from community website to (social) knowledge base? The Influence and Impact of Web 2.0 on e-Research Infrastructure, Applications and Users (25/03/2009) Dr Torsten Reimer Centre for e-Research, King’s College London

Centre for e-Research Based at King’s College London The Centre Previously Know As AHDS (Executive) and ICT Methods Network Main areas of operation: –Contributing to the College wide e-research and teaching agenda; developing a VRE for King's –Research centre: e-infrastructures, e-research methods –Postgraduate teaching and training in digital asset management –Host for national and international projects and services –Provider of consultancy, training, and services for data creation, curation and preservation

Centre for e-Research arts-humanities.net A community portal for the arts and humanities Mission: advance and support digital research methods and the use and creation of digital resources Web 2.0 technologies / approaches such as user contributed content, wiki, blogs, content aggregation and user profiles

the past

Centre for e-Research Origin: Methods Network AHRC ICT Methods Network AHRC funded programme, Remit, aims, programme: –To promote, support and develop the use of advanced ICT methods in the arts and humanities –To support, and provide a forum for, the cross- disciplinary network of practitioners from the UK –To develop a programme of activities and publications on advanced ICT tools and methods –To ensure the broadest participation by means of an open call for proposals Funded some 50 seminars, workshops and conferences Published case studies, working papers, reports and a book series

Centre for e-Research Interdisciplinary Network ArchaeologyHistoryLanguage LiteratureMusic Performance Religion Media Visual Arts Information LawPhilosophy

Centre for e-Research MN Community Site Support events and activities (before, during and after) Keep outputs alive (through contribution) Virtual support for communities Facilitate networking => Capture (outputs), expand and sustain the Network

the present

Centre for e-Research A New World Simultaneous end of funding for both Methods Network and AHDS Community and sustainability gone JISC to the rescue

Centre for e-Research Merger with ICT Guides Knowledge base: –Projects –Tools –Training –Methods Taxonomy of Methods

Centre for e-Research Statistics 988 registered users 17 user groups postings unique visitors per day Most popular content: –job adverts –events calendar –digital tools (software) descriptions

Centre for e-Research Cataloguing Projects and Tools

Centre for e-Research Users and Projects Records

Centre for e-Research Case Studies etc.

Centre for e-Research Bibliography etc.

Centre for e-Research Wiki

Centre for e-Research Events Calendar

Centre for e-Research Discussion and Blogs

Centre for e-Research Methods Taxonomy

Centre for e-Research vs. Folksonomy

Centre for e-Research RSS

Centre for e-Research Networking

Centre for e-Research User Contributed Content Members willing to contribute/share –where they see benefit (recognition) –when it is easy (UI) –when ‘encouraged’ Quality control no issue - quantity is Almost no spam or ‘misbehaviour’ Controversial content encourages debate Activity needs to be encouraged

Centre for e-Research Sense of Community Very wide and diverse field, makes common goal on a-h.net hard to define Closer sense of community among members of centres and with specific communities of practice Concern about own reputation and (visual) identity Individual members not visible enough Community does not ‘happen by itself’

the future

Centre for e-Research Community-built Knowledge Base Work with and (help to develop) those centres and communities that are actively concerned with the wider field of digital arts and humanities Develop specific projects and collaborations and build community around it Improve UI (task oriented and focus on members) and structure (research lifecycle) Content distribution channel (aggregation)

Centre for e-Research Community 1: DARIAH

Centre for e-Research Community 2: NoC Network of Expert Centres A collaboration of centres with expertise in digital arts and humanities, in the sense of data creation, curation, preservation, management, access and dissemination, and methodologies of data use and re-use. Supporting its members in: –the advocacy and promotion of the value, understanding and use of ICT in arts and humanities research –the development and exchange of expertise, knowledge, standards and best practices –awareness raising, dialogue with relevant stakeholders, identifying and representing the needs of the research community. Participants: ADS; CCH and CeRch; CDDA; HDS; HATII; HRI; OTA; VADS

Centre for e-Research Project 1: Shared Taxonomy Methods Taxonomy Document research projects/outcomes DHO and other national and international partners Build and develop a shared resource Exchange of content and mapping between partners

Centre for e-Research Project 2: Aggregate & Disseminate Events calendar (automatic tagging and categorisation; avoid duplicates) and event distribution channels Tie in more closely with social networking services Collaborate more with those providing relevant resources => Reduce need for (duplicated) user activity

Centre for e-Research Summary: Lessons on ‘Users’ Clear benefit of contributing Clearly structured UI clearly focused on tasks Contributors clearly recognisable Bring together a clear core group of active contributors

the end