Digital meets Culture

Engineering applications of Artificial Intelligence - Deadline for manuscript submission: April 30, 2015

Mining the Humanities: Technologies and Applications

The nature of humanistic data can be multimodal, semantically heterogeneous, dynamic, time and space-dependent, and highly complicated. Translating humanistic information, e.g., behaviour, state of mind, artistic creation, linguistic utterance, learning and genomic information into numerical or categorical low-level data is a significant challenge on its own. New techniques, appropriate to deal with this type of data, need to be proposed and existing ones adapted to its special characteristics. The purpose of this special issue is to bring together interdisciplinary approaches that focus on the application of innovative as well as existing data matching, fusion and mining and knowledge discovery and management techniques (like decision rules, decision trees, association rules, ontologies and alignments, clustering, filtering, learning, classifier systems, neural networks, support vector machines, pre-processing, post processing, feature selection, visualization techniques) to data derived from all areas of Humanistic Sciences, e.g., linguistic, historical, behavioural, psychological, artistic, musical, educational, social, etc.. Research in this area is important to combine the fields of semantics and knowledge engineering within artificial intelligence framework, mainly because of the overwhelming amount and different types of disseminated information. High quality contributions addressing related theoretical and practical aspects are expected.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following aspects:

Humanistic Data Collection and Interpretation
Ubiquitous Computing and Bioinformatics
Data pre-processing
Feature Selection
Supervised Learning of Humanistic Knowledge
Clustering
Fuzzy Modelling
Heterogeneous Data Fusion
Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
Knowledge Processing and Acquisition
Expert Systems
Linguistic Data Mining
Historical Research
Educational Data Mining
Music Information Retrieval
Data-driven Profiling/Personalization
User Modelling
Behaviour Prediction
Recommender Systems
Web Sentiment Analysis
Social Data Mining
Visualization Techniques
Integration of Data Mining Results into Real-world Applications with Humanistic Context
Data Mining Techniques for Knowledge Discovery
Ontology Matching and Alignment
Virtual-World Data Mining
Game Data Mining
Mining Humanistic Data in the Cloud
Speech and Audio Data Processing
Ontologies
Biomedical Data Mining

Submission Procedure

All manuscripts should follow the submission guidelines available at the journal’s website. During the submission process, please select the “SI: Mining the Humanities” as article type. Prospective authors are encouraged to indicate their interests any time before the submission deadline. After submitting a paper, please also inform guest editors by e-mail about the specific paper ID assigned by the submission system. If a submission is based on a prior publication in a workshop or conference, the journal submission must involve substantial advance (a minimum of 60%) in conceptual terms as well as in exposition (e.g., more comprehensive testing/evaluation/validation or additional applications/usage).

Important Dates

Deadline for manuscript submission: April 30, 2015

Notification of the first review: June 30, 2015

Revised paper submission: July 31, 2015

Notification of acceptance: September 15, 2015

Final accepted manuscript due: October 15, 2015

Estimated publication date: December 2015

Guest Editors

Spyros Sioutas
Ionian University
sioutas@ionio.gr

Lazaros Iliadis
Democritus University of Thrace
liliadis@fmenr.duth.gr

Katia Lida Kermanidis
Ionian University
kerman@ionio.gr

Phivos Mylonas
Ionian University
fmylonas@ionio.gr

For further info visit the journal website.

Rome, 27-29 January 2016

EAGLE 2016 International Conference on Digital and Traditional Epigraphy in Context

EAGLE

Europeana network of Ancient Greek and Latin Epigraphy

presents

EAGLE 2016 International Conference on Digital and Traditional Epigraphy in Context

January 27-29, 2016

Rome, Italy

Information Technology has brought many significant changes in the field of Cultural Heritage and continues to be a dynamic and exciting field for the emergence of new opportunities. This wave of change has had particularly significant consequences in the field of Epigraphy and Classical Studies where the vast potential for digital content and new tools continues to reveal itself, opening doors to new and as-yet-unexplored synergies. Many technological developments concerning digital libraries, research and education are now fully developed and ready to be exported, applied, utilized, and cultivated by the public.

In the spirit of this vibrant environment, EAGLE is pleased to announce the EAGLE 2016 International conference on EAGLE 2016 International Conference on Digital and Traditional Epigraphy in Context.

Co-funded by the European Commission under its Information and Communication Technologies Policy Support Programme, EAGLE aims to create an e-library for Digital Epigraphy of unprecedented scale and quality for ingestion to Europeana.

EAGLE is also aiming at creating a network of experts and people interested in Epigraphy and Cultural Heritage. This event is intended to be a forum for anyone willing to share and discuss experiences and current general best practices for digital editions. It is open to researchers, archivists, industry professionals, museum curators and others seeking to create a forum in which individuals and institutions can find a place to collaborate.

The EAGLE 2016 conference will confirm a keynote-speaker lineup consisting of some of the most salient voices in the field, including Charlotte Rouche (King’s College, United Kingdom) and Werner Eck (University of Cologne, Germany).

FURTHER INFORMATION

Conference Web-Page: www.eagle-network.eu/about/events/eagle2016/

Call for Participation: www.eagle-network.eu/about/events/eagle2016/call-for-participation/

Registration: www.eagle-network.eu/about/events/eagle2016/registration/

The event will be held in English.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact:

Francesco Mambrini: Francesco.Mambrini@dainst.de
Pietro Liuzzo: pietro.liuzzo@zaw.uni-heidelberg.de
Raffaella Santucci: raffaella.santucci@uniroma1.it

Follow EAGLE on Facebook and Twitter!

Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, 21-25 June 2015

Joint Conference on Digital Libraries 2015

“Large, Dynamic and Ubiquitous –The Era of the Digital Library”

The ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL 2015) is a major international forum focusing on digital libraries and associated technical, practical, organizational, and social issues. JCDL encompasses the many meanings of the term digital libraries, including (but not limited to) new forms of information institutions and organizations; operational information systems with all manner of digital content; new means of selecting, collecting, organizing, distributing, and accessing digital content; theoretical models of information media, including document genres and electronic publishing; and theory and practice of use of managed content in science and education.

Big Data is everywhere – from Computational Science to Digital Humanities, from Web Analytics to traditional libraries. While there do exist significant challenges in other areas, for many the biggest issue of all is a digital libraries one.

How do we preserve big data collections?

How do we provide access to big data collections?

What new questions can we pose against our big data collections?

These are all digital libraries questions.

How can we, the digital libraries community, stand up in the face of these challenges and inform collection builders, curators, and interface developers how to best solve their challenges?

What assumptions have we been working under that no longer hold in light of Big Data?

These are some of the timely questions that will be addressed at JCDL 2015.

For further information visit the Conference website.

Manchester (UK) 12-14 October 2015

Democratising Cultural Heritage via Digital means

The Lowry, Greater Manchester

DCDC15 (DCDC as Discovering Collections Discovering Communities) will look at the varied and innovative ways in which archives, museums, libraries and academia can engage with audiences in the digital age.

The last two decades have witnessed a flourishing of digital content across the heritage and academic sectors. Whether through the creation of digital discovery tools, mass digitisation and online delivery of content or through the creation of new virtual user interfaces, digital technology has come to complement traditional analogue formats to create an altogether richer user experience. The creation, delivery and curation of digital content provides great opportunities for audiences more actively to engage in, and enrich, both collections and the research based on them.

In doing so, audiences have gone from being consumers of heritage content to active creators and curators, helping heritage professionals to contextualise and interpret their rich and diverse collections. Crowd-sourced content has revealed the many hidden secrets behind heritage collections, giving them greater contemporary relevance and adding an increased complexity and diversity to established narratives. Digital platforms have democratised the experience and interpretation of heritage collections, not replacing the richness and importance of a physical encounter, but complementing these and widening their appeal. Finally, galleries and search rooms have been pebble-dashed with touch screens, hashtags and barcodes. Our visitors are now as likely to leave with a mobile-phone app as they are with an exhibition poster. In doing so, the development of digital technologies have presented new opportunities for collaboration not only between institutions, academics and sectors, but also new ways of collaborating with users, whatever their purposes.

Digital platforms have provided many new and exciting opportunities, yet they have also presented new challenges for heritage and academic organisations. In what ways can they ensure that digital engagement is truly “engaging”? What is the relationship between online “hits” and actual footfall? How can the meaningful “impact” of engagement be better captured via digital means? And during a time of austerity, how can all sectors make the case for innovative digital engagement, not as an indulgent luxury, but as a necessity to preserve the broader relevance and wider-recognition of collections? This conference aims to explore the possibilities and also the pitfalls of digital engagement.

DCDC15 will be held at The Lowry, Greater Manchester. Set in a magnificent waterside location at the heart of the redeveloped Salford Quays, The Lowry is an architectural flagship with a unique and dynamic identity.

Besides the conference, the organisers have arranged two social evenings during the event.

On 12 October a pre-conference drinks reception will be held at the Imperial War Museum North. A perfect occasion to get to know fellow delegates, both new faces and old, in this stunning exhibition space.

Imperial War Museum North, Manchester

On 13 October, the main conference dinner will be held at The Lowry. This is a second opportunity for making new contacts, discussing the conference presentations and even (as some of our delegates did at the 2014 conference) brainstorm potential collaborative project ideas with other professionals.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Papers: The conference organisers invite 300 word abstracts for the delivery of 20 minute presentations. 10 minutes will be allowed for questions after every presentation.

Workshops: The conference organisers also invite the submission of 300 word abstracts for more focused 1.5 hour workshops. These will be designed and delivered by those submitting a proposal. Where possible, workshops should focus on the exchange of concepts, ideas or practical solutions, to common challenges.

Abstracts should include a title and also an indication of preferred delivery method:

Oral presentation with visual aids (e.g. powerpoint)
Oral presentation with interactive element
Oral presentation followed by open discussion

Abstracts should be sent to Matt.Greenhall@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk and melanie.cheung@rluk.ac.uk by Friday 1st May 2015.

The main conference themes will include, but are not limited to, the following:

the ways and means of digitally engaging with audiences
funding for digital collaboration
the interrelation of the virtual and physical visitors
the creation of digital spaces for discourse, dissemination and delivery
gameification and edutainment: how can we use video games and interactive learning to engage younger audiences?
digital analytics and impact: measuring digital audiences, both to better understand their needs and behaviour and to persuade decision-makers to commit resource
online fundraising: the potential of crowdfunding to support campaigns and individual appeals
supporting the Digital Humanities
creating Citizen Humanists: the role of the amateur-virtual researcher in better understanding collections
digital without borders: international research and outreach through the digital

As the organisers will not be charging delegates to attend the conference, they are unable to cover the travel and accommodation expenses of speakers.

For more information and updates, visit the event website

Vienna (Austria), 9 - 10 July 2015

Europeana Creative Culture Jam

On 9-10 July 2015, in Vienna, at the Austrian National Library is being held the conference Europeana Creative Culture Jam, final showcase event of Europeana Creative, a groundbreaking project that explores ways for creative industries to connect with cultural heritage.

The event will mix inspiring keynote talks with lively discussion on topics ranging from copyright to co-creation and from living labs to business models. Winners of the 5 challenge (Natural History Education, History Education, Tourism, Social Networks and Design) launched by Europana Creative will be celebrated, attendees will play with the fantastic apps developed by the project and participate in some live crowd-funding madness!

Culture Jam will be a celebration of all that Europeana Creative has achieved and a presentation of the future success to achieve with the fellow creative projects Europeana Food & Drink and Europeana Space.

Everyone with a creative, practical or strategic interest in open data, cultural heritage or digital culture is invited to come to Culture Jam at the Austrian National Library. Be sure to sign up now to take advantage of the early bird rate!

The conference will take place in the Austrian National Library, Vienna. The exact address of the conference location is:
Austrian National Library
Josefsplatz 1 (NOT entrance Heldenplatz!)
1015 Vienna

For further information visit the event website

the big closing event of Europeana Creative takes place in Vienna on 9-10 July 2015

E-Space liases with sister project Europeana Creative for the Culture Jam final conference

Europeana Creative Culture Jam is the final showcase event of Europeana Creative, a groundbreaking project that explores ways for creative industries to connect with cultural heritage. Culture Jam will mix inspiring keynote talks with lively discussion on topics ranging from copyright to co-creation and from living labs to business models.

Everyone with a creative, practical or strategic interest in open data, cultural heritage or digital culture is invited to join Culture Jam at the Austrian National Library.

Official website of the event with any information: http://www.europeanacreativeculturejam.eu/

Europeana Space will actively participate in this great happening, and several of its members have joined the event’s Advisory Board; the project will be showcased with a presentation and an exhibition of the Europeana TV pilot.

The hackathon will bring together creative minds, urban developers, artists, programmers and students to build apps using open photographic content

Photography pilot of E-Space: getting ready for the Hackathon!

by Fred Truyen (KU Leuven)

On Tuesday April 21st, the Photography pilot of Europeana Space had a brainstorm meeting on the Photography Hackathon. Under the skilled guidance of Ivonne Jansen-Dings and Christine van den Horn from WAAG, the team from KU Leuven, iMinds and Packed sat together to define the target audience, the main goal of the hackathon, the different groups we wanted to involve and the topics, but also to have a concrete look at the planning and program of the event. We also defined the team that would be in charge to make this all happen.

What is the photo hackathon about? There is a huge amount of digitized cultural heritage available on Europeana – and similar open repositories such as Wikimedia Commons and Flickr Commons – that are just waiting to be reused in innovative new applications. This shared cultural content can be an opportunity, with current technologies, to bring people together, to form a glue of new relations between content owners, educators, cultural heritage institutions, developers, students, stakeholder communities, creative industries. In this hackathon, we want to bring together creative minds, urban developers, artists, programmers, students in cultural studies, photography and engineering to build apps for a broad spectrum of users using open photographic content in a way that shows the value of reuse, relinking, remix.

[Show as slideshow]

Currently the tentative date for the event is February 25^th-27^th 2016, in Leuven, Belgium.

Anyway the prep meeting already had many of the properties we expect from the hackathon itself: it was inspiring, challenging, confrontational and disruptive, and we had the impression that at the end of a very intensive afternoon we made major steps forward to a concrete planning and program.

photos courtesy of Fred Truyen

http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PREFORMA_D4.3_Functions-of-the-Open-Source-Portal_v2.0.pdf

D4.3 Functions of the Open Source Portal

Deliverable D4.3 reports the functions of the Open Source Portal and the requirements for each associated Open Source project web site. Specifically, this deliverable sets out the direction for how the work in WP6 will be conducted. Each open source project utilises established work practices for community based open source projects hosted on open platforms. The Open Source Portal shall constitute a cohesive entry point to all open source projects. As such it provides links to developed and provided resources (including source code, executables, and test files) and tools (including software configuration management system, mailing lists, and build environment) used in each open source project. Developed and provided resources will be available during and after the conduction of the formal PREFORMA project. With adoption of best practices from community driven open source projects and adherence to full transparency for all digital assets, contracted organisations are well placed to successfully establish thriving and long-term sustainable open source communities of relevance for memory institutions and other stakeholder groups.

http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PREFORMA_D8.1_Competitive-evaluation-strategy_v1.2_no-appendix.pdf

D8.1 Competitive evaluation strategy

This deliverable defines the competitive evaluation strategy which will be used for the assessment of the results of the suppliers at the end of the design phase 1. The competitive evaluation strategy serves to choose those suppliers which will pass the design phase 1 and will continue with the prototyping and testing phases.

Evaluating and comparing suppliers requires us to identify two distinct processes:

evaluation process: during this process each supplier is individually examined and it is scored according to its characteristics. The evaluation process is formalized through the evaluation matrix, as described in Section 2.1. The outcome of the evaluation process is the supplier score, that is a number representing the scoring achieved by the supplier;
comparison process: once the suppliers have been scored, they are compared with each
other on the basis of their supplier scores. The comparison process is formalized through the comparison matrix, as described in Section 2.2. The outcome of the comparison process is a ranking of the suppliers, based on their scorings.

In particular, as detailed in Section 3, the PREFORMA evaluation matrix consists of four categories: Impact on the Challenge, Technical Approach, Quality of the Tender, and Price/Cost. Each category contains several items which are scored using a likert scale ranging from 1 (bad) to 5 (excellent), according to well-established standards, like ITU-T P800. The score for each item is obtained with a weighted average of the scores assigned by different reviewers which belong to the three following reviewer types: technical expert, domain expert, and external expert. The score of a category is the weighted average of the scores of its items and the total score for a supplier is the weighted average of its category scores.

http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PREFORMA_D4-2_Promotional-Material_v1.1.pdf

D4.2 Promotional Material

This document provides an overview of the dissemination strategy, activities, and materials the PREFORMA Project intends to use over the lifetime of the project. The dissemination activities aim to increase the impact of the project by making it visible to as wide an audience as possible, while focusing on those target users for which the project is most relevant.

In particular, it presents a short overview of the production of the print and presentation materials that have been designed and created in the first months of the project and which will be used for the networking and dissemination of PREFORMA. All future printed materials for PREFORMA will be based on the designs and templates described herein. Printed materials play a key role in dissemination and networking, as the first impression one gets of the project, which cannot be undone, is imparted by them.

Furthermore this report, targeted towards all sectors of the PREFORMA network, serves as an easy-to-use guide for the project partners to inform, improve, streamline, and standardise the procedures concerning the project’s dissemination activities. Finally, it describes how these processes will be monitored.

This deliverable features six Chapters and one Annex.

Chapter 1 introduces the objectives and the main characteristics of the project’s communication and dissemination work.
Chapter 2 provides a brief overview of the first dissemination materials that have been produced to present/promote the project and spread its results.
Chapter 3 summarises the target audience to be reached.
Chapter 4 analyses the variety of dissemination methods and channels to be adopted with the goal of disseminating outcomes and results.
Chapter 5 describes how the effectiveness of dissemination activities will be continuously monitored and evaluated.
Chapter 6 presents the conclusions.
The Annex contains a promotional plan including the description of how, when, to whom, who will distribute this material.