Tool Time: Researching Digital Tools and Communities
of Practice
DRHA 2007 Paper Proposal
Neil Grindley (Methods Network, King’s College London)
Torsten Reimer (Methods Network, King’s College London)
From the outset, the Methods Network has been concerned with promoting new
methods for arts and humanities research. The first phase of the programme involved
knowledge gathering about academic communities and the innovative techniques
employed by them to enhance their research. Based on these activities, a series of
working papers has been produced that are intended to reflect how tools are being used
within and across specific disciplines. Research activity in all subject areas is highly
dynamic and requires ongoing engagement with new implementations of software and
hardware.
In response to this, the Methods Network has implemented an interactive platform that
allows the transformation of Methods Network resources into community-driven
collaborative activities. Based on the open source content management system Drupal,
the online community forum ‘Digital Arts & Humanities’ is in itself a highly flexible tool for
a variety of purposes such as the discussion and annotation of digital resources and
methods, or the making of contacts for collaborative research projects. Hosting different
groups focussed around disciplines, methods or resources, ‘Digital Arts & Humanities’
has been designed to facilitate the sharing of information across disciplinary boundaries.
A tagging system allows the categorization of all resources, even postings in forums,
with a taxonomy developed for the ICT Guides database as well as an open, user driven
folksonomy. Instead of forcing the users to follow a predefined taxonomy, this flexible
grassroots approach can react to new developments within a very dynamic area of
research. Separate sections for Methods Network funded activities give the participants
a space to discuss their interests and share information – before and after the respective
event. This will facilitate the organization of follow-ups and the dissemination of selected
materials and ideas to the community – allowing those not present at the activity to
follow the discussion and take part in it. As the system is designed to not only host
closed groups, we will encourage all users to share their resources and information.
Digital Arts & Humanities is open to anyone with an interest in advanced ICT methods in
the arts and humanities and since users can also share their profiles, this will facilitate
the making of new contacts, particularly as community activities initiated by our partner
projects, AHeSSC and ICT Guides, will also take place on the same platform.
The anticipated impact of the ‘Digital Arts & Humanities’ platform, on the working papers
in particular, will be to test the assumptions contained within those documents about
which tools are being used by which communities and for what purpose. The papers
have been conceptualized as a resource which might support a number of different
uses, including: ‘digital palimpsest’, where the original is written over and a new
document is created in its place; or a document facilitating annotation, which becomes
enriched by the contributions of specialists; or a dismantled document that uses
references as indexes and glossaries. These uses will only become apparent by their
exposure to the wider community and it is anticipated that the collaborative platform
described here will enable that process.
The virtual environment – originally designed to host digital resources such as papers on
research tools – will now itself become a tool for research on the interaction of
communities of practice.