A VRE for the Study of

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• A VRE for the Study of
• Documents and Manuscripts
• John Pybus ltjohn.pybus_at_humanities.ox.ac.ukgt
• Oxford e-Research Centre
• University of Oxford

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• BACKGROUND

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Definitions of a VRE
The purpose of a VRE is to help researchers in
all disciplines manage the increasingly complex
range of tasks involved in carrying out
research. A VRE will provide a framework of
resources to support the underlying processes of
research on both small and large scales,
particularly for those disciplines which are not
well catered for by the current infrastructure.
(JISC)
A set of online tools, systems and processes
interoperating to facilitate or enhance the
research process within and without institutional
boundaries. (Mike Fraser OUCS)?
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Building a VRE for the Humanities

• 15 month project (started summer 2005)?
• Capturing user requirements from researchers
  across the division
• How do the Humanities differ from large scale
  Science?
• No predefined technology (ground up approach)
• Build 3 to 4 prototypes/demonstrators

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User Requirements Survey

• Interviewed a broad range of humanities
  researchers, research projects, libraries and a
  number of IT support staff
• Interviews covered all IT use as it relates to
  research
• Current work practice (libraries, collaboration,
  finding funding, publishing research)?
• Current IT use for above
• Use of local and external tools

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User Requirements Generic Services

• Finding other people and resources
• does anyone have equipment to scan my slides?
• is anyone else interested in
• Support for grants and funding
• Information on conferences, seminars, lectures

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User Requirements Tools for research

• Communication tools
• Video conferencing/Access Grid
• VoIP
• Chat facilities/IM
• Collaborative document editing
• Keep track of multiple versions of a draft
  manuscript
• Locating research material
• Search on-line databases
• Cross Search multiple sources
• Retrieve and Integrate data from multiple sources
  (DataGrids)?
• Provide a Front End to ease this rather than
  replacement for existing source

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User Requirements Tools for research

• A personal working space
• Store
• View
• Organise
• Annotate
• Share work space to enable collaboration
• personal collection and notes
• view/edit remotely
• Bibliography Management
• Assistance in Publishing online
• Personal Content Management System
• Links to Institutional Repository

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Simon Brown Researcher - 18th Century German
Representing those who believe themselves to be
non-technical Simon Brown is a member of the
Modern Languages faculty and specialises in 18th
Century German He mainly uses primary sources
and spends a great deal of time in the library.
Simon admits to using his computer as a
glorified typewriter In recent years, Simon
has used the internet to find out about more
ephemeral material including articles by
journalists and lesser known authors, which in
the past he may have missed. Simon finds
signing up to email lists an annoyance due to the
sheer amount of unwanted, non-related information
that results. However he does find one list of
particular interest. Simon is particularly keen
to hear about grants and potential sources of
funding
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Dr Mary White Researcher at a university library

• Representing those who work internationally and
  collaboratively and is just discovering
• the benefits of technology
• Mary White works on a research project in a
  university library, cataloguing Medieval
• Manuscripts using local xml tools.
• Mary uses bibliographic tools and word processing
  packages extensively and is keen to be able
• to share her work easily and quickly.
• Mary works collaboratively with many researchers
  across the world. Typically she uses email
• and the telephone to communicate with them. Mary
  has recently experienced an IRC Chat
• meeting which she found particularly useful
• Mary is interested in the idea of the Access Grid
  however, she is concerned that her
• colleagues may not have access to the technology.

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Bob Black Researcher - Classics

• Representing those who are technically minded and
  have significant involvement in
• digital projects
• Bob Black is a researcher within the Classics
  faculty specialising in ancient Greek
  inscriptions.
• Bob has been involved with many digitization
  projects, enabling resources to be made available
• for study. IT use already reflects the way his
  group is working.
• Bob often collaborates with other experts across
  the world and appreciates the benefits of
• technology in assisting with this. Like Mary, Bob
  is concerned that his colleagues dont have the
• same familiarity with ICT and although he
  actively seeks the latest tools, he finds
  relatively little
• of use at this time.

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Gwendolyn Green Lecturer and artist in the Fine
Art department
Representing those actively seeking
collaborations across subject and institutional
boundaries Gwendolyn Green is a lecturer and
artist in the Fine Art department. Her work is
heavily influenced by science and
electronics. Gwen uses the internet and various
software and graphic design tools extensively in
her work. Keen to work with others across
subject and institutional boundaries, Gwen wants
to know what researchers are doing elsewhere and
how she might work with them. Gwen is keen on
the notion of an ideas pool where artists and
interested parties can advertise their ideas and
interests to one another.
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Supporting the Mechanism of Research

• Simon Brown Researcher -18th Century German
• Centralised information regarding grants and
  funding
• Searchable lists of conferences lectures and
  seminars

• Dr Mary White Researcher at a university library
• Chat Facilities
• Working collaboratively on documents
• Assistance in publishing online
• Access Grid technology

• Bob BlackResearcher - Classics
• Information about researchers and research
  interests
• Communication tools e.g. Video conferencing/
  Access Grid technology and chat facilities

• Gwendolyn Green Lecturer and artist in the Fine
  Art department
• Information about researchers and research
  interests
• Centralised information regarding grants and
  funding

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BVREH Demonstrators

• Design/mock-up
• working prototype where possible
• To cover a range of survey outcomes
• To validate survey outcomes with users
• Are being taken forward

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Virtual Workspace for the Study of Ancient
Documents

• An interface allowing browsing and searching of
  multiple image collections, including tools to
  compare and annotate the researchers personal
  collection

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Reading the Lycopolite census from Rifeh
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• A VRE for the Study of
• Documents and Manuscripts

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VRE2
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Gathering User Requirements

• Worked with ancient document specialists in CSAD,
  Oxford
• Attended conferences
• Papyrology Congress
• Epigraphy Congress
• Found graduate classes in Papyrology very useful
• experienced academics
• how they do what they do
• what they're thinking

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Identified Tools

• A tool to highlight selected section of the text
  or image with magnification facility
• Adjust contrast/brightness of whole image and
  parts of image
• Rulers and grids
• Cut sections of text from elsewhere in the
  document to see if a word or a group of letters
  fits

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Further functionality

• Databank of alphabets grids to drag letters from
  digitised texts to build up a custom alphabet for
  that document and stored for cross-searching
• Ability to place documents in archaeological
  context (on-linewhere possible) and connect with
  related documents and other artefacts.

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Framework

• uPortal 2.6
• experience within Oxford
• (though our VLE is actually moving to Sakai)?
• reasonable support for JSR 168 portlets
• (JSR 286 in uPortal 3.0)?
• Shibboleth for Authentication
• need to allow users from beyond Oxford (and even
  UK)?
• Authorization still open question
• Shibboleth's privacy not necessarily helping us
• targetIDs not so much fun to deal with

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Uportal Container
Coordination Servlet
Vindolanda / other data sources
Image Viewer
Jabber Service
Chat
Search Facility
Access Grid Service
Access Grid
Image Upload
Tile Maker
Background Removal
Image Enhancement Tools
Annotation Store
Image Store
BVREH hosted tools/Services
3rd Party tools/Services
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Data Sources

• Integrated searches across databanks of texts and
  images, e.g.
• Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri
• Heidelberger Gesamtverzeichnis
• APIS
• Vindolanda Tablets Online
• databases of Greek and Latin inscriptions
• on-line reference resources, dictionaries
• Lexicon of Greek Personal Names
• LDAB
• Fayum Villages Database
• etc.

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Data Sources

• Quality of datasources varies greatly
• from large international projects
• to Access Dbs distributed by CD
• Standards/APIs varies too
• from standardized XML dialects (EpiDoc)
  accessible through REST
• to proprietary encodings and java applets for
  entry
• things are heading in right direction, but is it
  fast enough for us

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Uportal Container
Coordination Servlet
Vindolanda / other data sources
Image Viewer
Jabber Service
Chat
Search Facility
Access Grid Service
Access Grid
Image Upload
Tile Maker
Background Removal
Image Enhancement Tools
Annotation Store
Image Store
BVREH hosted tools/Services
3rd Party tools/Services
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Fragment of a stilus tablet. Note the strong
highlight and cast shadows
The strokes detected that conform to a model of
shadow adjacent to highlight
Idealised model of an incision
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Recently announced Humanities Research project
led by Prof Alan Bowman, Mike Brady and Dr Mel
Terras (UCL)? Grid-based system to enable
scholars to access images and analysis
algorithms Image analysis decision support
based on Oxford work on colorectal cancer
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Future directions

• First iteration, with limited functionality,
  almost ready for testing (slightly behind
  schedule)?

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a Virtual Environment for Archaeology
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Future directions

• First iteration, with limited functionality,
  almost ready for testing (slightly behind
  schedule)?
• Linking to Archaeological data VERA
• redeploy portlets and verify they run in each
  others container
• share access webservices to support this

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Eighteenth Century Workspace

• To extend the VRE to support an English Faculty
  project working with the manuscripts of Jane
  Austen
• Provide viewing and annotation and communication
  facilities
• Continue to investigate options for integrating
  relevant online resources for cross-searching
• Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English
  Language (1755)?
• Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO)?
• Chadwyck-Healy Literature Online
• British Fiction 1800-1829 A database of
  production, circulation and reception

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Future directions

• First iteration, with limited functionality,
  almost ready for testing (slightly behind
  schedule)?
• Linking to Archaeological data VERA
• redeploy portlets and verify they run in each
  others container
• share access webservices to support this
• Expand beyond the Classics
• C18 English studies of Jane Austen's work
• (demonstrator from BVREH project)?
• Medieval music
• ...

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Acknowledgements

• P.I.s
• Alan Bowman, Charles Crowther CSAD
• Mike Fraser Oxford University Computing
  Services
• Requirements
• Marina Jirotka OeRC
• Project Manager
• Ruth Kirkham - ruth.kirkham_at_oerc.ox.ac.uk
• Developers
• Christian Fernau
• Pin Hu