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TextGrid Newsletter 01   [June 1, 2006]

We are pleased to present the first in a series of TextGrid newsletters, to inform about the project and related developments. Additionally the homepage www.textgrid.de provides regularly updated details about the project.

What is TextGrid about?

TextGrid aims to create a community grid for the collaborative editing, annotation, analysis and publication of specialist texts. It thus forms a cornerstone in the emerging e-Humanities.

TextGrid is part of D-Grid (www.d-grid.de), a national initiative to establish a grid infrastructure for Germany. This infrastructure creates the basis for enhancing research processes, providing academics with current knowledge technologies and computing resources for e-Science.

Text sciences research the complex processes in the genesis of literature and their contexts. Despite modern information technology and a clear thrust towards collaboration, text scientists still mostly work in local systems and project-oriented applications. Current initiatives lack integration with already existing text corpora, and they remain unconnected to resources such as dictionaries, lexica, secondary literature and tools. However, this integration and interconnection bears a wealth of opportunities.

Integrated tools that satisfy the specific requirements of text sciences could transform  the way academics process, analyse, annotate, edit and publish text data. Working towards this vision, TextGrid aims at building a virtual workbench based on e-Science methods.

The installation of a grid-enabled architecture is obvious for two reasons. On the one hand, past and current initiatives for digitising and accessioning texts already accrued a considerable data volume, which exceeds multiple terabytes. Grids are capable of handling these data volumes. Also the dispersal of the community as well as the scattering of resources and tools call for establishing a Community Grid. This establishes a platform for connecting the experts and integrating the initiatives worldwide. The TextGrid community is equipped with a set of powerful software tools based on existing solutions and embracing the grid paradigm.

TextGrid Team

higher education

and companies

Associated projects in D-Grid

Up to now, only the natural sciences and medicine employed grid technology in Germany. In order to establish a German Grid infrastructure, five Community Grids and an Integration Platform have been working since late 2005 / early 2006 under the D-Grid umbrella. They are funded for a three-year period by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The combined efforts of the Community Grids and the overarching Integration Project go a long way towards a general and sustainable German grid infrastructure.

The projects include:

Further information is available at www.d-grid.de.

TextGrid work packages

Reports on the re-usability of existing tools (WP1) guide the adaptation or re-development of grid-enabled tools (WP2). They are integrated in the grid middleware (WP3), and their efficiency is demonstrated (WP4). WP5 focuses on aspects of semantic grid, and the TextGrid contribution to this novel research area. Project management and external communications are coordinated in WP6.

WP1 - Survey on the re-usability of existing tools

This work package collates tools for processing, analysing, annotating, editing and publishing text data in academic research. Relevant tools are evaluated as to their applicability in the TextGrid specific context, and regarding their adaptability.

WP Leader: FH Worms

WP2 - Tool development

This work package creates a grid-enabled workbench to process, analyse, annotate, edit and publish XML-encoded textual data for academic research. This establishes the foundation of a virtual research library. The workbench is modular and extensible, and it aims to foster an active community for the collaborative creation and open access to text resources.

WP Leader: TU Darmstadt (Saphor)

WP3 - Grid Integration

The software modules created in the other work packages of the project are connected to the D-Grid Integration Platform (DGI) via TextGrid-specific middleware components. This work package establishes this intermediary layer, and defines the interfaces between them. This demands a high level of communication to TextGrid members as well as the relevant people at the DGI project, particularly for conveying TextGrid-specific requirements to the DGI.

WP Leader: SUB Goettingen

WP4 - Demonstrator development

Test material will demonstrate the efficiency of the grid-enabled tools in the areas publishing, processing, retrieval, and linking. The results of the experiments with various test profiles at adequate levels of complexity will feed back into the TextGrid development process.

WP Leader: University of Würzburg

WP5 - Semantic Web plus TextGrid = Semantic TextGrid

TextGrid sets out to interconnect various dictionaries with rich markup to create overarching networks of words. These networks serve as a core ontoloy in the application of semantic methods for processing text assets, and for interweaving texts and dictionaries.

WP Leader: University of Trier

WP6 - Project management and external communications

This work package takes care that all announced targets of the TextGrid project are achieved within the set timeframe and within budget. This includes the formal and administrative coordination of the project. Another focus of this work package is the publication of project results on a national and international level, particularly in communication with the target community.

WP Leader: SUB Goettingen

More details about TextGrid are available on our homepage: http://www.textgrid.de/index.php?id=ueber_textgrid&L=5

Related Projects

e-Science - networked cooperation and communication

In addition to its grid activities, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) funds the application of e-Science concepts and tools in various disciplines and to network them with information and IT service providers. In this vision novel services are embedded in a professional and sustainable environment.
Further information is available in German from: http://www.dl-forum.de/deutsch/ausschreibungen/47_1894_DEU_HTML.htm

Current community projects

Further projects are currently being prepared.

TextGrid events and presentations

Past Events
Forthcoming

TextGrid-Info

Do you have questions for the project team? Please send it to

Newsletter

This newsletter is a joint effort of the TextGrid team. You can subscribe to it on the TextGrid Homepage (http://www.textgrid.de/index.php?id=newsletter). This page also contains an archive of past newsletters.

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