Workshops

The first of the three proposed workshops, WS1, has the thematic focus “Spatial data medieval to modern” and in this workshop, we will introduce the three work packages outlined above through keynote lectures and explorative sessions. The main aims of WS1 are to define key concepts (spatial infrastructures, LOD, metadata, ontology), outline major challenges in the field, and to provide an opportunity to share experiences of addressing the issues in individual and national projects across the Nordic countries. Three keynotes, at least one of them by a speaker with a Swedish affiliation, and mini-workshops on metadata, ontologies, LOD and SOCH will be scheduled over the course of the programme to achieve these goals.

Additionally, in WS1 we will initiate discussions exploring possibilities for collaboration on the European grant application. The Research Infrastructures Call in the Horizon Europe Program 2021–2027 will be presented at a keynote by a research officer. This talk will be followed by a longer “open space” session to brainstorm potential aims and work packages of the planned application. Open space is a meeting methodology intended to release creativity and leadership in a group within macro-boundaries of a major task; the interaction form is per definition explorative and seemingly unstructured, but yields most anchored, motivated results. There are several elements of risk with the suggested broad scope of WS1–3, since the projects involved aggregate spatial data from very different kinds of sources, such as literature, historical maps, art collections, archival data. These risks can however be effectively mitigated by introducing pre-defined groups to make workshop discussions concrete and suggested outputs feasible.

Preliminary Programme

30 May 2022, Day 1

• 11:45-12:45 Lunch
• 12:45-13:00 Welcome and opening remarks, Alexandra Petrulevich and Sara Ellis Nilsson
• 13:00-14:00 Keynote 1 (hybrid): Prof. Dr Leif Isaksen (University of Exeter, UK) on Digital Spatial Infrastructures for Research in the Humanities: challenges and solutions
  Moderator: Sara Ellis Nilsson
• 14:00-14:30 Coffee break
• 14:30-16:00 Participant and project presentations (on site): 5-10 minutes per project
  Moderator: Alexandra Petrulevich
• 16:00-16:10 Short Break
• 16:10-17:00 Group work and further mapping of the projects’ challenges and any ideas of how these could be solved including short presentation of the outcomes (on site)
  Moderators: Alexandra Petrulevich and Sara Ellis Nilsson
• 17:30 Guided tour 1 (optional)
• 19:00 Dinner (optional)

31 May 2022, Day 2

• 9:00-10:00 Keynote 2 (hybrid): Marcus Smith (Swedish National Heritage Board, Sweden) on LOD and RDF in theory and practice.
  Moderator: Alexandra Petrulevich
• 10:00-10:30 Coffee break
• 10:30-12:30 Mini-workshop on common metadata principles/vocabularies (groups decide on breaks themselves, on site)
  Moderator: Sara Ellis Nilsson
• 12:30-14:00 Lunch
• 14:00-15:00 Group presentations of the mini-workshop outcomes (hybrid)
  Moderator: Emily Lethbridge
• 15:00-15:30 Coffee/tea break
• 15:30-16:30 Keynote 3 (hybrid): Ass. Prof. Dr Ruth Mostern (University of Pittsburgh, USA) on Common metadata principles and common vocabularies/ontology in Digital Spatial Infrastructures for Humanities Research.
  Moderator: Peder Gammeltoft
• 17:00 Guided tour 2 (optional)
• 18:30 Dinner (optional)

1 June, Day 3

• 9:00-9:30 Keynote 3 (hybrid): Johan Holmberg (Swedish Research Council, Swedish Expert in the Horizon Europe Pillar 1), on EU research infrastructure calls
  Moderator: Sara Ellis Nilsson
• 9:30-10:00 Coffee/tea break
• 10:00-11:30 Mini-workshop on EU-application 1 (on site): Open space session on aims/work packages for an EU project on spatial research infrastructures in the humanities
  Moderator: Alexandra Petrulevich
• 11:30-11:45 Short break
• 11:45-12:30 Workshop summary and discussion (hybrid)
  Moderators: Alexandra Petrulevich and Sara Ellis Nilsson
• 12:30- Take away lunch and departure

Workshop 2 (WS2) will focus on “Spatial ontologies”, and the main aim will be to draft common metadata and ontology principles in Nordic digital spatial infrastructures and to introduce the LOD case study of the workshop series. WS2 will start with keynotes on successful examples of working towards common metadata principles in the Norwegian cultural heritage sector as well as on best practices of research data management in accordance with Open Science and FAIR principles. An explorative mini-workshop will give an opportunity to discuss the metadata principles and ontologies used in the participants’ sectors as well as how these could become transferable and interoperable to ensure data beyond cultural heritage sector and national boundaries can be linked. To ensure meaningful in-depth contributions to this workshop component, the pre-defined groups from WS1 will have prepared ontology overviews in-between workshops.

The second major component of WS2, the set-up of the series’ case study, is introduced by detailed presentations of the Icelandic Saga Map’s, the Norse World’s, and the ongoing Mapping Lived Religion project’s approaches to metadata, ontologies and re-use of data. The former two will also feature in WS3. The participants will share ideas on how to make the datasets LOD compatible and work on establishing conceptual and ontological links between the two in a dedicated mini-workshop. The final component of WS2 is the continuation of the work on the European grant application. This component is introduced by a keynote on successful applications for an ERC Infrastructure Call. Participants will work on detailed descriptions of the work packages identified in WS1 in a collaborative writing platform.

Preliminary Programme

Welcome to the 2nd Spatial infrastructures workshop at the University of Bergen Library The workshop will use the flipped classroom approach. Participants are provided with a set of instructional videos and written exercises and are expected to attempt to complete them on their own time prior to the tutorial event, preferably at least a week in advance. The workshop itself will be dedicated to working on own datasets, asking questions and getting a feeling of the community around.

19 September, Day 1

• 09.00-09.15 Welcome
• 09.15-10.00 Intro to Open Refine
• 10.00-11.00 Data Cleaning
• 11.00-12.00 Group work
• 12.00-13.00 Lunch
• 13.00-14.00 Data Transformation
• 14.00-15.00 Group work
• 15.00-15.30 Coffee
• 15.30-17.00 Data Augumentation
• 17.00-17.10 Rounding off

20 September, Day 2

• 09.00-09.15 Recap of yesterday
• 09.15-12.00 Make RDF out of your data
• 12.00-13.00 Lunch
• 13.00-14.00 Group work
• 14.00-15.00 Group presentations of RDF data group work
• 15.00-15.30 Coffee
• 15.30-17.00 Group presentations contd.
• 17.00-17.10 Rounding off

21 September, Day 3

• 09.00-09.15 Recap of yesterday
• 09.15-10.00 Merging RDF-datasets
• 10.00-11.00 Group work
• 11.00-12.00 Group work presentations
• 12.00-13.00 Lunch
• 13.00-14.00 Way forward, discussion
• 14.00-15.00 Rounding off

Preparation for the workshop:

1. Send to Øyvind and Peder 500-3000 lines of dataset. Make sure your data comes from several parts of your dataset(s) and as much as possible reflect the entire amount of data.

2. Download the latest version of OpenRefine (3.6.0) and familiarize yourself with the documentation for the software. You will also need to install the RDF Transform extension, but more on this in 3.e below.

3. Watch the instruction videos and documentation of Open Refine as follows:

a. Introduction to OpenRefine.

b. Data Cleaning in OpenRefine, use data as given on page and follow video and blog.

c. Data Transformation introduction. For testing, use the instructions in this video (see blog and use data above).

d. Data Augmentation (how to enrich your data).

e. Make RDF Out of Your Data video (1) and video number 2 relate to linked data (also a longer videohere on RDF and OpenRefine).

For those of you who do not have much prior knowledge about RDF, Linked Open Data and CIDOC-CRM, we have added a couple of introduction videos also.

Workshop 3 (WS3), “Linking Spatial Data”, will be concerned with implementing the LOD ontologies discussed in WS2 and linking The Icelandic Saga Map’s and Norse World’s datasets. In the initial keynote, Icelandic spatial infrastructure projects and their approaches to data management and re-use will be presented. The participants will then be encouraged to outline what frames or structures are needed to ensure that LOD approaches to diverse spatial and associated attribute data are broadly implemented at Scandinavian and European level. The main component of WS3 is the workshop series’ LOD case study; pre-defined groups will work to link different data types, for instance, spatial data and attribute/name data and make queries to the unified linked dataset of spatial references from West and East Norse literature, for instance, return all attestations linked to a specific location in the two resources. WS3 will incorporate a third session on the European grant application focusing on impact and outreach planning. After a keynote on the subject, the participants will continue to develop the work packages identified in WS1 by adding impact and outreach sections as well as identifying potential collaborators outside academia.

The final keynote of WS3 will allude to the initial keynote of the workshop series and elucidate the potential of the humanities’ digital spatial infrastructures as role-models with respect to LOD practices in spatial humanities. The following discussion will address the issues of best LOD applications and long-term relevance of established common metadata principles and common ontologies in the Nordic countries and internationally. WS3 will conclude with a roundtable regarding next steps with respect to the European grant application and other forms for continued collaboration.

Preliminary Programme

Monday 22nd May, Day 1

• 09.00-10.15 Welcome, intro to NOS-HS project “Linking, Building, and Sustaining Humanities Digital Spatial Infrastructures for Research in the Nordic Countries” and one of its main outputs, the EU application within the Horizon Europe/Research Infrastructure Concept Development Call + aims for the workshop
• 10.15-10.45 Coffee/tea
• 10.45-12.00 Get-to-know (speed-networking format -- all participants arrive with a 3 to 5 minute-long presentation of themselves/their projects and why they are in the workshop)
• 12.00-13.30 Lunch
• 13.30-15.00 Setting up working groups + Discussion on the EU project’s objectives in small groups
• 15.00-15.30 Coffee/tea
• 15.30-16.20 Methodology in focus (discussion in small groups)
• 16.20-16.30 Short break
• 16.30-17.00 Sharing reflections on objectives and methodology in plenum
• Possible city walk at some point between 17.00 and 19.00
• 19:00 Workshop dinner (optional/at own expense)

Tuesday 23rd May, Day 2

• 09.00-10.15 Impact in focus incl. presentation by Vicky Garnett/DARIAH-EU
• 10.15-10.45 Coffee/tea
• 10.45-12.00 Getting involved in the application: what do you (the participant) want to do within the framework of the EU project? What role do you envisage for yourself (and your team)?
• 12.00-13.30 Lunch
• 13.30-15.00 Getting involved in the application: what resources (salaries, developer time, postdocs etc.) do you need? How much would in cost to get you (and your team) involved? You are most welcome to make a preliminary budget of your involvement.
• 15:00-15:30 Coffee/tea
• 15.30-17.00 Sharing the results and general discussion
• 19:00 Workshop dinner (optional/at own expense)

Wednesday 24th May, Day 3

• 09.00-10.45 Way forward: what happens next? Overview of the timeline and general discussion
• 10.45-11.00 Coffee/tea and departure