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  • Essay / Digital Curation and Innovation in the Digital Humanities

    Table of ContentsIntroductionBodyConclusionReferencesIntroduction “A Greatly Uncharted Area: Digital Curation and Innovation in the Digital Humanities” is an article written by Alex H. Poole. Serving as an assistant professor at Drexel University (specifically in the College of Computing and Informatics), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Poole has written numerous articles on issues of data management and curation, data storage, data, digital humanities and their interdisciplinary interactions. . The author has written many articles not only on this particular issue, but also on other problems that arise when working with data in the modern world, where every person unwittingly creates gigabytes of data every day. According to the sixth edition of DOMO, an average of 2.5 exabytes of information are generated every day. For scaling references, an exabyte is known as being made up of 1 billion gigabytes. And the amount of data generated continues to grow. Alex H. Poole has recently written more than ten articles on data management and related issues. In this essay I will refer to a few of them. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay “A Greatly Unexplored Area” is based on the results of a survey of digital humanities seed grant projects. The purpose of this investigation was first to clarify which data sources were used, reused, creating participants, and what challenges they faced. Second, the survey aims to identify the challenges these projects faced. Since the projects are mainly composed of Tiers 1 and 2, their funding differs significantly for this reason. It was also noted to what extent the data created and used differed from each other. While Tier 1 projects primarily produced theoretical data (such as reports and articles), Tier 2 projects were much more specific in nature, including prototypes and demonstration projects. Since reports, as well as prototypes, have been mentioned as data sources, it would be wise to understand what exactly data is in these contexts. Is the data considered an article? Perhaps a piece of computer code, or the timestamp of a sent Facebook message, or even the prototypes themselves? Scouring the internet for a definition of the term “data” will produce a multitude of results, with some describing data as “information in raw or unorganized forms (such as alphabets, numbers, or symbols).” The Office of Digital Humanities, where the SUG projects took place, describes data as “generated or collected project materials such as citations, code, algorithms, digital tools, documentation, databases, geospatial coordinates, reports and articles. In response to the questions asked previously, we can say that all forms of data mentioned above are indeed considered data, with regard to the definitions provided. From my perspective, all entities in the world are composed of elements that can be considered data, regardless of our ability to understand the many forms of data we may encounter.BodyBefore moving on to discuss the issues raised by the author, it is essential to understand what is meant by data curation, digital humanities and the correlation between these twoterms. Digital curation can be described as a set of activities aimed at storing and managing data throughout its lifecycle. There are several data lifecycle models, but none are unified and will meet the needs of any institution. For example, I2S2 is mainly used for research purposes, while the IT industry uses the Capability Maturity Model. Only DCC is considered somewhat suitable for almost all disciplines, although some adjustments are necessary for optimal functionality. “Digital humanities (DH) is a field of scientific activity at the intersection of computer science or digital technologies as well as humanities disciplines. It includes the systematic use of digital resources in the humanities, as well as reflection on their application. DH can be defined as new ways of doing research that involve collaborative, interdisciplinary, computational research, teaching, and publishing.” Humanities include disciplines such as art, music, history, etc. A few years ago, people found it hard to believe that it would be possible to draw using a device such as a computer, but today people are able to use Photoshop, Paint Tool SAI. , ArtRage and many other similar programs and software, for making sketches or entire works of art. Digitalization has touched every aspect of our lives, including those we could barely have imagined. The digitalization of the humanities has, on the one hand, increased efficiency. On the other hand, digital humanities has also posed some problems and questions that need to be resolved. For example, even if you are an experienced or recognized artist, you will have to relearn how to draw, using non-traditional tools. Digital humanities as well as any other discipline use and generate an enormous amount of data. Using digital tools can simplify data storage and management compared to manual archiving, but also brings other new challenges that were rare before. These will be discussed in more detail in this essay. The article covers the issue of data management at all stages: creation, use, storage and reuse. The context of the article is based on 45 participants interviewed and their responses to the survey questions. As the results showed, firstly, each project created some form of data. The data created ranges from simple presentations and reports to software and prototypes. Second, each project reused an individual's data, whether from web or paper sources. Third, most participants stored their data institutionally, with some using cloud storage and/or web platforms such as YouTube. Repeated use of the data created is always questioned. Even though participants stated that they would reuse data, verifying such a thing poses many challenges and difficulties in obtaining proof. Speaking of real-world experiences, I'm currently working on a programming project, using sites like stackoverflow.com to gather ideas or see how people have solved problems I'm facing, as well as to see if there There are others who have encountered similar problems. I create new data by writing code as well as documenting the process. Personally, I store the code on GitLab. First of all, I consider web storage as a superior alternative in terms of storing my data because the likelihood of losing data onThe Internet itself is rather weak. Conversely, if my laptop crashes or my hard drive fails, I won't be able to restore what I'm working on. Second, because I work in a team, other people need to have easy access to the code I've written. However, once the project is complete, the data created by the team and I could be used by others, for example if the code is open source or by our own team members if we intend to update it in any way. Alex H. Poole also identifies some challenges that emerged during the investigation. One of them was due to the technologies used by the participants. Although it is not the most common challenge and only a few participants have tackled it, technology, at the interface of two disciplines, plays a vital role. First, as mentioned in the article “Convergence of digital humanities and digital libraries” by Ying Zhang, Shu Liu and Emilee Mathews, “Technologies used in DH create barriers for new researchers to learn and for project sustainability ". Not all technology is intuitive. Sometimes it is necessary to learn how to use a particular software on your own or take classes/workshops.Second, digital humanities institutions are spread all over the world. Digital humanists in Russia and New Zealand, for example, might use different technologies and methodologies to manage data. In the future, this could cause problems when combining data from these two countries. The appearance of misleading data or even data breaches will be the consequence of such behavior. Another issue Alex H. Poole addresses is data usage. Respondents in this survey found the data issues to be the hardest part. Understanding data, including translation issues and data complexity, data cleaning and file format are the most common issues. These issues go hand in hand with data curation. Essentially, these problems were caused by a lack of proper data management and curation. Based on Alex H. Poole and Deborah A. Garwood's article "Interdgraduate Scholarly Collaboration in Data-Intensive, Publicly-Funded, International Digital Humanities Work", in which they discuss the issue of communication and collaboration deeper than in “A Greatly Unexplored Area: Digital Conservation and Innovation in the Digital Humanities”; it is an essential element of digital preservation in the digital humanities. First, this problem is extremely common in interdisciplinary research, when people from different backgrounds, using different tools and frameworks work on the same project. Second, there is duplication of information. For example, reinventing the wheel happens more often than one might assume. People spend time inventing something new without knowing that it was invented years before, by others in distant countries, in different cultural contexts. However, when it comes to digital humanities, digital curation is not the only problem researchers face. Digital humanities is known to be a rather new discipline and is in its infancy, less than 100 years old. Unlike other core disciplines, it lacks not only a proper curriculum, but any curriculum at all. This question constitutes a stumbling block for digital humanities today. Digital humanities are in such a-09-2014-0116