Greetings

We are pleased to present you the eighth TextGrid Newsletter on recent developments in the project.

This information is also available under the heading news on the TextGrid homepage www.textgrid.de.

 

Table of Contents:

• TextGridLab Beta Rev 6135 Released
• Updates to TextGridLab
• Tutorials Released
• TextGrid Workshops
• Cooperation
• Latest Events
• Recent Publications

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The new beta version from 6. May enables the aggregation of TextGrid objects. The Graphic Link Editor now saves links in a format that conforms to TEI standards. The middleware functionality has also been improved. Additionally, numerous errors have been eliminated and minor improvements incorporated (cf. Changelog).

• Latest Version: Revision 6135 (2010-05-06)
• Updates: Changelog

The TextGridLab will be continually redeveloped and regularly released with new functionalities for public testing.

Please test the beta version thoroughly and report bugs or make suggestions for improvements to the software. If you require assistance using the TextGridLab, please email us at support(at)textgrid.de.

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• Aggregation of TextGrid Objects
  

  Objects relevant for a certain topic or research interest can now be aggregated in the TextGridLab. Instead of looking for single objects, dispersed in several projects, as needed, users are able to choose and put together objects via drag and drop in the aggregation composer. These objects appear in the navigator as an aggregation, which can be edited, enlarged and disintegrated again - without deleting the objects within.

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• Graphic Link Editor
  

  The Graphic Link Editor now saves links in a format that conforms to TEI standards. Additionally, the Graphic Link Editor offers the possibility of linking polygonal areas, meaning that the targeted image area can be freely marked. Further new features since the beta version of 11 February 2010 include elements that focus on the ease of use, as a virtual magnifying glass, a miniature navigational view for easier orientation and the possibility of adding guiding lines.
  
  

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• Unicode Character Map
  

  Since the beta version of 11 February 2010 the TextGridLab is now completely Unicode-capable. A Unicode Character Map has been integrated into the XML Editor. Characters and mathematical symbols as well as musical symbols can be directly inserted via an easily-operated menu.

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• XML Editor
  

  Usability has been the focus of the development in this area during the past few months. A configurable list of tools has been added, allowing the user to directly insert elements commonly used during text markup. A new viewer supports document validation.

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The first series of tutorials is intended to serve as an entry point for the TextGridLab. You will find basic instructions for working with the TextGridLab on the new website.

First Steps:

	Download and Installation	Text
	Log-In	Text

Tools and Services:

	Navigator	Text
	User Administration	Text

Additional Features:

Importing Files

Text

For further information, please consult the User’s Manual TextGrid-Tools (Release: 25.10.2009, PDF). Please note that the TextGridLab is available in a beta test version, meaning that the software is currently under development and therefore the range of available functions is still limited. Additional tutorials will be released shortly.

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• Report about the  TUSTEP developer-workshop
  
  To deepen the co-operation with the TUSTEP-community, the first developer-workshop for experienced TUSTEP- users took place at the university of Trier on 18/19 January 2010. Within this context the integration of own macros into the TextGrid environment was first theoretically illustrated and afterwards practically implemented. On the second day Tobias Ott introduced his concept of a XML-based TUSTEP-syntax which might replace the TUSTEP user interface which is perceived as out of date. As a conclusion the workshop seemed to be affected by this future-oriented idea and a positive atmosphere in total.

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• Report about the user-workshops in Frankfurt and Munich
  
  The first two courses of instruction for experts were hosted on 17 February 2010 in Frankfurt/Main in context of the conference of the “workgroup for German language Edition” as well as on 17 March 2010 organized by and held at the University of Munich by the Munich Centre for Textual Scholarship (MüZE). These predominantly interactive arranged courses should give experts of areas such as edition philology and librarianship an understanding of the concept of TextGrid and basics of the TextGridLab. Also, participating experts should get the opportunity to ask questions about the introduced topics and beyond these. At this juncture the positive resonance in spite of the beta-stage of the software about it was just as pleasant as the contact to academics and scientist who are interested in further co-operation

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• Report about the Content-Provider-Workshop in Goettingen
  
  Representatives of research projects and libraries attended the first TextGrid content provider workshop in Goettingen an 22 April 2010. The topics covered the possibilities of providing and archiving data in the TextGridRep.
  

  In the first part of the event, TextGrid showed how data is fed into and held accessible in the TextGridRep. Several models of long-time archiving were introduced as well as the new metadata application profile. Moreover, Ralf Stockmann of the Center for Retrospective Digitization in Goettingen presented a prototypically developed visualisation tool.

  In the second part, the participants voiced their expectations about TextGrid in several short presentations. While Jutta Weber of the State Library Berlin and Thomas Stäcker of the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuettel focused on the exchange and accessibility of data, Daniel Graepler of the project Archaeo 18 as well as Martina Kerzel and Annina Böhme of the project Blumenbach-Online made convrete demands on tools, possibilities of visualisation and support of project specific metadata.

  TextGrid will respond to the general interest in a similar event with the second content provider workshop on 22 June 2010, where the specific needs of the projects Archaeo 18 and Blumenbach-Online will be highlighted.

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Coalition of Humanities and Arts Infrastructures and Networks - CHAIN

TextGrid is a member of the Coalition of Humanities and Arts Infrastructures and Networks (CHAIN). This new international forum promotes cooperation between networks, infrastructure projects, and planning initiatives in the area of Digital Humanities

TextGrid and TEXTvre

The English sister project of TextGrid TEXTvre took up work on 1 April 2009. The Kings' College London (Centre for e-Research, Centre for Computing in the Humanities) is responsible for the project management, further partners are the University of Sheffield and the Goettingen State and University Library. The overall aim of TEXTvre is to support researchers in e-Humanities textual studies. The access and analysis of textual research data will be supported by annotationand retrieval technology and will provide services for every step in the digital research life cycle. TEXTvre is planning to adopt the concepts of TextGrid to the needs of their own user community. Furthermore, the integration of GATE Teamware (Uni Sheffield) for automatic text analysis (lingustic analysis, Text Mining, etc.) is planned. A constant interchange takes place between both projects.

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) funds a joint project of the University of Applied Sciences Worms and the University Trier for the development of a typesetting module for (primarily) humanist texts with a TextGrid interface.

The University of Applied Sciences Worms and the University of Trier will jointly develop a typesetting system for XML-based texts with complex layout requirements that meets the stringent requirements for the typesetting of (potentially heavily multilingual) academic texts (e.g. critical editions). The end user will work directly with semantically annotated data, without having to use explicit layouting instructions.

Based on a WYSIWYG user interface (to be integrated into the TextGrid Lab) the system will support end users in the development of style-sheets for the rule-based formatting of their texts and will master the production of PDF (including PDF-A for longterm archiving).

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• TextGrid – the ideal place for „individual data sets”. Relating to the Leipziger Workshop on 21–23 September 2009. 

  The workgroup Electronic Publishing of the Union of German Academies of Science with the collaboration of the Saxon Academy of Science and the German National Library hosted a corporate three-day-workshop on the topic “individual data sets” from 21-23 September 2009 at the Saxon Academy of Science in Leipzig. This event was kindly encouraged by Kurt Gärtner who exerts himself for a coordination of the efforts about capturing and documentation of individual-related information in various projects since a long time already. The broadness of approaches reflects the numerous reports from diverse historical backgrounds from the Late Antiquity until the 20th century as well as the included projects in the majors of philosophy, historical science, theology, literature and musicology which for the first time deliberated jointly about opportunities for cross-linking their individual-related works. Had there been proof were necessary, that locally developed data are useful for all majors and are saving valuable resources by a sensible consolidation – this event would have been the imposing evidence especially because not only the deputies of the German National Library, but also of Wikipedia demonstrated the power of corresponding tools. Admittedly, there still is a conversion of many scientists necessary, who far too often carry out anxious demarcation policy or do not dare to give public access to preliminary information.

  During the workshop Daniel Röwenstrunk and Joachim Veit (Detmold/Paderborn) reported for TextGrid on the opportunities which the grid would offer for a corporate, cross-linked work on individual sets of data. Up to now there is no individual-related project in TextGrid, therefore, the two of them understood their contribution as an emphatic indication on service offers which through standardized interfaces allows access to corporate used individual data sets from diverse applications. Additionally the data would be linked to other information and due to a flexible to handle authorization-management inside the TextGrid-Lab it would be possible to enable a fine-grained enrichment of these data through a co-operation of involved scientist.

  After this event, the necessity of a closer co-operation was obvious to all participants. Meanwhile there is a mailing-list from the Centre of Data Processing of the university of Mainz to jointly discuss further about the questions which were raised during the workshop in Leipzig.

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• Second DFG/NEH-workshop for music encoding conducted in Detmold
  

  The second meeting on the topic of “Digital Music Notation Data Model and Prototype Delivery System“ took place on 15-17 March 2010 in the context of the DFG/NEH-bilateral-workshop-program. Just as during the first workshop in Charlottesville last June the two hosts – the University of Virginia and the musicology seminar in Detmold/Paderborn who is acting as a partner of TextGrid – were again responsible for the three-day program which was affiliated by internal sessions of the technical workgroup. The total number of 22 participants coming from the US, Great Britain, Denmark, Switzerland and Germany held the meeting at the Erich-Thienhaus-Institute of the Academy of Music in Detmold.

  The vital topics included the determination of guidelines for further approaches as well as an appraisal of agitations since last summer. The participants were positively surprised by the variety and the success of previous activities. As the most important result there is probably to record that in a few weeks time the first version 1.0 of the plan of Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) can be published. Furthermore, there was a review about the import and export formats which should be supported in forthcoming years and also what kind of techniques can expedite the distribution of these scientific aimed music encoding most sensible. The second day of the workshop which started with an introduction of projects that are already operating with the MEI encoding, brought astonishing insides: most participants did not expect the multiplicity which became apparent. Christine Siegert (OPERA-Projekt Bayreuth), Raffaele Viglianti (King's College London), Stefan Morent (DiMusEd-Projekt Tübingen), Laurent Pugin (Aruspix, Genf), Craig Sapp (CCARH Stanford), Axel-Teich-Gaertinger (Nielson-Katalog Copenhagen) and Johannes Kepper (Edirom Detmold) introduced most varied applicabilities of encoding. Within this context Julian Dabbert (Detmold/Paderborn) presented his work on graphical user interfaces for MEI. Mr. Dabbert’s preliminary depiction of data created by Christine Siegert about an aria that was severally reworked by Joseph Haydn caused an airy discussion, because he succeeded in a notable brief time to achieve an implementation from the MEI encoding of the version which indeed is rudimental but anyway points out the problems occurring at sourcing. At this point the participants saw a relevant development potential that should inure to the benefit of adoption and distribution of MEI. At the same time Julian Dabbert noted that the publication of a soundly version of the MEI plan announced by Perry Roland would be adjuvant for the advancement of his graphic editor.

  On the last day after the extensive debates guided by Erin Mayhood (Charlottesville) and Daniel Röwenstrunk (Detmold/Paderborn) about the organisation structure and the internet presence of MEI, Daniel Pitti (Charlottesville) assembled the most important duties and responsibilities for the following month: On 15 May the Version 1.0 of the MEI plan should be published on the website of the Initiative which is hosted by the University of Paderborn. A detailed Tag Library and a List of Notational Features as well as a range of encoding examples should alleviate the learning and establishment of this new form of encoding for scientific purposes. An application for the three-year continuance of the DFG/NEH-projects as an „Enriching Digital Collections Proposal“ is already made.

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• „Digital Manuscripts Technical Meeting“

  The Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (SULAIR) hosted the first international meeting about tools and repository infrastructure for digitalised manuscripts on the beautiful campus of Stanford University from 14 - 15 May 2010. Besides representatives of SULAIR, experts of three American universities (Center for Digital Theology, Saint Louis University, Johns Hopkins University and University of California, LA) were invited, as well as Rob Sanderson of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and a representative each of the Canadian project Tapor, of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, of the University of Oxford and of e-Codices, the virtual library for manuscripts in Swizzerland. TextGrid was represented by Peter Gietz of DAASI International.
  For two days, the possibilities of interoperability between different infrastructures and tools for archiving, representation and processing of digitized manuscripts were intensively discussed. Although the fokus was on medival European manuscripts, it was stated that also other manuscripts and facsimiles have similar demands, concerning technology in general.
  The initiative „Open Annotation Collaboration“ (OAC) was considered as very helpful, especially with respect to interoperability. OAC is about a relativly simple RDF schema for representing annotations about objects. The RDF data can be transmitted via any transport protocol, meaning that it can be integrated easily in web 2.0 technology, as e.g. twitter.
  Even if TextGrid generally uses more complex technology, the results of the project are very interesting all the same, especially concerning repository and authentification infrastructure. The Saint Louis University uses the TextGridLab for their Electronic Norman Anonymous Project (ENAP). TextGrid could well serve as a plattform for digitized manuscripts, especially when web services will be developed further for RST and the OAC standard, currently in development, will be integrated.

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TextGrid documents:

• R 8.1 [08/2009] PR-Konzept

Publications by and about TextGrid:

• Thomas Rings, Andreas Aschenbrenner, Jens Grabowski, Tibor Kalman, Gerhard Lauer, Jörg Meyer, Arnulf Quadt, Ulrich Sax, Fred Viezens: An Interdisciplinary Practical Course on the Application of Grid Computing. In: Proceedings of the 1st Annual IEEE Engineering Education Conference – The Future of Global Learning in Engineering Education (EDUCON 2010), Madrid, 2010.
  
  
• Marc Wilhelm Küster, Christoph Ludwig, Yahya Al-Hajj, Andreas Aschenbrenner: TextGrid: eScholarship und der Fortschritt der Wissenschaft durch vernetzte Angebote. In: Jörg Sieglerschmidt – H. Peter Ohly (Hrsg.): Wissensspeicher in digitalen Räumen. Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2010. S. 193-205. (Fortschritte in der Wissensorganisation, Band 11).
  
  
• GridTalk (Hrsg.): Digitising culture: Grids and eHumanities. In: Grid Briefings – Grid Computing in five minutes, Heft 10, Dezember 2009. S. 2.
  
  
• Lukas Gießmann, Marc Wilhelm Küster, Christoph Ludwig: Isidorus-UI: Generating a User Interface with Topic Maps Constraint Language and JavaScript Object Notation. Paper for the TMRA 2009.
  
  
• Christian Schneiker, Dietmar Seipel: Declaratively Creating and Processing XML/TEI Data. Paper for the TEI Conference 2009: Text encoding in the era of mass digitization, Nov. 9-15, 2009.
  
  
• Martina Kerzel, Jens Mittelbach, Thorsten Vitt: TextGrid - Virtuelle Arbeitsumgebung für die Geisteswissenschaften. In: Künstliche Intelligenz, Themenheft "Kulturerbe und Künstliche Intelligenz", Heft 4, November 2009. S. 36-39.
  
  
• Andreas Aschenbrenner, Marc Wilhelm Küster, Christoph Ludwig, Thorsten Vitt: Open eHumanities Digital Ecosystems and the Role of Resource Registries. In: Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE International Conference on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies, Istanbul, 2009. S. 745-750.
  
  
• Christian Schneiker, Dietmar Seipel, Werner Wegstein: Schema and Variation: Retro-Digitizing Printed Dictionaries. In: Proceedings of the Third Linguistic Annotation Workshop, ACL-IJCNLP 2009. S. 82-89.

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If you would like to get in contact with the project team, please send an email. 

This newsletter is a joint effort of all TextGrid partners. You can subscribe to it or cancel your subscription here. There is also an archive of past newsletters there.