0.21 Recommendations  (Page 8/11)

The humanities and social science cyberinfrastructure should include a network of such centersdistributed around the country. Centers might focus on particular methods or tools—for example, the application of GeographicInformation Systems or data-mining or visualization to humanities and social science research problems. Centers might also, in somecases, be devoted to research involving copyrighted digital materials or research involving confidential social science data.The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is one such national center in the social sciences; theVanderbilt Television News Archive might be taken as an example or a starting point with respect to copyrighted material. The Libraryof Congress’s NDIIPP (National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program) partnerships are exploring the creation ofdata centers to serve other communities, using a range of business models.

Universities should foster interdisciplinary laboratories and research groups that include both technical andsubject expertise. “Once humanities faculty began using the laboratory in their research,” Stanford University computerscientist Marc Levoy told the Commission, “they would also find creative ways to fold its technology into their teaching—forexample, through project-based assignments in upper-level courses. This would bring humanities students into the lab, some of whomhave dual backgrounds, and so could help run the lab.” Provost James O’Donnell of Georgetown University, speaking to theCommission, advocated “zones of experimentation and innovation for humanists.” O’Donnell added that those zones should be “part andparcel of the formal academic structure. Ghettos are not the answer. We need instead the creation of privileged but opencommunities, where the very best young people are challenged to invent, experiment, break things, and succeed.” Exemplary models ofsuch centers include the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at the City University of New York; the Centerfor History and New Media at George Mason University; MATRIX, the Center for Humane Arts Letters and Social Sciences at MichiganState University; and the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia. The National Center forSupercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois has recently shown interest in arts, humanities, and social sciences,and its involvement in this effort would be most welcome.

7.develop and maintain open standards and robust tools.

Addressed to: Funding agencies, public and private; scholars; librarians; curators; publishers;technologists

Implementation: University consortia such as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation should license theSourceForge software and make it available to open-source developers in academic institutions. The National Endowment for theHumanities (NEH), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) shouldsupport the development, maintenance, and coordination of community-based standards such as the Text Encoding Initiative,Encoded Archival Description, Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard, and Visual Resources Data Standards. The National ScienceFoundation (NSF), the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, IMLS, and other funding agencies should support the development of tools for theanalysis of digital content.