The Potential of Access Grid for
Collaborative Research in the Arts and
Humanities
David Shepherd
(Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield)
E-Science Institute, 18
June 2007
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• AHRC e-Science Research
Workshops project
• 1 October 2006-31 March 2007
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‘New forms of scholarly communications in “virtual organizations” are developed. For example, the Access
Grid promises tools to support structured meetings of researchers in group-to-group collaborations, a benefit which will be keenly felt by A&H researchers as they move towards larger and more formal collaborations.
The advantages of direct communication in face-to-face meetings [are] combined with the ability to share instantly digital items among the groups.’
(http://www.ahessc.ac.uk/getting-started)
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A&H computing projects collaborative in the sense of allowing a wider group of researchers jointly to formulate new research questions are rare. Exploration of the potential for such collaboration is one of the ‘grand challenges’ that e-Science might be seen to present to A&H researchers. Existing A&H computing projects offer a starting-point for exploring this potential.
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• To explore the potential and issues associated with the use of the AG to share ICT-based research and to facilitate collaboration between arts and humanities researchers.
• To test various forms of use of, and access to, the AG.
• To produce a report on issues associated with the use of the AG to share ICT-based research.
• To produce a preliminary tutorial on the sharing of ICTbased research over the AG.
• To encourage awareness of the potential of the AG and other grid technologies to foster new forms of collaborative arts and humanities research.
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Theme Led by
Digital images Peter Ainsworth (French)
Sound and moving image Dorothy Ker & Adrian Moore
(Music), Andrew Prescott
(HRI)
David Shepherd (HRI; PI) Electronic texts & databases
VR, visualisation and representation
Mark Greengrass (History &
HRI)
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All workshops
• Bristol
• Lancaster
• Sheffield
• University College London
(SLAIS)
Some workshops
• Bangor
• Bergen
• Canterbury (New Zealand)
• Glasgow
• Institute of Historical Research
(London)
• King’s College London
• Leeds
• Manchester
• Western Australia
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Taken together, the four workshops confirmed that:
• AG as a collaborative environment is not necessarily better than, or even as good as, more established technologies such as conventional videoconferencing
• Use of a PIG can offer a more satisfactory experience of the AG environment
• Careful set up of disparately configured AG suites is essential, as is skilled piloting sensitive to the need to size and position screens appropriately
• An effective participant-tracking tool would be invaluable
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• A high degree of technical expertise and preparation is required particularly for collaborative work involving performance, and AG ‘requires significant development before it will prove useful to the professional artistic community’ (A. Piccini, Report on Performativity | Place |
Space project)
• The ‘show-and-tell’ character of most tools for sharing digital resources over the AG imposes serious limitations on the possibilities for genuinely collaborative work
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• Improved screen-grab
• Virtual Vellum
• Collaborative class diagram and text editors
• Collaborative VR applications
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• One-way screen-capture application that refreshes what the client sees every second
• Shadowed mouse trail showing current position of the mouse cursor and its history since previous screen capture
• Makes possible demonstration of resources requiring frequent page updates (e.g. databases)
• Superior to, e.g., IGPix
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http://www.shef.ac.uk/hri/projects/projectpages/virtualvellum.html
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Virtual Vellum (Peter Ainsworth)
• Real-time collaborative image-viewing environment
• Efficient retrieval, opening and manipulation of image datasets stored online
• Server-client model ensures rapid updating of view for all participating sites
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Collaborative text editor
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Collaborative text editor
• List of connected clients in bottom window, with indication of who has mouse control
• Multiple clients can edit text simultaneously at sentence level
• Text updated to all clients with minimal delay
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Collaborative class diagram editor
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Collaborative class diagram editor
• Pointer controlled by any one of connected clients
• List of connected clients in bottom window, with indication of who has mouse control
• Each table can be moved on screen and edited
• Attributes and visibility/accessibility editable
• Interactions reflected to all clients with minimum delay
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Virtual reality: modelling the AG
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Virtual reality: modelling the AG
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Virtual reality: modelling the AG
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Virtual reality: tools for reconstruction
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• What have we missed?
• How many wheels have we reinvented?
• Are our prototype applications worth taking further?
• More at www.shef.ac.uk/projects/projectpages/accessgrid.html
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