Linked Data, Digital Editions, and the Medieval Scholastic Corpus
Jeffrey C. Witt (Loyola University Maryland) | @jeffreycwitt
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 19th, 2016
Slide Deck: http://lombardpress.org/slides/2016-11-19-schoenberg-symposium/
Outline
Part I - Theoretical Overview
A. Problems and Aspirations
B. The Current Paradigm - Text as Document
C. A New Paradigm - Text as Network
D. The SCTA Network Data Model
Part II - Putting Theory in Practice
I.A. Problems and Aspirations
The medieval corpus, at present, is an invisible tapestry
We want to provide a scientific view each thread within the context of the whole.
A scientific view through:
- Analysis
- Search
- Access
- Synthesis
I.B. The Current Paradigm
Text-as-Document
The problem with the text-as-document approach
Data Isolation: in print and on the web
In sum: research groups are currently choosing the most inefficient way possible to make data avaialable on the web, while leaving us with results that go barely beyond the capabilities of the printed page.
I.C. A New Paradigm
Text-as-Network
Despite the inarguable benefits the Web provides, until recently the same principles that enabled the Web of documents to flourish have not been applied to data. Traditionally, data published on the Web has been made available as raw dumps in formats such as CSV or XML, or marked up as HTML tables, sacrificing much of its structure and semantics. In the conventional hypertext Web, the nature of the relationship between two linked documents is implicit, as the data format, i.e. HTML, is not sufficiently expressive to enable individual entities described in a particular document to be connected by typed links to related entities.
Christian Bizer, Tom Heath, Tim Berners-Lee, "Linked Data - The Story So Far", http://tomheath.com/papers/bizer-heath-berners-lee-ijswis-linked-data.pdf
I.D. The SCTA "Network" Data Model
Our Data
Our Data Model
- WorkGroup
- Work
- The idea of Moby Dick
- Expression
- The idea of Melville's expression (as opposed to a screen play expression)
- Manifestation
- The idea of the 1959 edition of Moby Dick
- Item
- One physical copy of the 1959 edition in a particular library
- Transcription
- the idea of a digital transcription of the 1959 edition of Moby Dick
- includes properties like hasXML, hasJson, hasPlaintext, hasHtml
- Manifestation Surface
- the idea of page 1 in 1959 edition of Moby Dick
- Item Surface
- the physical page 1 in a particular copy of the 1959 edition of Moby Dick
- IIIF Canvas
- IIIF image annotation
- images taken of the physical page 1 in a particular copy
Part II - Putting Theory in Practice
Data Creation
Transcription and Distributed Delivery
Adopting the Git Workflow
Data Aggregation and Delivery
Creating the data set with RDF extraction
Critical Corpus Database Visualization
Data Display
Building common libraries for common tasks
LombardPress Interface Display
Mirador IIIF Image Interface
Lbp Print Interface
Suggested Readings
Introduction
http://lombardpress.org/2016/08/02/bcht-scta-lbp-overview/
Modeling and Workflows
http://lombardpress.org/2016/06/12/DTS-modeling-proposal/
http://lombardpress.org/2016/08/09/surfaces-canvases-and-zones/
http://lombardpress.org/placing-medieval-texts-within-a-critical-corpus/
On Information sharing and linked open data
http://lombardpress.org/2016/04/16/iiif-webmentions/
http://lombardpress.org/2016/08/25/basel-workshop-report/
On Peer Review
http://lombardpress.org/2016/05/19/the-traveling-imprimatur/
On LombardPress web
http://lombardpress.org/bringing-ecodices-and-openn-together/
http://lombardpress.org/conceiving-the-digital-critical-apparatus/
http://lombardpress.org/demo-of-full-integration-of-iiif-images-into-lombardpress/