Periodic Reporting for period 2 - HaS-DARIAH (Humanities at Scale: Evolving the DARIAH-ERIC)
Reporting period: 2016-09-01 to 2017-12-31
The arts and humanities have seen an exponential growth in digital research material as a result of new born-digital material or large digitisation efforts in the EU and elsewhere. The project focused on improving and enhancing the Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH), an ERIC which supports digital research in the Arts and Humanities. More precisely, HaS-DARIAH addressed some limitations of the current model of sharing knowledge in DARIAH and of connecting the national services in digital arts and humanities initiatives in Europe. It focused on delivering a stronger core for DARIAH’s operations as well as on providing more resources for all communities within DARIAH. The project had the following objectives:
1. Expanding the existing community to all scholars in the humanities and arts
• Contribute to an increase in digital literacy through awareness and education activities.
The project organised a series of Summer/Winter Schools and Master Classes which helped building human resources in the European Research Area.
• Support a strong open research agenda
Two platforms have been developed during the project: a Data Deposit Recommendation System, a free online service for humanities researchers in the EU to find suitable research data repositories, and OpenMethods, a platform that highlights Open Access curated content in the field of DH methods and tools.
2. Integrate scholarly communities more effectively
HaS-DARIAH, addressed the objective through workshops, regional hubs and an Ambassadors Network. New research communities and regions are now actively part of the DARIAH network.
3. Offer services around DARIAH communities
HaS-DARIAH focused on offering core services to the DARIAH community. The Consortium established an online tool to assess, evaluate and disseminate national contributions. Also, the project investigated basic service requirements for digital humanities projects to support the whole life cycle of digital humanities projects.
4. Foster national research infrastructure developments and interdisciplinary collaboration
Since the DARIAH model is based on a bottom-up participation of member countries in building a pan-European infrastructure, there is a risk that such contributions do not form a coherent and sustainable portfolio of activities. HaS-DARIAH established a DARIAH ecosystem, in order to make available, assess, and evaluate national contributions to DARIAH. DARIAH members can contribute to the community with a diverse range of resources, services and activities. Through an online tool the contributions will be collected and disseminated.
1. Expanding the existing community to all scholars in the humanities and arts
• Contribute to an increase in digital literacy through awareness and education activities.
The project organised a series of Summer/Winter Schools and Master Classes which helped building human resources in the European Research Area.
• Support a strong open research agenda
Two platforms have been developed during the project: a Data Deposit Recommendation System, a free online service for humanities researchers in the EU to find suitable research data repositories, and OpenMethods, a platform that highlights Open Access curated content in the field of DH methods and tools.
2. Integrate scholarly communities more effectively
HaS-DARIAH, addressed the objective through workshops, regional hubs and an Ambassadors Network. New research communities and regions are now actively part of the DARIAH network.
3. Offer services around DARIAH communities
HaS-DARIAH focused on offering core services to the DARIAH community. The Consortium established an online tool to assess, evaluate and disseminate national contributions. Also, the project investigated basic service requirements for digital humanities projects to support the whole life cycle of digital humanities projects.
4. Foster national research infrastructure developments and interdisciplinary collaboration
Since the DARIAH model is based on a bottom-up participation of member countries in building a pan-European infrastructure, there is a risk that such contributions do not form a coherent and sustainable portfolio of activities. HaS-DARIAH established a DARIAH ecosystem, in order to make available, assess, and evaluate national contributions to DARIAH. DARIAH members can contribute to the community with a diverse range of resources, services and activities. Through an online tool the contributions will be collected and disseminated.
As the related call of proposals states, “the initial phase is [...] the most delicate and difficult one for new pan-European infrastructures in the process to become fully operational [...]”. HaS-DARIAH helped establishing DARIAH as a long-term leader and partner within arts and humanities communities by growing its community, offering education activities, providing a better access to national contributions, developing tools and core services.
Dissemination represented a key element. Stakeholders have been regularly informed about latest developments of the project. Other communication activities were especially targeted on enhancing DARIAH's communication, for example by upgrading the DARIAH website and creating publicity material. HaS-DARIAH worked also on another important aspect of digital humanities, innovation, and organised a “DARIAH Innovation Forum”. The event took place in Aarhus and brought together traditional industries associated with arts and humanities like design and media with new digital industries. The question on how to implement an ethical framework for DARIAH was raised during the project. HaS-DARIAH brought together experts to create a Working Group dealing with ethics issues.
HaS-DARIAH focused on Open Data and Open Methods. Open Access publishing of research data is not yet a common practice within the arts and humanities. DARIAH developed an open humanities data platform to make the information about existing collections more accessible.HaS-DARIAH provided a Data Deposit Recommendation Service (DDRS) which helps identifying suitable research data repositories for humanities researchers. A multidisciplinary metablog has been created to republish peer-reviewed content. The aim is to highlight and promote research publications and blogposts that deal with DH methods and tools.
HaS-DARIAH supported the integration of in-kind contributions by providing a range of services that will make it easier to integrate national digital humanities projects and scale their results to a European level. HaS-DARIAH established a space, to assess, evaluate and disseminate national contributions. DARIAH delivered a new reference architecture to better identify the forms of contributions. An online tool has been developed for the collection, assessment and evaluation of national contributions to the infrastructure. In addition, the project enhanced the DARIAH infrastructure and the whole life cycle of DH projects by focusing on central services, basic tools and the accessibility of those. Moreover, the project investigated how Service Level Agreements are implemented across distributed infrastructures.
DARIAH engaged with new communities and regions through regional hubs, workshops and the development of an Ambassadors Network. Four regionals hubs have been established, involving countries not yet members of DARIAH. This led DARIAH to get several new cooperating partners. The project had the objective to integrate larger research communities. Several workshops have been organised during the project leading to the creation of new working groups in DARIAH. The project established an Ambassadors Network, composed of DARIAH senior members, which raised awareness of and participation in DARIAH. The Network contributed to engage with new communities and regions attracting new potential users.
Training and education activities represented an important milestone of the project. Three Summer/Winter Schools and four Master Classes have been organised. Furthermore, #dariahTeach, which is an open source platform for high quality teaching and training materials, has been strengthened with new courses and translations.
Dissemination represented a key element. Stakeholders have been regularly informed about latest developments of the project. Other communication activities were especially targeted on enhancing DARIAH's communication, for example by upgrading the DARIAH website and creating publicity material. HaS-DARIAH worked also on another important aspect of digital humanities, innovation, and organised a “DARIAH Innovation Forum”. The event took place in Aarhus and brought together traditional industries associated with arts and humanities like design and media with new digital industries. The question on how to implement an ethical framework for DARIAH was raised during the project. HaS-DARIAH brought together experts to create a Working Group dealing with ethics issues.
HaS-DARIAH focused on Open Data and Open Methods. Open Access publishing of research data is not yet a common practice within the arts and humanities. DARIAH developed an open humanities data platform to make the information about existing collections more accessible.HaS-DARIAH provided a Data Deposit Recommendation Service (DDRS) which helps identifying suitable research data repositories for humanities researchers. A multidisciplinary metablog has been created to republish peer-reviewed content. The aim is to highlight and promote research publications and blogposts that deal with DH methods and tools.
HaS-DARIAH supported the integration of in-kind contributions by providing a range of services that will make it easier to integrate national digital humanities projects and scale their results to a European level. HaS-DARIAH established a space, to assess, evaluate and disseminate national contributions. DARIAH delivered a new reference architecture to better identify the forms of contributions. An online tool has been developed for the collection, assessment and evaluation of national contributions to the infrastructure. In addition, the project enhanced the DARIAH infrastructure and the whole life cycle of DH projects by focusing on central services, basic tools and the accessibility of those. Moreover, the project investigated how Service Level Agreements are implemented across distributed infrastructures.
DARIAH engaged with new communities and regions through regional hubs, workshops and the development of an Ambassadors Network. Four regionals hubs have been established, involving countries not yet members of DARIAH. This led DARIAH to get several new cooperating partners. The project had the objective to integrate larger research communities. Several workshops have been organised during the project leading to the creation of new working groups in DARIAH. The project established an Ambassadors Network, composed of DARIAH senior members, which raised awareness of and participation in DARIAH. The Network contributed to engage with new communities and regions attracting new potential users.
Training and education activities represented an important milestone of the project. Three Summer/Winter Schools and four Master Classes have been organised. Furthermore, #dariahTeach, which is an open source platform for high quality teaching and training materials, has been strengthened with new courses and translations.
This project advances the state-of-the-art of DARIAH by:
- Providing essential building blocks of the technical infrastructure to integrate existing services from DARIAH member states, which can only be developed in a joint European project.
- Establishing more extensive knowledge and better communication services in order to expand the reach of DARIAH beyond its current member states and intensify the exchange on digital knowledge and methods within its current member states.
- Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration with related social sciences and humanities infrastructures and industry on a European level to continue the DARIAH members’ successful national collaborations and enhance the impact of arts and humanities research outside of academia.
- Providing essential building blocks of the technical infrastructure to integrate existing services from DARIAH member states, which can only be developed in a joint European project.
- Establishing more extensive knowledge and better communication services in order to expand the reach of DARIAH beyond its current member states and intensify the exchange on digital knowledge and methods within its current member states.
- Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration with related social sciences and humanities infrastructures and industry on a European level to continue the DARIAH members’ successful national collaborations and enhance the impact of arts and humanities research outside of academia.