FuturefortheAnnotationofDigitalObjects

Organizer:
Dr.YukHui,SimonWorthington,HybridPublishingLab,CentreforDigital
Cultures,LeuphanaUniversityLneburg

Date:
12thMay(midday)13thMay(evening)
Venue:
Cent
reforDi
gi
talCul
tu
res,Slz
tor
str.2135,21335Lne
burg,2.Floor

Inthepastdecades,theproliferationofdigitalobjects,theemergenceofnewtechnologies,
andtheglobalisationofculturalobjects,demandnewconceptualisationsandpracticesof
annotation.Ontologies(formalontologies,webontologies)findtheirlimitstofully
contextualizethemodesofexistenceofdigitalobjects,sincemostofthemarestillderived
fromanarrowreflectionandwithoutconsideringthenatureofthedigital.Annotationfindsits
place,notonlyinthesenseofassistinginformationprocessingandenhancingthe
searchabilityofdigitalobjects(fortheobjectsthemselves,orintheobjects),butalsoas
interactionandconcretisationofrelationsbetweentheusersandtheobjectswithwhichthey
interact.Thisrecallsusofwhattheancientcall
Scholia
,acommentaryandannotation
practicewhichfinallyshapedthe
scholiast
andalsothe
scholar
.Annotationinthissenseis
lessaboutclassification,butcloselyrelatedtolearning,meaningthatonelearnsand
concretizeshisorherknowledgethroughannotatingorwriting.Withdigitaltechnologies,the
conceptofannotationhastobetakenfurther,sinceitintroducessemantictechnologies,
collaboration,sharing,recommendation.Howeverannotationiseithernottakenseriouslyor
shadowedbymereinteraction,orslowlytakenoverbyautomationasinthecaseofGoogle
andothersemantictechnologies.TheworkshopFuturefortheannotationofdigitalobjects,
hostedbytheHybridPublishingLabisanattempttogatherresearchersfromdifferent
disciplines,andtolookintodifferentpracticesandtoolsthathavebeendevelopedand
concernswhichhaveyettoberesolved.
Thistwodaysworkshopisanoccasiontodiscussfurthercollaborationsamongresearchers.
Wewillinviteinternationalresearcherswhoareworkinginthefieldtoparticipateinthis
workshop,tomapthecurrentstateofaffairsandtolookatdifferentapproachestoannotation
ofdigitalobjects.Thesecondaimoftheworkshopwillbetodiscussthechallengesahead
andtofigureoutanagendafordevelopmentandforcollaboration.

Program:

Noon19H,12thMay

Presentationofindividualprojects(20minutes+10minutesdiscussion)
13:15Introduction:YukHui+SimonWorthington
13:4514:15SimonWorthington+ChristinaKral(Amachine)
14:1514:45
ClaudiusTeodorescu(Heidelberg)
14:4515:15AndreGaul+Nico(PaperHive)

15:1515:45CoffeeBreak

15:4516:15ThomasKollatz(DARIAH)
16:1516:45PaulEmileGreffroy(IRIofCentrePompidou)
16:4517:15JohannesWilm(FidusWriter)

CoffeeBreak15Minutes

17:3018:30QuestionsandChallenges
19:00Dinner(Mlzer)

10H17H,13thMay

10:0011:00RetakeonQuestionsandChallengesfromthelastday
11:0012:30BobSteinLecture
12:3013:30Lunch
13:3016:30AddressingProblems,Challenges,Collaborations

Participants:

AndrGaul,
isanOpenAccessenthusiastandcurrentlyworksontheopenannotationand
reviewplatformPaperHive.HefinishedhisPhDinmathematicsatTUBerlinin2014after
studyingmathematicsandcomputerscienceinBonnandErlangen.Togetherwiththe
FreifunkcommunityinBerlin,Andrmaintainsanddevelopstheopenandnoncommercial
Freifunknetwork.

PaulEmileGeoffroy,
studiedPhilosophyatUniversitParis10NanterreandEnglishat
UniversitToulouseleMirail,heismemberofthepoliticalassociationArsIndustrialisin
France.In20132014,heorganizedaseriesofworkshopsontheresearchofcontributive
categorisationandexperimentalannotation,withintheframeworkofthethephilosophyschool
createdbyBernardStiegler(pharmakon.fr).In20142015,onbehalfoftheInstitutefor
ResearchandInnovationofCentrePompidouandsupportedbytheMinisterofCultureand
Communication,hecodirectstheseminars
Museology2.0
,aroundthethemeHigher
EducationandResearchintheageofthedigital:Whatimpactsonculturalinstitutions?.

YukHui
,studiedComputerEngineeringandPhilosophyattheUniversityofHongKongand
GoldsmithsCollegeinLondon,heiscurrentlypostdoctoralresearcherattheCentreforDigital
CulturesoftheLeuphanaUniversityLneburg,beforehewaspostdoctoralresearcheratthe
InstituteforResearchandInnovationoftheCentrePompidouinParis.Since2007,hehas
conductedandledpracticalprojectsaroundsocialannotationandsocialnetworkswith
institutessuchasTate,Goldsmiths,IRIandTLabsBerlin.Hepublishesonphilosophyof
mediaandtechnologyinperiodicalssuchas
Metaphilosophy
,
Intellectica
,
CahiersSimondon
,
ZeitschriftfrMedienwissenschaft
,etc.,heiscoeditorof
30YearsafterLesImmatriaux:Art,
ScienceandTheory
(2015),hismonograph
OntheExistenceofDigitalObjects
willappear
soonwiththeUniversityofMinnesotaPress.

ThomasKollatz
isresearcheratSteinheim
InstituteforGerman
JewishHistory,
Essen/Germany.HisResearchinterestsareHaskala(HebrewEnlightenment),Germanin
HebrewLetters,EpigraphyandDigitalHumanities(DH).HeisinvolvedintheEuropean
DARIAH(DigitalInfrastructurefortheArtsandHumanities)project,andajointresearch
projectdealingwithspatialrelationsandtheirvisualisation.

ChristinaKral
Aspartofatransdisciplinaryresearchteam,Kralexploresthefutureof
publishinginrelationtoopeneducationaltechnologies.Inparticular,Kralresearchesformsof
communicationandengagement,learninghabitsandroutinesanddevelopstransitional
platformsandencountersthatpushpublishingbeyondnormalconventions.Inhercapacityas
anartist,sheexplorespracticalutopiasinformofexperimentalfacilitationandpublishing
projects.Sheiscocreatorofaneducationalrealitygame(YKONGame).Sheiscofounderof
BettaZine,anartisticresearchpublicationprojectthatdrawsfromfirsthandexperienceswith
thegoaltoopenmultipleperspectives/entrypointstoseeminglycontradictorycombinations
suchasshopping&war,education&war.Shehasbeenawardedartistresidencies&
stipendsatEyebeam,ArtandTechnologyCenterinNewYork,theEdLabDigitalArts
ResidencyatColumbiaUniversity,NewYork,theInterdisciplinaryResidencyinArtand
EcologyinGuapamactaro,MexicoandatSPACEinLondon,UK.

NicoSchlmer
borninKassel(Germany),hasstudiedMathematicsinDresdenand
Auckland(NZ),andobtainedhisPhDinAntwerp(Belgium).Hewaspostdoctoralresearcher
atTUBerlinwherehemetAndrandworkedtogetheronPaperHivesinceayearago.

BobStein
hasbeenengagedwithelectronicpublishingfulltimesince1980,whenhespenta
yearresearchingandwritingapaperforEncyclopediaBritannica"EBandtheIntellectual
ToolsoftheFuture."In1984hefoundedTheCriterionCollection,acriticallyacclaimedseries
ofdefinitivefilms,whichincludedthefirstsupplementarysectionsanddirectorcommentaries
andintroducedtheletterboxformat.HealsofoundedTheVoyagerCompany,whichin1989
publishedoneofthefirstcommercialCDROMs,theCDCompaniontoBeethoven'sNinth
Symphony.In1992Voyagerpublishedthefirstelectronicbooks,includingDouglasAdams'
HitchhikersGuidetotheGalaxy
andMichaelCrichton's
JurassicPark
.In2004TheMacarthur
FoundationprovidedagenerousgrantwithwhichSteinfoundedtheInstitutefortheFutureof
theBook,asmallthink&dotankaimedatexploringandinfluencingtheevolutionofnew
formsofintellectualexpression.In2005theInstitutepublishedthefirst"networkedbooks,"
whichwereinstrumentalintherecognitionoftheimportantshifttosocialreadingandwriting
asdiscoursemovesfromprintedpagestonetworkedscreens.Inlate2010Steinfoundeda
newcompany,SocialBook,Inc.withtheambitiousgoalofbuildingthefirstviablepostprint
publishingplatform.

ClaudiusTeodorescu
isworkingas"InterfaceDeveloperforWebApplicationsintheDigital
Humanities"fortheClusterofExcellence"AsiaandEuropeinaGlobalContext"ofthe
UniversityofHeidelberg.Hehasmorethan10yearsofexperienceinworkingwithXML
technologies.Amongotheropensourceprojects,hedevelopedteian,whichisanwebbased
annotatorandlimitededitorforanyXMLvocabulary.Teianwasoriginallydevelopedforthe
U.S.DepartmentofState,OfficeoftheHistorian,andreleasedasopensourceforthebenefit
ofcommunity.ItsdevelopmentwasfurtherfundedbytheUniversityofRichmond,USA.

JohannesWilm,
hasworkedwithLaTeXsemanticdocumentssincetheearly2000sandwas
responsiblefortypesettingofthenationalNorwegiananthropologystudentjournalforseveral
years.HeobtainedhisPhDinAnthropologyfromGoldsmithsCollege2013.Hehas
programmedPaginationJS(2012),whichallowsfortheconversionofHTMLdocumentsinto
PDFsforprintusingCSStodefinethestyling.HeisalsocofoundedofFidusWriter(2012),
whichisawebbasedsemanticeditorforacademicwritingpurposes.Heisalsomemberof
W3CeditingtaskforceoneditingasanInvitedExpert(2014)andeditoroftheW3C
specificationsrelatedtoediting(2015),aswellasmemberoftheW3CworkinggrouponCSS,
representingVivliostyle(Japan),andeditoroftheW3Cspecificationofpagefloats(2015)

SimonWorthington
HehasbeenthecofounderoftheMutejournal,aswellasactedasits
publisherforovertwentyyears.Muteisaleadingjournalincriticalnetworkculturepublishing
aswellasanpublishingtechnologyinnovator,adoptinganOpenAccesspolicyin2004,as
wellaspublishingasprintondemandandmultiplatformsince2004,withover6,000journal
articlespublished.Worthington'sresearchintoscholarlypublishinginfrastructuresdatesfrom
2000,whenhisworkwassupportedbytheSorosFoundationfundersofthe
BudapestOpen
AccessInitiativeagreementtodevelopaninternetbaseddistributiondatabaseofphysical
printjournals.ThisworkhassincealsobeensupportedbytheTechnologyStrategiesBoard
intheUK,formultiformatconversionanddevelopmentofmetadataintegritysoftware.In
2006hefounded
MoreisMorepublishingdistributionnetworkfundedbyKennisland,
Netherlands.MoreisMoreusedtravellersspareluggagecapacitytotransportpublicationsto
bookfairsinternationallyorganisedthroughawebportal.
In2012WorthingtonjoinedThe
HybridPublishingLab(HPL),anERDFscholarlypublishingresearchprojectatLeuphana
University,Germany.AttheHPLhehasledtheHybridPublishingConsortiumprojectto
supportOpenSourceworkflows.AnexampleresearchoutcomehasbeenwiththeGerman
publisherMerveVerlagtolaunchedtheMervedigitalbacklistprogrammeattheFrankfurt
BookFair
,2014
.Thenextphaseofthisgroundbreakingprojectisdeliveringcustomized
individualbooksspecifiedbyreadersfromMerveinbothprintandelectronicmedia.

http://consortium.io/
http://merve.consortium.io/

Abstracts(Part):

Annotationanddynamicwebcontent:Whyannotationsneedtobepartofthesource
document
JohannesWilm
Inthepastfewyearsseveralattempstshavebenmadetoaddannotationtotheweb,the
mostwellknownofwhichisprobablyHypothes.iswhichallowsfortheannotationofany
website.Suchannotationsystemsworkwellforstaticcontentorcontentthatisonlychanging
slightlyduetospellchecking,changingoflinks,etc.,butnotforcontentthatisstillinthe
processofbeingcreatedorthatischangingforotherreasons.InthispresentationIwillargue
forwhyrobustannotationsystemsneedtobepartoftheeditorofthewebcontentandhowa
specificeditorviewcouldbecreatedtoallowforthosewhoonlyhaveaccesstothecreation
andeditingofannotations.

TheAnnotationQuestion&CollectionManagement,
TracesontheArchive
Hybrid
LecturePlayer
SimonWorthington
Software:
https://github.com/consortium/hybridlectureplayer
Demo:
https://mcluhan.consortium.io/hybridlecture
email:
simon.worthington@inkubator.leuphana.de
foraccesscredentials
Inthefollowingcasestudyweexaminethelengthyvideodocumentationofaninsightful
lecturebythehistorianandcuratorGrahamLarkin,heldattheCanadianEmbassyinBerlin,
2011andunpackitssectionsandlayerstotransformthemintoahybridlecturethatallows
accesstothelectureinrevealingandexcitingways.Thelectureisaperfectfitforourcase
studyasituniquelycoversMarshallMcLuhan'sextensive,experimentalandavantgarde
mediapracticethatusuallygoesunnoticednexttoMcLuhan'stheoreticaloeuvre.Itisalsoa
perfectexamplefortracingascholarspersonaljourneythroughanarchive.Inthiscase
GrahamLarkinsjourneythroughtheMarshallMcLuhanfondsinLibrary&ArchivesCanada,
Ottawa.
Thecasestudyinvolvessyncingfivemediatypesviaatimecode

video,captions,transcript
asprosetext,slidesandexternalmedia/links
using
thesoftwarewedevelopedandplaced
onaGithubrepository.
Thechallengeforthecasestudyistwofold.Firsthowtointegratethemediausedintoa
collectionmanagementsystem,suchaTamboti,usingmetadescriptionframeworkssuchas
VRAandMODS.Secondhowtointroduceannotationsintothesysteminaninteroperable,
transportablemanner.

BacktotheFuture
BobStein
Writingandreadingaroseasamechanismtomoveinformationandideasacrosstimeand
space.Beforetheirinventionandallthewayuptotheemergenceofprint,readingwasa
behaviorthattookplaceinrealtimeingroupsWiththeperfectionoftheprintingpressinthe
fifteenthcentury,thesocialpurposeofwritingandreadingrecededfurtherandfurtherintothe
backgroundsuchthattheybecameknownasthemostprivateofbehaviors.Intheeraofthe
digitalnetwork,wearegoingbacktothefutureasreadingandwritingonceagainappearas
socialactivitiesandgaintremendouspowerintheprocess.

Standardisedworkflowsforretrodigitalisation:acasestudyoftheexcavationrecords
oftheromanfortofHeidelbergNeuenheim
Coordination:EricDecker,ArminVolkmann
Retrodigitalisationoftheexcavationdiaryeditorsdraftforannotationoftextandimage
sectionwithpersonnamemarkingssource:excavationdairy"Heukemes"oftheexcavation
"Kastellweg1975"KurpflzischeMuseumStadtHeidelberg.Retrodigitalisationofthe
excavationdiaryeditorsdraftforannotationoftextandimagesectionwithpersonname
markingssource:excavationdairy"Heukemes"oftheexcavation"Kastellweg1975"
KurpflzischeMuseumStadtHeidelberg.TheProjectRetroDigdevelopsinfrastuctureand
workflowsforretrodigitalisationandacademicanalysisofpaperbaseddocuments.Thefocus
isonpreservinginformationgainedfromthework.Asacasestudythepresentandsofar
unpublisheddocumentationoftheromanfortexcavationinHeidelbergNeuenheiminthe
1970thwerereprocessedsincetheywereonlyanalogsofar.Duetothecourseofthe
excavations,whereresearchedrecordsaremostlyirrecoverablegoingtobedestroyed,only
thedocumentationofrecordsistheonlywayforongoingstudies.Productionmethods,
storageconditions,environmentalinfluencesandalsothesimpletouchingofpaper
documentsarereducingthespanoflifeandthreatentherecordeddatauponit.Thegoalof
theprojectistheanalysisandextractionofthecontaininginformationatverylittleeffort.Fora
prospectiveusageinthefieldofdigitalhumanitiestheinformationwillbestoredasalasting,
interoperabledatatype.Thereforealreadydevelopeddigitaltoolswillbeused,modifiedand
providedasacheapandlastingopensourcesolution.Theresultsofthecasestudycanbe
useddisciplinaryinresearchandteachingontheotherhandthedevelopedinfrastructure
canbeusedinterdisciplinaryinotheracademicfields.Theprojectisacooperationofthe
JuniorResearchGroupDigitalHumanitiesandtheHeidelbergResearchArchitecture(HRA)
attheClusterofExcellenceAsiaandEuropeinaGlobalContexttogetherwiththe
KurpflzischesMuseumofthecityHeidelberg.Theprojectisfinancedthroughthe"Fieldof
Focus3:CulturalDynamicsinGlobalisedWorlds"foroneyearandstartedonApril1st2015.