Readapting Propp’s character archetypes to explore the relational dimension of city data: a design-oriented approach

This paper presents the approach and tools created to critically investigate the roles and relationships among city stakeholders regarding data-related processes, in order to inform future design solutions for open data portals. The approach to explore the relational dimension of data in local activities is based on mapping the operational roles of the organizations involved in the city data ecosystem throughout a set of archetypes readapted from the characters found in Propp's theory on the narrative structure. A probes toolkit associated with storytelling techniques helped to test the proposed approach during a workshop organized in the city of Milton Keynes. The authors present their motivations and constraints, as well as the rationale regarding the definition of the approach and the construction of the toolkit as part of a design-oriented strategy of inquiry, and discuss the insights gained in the testing experience

Developing a meta-language in multidisciplinary research projects: the case study of READ-IT

This paper presents the philosophical analysis carried out to analyse the stakeholders’ needs within the READ-IT project to inform the design of an information management system (IMS) for multidisciplinary research on the reading experience in Europe. The presented approach is aimed to build a metalanguage representing the reading under different perspectives for enabling researchers in collaboratively working on data sources tracking the reading phenomenon. The construction of the metalanguage is made through a reasoning-based process of analysis and synthesis of vocabulary, concepts and theories from multiple domains, recomposed in an interactional model of the researchers as intended users of the system, the data sources on reading and the role of technology in between

From Service to Data Infrastructure - The Transition from MK Intelligence Observatory to MK:Insight

This work is based on the analysis of public and internal reports, interviews, and data practices concerning the initiatives and platforms for the management of Milton Keynes Open Data from 2004 to 2018. This report analyses in particular the transition from the MK Intelligence Observatory (MKiO), providing data services through an Intelligence Team, to the setup of MK:Insight (MKI), the smart city data portal of Milton Keynes, providing direct access to datasets and reports. The background of this case study is intertwined with national and global milestones that changed the framing of the concepts of open data, open government and the role of the technologies in this context over time. Here, we outline an overview of where and how open data, open government and data technologies began, intersected and impacted on the local data and smart strategy of Milton Keynes, resulting in the transition from MKiO to MKI

Positive by Design: The Next Big Challenge in Rethinking Media as Agents?

Hypertext and Web pioneers had high aspirations and expectations about the potential positive impact of technology. However, studies in the last decades have shown how widely adopted social and intelligent media are either amplifiers or a source of adverse detrimental effects on their users. On the one hand, we now have a better understanding of these negative phenomena and strategies to identify and quantify their effects. On the other hand, as a community, we should take on the challenge of steering hypertext technologies toward positive applications. This position paper argues for a proactive role of the hypertext community in the design of agent media result of combining social media with intelligent algorithms. This silent paradigm shift introduced third-party proactive agents in a wide range of human-to-human interactions. We are today at a point where social media and global web applications cannot operate without such systems and demand, in the author's opinion, a similar proactive role of academia and scholars in understanding and driving their design for positive goals. This position paper outlines the need for this challenge to be taken on, and how and why the Hypertext community could lead in its own way this vision forward

Reading in Europe - Challenge and Case Studies of READ-IT Project

This paper aims to present the READ-IT project and the first set of case studies collected by DH and HSS researchers. Use-cases are key in the project’s strategy as they are essentials both to the definition and the validation of READ-IT data model and framework. The case studies include different sources, such as social media, students’ diaries and letters, from the 18th up to today, in Czech, French, German, Italian and Dutch. Each of them is supported by a specific dataset and a specific research question. In this context, this original validation process must be able to demonstrate the relevance, robustness and ability of both the general concept and the data model to process a wide variety of sources. Then, this model should be transferable to other DH projects where the experiential dimension is present

On Links To Be: Exercises in Style #2

This contribution extends the discussion of the types and uses of links bootstrapped by Mason and Bernstein’s “On Links: Exercises in Style”, focusing on how authors use marginalia and annotations as links to the future. We argue that the development of a common semantics of “links to be” is needed in order to systematise individual authorial practices, provide greater interpretive understanding for readers and enable the development of new tools. We present examples on different types of annotations from the Holographic Vernon Lee project (HoL) and provide our own exercises to formulate a preliminary framework of links to be

*ing the Written Word: Digital Humanities Methods for Book History

The reception of Digital Humanities (DH) case studies in the humanities is still mixed. On the one side, scholars foresee the potential disruptive value of DH and the need for new methods to address digital sources. On the other side, other scholars have a hard time finding a clear immediate contribution of DH in studying the history of reading that is comparable with traditional studies. Furthermore, DH is a natural interdisciplinarity case bed, and a gateway for research not grounded on the state of the art in Book History but still addressing the challenges of the Humanities. Acknowledging these issues, we can hopefully make a step further in building the condition for a legitimate citizenship of DH in Book History. In this contribution, we provide a perspective aimed at addressing the methodological gap concerning the evolving state of the DH field. Firstly, we will stress that for generating value as a Humanities study, the DH paradigm must combine computational analysis of text and humanities-based in-depth analysis. Indeed, computational studies of and automatic extraction of meta-data are essential but cannot replace the centrality of reading the text and in-depth text analysis. To conclude, we present and discuss four main DH best-practice patterns for exploiting computational methods while still framing the study within the Humanities. These four patterns articulate in-depth and computational analysis at different stages: 1) generating and verifying hypotheses, 2) identifying representative and relevant sources, 3) making sense of large-scale phenomena and 4) navigating sources

Readapting Propp's Character Archetypes to Explore the Relational Dimension of City Data: A Design-oriented Approach

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Name Links: an Aesthetic Discussion

A correspondence between the link in hypertext and the sign (both semiotic and linguistic) is well established. Consisting of source and destination, links parallel the signifier and signified of the semiotic and linguistic sign, as they do wider models and approaches to intertextuality. Deeper investigation of the connection between the sign and the link is, however, a currently rather neglected area for hypertext. Better understanding the complexities of the semiotic sign, however, can be beneficial for the epistemology of hypertext and more generally for understanding the complex meaning the link engenders. To link or not to link - and to what - is an equivalently nuanced question for hypertext. In closed hypertext, such decisions are, while important, more limited in scope; in open hypertext, however, links represent a form of delegation (or sharing) of authority and responsibility. This contribution explores this aesthetic dimension of hypertext design, through reference to the semiotics of names developed through a case study on name links

Readapting Propp’s character archetypes to explore the relational dimension of city data: a design-oriented approach

This paper presents the approach and tools created to critically investigate roles and relationships among city stakeholders regarding data-related processes in order to inform future design solutions of open data portals. The approach to explore the relational dimension of data in local activities is based on mapping the operational roles of the organisations involved in the city data ecosystem with a set of archetypes readapted from the characters of the Propp's theory on the narrative structure. A probes toolkit associated with storytelling techniques helped to test the proposed approach during a workshop organised in the city of Milton Keynes (UK). The authors expose their motivations, constraints and rationale for the definition of the approach and the construction of the toolkit as part of a design-oriented strategy of inquiry, discussing the insights gained in the testing experience