Digital Humanities

DH2010

King's College London, 3rd - 6th July 2010

[Image: KCL Photo Collage]
[Image: London Photo Collage (Somerset House; Globe Theatre; Millennium Bridge; Tate Modern)]

Coalition of Humanities and Arts Infrastructures and Networks - CHAIN

See Abstract in PDF, XML, or in the Programme

Wynne, Martin
University of Oxford, UK
martin.wynne@oucs.ox.ac.uk

Anderson, Sheila
King's College London (DARIAH)
sheila.anderson@kcl.ac.uk

Fraistat, Neil
Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, University of Maryland (centerNet)
fraistat@mac.com

Kainz, Chad
University of Chicago (Project Bamboo)
cjkainz@uchicago.edu

Krauwer, Steven
Utrecht University (CLARIN)
s.krauwer@uu.nl

Robey, David
University of Oxford (Network of Expert Centres)
d.j.b.robey@reading.ac.uk

Short, Harold
King's College London (ADHO)
harold.short@kcl.ac.uk

A panel will discuss areas of cooperation and practical work between the various initiatives engaged in building e-infrastructure to support the next generation digital research in the Humanities.

Following from a panel session at DH2009, in October 2009 representatives of numerous important associations, networks and projects met and resolved to form CHAIN – the Coalition of Humanities and Arts Infrastructures and Networks. The initial 'CHAIN Gang' comprised:

  • arts-humanities.net
  • ADHO - Association of Digital Humanities Organisations
  • CLARIN
  • centerNet
  • DARIAH
  • NoC - Network of Expert Centres in Great Britain and Ireland
  • Project Bamboo
  • TextGrid

The representatives of these various initiatives identified the current fragmented environment where researchers operate in separate areas with often mutually incompatible technologies as a barrier to fully exploiting the transformative role that these technologies can potentially play. CHAIN recognised that their current and planned activities were interdependent and complementary and resolved that they should be oriented towards working together to overcome barriers, and to create a shared environment where technology services can interoperate and be sustained, thus enabling new forms of research in the Humanities.

CHAIN will act as a forum for areas of shared interest to its participants, including:

  • advocacy for an improved digital research infrastructure for the Humanities;
  • development of sustainable business models;
  • promotion of technical interoperability of resources, tools and services;
  • promotion of good practice and relevant technical standards;
  • development of a shared service infrastructure;
  • coordinating approaches to legal and ethical issues;
  • interactions with other relevant computing infrastructure initiatives;
  • widening the geographical scope of our coalition.

CHAIN will promote an open culture where experiences, including successes and failures, can be shared and discussed, in order to support and promote the use of digital technologies in research in the Humanities.

This session will feature panellists from the CHAIN gang, who will introduce the practical measures that they are engaged in to build a coherent, interoperable and maximally effective services to support research in the Humanities, and will address the following questions:

  • What are the main barriers to progress?
  • What are the most exciting opportunities?

© 2010 Centre for Computing in the Humanities

Last Updated: 30-06-2010