Digital Technologiesin the Humanities
(at RENCI)
Leesa BriegerRenaissance Computing Institute
(RENCI)
RENCI
• New web site: http://www.renci.org• Resources
– immersive media camera (take a look at the KML file)– DeltaSphere 3D Laser Scanner (see
http://www.deltasphere.com/)– Social Computing Room – a wrap-around-the-room desktop– Showcase Room – a 15-ft tilted dome (pseudo 3D)– ultra-high resolution teleimmersion facilities (3D glasses
and all)– touch screens, touch tables (see the YouTube videos)– coming: high-resolution setup to photograph art– engagement sites: UNC-CH, Duke, NCSU, UNC-A, ECU, UNC-
C, Coastal Studies Institute– compute, storage resources
RENCI
• Some of the focus areas:– Education and Outreach(http://www.renci.org/focus-areas/education-and-outreach )
– Humanities, Arts and Social Science Computing(
http://www.renci.org/focus-areas/humanities-arts-and-social-science)
– Visualization and Collaborative Environments(
http://www.renci.org/focus-areas/humanities-arts-and-social-science)
RENCI
• The Shoah VHA from USC
• hosted for the Triangle by RENCI• see http://college.usc.edu/vhi/generalvideo/• Jennifer Shelton, manager of Outreach and
Education, takes this educational material out to the public schools (teacher conferences and materials)
• three parts: data collection, cataloguing (curation), dissemination and education
RENCI
• The Archimedes Palimpsest Project
• http://www.archimedespalimpsest.org/palimpsest_making1.html
• imaging (multi-spectral, X-ray fluorescence)• optical character recognition• RENCI in discussions to collaborate
(visualization, high-def resolution, interface to the data/value-added applications)
RENCI
• NARA Transcontinental Persistent Archive Prototype
• a DICE group project, iRODS technology• UNC provides a node on the NARA data grid (RENCI,
SILS, Odum)
• RENCI 2030• how North Carolinians (non-scientists) view emerging
technologies• to inform policy makers, educators, legislators, RENCI
strategists on the public’s level of education about and attitude towards technology
RENCI
• Software to enhance collaboration in the Social Computing Room
• wrap-around imaging (Infomesa-like)• position/movement sensors• adapting gadgets and applications to the
room
• Information Visualization• Coauthorship (data from Mark Newman)• RTP start-up firms (data from Ted Zoller)
RENCI Partners
• (Croquet) Cobalt – at Duke– See
http://www.opencroquet.org/index.php/Main_Page
– Higher education’s answer to Second Life– Potential for collaborative environments,
innovative interfaces to data collections
• IAH’s CHAT festival – February 2010– Kick off a movement of digital arts and
humanities at UNC
Examples from the Great Wide World
• Rome Rebornhttp://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/
• The Blake Archivehttp://www.blakearchive.org/blake/
• Hypercitieshttp://www.hypercities.com/
• People like Dan Anderson, Comparative Lit at UNChttp://www.thoughtpress.org/writenow
• Institutional repositories/digital libraries (CDLA, CDR)
Wide World
• DIRT: Digital Research Toolshttp://digitalresearchtools.pbwiki.com/
Information about tools and resources that can help scholars (particularly in the humanities and social sciences) conduct research more efficiently or creatively.
From Richard Marciano’s reference: http://www.hastac.org/node/1934
Interview with Brett Bobley, Director of the NEH's Office of Digital Humanities (ODH)
Perspective
• The Horizon Report - a collaboration between the New Media Consortium (http://www.nmc.org/about)
and Educause (http://www.educause.edu/)
• Data, data, data– primary resources accessible world-wide– safety of the data (curation, preservation)– access to the data (interfaces): exploration,
discovery– analysis
• data mining, knowledge discovery• simply by comparing more data than ever, notice new things
More Perspective
• A vast distance between developers and consumers of CS in the humanities (article by Plaisant, et al)
• What will really change in the humanities?– education?– communication?– expression?– collaboration?