florence2
DESCRIPTION
Presentation for the workshop: Medieval Cultures on the Web. Interoperability Through Text and Manuscript Databases. Florence, 7-9 March 2012TRANSCRIPT
Digital Manuscripts and Interoperability Across Repositories
Benjamin Albritton, Stanford University LibrariesRobert Sanderson, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Workshop: Medieval Cultures on the Web. Interoperability Through Text and Manuscript Databases
Florence, 9 March 2012
Overview
• Background• From Silo to Interoperable Repository: Interoperability at the Image
Level• Medieval Manuscripts: The Complex Use-Case• SharedCanvas• Implementation and Demos
Digital Manuscript Interoperability for Tools and Repositories
Overview:
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded numerous manuscript digitization projects over several decades
All had in common: • Inability to share data across silos to satisfy scholarly use• Inability to leverage existing infrastructure• No sustainability model for data or access
Goal:• Interoperability between repositories and tools
Current State: A World of Silos
Roman de la Rose Parker on the Web e-codices And so on…
Silos: What you can do
Parker on the Web
• Access data from a single repository• Use the tools that repository supports• See images in the way that repository allows• See curated descriptions of the material• See approved additional material• Search within a single repository• Browse within a single repository
Silos: What you can’t do
Parker on the Web
• Access data from any other repositories• Use any other tools• See images any other way• Contribute or correct descriptions (often)• Add additional material or comments (often)• Search across repositories unless federated search has been implemented
Defining Interoperability
• Break down silos• Separate data from applications• Share data models and
programming interfaces• Enable interactions at the tool and
repository level
Designing Modular Repositories and Tools
Image Data (Canonical)
Image Viewer
Discovery
Annotation
Metadata (Canonical)
Transcription
Image Viewer
Image Analysi
s
Discovery
Tool X?
Repository
Repository User Interface
3rd-Party Tools
Designing Modular Repositories and Tools
Image Data (Canonical)
Image Viewer
Discovery
Annotation
Metadata (Canonical)
Transcription
Image Viewer
Image Analysi
s
Discovery
Tool X?
Repository
Repository User Interface
3rd-Party Tools
Designing Modular Repositories and Tools
Image Data (Canonical)
Image Viewer
Discovery
Annotation
Metadata (Canonical)
Transcription
Image Viewer
Image Analysi
s
Discovery
Tool X?
Infrastructure: Library and Application Interoperability
• Digital “stacks”• Repository manifest• Application programming interface• Linked-data technologies (SharedCanvas data model)
Motivating Questions
Many implicit assumptions:• What is a Manuscript?• What is its relation to a facsimile?• What is the relation of a transcription of
a facsimile to the original object?
What does this mean for digital tools?
• How do we rethink digital facsimiles in a shared, distributed, global space?
• How do we enable collaboration and encourage engagement?
Ms MurF: 10.5076/e-codices-kba-0003
The Information-Dense Page
Working with Surrogates
Naïve Approach: Transcribe Images Directly
Naïve Approach: Multiple Representations
CCC 26 f. iiiR
Naïve Approach: Multiple Representations
CCC 26 f. iiiR Fold A Open
Naïve Approach: Multiple Representations
CCC 26 f. iiiR Fold A Open Fold A and B Open
Naïve Approach: Multiple Representations
CCC 26 f. iiiR Fold A Open Fold A and B Open f. iiiV
Canvas Paradigm• A Canvas is an empty space in which to build up a display• Makes explicit that the image is a surrogate
Technology: Open Annotation
• http://www.openannotation.org/
• Focus on interoperable sharing of annotations• Web-centric and open, not locked down silos• Create, consume and interact in different environments
• “Annotation”• Scholarly commentary about the manuscript• Painting resources on the SharedCanvas
• Hardest part: Define what an Annotation is!• "Aboutness" is key to distinguish from general metadata
A document that describes how one resource is about one or more other resources, or part thereof.
Open Annotation Model
• Annotation (a document)• Body (the ‘comment’ of the annotation)• Target (the resource the Body is ‘about’)
OAC Annotations to Paint Images
OAC Annotations to Paint Text
Multiple Images: Morgan 804
Transcription: Morgan 804
Fragments: Cod Sang 1394
Musical Manuscripts: Parker CCC 008
Missing Pages: Parker CCC 286
Rebinding: BNF f.fr. 113-116
Implementations
Demos!
• Morgan 804• http://www.shared-canvas.org/impl/demo1/
• Worlde's Blisce• http://www.shared-canvas.org/impl/demo2/
• Selected Walters Museum Manuscripts• http://www.shared-canvas.org/impl/demo4/
• T-PEN: Transcription in an interoperable environment• http://t-pen.org/TPEN
Summary
Model:Canvas paradigm provides a coherent solution to modeling the layout of medieval manuscripts
• Annotations, and Collaboration, at the heart of the model
Implementation: • Distribution across repositories for images, text, commentary• Consistent methods to access content from many repositories• Encourages tool development by experts in the field
The SharedCanvas model implemented by distributed repositories brings the humanist's primary research objects to their desktop in a powerful, extensible and interoperable fashion
Thank You
Benjamin Albritton [email protected] @bla222
Robert Sanderson [email protected] [email protected] @azaroth42
Web: http://lib.stanford.edu/dmm http://www.shared-canvas.org/Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.2925Slides: http://slidesha.re/
Acknowledgements DMSTech Group: http://dmstech.group.stanford.edu/Open Annotation Collaboration: http://www.openannotation.org/