Linked Ancient World Data Institute at NYU (Spring 2012)

Posted on 2012-01-12 by Tom Elliott

New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) will host the Linked Ancient World Data Institute (LAWDI) from May 31st to June 2nd, 2012 in New York City. “Linked Open Data” is an approach to the creation of digital resources that emphasizes connections between diverse information on the basis of published and stable web addresses (URIs) that identify common concepts and individual items. LAWDI, funded by the Office of Digital Humanities of the National Endowment for Humanities, will bring together an international faculty of practitioners working in the field of Linked Data with twenty attendees who are implementing or planning the creation of digital resources.

More information, including a list of faculty, and application instructions are available at the LAWDI page on the Digital Classicist wiki.

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Working with Text in a Digital Age, RFP

Posted on 2012-01-03 by Gabriel Bodard

Tufts University invites applications to “Working with Text in a Digital Age”, a three-week NEH Institute for Advanced Technology in the Digital Humanities (July 23-August 10, 2012) that combines traditional topics such as TEI Markup with training in methods from Information Retrieval, Visualization, and Corpus and Computational Linguistics. Faculty, graduate students, and library professionals are encouraged to apply. Applicants should submit proposals by February 15, 2012. Participant proposals must include CVs and statements of purpose (no more than 1,000 words) describing how they will be able to use participation in the Institute to advance their subsequent careers. Participants must be committed to collaborative work and to publication of results from this Institute under a Creative Commons license. Participants should identify source materials with which they propose to work during the Institute and which must be in the public domain or available under a suitable license. In an ideal case, source materials would include both texts for intensive analysis and annotation and one or more larger corpora to be mined and analyzed more broadly. Statements of purpose must describe initial goals for the Institute. For more information or to submit applications, please contact lcerrato@perseus.tufts.edu.

We particularly encourage participants who are committed to developing research agendas that integrate contributions and research by undergraduates, that expand the global presence of the Humanities, and that, in general, broaden access to and participation in the Humanities. Preference will be given to participants who are best prepared not only to apply new technologies but to do so as a means to transform their teaching and research and the relationship of their work to society beyond academia.

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Postdoc in Digital Humanities: University of Alabama

Posted on 2011-11-28 by Tom Elliott

The Alabama Digital Humanities Center at the University of Alabama (https://www.lib.ua.edu/digitalhumanities) is pleased to invite applications for a post-doctoral fellowship in Digital Humanities. The fellowship offers the successful candidate a unique platform for professional advancement: financial and material support for independent research combined with the opportunity to play an instrumental role in nurturing the growing digital humanities community at the University of Alabama.

See the full announcement here.

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Open Book Publishers: Cicero

Posted on 2011-11-03 by Gabriel Bodard

The Open Access academic publishing house Open Book Publishers is about to publish, on November 18th, their first Classics title, Ingo Gildenhard’s edition of Cicero, Against Verres, 2.1.53–86. This title, as all OBP books, will soon thereafter be available free to read online in Google Books, and for a reasonable price in PDF or print versions. The press are seeking scholars who would be willing to review this title—either online or for a classical journal.

This is the first I’ve come across this press, but from what I can see it’s a nice example of the academic model—all the peer review etc. carried out by academic volunteers, as usual, but without the traditional publisher sucking cash out of the process of getting the publication back into the hands of the scholarly community who fed the research in the first place.

**Edited November 3 at 16:22 to correct nature of Open Access publication**

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“Rome Wasn’t Digitized in a Day”: Building a Cyberinfrastructure for Digital Classicists

Posted on 2011-09-10 by smahony

A web only publication by Alison Babeu with good coverage of the Stoa and the Digital Classicist. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Image of publication

The author provides a summative and recent overview of the use of digital technologies in classical studies, focusing on classical Greece, Rome, and the ancient Middle and Near East, and generally on the period up to about 600 AD. The report explores what projects exist and how they are used, examines the infrastructure that currently exists to support digital classics as a discipline, and investigates larger humanities cyberinfrastructure projects and existing tools or services that might be repurposed for the digital classics.
(Council on Library and Information Resources)

PDF Download of Complete Report (2.6 MB file)

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„Historische Dokumente auf dem Weg zum digitalen Volltext“ – Turning Historical Documents into Digital Full Texts

Posted on 2011-08-30 by Tom Elliott

From Marco Büchler:

The Munich DigitiZation Center (MDZ) of the Bavarian State Library invites you to Munich on Tuesday 11 October and Wednesday 12 October, 2011, for two conferences under the shared title “Historische Dokumente auf dem Weg zum digitalen Volltext – Turning Historical Documents into Digital Full Texts”.

Starting from different viewpoints, both events will focus on using OCR to create digital full texts. You can attend either event separately, or both together.

Please note: both conferences are German-speaking only!

October 11th – Results of OCR Research: IMPACT Demo Day

Jointly organised by the Munich DigitiZation Center of the Bavarian State Library and the Austrian National Library, this Demo Day will present research results and tools from the EU-funded IMPACT Project (IMProving ACcess to Text). It will focus on the challenges involved in creating searchable full text from historical documents, and show the tools and solutions created by IMPACT to resolve these challenges. It will also detail how project outputs will be made available once the project ends (December 2011). The event is open to anyone, but is mainly aimed at representatives from libraries, museums and archives.

October 12th – Insights from Practical Experience: OCR, Full Texts and Forms of Presentation

Digitisation projects can’t just present digital images anymore. User expectations are increasing steadily, and mobile devices and other technological forms of interaction bring their own challenges with them.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and searchable full text are therefore becoming more important. This has consequences for the entire project workflow – from its initial scoping and the choice of hardware, to the presentation of the results online. All of these challenges will be discussed at the conference.

The day will focus on the results of a number of full-text digitisation projects, detailing the particular issues presented by different types of source material. OCR software solutions will be compared, along with a number of post-capture processing tools and techniques, including crowdsourcing to improve OCR.

“Insights from Practical Experience: OCR, Full Texts and Forms of Presentation” is free of charge, thanks to our sponsors: Abbyy Europe, ARPA Data, Image Access, Treventus Mechatronics and Zeutschel.

For more information about the programme and registration, please visit::

https://www.muenchener-digitalisierungszentrum.de/~lza/impact/index.html?c=info&l=en

The deadline for registration is September 25th. Please remember, the events will be German-speaking only.

Contact details:

Munich DigitiZation Center (MDZ) Digital Library
Bavarian State Library
Fedor Bochow / Mark-Oliver Fischer
Ludwigstrasse16
80539 Munich
Germany

mdz[at]bsb-muenchen.de

Tel. +49 (0) 89 28638 2295
oder +49 (0) 89 28638 2890
Fax +49 (0) 89 28638 2672

https://www.muenchener-digitalisierungszentrum.de

https://www.bsb-muenchen.de

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TILE 1.0 released

Posted on 2011-07-22 by Gabriel Bodard

Those who have been waiting impatiently for the first stable release of the Text Image Linking Environment (TILE) toolkit need wait no longer: the full program can be downloaded from: <https://mith.umd.edu/tile/>. From that site:

The Text-Image Linking Environment (TILE) is a web-based tool for creating and editing image-based electronic editions and digital archives of humanities texts.

TILE features tools for importing and exporting transcript lines and images of text, an image markup tool, a semi-automated line recognizer that tags regions of text within an image, and plugin architecture to extend the functionality of the software.

I haven’t tried TILE out for myself yet, but I’m looking forward to doing so.

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EpiDoc Training Workshop

Posted on 2011-07-12 by Gabriel Bodard

EpiDoc Training Workshop
5-8 September 2011
Institute of Classical Studies, Senate House, London

An EpiDoc training workshop will be offered by the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London, and the Institute of Classical Studies in September this year. The workshop is free of charge and open to all, but spaces are limited and registration as soon as possible is essential.

This workshop is an introduction to the use of EpiDoc, an XML schema for the encoding and publication of inscriptions, papyri and other documentary Classical texts. Participants will study the use of EpiDoc markup to record the distinctions expressed by the Leiden Conventions and traditional critical editions, and some of the issues in translating between EpiDoc and the major epigraphic and papyrological databases. They will also be given hands-on experience in the use of the Papyrological Editor tool implemented by the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri, which facilitates the authoring of EpiDoc XML via a ‘tags-free’ interface.

The course is targeted at scholars of epigraphy and papyrology (from advanced graduate students to professors) with an interest and willingness to learn some of the hands-on technical aspects necessary to run a digital project. Knowledge of Greek and/or Latin, the Leiden Conventions and the distinctions expressed by them, and the kinds of data that need to be recorded by philologists and ancient historians, will be assumed. No particular technical expertise is required.

Places on the EpiDoc training week are limited so if you are interested in attending the workshop or have any questions, please contact charlotte.tupman@kcl.ac.uk and gabriel.bodard@kcl.ac.uk as soon as possible with a brief statement of qualifications and interest.

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Workshop on Digital Tools in Papyrology

Posted on 2011-07-05 by Gabriel Bodard

International Workshop on Digital Tools in Papyrology, Vienna.

July 18-23, 2011

This workshop, organized jointly by the Austrian National Library, the Austrian Academy of Science and Vienna University, will provide an introduction to the most important digital tools in papyrology. The program will offer a mixture of classes (in English), in which the students will get an overview of the manifold electronic resources in the field, and training sessions on the new editing platform for DDbDP, HGV, and APIS.

The workshop will also include visits to the Papyrus Collection and the Papyrus Museum of the Austrian National Library. The main teachers will be James Cowey (Universität Heidelberg), Mark Depauw (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), Sandra Hodecek (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek), Thomas Kruse (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften), Bernhard Palme (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek/Universität Wien), Lucian Reinfandt (Universität Wien), Joshua D. Sosin (Duke University), Johannes Thomann (Universität Zürich).

The workshop will begin on Monday, 18th July with registration in the morning and courses in the afternoon, and will end on Friday, 22nd July in the evening. On Saturday, 23rd July, morning there will be a guided tour to the Ephesos Museum.

There is no fee for the course, but 125 Euros have to be charged for accommodation in a university Hall of Residence. The number of participants is restricted to 20.

Advanced students with an interest in papyrology and solid knowledge of Ancient Greek and English are invited to participate, whether they have already experience in the subject or not.

Applications, including a curriculum vitae, should be sent before July 12 to Bernhard Palme <bernhard.palme@univie.ac.at>.

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Job vacancy: Research Associate, Centre for e-Research at King’s College London

Posted on 2011-06-18 by smahony

Saw this job listing publicised on Antiquist and Humanist and copying it here.

Research Associate at King’s College London, Centre for e-Research

The Centre for e-Research is seeking a Research Associate with strong technical and software development skills to work on e-research projects at the Centre. These projects may result in case studies, proofs of concept and pilots as well as in software for operational service, so the post offers an exciting opportunity to contribute both to the development of the digital and research infrastructure at King’s and its collaborators, and to more exploratory development of innovative ideas solutions using cutting edge approaches. The post-holder will be expected to publish the results of research undertaken in relevant journals. Some current and past projects may be found at https://www.kcl.ac.uk/iss/cerch/projects/.

Approximately 75% of the post-holder’s work (on average over the 2 years of the appointment) will be dedicated to the SAWS (Sharing Ancient Wisdoms) project, an EU-funded international collaboration that is exploring ways of exploiting the digital environment for creating, publishing and interacting with selected digital collections of manuscripts and texts, specifically Greek and Arabic “wisdom literature”. These anthologies of wise or useful sayings were widely circulated throughout antiquity and the middle ages, and they raise particular challenges at a technical and information modelling level due to the complex network of interrelationships among them and among their component parts. The SAWS project requires an imaginative research associate capable of researching, devising and developing innovative methodologies and tools for creating these complex resources, for expressing relationships between them, and for publishing, visualising and exploring them. The remaining 25% will be spent on other projects at the Centre, depending on ongoing requirements and the interests of the appointee.

The candidate will preferably have an education in information science or computer science, or a humanities degree with a strong technical component. Due to the exploratory nature of the work, the role will require problem-solving ability and a high degree of initiative, as well as flexibility and a keenness to learn. Knowledge of Java, web development technologies (e.g. XML, Django, Ajax) and web service technologies is essential. Experience of linked data/semantic web technologies (e.g. RDF, OWL), and of other programming languages (e.g. Python, Ruby), would be an advantage.

This is a full-time position, initially for a period of 24 months. Salary for the position will be at an appropriate point of Grade 6, currently £33,193 to £39,185 per annum (inclusive of a £2,323 London allowance). Benefits include a contributory final salary pension scheme, subsidised gym membership and 27 days of annual leave, 4 college closure days, plus public holidays.

For more details and an application pack please see https://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/pertra/vacancy/external/pers_detail.php?jobindex=10378. Alternatively, please email strand-recruitment[@]kcl.ac.uk. All correspondence should clearly state the job title and reference number G6/QLJ/408/11-JT. For an informal discussion of the post please contact Mark Hedges on mark.hedges[@]kcl.ac.uk, or 020 7848 1970.

The closing date is: 12 July 2011

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Institute of Classical Studies Digital seminars 2011

Posted on 2011-05-12 by Gabriel Bodard

The programme for the summer 2011 Institute of Classical Studies digital seminars has been released.

Fridays at 16:30 in Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU

June 3: Kathryn Piquette and Charles Crowther (Oxford), Developing a Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) System for Inscription Documentation in Museum Collections and the Field: Case studies on ancient Egyptian and Classical material (Room 37)

June 10: David Scott and Mike Jackson (Edinburgh University), Supporting Productive Queries for Research (SPQR): Aggregating Classical Datasets with Linked Data (Room 37)

June 17: Charlotte Roueché and Charlotte Tupman (King’s College London), Sharing Ancient Wisdoms: developing structures for charting textual transfer (Room 37)

June 24: Alessandro Vatri (Oxford University), HdtDep: a treebank and search engine for Greek word order study (Court Room)

July 1: Agiatis Benardou (Digital Curation Unit, R.C. “Athena”), Classical Studies facing digital research infrastructures: From practice to requirements (Court Room)

July 8: Timothy Hill (New York University), Semantics and Semantic Constructs in Cultural Comparison: The Case of Late Antiquity (Court Room)

July 15: Elton Barker (Open University) and Leif Isaksen (Southampton), Mine the GAP: Finding ancient places in the Google Books corpus (Court Room)

July 22: Sandra Blakely (Emory), Modeling the mysteries: GIS technology, network models, and the cult of the Great Gods of Samothrace (Court Room)

July 29: Marco Büchler (Leipzig), Bringing Modern Spell Checking Approaches to Ancient Texts: Automatized Suggestions for Incomplete Words (Room 37)

August 5: Daniel Pett (British Museum), The Portable Antiquities Scheme: a tool for studying the Ancient landscape of England and Wales (Room 37)

August 12: Valentina Asciutti and Stuart Dunn (King’s College London), Digital diasporas: remaking cultural heritage in cyberspace (Room 37)

ALL WELCOME

The seminar will be followed by wine and refreshments.

For more information please contact Gabriel.Bodard@kcl.ac.uk, Stuart.Dunn@kcl.ac.uk or S.Mahony@ucl.ac.uk. The seminars will be podcast shortly after each event; follow the RSS feed.

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Digital Classicist panels at the 2011 Classical Association Conference (UK)

Posted on 2011-04-07 by smahony

The Digital Classicist community are presenting two panels at the coming 2011 Classical Association Annual Conference (UK).

The full programme is available from the conference website.

The 2011 Classical Association Annual Conference will be hosted by Durham University. The conference involves around 50 panels with a distinguished array of international and national speakers, and is attended by several hundred delegates. The conference will run from the evening of Friday 15th April until lunch on Monday 18th April.

The two Digital Classicist panels are:
Ancient Space, Linked Data and Digital Research (chair: Gabriel Bodard, King’s College London)
Teaching and Publication of Classics in the Internet Age (chair: Simon Mahony, University College London).

In addition Durham Classics and Ancient History are hosting a Digital Classicist Training Day on Friday April 15. There will be a morning session on Generic Web Tools, and an afternoon one introducing participants to the Papyrological Editor. Note that attendance at the training day needs to be booked separately.

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Workshop on Digital Humanities and the Study of Religion in Antiquity

Posted on 2011-04-06 by Tom Elliott

From Michael Satlow at Brown University. Please direct all questions to him.

WORKSHOP CALL FOR PAPERS
FEBRUARY 13-14, 2012
BROWN UNIVERSITY

The Program in Judaic Studies in collaboration with the Brown University Library’s Center for Digital Scholarship is pleased to announce plans for a two-day workshop devoted to investigating the ways in which the digital humanities has or can change the study of religion in antiquity. The workshop will take place on February 13-14, 2012, at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

We invite proposals for papers and presentations that explore the intersection of ancient religion and the digital humanities. We are particularly interested in presentations of projects that have the potential to open up new questions and avenues of research. Can digital tools not only allow us to do our work faster and more thoroughly but also enable entirely new kinds of research? How might different digital data (e.g., textual, geographic, and material culture) be used together most productively? The workshop will concentrate primarily on research rather than directly on pedagogy or scholarly communication. One session will be devoted to “nuts and bolts” issues of funding and starting a digital project.

The focus of the workshop will be on the religions of West Asia and the Mediterranean basin through the early Islamic period. Proposals relating to other regions, however, will also be considered.

More and updated information can be found at: https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Judaic_Studies/AncientReligionModernTechnologyWorkshop.html

Please submit proposals of up to 300 words by October 31, 2011, to Michael Satlow (Michael_Satlow@Brown.edu).

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Stoa Consortium Temporary Downtime and Services Outage

Posted on 2011-04-06 by ryanbaumann

On March 29th, 2011, the main server for www.stoa.org suffered a hardware failure. Unfortunately, this led to an extended period of downtime for sites and projects hosted on the Stoa. We have now set up a temporary server, and are working to restore sites and services to it from tape backup, while we also look into a long-term solution for replacing the original server. Please bear with us while we work to restore the site, and thank you for your patience.

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Triennial Conference, University of Cambridge

Posted on 2011-03-28 by dporter

Registration open for Triennial Conference, University of Cambridge, 25-28 July 2011

Hosted by the Faculty of Classics, the Celebration of Classics will see a remarkable line up of international scholars brought together in a novel format for such an event. There will, of course, be some very distinguished plenary lecturers, and there will also be two outreach evenings with well-known figures from the media and literary world. But the centre of the event is a set of seminars where leading classicists will be presenting their cutting edge work in a seminar format with extensive opportunities for discussion (each paper will have at least 45 minutes for comment and questions). Each day has only two such seminar slots, leaving plenty of time for debate as well as meeting old and new friends. We are hoping that you will want to come to Cambridge and participate in this event.

For more information about the conference please go to https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/faculty/seminars_conferences/triennial_conference/.

Professor Stephen Oakley

Chair, Organising Committee

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