Critical Blogging in Archaeology is a new open access themed issue in Internet Archaeology 39: http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue39/index.html
This issue is a little more experimental than usual, employing open peer review - and so the referees' (citable) comments are published alongside the articles. In addition, readers have the opportunity to comment and contribute via the journal's comments feature as well as via social media using the dedicated #CritBlogArch
Some of the thoughts and decisions that provoked and shaped the issue can be found here: http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue39/editorial.html
Saturday, 30 May 2015
Update on the Development of the Culture Grid & Europeana Aggregation
The Culture Grid is the UK aggregator for museum, library and archive metadata, run through the Collections Trust (CT). It currently hosts 3 million records from collections all over the UK and acts as one of the main points of aggregation into Europeana for English-language content.
After consultation to identify demand for the Culture Grid as a service and to develop options for funding it on an ongoing basis, CT have now set out a 3-part plan in partnership with Knowledge Integration, the developers of the platform and associated tools.
As of the 30th April, the Culture Grid was closed to new accessions. The service website will be archived (http://www.culturegrid.org.uk). The API and index will remain accessible so that applications and services which use sector data from the Culture Grid will continue to function for the foreseeable future (and the dataset will continue to be available for hacks and other development events). Europeana contributions will be via a 'dark' aggregator which we will continue to host.
UK organisations wishing to contribute data to Europeana will be able to do so using the aggregator which was developed alongside the Europeana Connection Kit (ECK) last year. The aggregator accepts data in the format (a profile of LIDO) produced by the ECK, which has been or is in the process of being integrated into most SPECTRUM Partner software platforms. It allows you to select records, associate them with permissions and batch-submit them for ingest into Europeana via the 'dark' aggregator. For further information about the ECK, see CT's blog post (http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk/home/eck).
As part of our future planning, CT would like to invite a community discussion about the value of and support for metadata aggregation. A great deal has been learnt in the first wave of aggregation-based projects, and it would be interesting to know whether there is an appetite in the UK/MCG network for developing these platforms as a community.
Some of the biggest challenges in sustaining an aggregation platform are resourcing quality-assurance and end-user support, and it ought to be possible to develop a self-supporting community around aggregation and online collections search to help overcome these challenges.
After consultation to identify demand for the Culture Grid as a service and to develop options for funding it on an ongoing basis, CT have now set out a 3-part plan in partnership with Knowledge Integration, the developers of the platform and associated tools.
As of the 30th April, the Culture Grid was closed to new accessions. The service website will be archived (http://www.culturegrid.org.uk). The API and index will remain accessible so that applications and services which use sector data from the Culture Grid will continue to function for the foreseeable future (and the dataset will continue to be available for hacks and other development events). Europeana contributions will be via a 'dark' aggregator which we will continue to host.
UK organisations wishing to contribute data to Europeana will be able to do so using the aggregator which was developed alongside the Europeana Connection Kit (ECK) last year. The aggregator accepts data in the format (a profile of LIDO) produced by the ECK, which has been or is in the process of being integrated into most SPECTRUM Partner software platforms. It allows you to select records, associate them with permissions and batch-submit them for ingest into Europeana via the 'dark' aggregator. For further information about the ECK, see CT's blog post (http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk/home/eck).
As part of our future planning, CT would like to invite a community discussion about the value of and support for metadata aggregation. A great deal has been learnt in the first wave of aggregation-based projects, and it would be interesting to know whether there is an appetite in the UK/MCG network for developing these platforms as a community.
Some of the biggest challenges in sustaining an aggregation platform are resourcing quality-assurance and end-user support, and it ought to be possible to develop a self-supporting community around aggregation and online collections search to help overcome these challenges.
Thursday, 28 May 2015
Utopias, Futures and Temporalities Symposium
The 'Utopias, Futures and Temporalities: Critical considerations for Social Change symposium took place on 19 & 20 May, 2015 at Bristol Zoo. The CFP was as follows:
2016 is the 500 year anniversary of the first publication of Thomas More’s Utopia. Such a moment encourages reflection on the uses and misuses of utopias and dystopias in social change as well as critical reflection on the contribution of ideas of the future and of temporality to the processes of social transformation.
The ideals of citizenship encourage us all to desire a stake in the future – whether trying to shape our own lives, those of our families, the places we live, or wider society – and to imagine a better or different world. But what is this entity that we name ‘future’? Senses of time vary across and within human societies, and disciplines from philosophy to natural science present equally differing conceptions of it. By invoking ‘utopias/dystopias’ we wish to explore the questions of positionality, power, hope and despair that are at play in the imagination of new times and the way that these effect change in the present. By pluralising ‘futures’, we want to explore the diversity of ways in which anticipatory practices can be performed by people and communities. And by invoking ‘temporalities’, we want to reflect on how the qualities of time – endurance, succession, speed, rhythm, for example – interact with imaginings and perceptions of what is to come. Perhaps, by better understanding the temporal qualities of society, culture and environments, we could create social change at a scale and pace that connects communities with their futures, rather than disenfranchises them. Perhaps again, by invoking utopias and dystopias, we may recognise that questions of future possibility are not simply technical, but involve politics, fear, despair, hope, imagination, dreams, desires and aspirations, all of which may act as stimulus or disincentives for social change.
More details can be found at: http://connected-communities.org/index.php/news/first-call-symposium-on-utopias-futures-social-change/
2016 is the 500 year anniversary of the first publication of Thomas More’s Utopia. Such a moment encourages reflection on the uses and misuses of utopias and dystopias in social change as well as critical reflection on the contribution of ideas of the future and of temporality to the processes of social transformation.
The ideals of citizenship encourage us all to desire a stake in the future – whether trying to shape our own lives, those of our families, the places we live, or wider society – and to imagine a better or different world. But what is this entity that we name ‘future’? Senses of time vary across and within human societies, and disciplines from philosophy to natural science present equally differing conceptions of it. By invoking ‘utopias/dystopias’ we wish to explore the questions of positionality, power, hope and despair that are at play in the imagination of new times and the way that these effect change in the present. By pluralising ‘futures’, we want to explore the diversity of ways in which anticipatory practices can be performed by people and communities. And by invoking ‘temporalities’, we want to reflect on how the qualities of time – endurance, succession, speed, rhythm, for example – interact with imaginings and perceptions of what is to come. Perhaps, by better understanding the temporal qualities of society, culture and environments, we could create social change at a scale and pace that connects communities with their futures, rather than disenfranchises them. Perhaps again, by invoking utopias and dystopias, we may recognise that questions of future possibility are not simply technical, but involve politics, fear, despair, hope, imagination, dreams, desires and aspirations, all of which may act as stimulus or disincentives for social change.
More details can be found at: http://connected-communities.org/index.php/news/first-call-symposium-on-utopias-futures-social-change/
Tuesday, 12 May 2015
Europeana/Digital Public Library of America and Rights Statements for Cultural Heritage
Europeana and the Digital Public Library of America are calling for feedback on two white papers on rights statements for cultural heritage. The article setting out 'The principles for establishing international and interoperable rights statements' has more information:
http://pro.europeana.eu/blogpost/the-principles-for-establishing-international-interoperable-righ
The commentable white papers are: Recommendations for Standardized International Rights Statements http://bit.ly/1F9Zw1M (or https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x10JsIfi8Y74pgJJEAqMtyO5iYp0p6DO5DrOZK-5umY/edit?pli=1)
Recommendations for the Technical Infrastructure for standardized International Rights Statements http://bit.ly/1QtmmmT (or https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H6TWxGARqUMxJrc2sXjaBlOsg7UkUTb27rvtS8aC5y4/edit?pli=1)
http://pro.europeana.eu/blogpost/the-principles-for-establishing-international-interoperable-righ
The commentable white papers are: Recommendations for Standardized International Rights Statements http://bit.ly/1F9Zw1M (or https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x10JsIfi8Y74pgJJEAqMtyO5iYp0p6DO5DrOZK-5umY/edit?pli=1)
Recommendations for the Technical Infrastructure for standardized International Rights Statements http://bit.ly/1QtmmmT (or https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H6TWxGARqUMxJrc2sXjaBlOsg7UkUTb27rvtS8aC5y4/edit?pli=1)
Saturday, 9 May 2015
Google Cultural Institute Services
Any registered, cultural non-profit is likely eligible for a free Google-operated indoor Street View collect at no cost. This can be done in conjunction with, or independent from, a partnership agreement with the Google Cultural Institute (https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/about/).
The Cultural Institute (includes the Google Art Project) offers free content hosting, high-resolution photography services, online exhibition tools, a mobile app, and other Google services to non-profit Libraries, Archives, and Museums. There is no cost for any of the tools or services, there are no ads, and there is no transfer of content rights to Google.
The Cultural Institute (includes the Google Art Project) offers free content hosting, high-resolution photography services, online exhibition tools, a mobile app, and other Google services to non-profit Libraries, Archives, and Museums. There is no cost for any of the tools or services, there are no ads, and there is no transfer of content rights to Google.
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