Linked Pasts is an annual symposium dedicated to facilitating practical and pragmatic developments in Linked Open Data (LOD) in History, Classics, Geography, and Archaeology. It brings together leading exponents of Linked Data from academia, the Cultural Heritage sector as well as providers of infrastructures and library services to address the obstacles to, and issues raised by, developing a digital ecosystem of projects dedicated to interlinking online resources about the past.

Presentation

Linked Pasts is an annual symposium dedicated to facilitating practical and pragmatic developments in Linked Open Data (LOD) in History, Classics, Geography, and Archaeology. It brings together leading exponents of Linked Data from academia, the Cultural Heritage sector as well as providers of infrastructures and library services to address the obstacles to, and issues raised by, developing a digital ecosystem of projects dedicated to interlinking online resources about the past.

In the light of a fast growing interest on Linked Data in the Digital Humanities and the potential of LOD for overwriting established disciplinary limits, this year’s symposium aims to focus on the communities within this emerging "linked pasts network," with their differing dynamics and workflows. In a series of six sequential sessions, representatives and practitioners of LOD-communities will assess, discuss and review their approaches along three main themes: people, institutions and methods, complemented by an extensive poster session and parallel breakout-discussions on three special topics. A final wrap-up session will collect results and help to identify an agenda for future Linked Pasts activities.

The three themed sessions will be introduced by invited speakers, discussed in breakout groups and summarized in a plenary talk.

Description

Linked Pasts is an annual symposium dedicated to facilitating practical and pragmatic developments in Linked Open Data in History, Classics, Geography, and Archaeology. It brings together leading exponents of Linked Data from academia, the Cultural Heritage sector as well as providers of infrastructures and library services to address the obstacles to, and issues raised by, developing a digital ecosystem of projects dedicated to interlinking online resources about the past.

Initiated in 2015 at King’s College London, the second Linked Pasts symposium took place at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia in Madrid. Last year it moved to the Stanford Humanities Centre and now returns to Europe, with the Mainz’ Centre for Digitality in the Humanities and Cultural Studies (mainzed) honoured to welcome this year’s meeting.

Linked Pasts has given researchers and professionals from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to share ideas, methods, and workflows in the light of their own experiences and expertise -- on the one hand interrogating current technical challenges, and on the other, working towards collective approaches to solving them.

In the light of a fast growing interest on Linked Data in the Digital Humanities and the potential of LOD for overwriting established disciplinary limits, this year’s symposium aims to focus on the communities within this emerging "linked pasts network," with their differing dynamics and workflows. In a series of six sequential sessions, representatives and practitioners of LOD-communities will assess, discuss and review their approaches along three main themes: people, institutions and methods, complemented by an extensive poster session and parallel breakout-discussions on three special topics. A final wrap-up session will collect results and help to identify an agenda for future Linked Pasts activities.

The three themed sessions will be introduced by invited speakers, discussed in breakout groups and summarized in a plenary talk.

Program

Tuesday December 11th, 2018

14:30-14:40 Welcome

14:40-16:00 Short presentations of Linked Open Data projects:

• LatAm: A Historical Gazetteer for Latin America and the Caribbean (Ben and Sara Brumfield-Brumfield Labs)
• Linking Syriac Geographic Data (Wido van Peursen-Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
• Itiner-e. An online gazetteer of Historical Roads (Tom Brughmans-Univesity of Oxford; Pau de Soto-Universidade Nova de Lisboa; Josep Guitart-Autonomous University of Barcelona; Santi Muxach-Institut d’Estudis Catalans)
• OttRec: Ottoman Recogito (Antonis Hadjikyriacou-Boğaziçi University)

16:00-16:30 Coffee Break

16:30-17:30 Short presentations of Pelagios Working Groups

• Linked Texts Working Group (Matteo Romanello-EPFL; Hugh Cayless-Duke)
• Urban Gazetteer Working Group (Susanna de Beer-Leiden University; Janelle Jenstad-Victoria University; Valeria Vitale-University of London)
• Australia LAMLOD Group (Erik Champion-Curtin University; Susan Fayad-UNESCO)

18:30-19:30 Informal glüwine

Wednesday December 12th, 2018

• 09:30-10:00 Coffee and Registration
• 10:00-10:20 Opener by Kai-Christian Bruhn (mainzed) and Karl Grossner (Pelagios Commons)
• 10:20-11:20 Keynote by Barbara Fisher (German National Library)

11:20-11:30 Coffee

11:30-13:30 Themed Session-Linked People

• LOD facilitators and multiplicators both contribute to the visibility and acceptance of Linked Data. The session provides the opportunity to discuss how can both profit from each other in order to strengthen the role of LOD in historical research.

13:30-14:30 Lunch

14:30-16:30 Themed Session-Linked Institutions

• A growing number of institutions already offer or are preparing to publish LOD resources. Join us in a discussion of roles and models of interacting in a national and international perspective as well as in relation to individuals and sectors.

16:30-18:30 Poster Session* with Coffee

19:30-22:00 Reception and Dinner

Thursday December 13th, 2018

09:00-11:00 Themed Session-Linked Methods

• LOD itself is a method of publishing data. The consumption of LOD is connected to a wide range of digital approaches accentuating semantics, interoperability or specific research questions. We ask you to exchange your experiences and knowledge about data-pipelines and workflows to encourage and enhance LOD initiatives.

11:00-11:15 Coffee

11:15-14:30 Parallel Breakouts with Buffet Lunch

14:30-15:00 Wrap-up of the Breakout Sessions

• Parallel discussions on topics suggested by participants.

15:00-15:30 Coffee

15:30-16:30 General Wrap-up

*Call for Posters

We invite the submission of posters presenting projects, current developments, and technological or methodological approaches to Linked Open Data. The posters will be on display for the entire duration of the conference, and will offer the perfect opportunity for informal networking. The topics illustrated in the posters will be also briefly presented to the audience on Wednesday the 12th of December. To apply, please send an abstract of 300 words in English to lp4@mainzed.org by October 14th.