/using-yaml-to-model-historical-lives-or-events#post-1629 Wed, 02 May 2012 18:22:49 +0000 Ben Brumfield 1629@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I think that YAML is an elegant solution here, since this is a file you'll be hand-editing and the data structures themselves are emerging as you create the data. YAML should be quite easy to programmatically transform into any standard format you want with some ruby data munging scripts. The only concern I have is that you may end up with a bit too much typing and inconsistent keys. I wonder if an editor like Emacs has a YAML mode, and if that mode would support auto-completion of keys you've already used? Ethan Gruber on "Using YAML to model historical lives or events" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/using-yaml-to-model-historical-lives-or-events#post-1628 Wed, 02 May 2012 18:09:42 +0000 Ethan Gruber 1628@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ It should theoretically be possible to represent this model in EAC-CPF. Churches or denominations could be represented by corporate records, but it make take a bit of thought to represent the chronology of converting from one belief to another in the EAC-CPF chronlist. Example document: <a href="http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=oppenheimer-j-robert-1904-1967-cr.xml" rel="nofollow">http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=oppenheimer-j-robert-1904-1967-cr.xml</a> EAC-CPF provides some definite advantages over YAML: 1. It is an international standard in the LAM community for representing people, families, and corporate entities, therefore you will be able to receive support in terms of re-usable code and tools for creating and disseminating your data 2. It is effectively linked data, and thus inherits all of the benefits of linked data systems lmullen on "Using YAML to model historical lives or events" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/using-yaml-to-model-historical-lives-or-events#post-1627 Wed, 02 May 2012 17:32:41 +0000 lmullen 1627@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ For my dissertation, I'm keeping track of nineteenth-century converts. I'd like to keep the data about the converts in both a human- and computer readable format. The data model needs to grow organically, because I only have a reasonable guess right now what information might be interesting about converts. The amount of data on each convert will be vastly different, from the bare information that a person converted (I might not even know a name) to having volumes of the person's papers. Also, each person might convert multiple times. Some information I want to keep track of as data (e.g., converted from, converted to, converted date), and other information can be tossed into a notes field. Finally, I have to be able to read the data myself as notes for writing, and to access it programmatically from some unknown tool (probably Ruby). While these needs are specific to my purposes, I think they could be easily generalized. For example, someone might want to keep track of strikes for a labor history. I'm thinking about using <a href="http://www.yaml.org/spec/1.2/spec.html">YAML</a> as the format for the data. YAML's two top priorities are "YAML is easily readable by humans" and "YAML data is portable between programming languages," which match my own. It also seems to be dead-simple to markup data. I've created a sample file for modeling the life of Orestes Brownson, which is below. My questions are these: <ol> <li>Is anyone using YAML for a digital humanities project? How are you using it, and what experience have you gained?</li> <li>Can anyone offer specific comments on the data modeled below?</li> </ol> <div class="bb_syntax"><table><tr><td class="line_numbers"><pre>1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 </pre></td><td class="code"><pre class="yaml" style="font-family:monospace;"># A model of a convert's life --- name-last : Brownson name-first : Orestes Augustus born : 1803-09-16 died : 1876-04-17 birth-religion : Congregationalism   conversions :   - origin-religion : Congregationalism destination-religion : Presbyterianism date : 1822 ritual : church membership citation : ANB notes : > Brownson's change to congregationalism was more denominational switching than a change in conscience.   - origin-religion : Presbyterianism destination-religion : Universalism date : 1826 ritual : ordination location : "Jaffrey, New Hampshire" citation : ANB notes : > "He would later refer to his years in this fold as 'the most anti-Christian period of my life'" (ANB).   Brownson was editor of _The Gospel Advocate and Impartial Investigator_, a Universalist publication.   - origin-religion : Universalism destination-religion : Unitarianism ritual : further research location : "Walpole, New Hampshire" citation: : ANB notes : > Brownson spent some time at Brook Farm, which prepared him for Transcendentalism   - origin-religion : Unitarianism and Transcendentalism destination-religion : Catholicism date : 1844-10-19 ritual : baptism citation : ANB notes : > Brownson studied after his conversion with a Sulpician priest.   source : - Carey, Orestes Brownson - American National Biography   comments : > This is a minimal example of what a model of a convert might look like. The historical data is hastily gathered, so only the model is of interest here.   N.B. I would like to replace the citations with BibTeX keys. ...</pre></td></tr></table></div> rjlewis on "What tools can be used to create topic model network graphs?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-tools-can-be-used-to-create-topic-model-network-graphs#post-1626 Wed, 02 May 2012 14:50:06 +0000 rjlewis 1626@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Do you really mean that you want nodes for documents and topics, a <dfn>bimodal graph</dfn>? In that case your graph would have a small number of nodes (the topic nodes) with high centrality. And then thousands of small nodes (the document nodes) with low centrality. If this is the case, how are you calculating the topic weight for a document? It seems to make more sense to me to have nodes for just documents, and edges between documents that share a topic; a <dfn>multigraph</dfn>. Then the greater the number of edges between two nodes, the closer they are in topic. Or alternatively, you could define edge to be a function of the number of topics two documents have in common, which basically amounts to the same thing but alleviates the requirement to be able to represent multigraphs. As for tools to visualise this, here's some Perl which creates a GraphML from a list of documents titled A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H which each cover one or more topics, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7: <div class="bb_syntax"><div class="code"><pre class="perl" style="font-family:monospace;">#!/usr/bin/perl   use strict; use Graph::Easy;   my $graph = Graph::Easy->new; my $topics = {};   for (<DATA>) { my ($title, $topic) = split /,/;   my $document = $graph->add_node($title);   $graph->add_edge_once($document, $_) foreach (@{ $topics->{$topic} });   push @{ $topics->{$topic} }, $title or $topics->{$topic} = [$title]; }   print $graph->as_graphml; __END__ A,2 A,4 B,1 B,2 B,6 C,2 C,3 D,1 D,2 D,5 D,7 E,2 E,3 F,1 F,2 F,6 G,1 G,5 G,6 G,7 H,1 H,2 H,4 H,7</pre></div></div> I tried importing the output of this in Gephi and it looked basically correct. By the way, when you say "topic model", are your topics just keywords? Or are you talking about vectors of word frequencies? Lisa Rhody on "What tools can be used to create topic model network graphs?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-tools-can-be-used-to-create-topic-model-network-graphs#post-1625 Wed, 02 May 2012 14:47:21 +0000 Lisa Rhody 1625@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Shawn, Yes! That's what I was looking for. I'm sorry that I somehow missed it on your blog, but I'm grateful that you took the time to explain it here. For some reason I couldn't wrap my head around how the .csv file needed to be formatted to get it the way I wanted it in Gephi. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm about to. Thank you for the generous reply! -Lisa wynkenhimself on "Is anyone using the RBMS/ACRL vocabularies Binding Terms or Type Evidence?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/is-anyone-using-the-rbmsacrl-vocabularies-binding-terms-or-type-evidence#post-1624 Wed, 02 May 2012 14:17:13 +0000 wynkenhimself 1624@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ There should be rare books libraries out there using these terms. The Folger Shakespeare Library does--see <a href="http://shakespeare.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=120452" rel="nofollow">http://shakespeare.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=120452</a> as an example for a record that does. I'm not a cataloger, so I can't speak to the cataloging practices of other institutions. But I'm intrigued by the idea of linking digital editions to the controlled vocabulary used by libraries to describe physical holdings. And given the lengthy amount of consideration that goes into the RBMS's controlled vocabularies, it makes sense to piggy-back onto their work. As someone who does work closely with rare materials, I can attest to how useful their terms are and how helpful it is to have it standardized! Shawn on "What tools can be used to create topic model network graphs?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-tools-can-be-used-to-create-topic-model-network-graphs#post-1623 Wed, 02 May 2012 14:15:54 +0000 Shawn 1623@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Hi Lisa, I've written about this sort of thing on my blog a few times - <a href="http://electricarchaeologist.wordpress.com/" rel="nofollow">http://electricarchaeologist.wordpress.com/</a> Take your topic modeling composition data. Create a spreadsheet where you have three columns, source, target, and weight. Put your docs and topics under source and target as appropriate, and then the percentage composition under weight. Save as a csv file. Then, in Gephi, create a new project. Click on 'data laboratory'. Click on 'edges' under 'data table'. Click 'import spreadsheet'. Navigate to your csv file. Make sure the 'as table' is set to edges table. click next, click finish. Then, go back to the 'overview' pane, and down the left hand side under layout you can select different algorithms that'll take the edge weight into account. ...is that the kind of thing you had in mind? You can also include a 'type' column in your csv file, with 'directed' or 'undirected' as appropriate. Lisa Rhody on "What tools can be used to create topic model network graphs?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-tools-can-be-used-to-create-topic-model-network-graphs#post-1622 Wed, 02 May 2012 14:02:41 +0000 Lisa Rhody 1622@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Replying to @<a href='http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/profile/parezcoydigo'>parezcoydigo</a>'s <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-tools-can-be-used-to-create-topic-model-network-graphs#post-1621">post</a>: That tool looks fantastic because of its flexibility and because it can be worked right into the running of the model. Unfortunately, at this point I don't have the Python scripting ability to really use it right away. Do you know of something with a GUI interface with the same flexibility? parezcoydigo on "What tools can be used to create topic model network graphs?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-tools-can-be-used-to-create-topic-model-network-graphs#post-1621 Wed, 02 May 2012 12:59:20 +0000 parezcoydigo 1621@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I think you could do this with <a href="http://networkx.lanl.gov/">networkx</a>? As you run the topic model, you can build the graph directly with weighted edges, or any other number of <a href="http://networkx.lanl.gov/tutorial/tutorial.html#edge-attributes">edge attributes</a>. Lisa Rhody on "What tools can be used to create topic model network graphs?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-tools-can-be-used-to-create-topic-model-network-graphs#post-1620 Wed, 02 May 2012 12:42:48 +0000 Lisa Rhody 1620@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I'm looking for a tool that can generate a network graph that creates nodes for documents and topics where the edge pull is determined by topic weight. In other words, if I have a topic model of 40 topics run on a dataset of several thousand documents, I want to be able to display how strongly each document is pulled toward each topic in the network. I've seen it done in several instances, but I'm wondering what tools people are using to do this and to what degree of satisfaction... I've tried SNA visualization tools (Gephi, NodeXL, and yEd), but those generally require that the edge weight be internally computed.