from community website to (social) knowledge base?

The Influence and Impact of Web 2.0 on e-Research Infrastructure, Applications and Users (25/03/2009)

Dr Torsten Reimer

Centre for e-Research, King’s College London

Centre for e-R

esearchCentre for e-Research

• Based at King’s College London

• The Centre Previously Know As AHDS (Executive) and ICT Methods Network

• Main areas of operation:– Contributing to the College wide e-research and

teaching agenda; developing a VRE for King's– Research centre: e-infrastructures, e-research methods– Postgraduate teaching and training in digital asset

management– Host for national and international projects and services– Provider of consultancy, training, and services for data

creation, curation and preservation

Centre for e-R

esearcharts-humanities.net

• A community portal forthe arts and humanities

• Mission: advance andsupport digital researchmethods and the useand creation of digitalresources

• Web 2.0 technologies / approaches such as user contributed content, wiki, blogs, content aggregation and user profiles

thepast

Centre for e-R

esearchOrigin: Methods Network

• AHRC ICT Methods Network• AHRC funded programme, 2005-2008• Remit, aims, programme:

– To promote, support and develop the use of advanced ICT methods in the arts and humanities

– To support, and provide a forum for, the cross-disciplinary network of practitioners from the UK

– To develop a programme of activities and publications on advanced ICT tools and methods

– To ensure the broadest participation by means of an open call for proposals

• Funded some 50 seminars, workshopsand conferences

• Published case studies, working papers, reports and a book series

Centre for e-R

esearchInterdisciplinary Network

Archaeology History Language

Literature Music Performance

Religion

Media Visual ArtsInformation

LawPhilosophy

Centre for e-R

esearchMN Community Site

• Support events and activities (before,during and after)

• Keep outputs alive (through contribution)

• Virtual support for communities

• Facilitate networking=> Capture (outputs),

expand and sustainthe Network

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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

thepresent

Centre for e-R

esearchA New World

• Simultaneous end of funding for both Methods Network and AHDS

• Community and sustainability gone

• JISC to the rescue

Centre for e-R

esearchMerger with ICT Guides

• Knowledge base:– Projects

– Tools

– Training

– Methods

• Taxonomy of Methods

Centre for e-R

esearchStatistics

• 988 registered users

• 17 user groups

• 2200+ postings

• 200-300 unique visitors per day

• Most popular content:– job adverts

– events calendar

– digital tools (software) descriptions

Centre for e-R

esearchCataloguing Projects and Tools

Centre for e-R

esearchUsers and Projects Records

Centre for e-R

esearchCase Studies etc.

Centre for e-R

esearchBibliography etc.

Centre for e-R

esearchWiki

Centre for e-R

esearchEvents Calendar

Centre for e-R

esearchDiscussion and Blogs

Centre for e-R

esearchMethods Taxonomy

Centre for e-R

esearchvs. Folksonomy

Centre for e-R

esearchRSS

Centre for e-R

esearchNetworking

Centre for e-R

esearchUser Contributed Content

• Members willing to contribute/share– where they see benefit (recognition)

– when it is easy (UI)

– when ‘encouraged’

• Quality control no issue - quantity is

• Almost no spam or ‘misbehaviour’

• Controversial content encourages debate

• Activity needs to be encouraged

Centre for e-R

esearchSense of Community

• Very wide and diverse field, makes common goal on a-h.net hard to define

• Closer sense of community among members of centres and with specific communities of practice

• Concern about own reputationand (visual) identity

• Individual members not visible enough

• Community does not ‘happen by itself’

thefuture

Centre for e-R

esearchCommunity-built Knowledge Base

• Work with and (help to develop) those centres and communities that are actively concerned with the wider field of digital arts and humanities

• Develop specific projects and collaborations and build community around it

• Improve UI (task oriented and focus on members) and structure (research lifecycle)

• Content distribution channel (aggregation)

Centre for e-R

esearchCommunity 1: DARIAH

Centre for e-R

esearchCommunity 2: NoC

• Network of Expert Centres

• A collaboration of centres with expertise in digital arts and humanities, in the sense of data creation, curation, preservation, management, access and dissemination, and methodologies of data use and re-use.

• Supporting its members in:

– the advocacy and promotion of the value, understanding and use of ICT in arts and humanities research

– the development and exchange of expertise, knowledge, standards and best practices

– awareness raising, dialogue with relevant stakeholders, identifying and representing the needs of the research community.

• Participants: ADS; CCH and CeRch; CDDA; HDS; HATII; HRI; OTA; VADS

http://www.arts-humanities.net/noc

Centre for e-R

esearchProject 1: Shared Taxonomy

• Methods Taxonomy

• Document researchprojects/outcomes

• DHO and othernational andinternational partners

• Build and develop a shared resource

• Exchange of content and mapping between partners

Centre for e-R

esearchProject 2: Aggregate & Disseminate

• Events calendar (automatic tagging and categorisation; avoid duplicates) and event distribution channels

• Tie in more closely with social networking services

• Collaborate more with thoseproviding relevant resources

=> Reduce need for (duplicated) user activity

Centre for e-R

esearchSummary: Lessons on ‘Users’

• Clear benefit of contributing

• Clearly structured

• UI clearly focused on tasks

• Contributors clearly recognisable

• Bring together a clear core groupof active contributors

theend