The Scholastic Commentaries and Texts Archive: reconceiving the medieval corpus in a Linked Data world


Jeffrey C. Witt (Loyola University Maryland) | @jeffreycwitt


Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, May 8, 2017

Slide Deck: http://lombardpress.org/slides/2017-05-08-wlu-scta-linked-data.html

## Outline 1. Part I - Theoretical Overview A. Problems and Aspirations B. The Current Paradigm - Text as Document C. A New Paradigm - Text as Network D. The SCTA Network Data Model 2. Part II - Putting Theory in Practice
# I.A. Problems and Aspirations
## The medieval corpus, at present, is an invisible tapestry
## We want to provide a scientific view each thread within the context of the whole. ### A scientific view through: - Analysis - Search - Access - Synthesis
# I.B. The Current Paradigm ## Text-as-Document
## The problem with the text-as-document approach ### Data Isolation: in print and on the web
**In sum**: research groups are currently choosing the most inefficient way possible to make data avaialable on the web, while leaving us with results that go barely beyond the capabilities of the printed page.

The complaint as voiced by Ted Nelson

# I.C. A New Paradigm ## Text-as-Network
Despite the inarguable benefits the Web provides, until recently the same principles that enabled the Web of documents to flourish have not been applied to data. Traditionally, data published on the Web has been made available as raw dumps in formats such as CSV or XML, or marked up as HTML tables, sacrificing much of its structure and semantics. In the conventional hypertext Web, the nature of the relationship between two linked documents is implicit, as the data format, i.e. HTML, is not sufficiently expressive to enable individual entities described in a particular document to be connected by typed links to related entities. Christian Bizer, Tom Heath, Tim Berners-Lee, "Linked Data - The Story So Far", http://tomheath.com/papers/bizer-heath-berners-lee-ijswis-linked-data.pdf
"Data is relationships." -- Tim Berners Lee, Ted Talk, February 2009
# I.D. The SCTA "Network" Data Model
## Our Data
## Our Data Model
- WorkGroup - Work - The idea of Moby Dick - Expression - The idea of Melville's expression (as opposed to a screen play expression) - Manifestation - The idea of the 1959 edition of Moby Dick - Item - One physical copy of the 1959 edition in a particular library - Transcription - the idea of a digital transcription of the 1959 edition of Moby Dick - includes properties like hasXML, hasJson, hasPlaintext, hasHtml
- Manifestation Surface - the idea of page 1 in 1959 edition of Moby Dick - Item Surface - the physical page 1 in a particular copy of the 1959 edition of Moby Dick - IIIF Canvas - IIIF image annotation - images taken of the physical page 1 in a particular copy
# Part II - Putting Theory in Practice
# Data Creation

Adopting the Git Workflow

# Data Aggregation and Delivery

Creating the data set with RDF extraction

Critical Corpus Database Visualization

# Data Display
## Building common libraries for common tasks
https://github.com/lombardpress/lbp.rb
## LombardPress Interface Display
## Mirador IIIF Image Interface
## Lbp Print Interface
## SCTA Data Interaction and Re-Use
###Suggested Readings ####Introduction [http://lombardpress.org/2016/08/02/bcht-scta-lbp-overview/](http://lombardpress.org/2016/08/02/bcht-scta-lbp-overview/) ####Modeling and Workflows [http://lombardpress.org/2016/06/12/DTS-modeling-proposal/](http://lombardpress.org/2016/06/12/DTS-modeling-proposal/) [http://lombardpress.org/2016/08/09/surfaces-canvases-and-zones/](http://lombardpress.org/2016/08/09/surfaces-canvases-and-zones/) [http://lombardpress.org/placing-medieval-texts-within-a-critical-corpus/](http://lombardpress.org/placing-medieval-texts-within-a-critical-corpus/) ####On Information sharing and linked open data [http://lombardpress.org/2016/04/16/iiif-webmentions/](http://lombardpress.org/2016/04/16/iiif-webmentions/) [http://lombardpress.org/2016/08/25/basel-workshop-report/](http://lombardpress.org/2016/08/25/basel-workshop-report/) ####On Peer Review [http://lombardpress.org/2016/05/19/the-traveling-imprimatur/](http://lombardpress.org/2016/05/19/the-traveling-imprimatur/) ####On LombardPress web [http://lombardpress.org/bringing-ecodices-and-openn-together/](http://lombardpress.org/bringing-ecodices-and-openn-together/) [http://lombardpress.org/conceiving-the-digital-critical-apparatus/](http://lombardpress.org/conceiving-the-digital-critical-apparatus/) [http://lombardpress.org/demo-of-full-integration-of-iiif-images-into-lombardpress/](http://lombardpress.org/conceiving-the-digital-critical-apparatus/)