Data/Culture. Building sustainable communities around Arts and Humanities datasets and software
Lead Research Organisation:
The Alan Turing Institute
Department Name: Research
Abstract
The UK is in a unique position to define and contribute to world leading data-driven arts and humanities research. Previous investments have created numerous datasets, methods, tools and pipelines. However, due to the nature of the current project-focused funding landscape, these are rarely leveraged by those outside the originating projects, meaning that return on investment is poor. The reasons for this are manifold, but a key factor is the lack of infrastructure to support outputs and their uptake beyond the end date of projects in terms of hosting, maintenance, or human expertise. The effect is a repeated cycle of wasted labour. Even with the best due diligence, new projects often reinvent the wheel, building new datasets, tools and pipelines, because they do not know, or cannot access research infrastructure components that already exist elsewhere. If those components could be made more generalisable, if they were well packaged and documented, if communities of users and maintainers were actively built around them, and if skills to exploit them were embedded, we could create the basic components of a modular digital research infrastructure that would help accelerate research innovation.
This pilot project proposes to test this hypothesis on the data and software outputs of two previously funded projects: Living with Machines (LwM), and Seshat: Global History Databank. At the centre of this vision is The Turing Institute, which by convening the data science and AI community in the UK, seeks to advance world-class research and apply it to real-world problems, and to build skills for the future. We will leverage the Turing's convening power in order to deliver three core tasks:
* Drive excellence in the development of data and software, developing LwM and Seshat project assets into sustainable architectures that have utility beyond these projects;
* Accelerate research innovation, by leveraging these data and software components;
* Create sustainable communities of practice that maintain and develop these outputs in new directions.
This pilot project proposes to test this hypothesis on the data and software outputs of two previously funded projects: Living with Machines (LwM), and Seshat: Global History Databank. At the centre of this vision is The Turing Institute, which by convening the data science and AI community in the UK, seeks to advance world-class research and apply it to real-world problems, and to build skills for the future. We will leverage the Turing's convening power in order to deliver three core tasks:
* Drive excellence in the development of data and software, developing LwM and Seshat project assets into sustainable architectures that have utility beyond these projects;
* Accelerate research innovation, by leveraging these data and software components;
* Create sustainable communities of practice that maintain and develop these outputs in new directions.
Publications
Bennett J
(2025)
Cliopatria - A geospatial database of world-wide political entities from 3400BCE to 2024CE
in Scientific Data
Wood R
(2024)
MapReader: Open software for the visual analysis of maps
in Journal of Open Source Software
| Description | Each of the three main components of the project: 1) building sustainable communities around Living with Machines tools and datasets, 2) building sustainable communities around Seshat Global History Databank datasets and tools, and 3) developing a Research Software Engineering network for the Arts and Humanities have resulted in some key findings. Living with Machines The Living with Machines sub-team have released datasets (with data papers), improved documentation for their tools, as well as deigning and delivering cutting edge training-workshops to extend the community of scholars and practitioners using these digital assets. The latter will help develop new training materials that can be used by all. They have also experimented with other formats to develop these into communities of sustainers, such as the 'community call'. The feasability of this approach is a key finding. The team have sought to amplify this work by continue to publish research findings using the test case datasets and tools, as well as writing a position paper about the state of cultural heritage data for historical research at the present moment, as well as recommendations for what is needed to make data more accessible for all (in review). Seshat Global History Databank The key finding of the work here is how feasible it is to build a research infrastructure supporting a variety of world history datasets, tools, and projects, and one which can galvanise the wider community. Projects and teams have common interests and challenges, including how to represent uncertainty, how to give voice to marginalised communities, ... , and it is possible to develop support, guidelines, and infrastructure for the wider world history community. Research Software Engineering network The initiative successfully established a new vibrant and diverse Research Software Engineer (RSE) stakeholder network within A&H, bringing together over 40 contributors, including RSEs, PRISM professionals, researchers, funders, and experts from a range of career stages and institutions. This network spans UK universities and IROs and beyond. Through a series of three key workshops, the group has generated new knowledge, and areas of investment needed: 1) support existing demand with a programme of activities that fill skills gaps and provides a mechanism for collaborations to be formed, 2) an incubator to foster a methods and tools research agenda and 3) an intelligence area to monitor systemic and tech developments in the sector. |
| Exploitation Route | Living with Machines Grant applications are being generated around specific LwM datasets and tools or these datasets and tools become components of larger projects. These applications are offered to a variety of funders. Seshat Global History Databank There are two main ways forward. The first option is to build links from the Seshat Global History Databank to other world history datasets and tools so that the Seshat platform works more as the hub in a hub and spoke model for world history. The second option is for other teams to take the lessons learned forward and build another central hub or invest in greater federation between teams and projects. Both these routes are feasible and important preparatory work has been done. Both routes are being offered to funders and philanthropists. Research Software Engineering network for the Arts and Humanities The RSE network for the Arts and Humanities will remain keeping the case for: 1) support existing demand with a programme of activities that fill skills gaps and provides a mechanism for collaborations to be formed, 2) an incubator to foster a methods and tools research agenda and 3) an intelligence area to monitor systemic and tech developments in the sector. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| Description | Each of the three main components of the project: 1) building sustainable communities around Living with Machines tools and datasets, 2) building sustainable communities around Seshat Global History Databank datasets and tools, and 3) developing a Research Software Engineering network for the Arts and Humanities have generated both academic and non-academic impact. Living with Machines The team have sought to amplify their key findings and lessons learned by continuing to publish research findings using the test case datasets and tools, as well as writing a position paper about the state of cultural heritage data for historical research at the present moment, as well as recommendations for what is needed to make data more accessible for all (in review). Seshat Global History Databank Most of the impact generated by this research strand is academic and this impact has been generated through the publication of papers and the release of increased functionality of the Databank. However, focusing now on non-academic impact, one area we paid a lot of attention to is how to integrated data and voices from indigenous communities into global open science datasets pertaining to world history. We did work on the tension between the FAIR principles underpinning an open science infrastructure and the CARE principles which pertains to rights of indigenous communities on their data. We focused this debate especially on the issue of data pertaining to religion. This work contributed to the writing of a set of guidelines on how to deal with the Human Right, Article 18 on Freedom of Religion or Belief and indigenous communities. These guidelines are currently looked at by the United Nations for adoption. Research Software Engineer network for the Arts and Humanities The engagement of diverse stakeholders across three workshops has fostered a strong sense of community and collaboration, with 40 active co-authors contributing to the draft Roadmap, ensuring it reflects a broad and inclusive range of perspectives. This collective effort has not only strengthened the RSE network in A&Hs but has also led to the emergence of three potential collaborations. As a focal point for the emerging RSE community in A&H, the initiative has strengthened networks, stimulated new collaborations, and reinforced the recognition of RSEs as vital to the sector's research ecosystem. |
| Sector | Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Guidelines on implementing the Human Right, Article 18, on Freedom of Religion or Belief, for indigenous communities |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| Description | K. McDonough, Software Sustainability Institute Fellowship |
| Amount | £4,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Software Sustainability Institute |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2024 |
| End | 12/2025 |
| Description | Landscape Change and Conservation with MapReader (LCCM) |
| Amount | £19,720 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2024 |
| End | 06/2025 |
| Title | MapReader software library |
| Description | MapReader software now includes text spotting, building on the prototype mapKurator system. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Multiple projects internationally are using MapReader's text spotting capabilities for research. |
| URL | https://github.com/maps-as-data/MapReader |
| Title | Seshat Global History Databank project documentation site |
| Description | A comprehensive guide for researchers, software engineers and other practitioners working on the Seshat project, hosted with Readthedocs. The documentation covers processes for working with Seshat data, interacting with the Seshat website, developing project codebases and also collates publications and publicly available code repos. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Staff working on the project can easily discover resources and ways of working associated with the project. |
| URL | https://seshat-global-history-databank.github.io/seshat/ |
| Title | Cliopatria |
| Description | Cliopatria is a comprehensive open-source geospatial dataset of worldwide polities from 3400BCE to 2024CE. It is part of the Seshat Global History Databank project. Presently it comprises over 1600 political entities sampled at varying timesteps and spatial scales. Description of its initial format, construction, and source material may be found on Zenodo and GitHub. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Cliopatria was integrated into the Seshat Global History Databank and used for visualisation purposes on the world map page and each individual polity page. A paper was written for Nature Scientific Data which is accepted and pending publication. |
| URL | https://github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank/cliopatria/tree/main |
| Title | LwMDB Data |
| Description | his data and associated data dictionary is the metadata for historical British newspaper collections held at the British Library, as shared with the Living with Machines project (2019-2023). It can be used in conjunction with the jango-based library for managing the Living with Machines newspapers metadata database schema available at https://github.com/Living-with-machines/lwmdb. This data is a supplementary file for [add citation to JODH paper]. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Data represents first open release of historical British newspaper data ever. |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/records/14389180 |
| Title | LwMDB Simplified Exports |
| Description | This data is a simplified set of metadata for digitised historical British newspaper collections held at the British Library, as shared with the Living with Machines project (2019-2023), based on the full data, schema, and data dictionary available at https://zenodo.org/records/14389180. The .sql files contain the queries of the full database used to create the .csv files. This data is a supplementary file for [add citation to JODH paper]. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Dataset is key contribution to open research with historical British newspapers. |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.13745055 |
| Title | MapReader_railspace_and_building_annotations_2024 |
| Description | This record contains post-processed railspace and building annotations relating to MapReader in GeoHumanities workshop (SIGSPATIAL 2022). The original data can be found at https://zenodo.org/records/7147906. See README.md for detailed description of this record. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Key open dataset for reuse by humanities and other researchers demonstrating the utility of MapReader for creating data from historical maps. |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.11241370 |
| Title | MapReader_railspace_v2 |
| Description | Updated railspace patches inferred with MapReader software using https://huggingface.co/Livingwithmachines/mr_resnest101e_finetuned_OS_6inch_2nd_ed_railspace on Ordnance Survey 6-inch-to-1-mile 2nd edition map sheets from the National Library of Scotland. Files: railspace_predictions_patch_df.csv - 586,276 patches classified as either "no" or "railspace", 556,721 "no", 29,554 "railspace" post_processed_railspace_predictions_patch_df.csv - 586,276 patches classified as either "no" or "railspace", 556,880 "no", 29,395 "railspace" Note: new columns have been added in post processed dataframe with updated label + label index "new_predicted_label" and "new_pred". |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This data enables new research with MapReader outputs. |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.14522926 |
| Title | MapReader_text_OS_6_inch_2nd_edition_London |
| Description | Text spotting output from MapReader for 329 sheets for Greater London of the 2nd edition 6-inch-to-1-mile Ordnance Survey maps. Files: parent_predictions.csv - 652,979 text predictions for each parent map using pixel coordinates, as polygons geo_predictions.geojson - 652,979 text predictions using geospatial coordinates, as polygons geo_predictions_centroid.geojson - 652,979 text predictions using geospatial coordinates, as centroids geo_predictions_deduplicated.geojson - 463,776 text predictions using geospatial coordinates, as polygons, duplicates removed geo_predictions_deduplicated_centroid.geojson - 463,776 text predictions using geospatial coordinates, as centroids, duplicated removed |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Data used for 2025 publication in Imago Mundi journal. |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.14522956 |
| Description | Collaboration with IIT Indore, India |
| Organisation | Indian Institute of Technology Indore |
| Country | India |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We collaborate on designing multilingual databases for Arts and Humanities research. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We were providing input for the technical team at IIT Indore implementing the building of the infrastructure. |
| Impact | The PI participated in a workshop on the issue of multilingual databases and sustainability in the Arts and Humanities. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Collaboration with Peak District and South Downs National Park Authorities |
| Organisation | Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | K. McDonough and R. Wood have developed experiments for creating data of use to the Peak District for ongoing land protection activities, and secured funding to support this work formally. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Peak District data analyst David Alexander has contributed time and expertise in land use documentation and analysis in shaping the collaborative research and mentoring the postdoc RA who was hired with additional external funding. |
| Impact | Landscape Change and Conservation with MapReader Impact Acceleration Award AHRC grant from Lancaster University. Disciplines involved in this collaboration include: heritage landscape specialists, environmental scientists, historians, archaeologists, data scientists, and librarians. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Collaboration with Peak District and South Downs National Park Authorities |
| Organisation | South Downs National Park |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | K. McDonough and R. Wood have developed experiments for creating data of use to the Peak District for ongoing land protection activities, and secured funding to support this work formally. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Peak District data analyst David Alexander has contributed time and expertise in land use documentation and analysis in shaping the collaborative research and mentoring the postdoc RA who was hired with additional external funding. |
| Impact | Landscape Change and Conservation with MapReader Impact Acceleration Award AHRC grant from Lancaster University. Disciplines involved in this collaboration include: heritage landscape specialists, environmental scientists, historians, archaeologists, data scientists, and librarians. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Collaboration with the University of Para, Belem, Brazil |
| Organisation | Federal University of Pará |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | In partnership with the University of Para, Belem, Brazil, we organised a workshop on how to best integrate data pertaining to indigenous communities into a global open science database. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We provided the resources and lead on delivering the workshop for 15 Brazilian historians. |
| Impact | We successfully held a two day workshop. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Title | MapReader: Open software for the visual analysis of maps |
| Description | This record contains the MapReader software at v1.3.3 at the time of the JOSS paper. Please see the MapReader repository and documentation for further information. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Growing user community internationally around MapReader as an open source solution for analysing collections of digitised maps. |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.12636179 |
| Title | Seshat API |
| Description | The team developed a Seshat API, a RESTful application programming interface designed to facilitate interaction with the Seshat database. This API enables users to query the database and retrieve data in a structured format. Additionally, the team created a Python package that seamlessly integrates with the Seshat API, providing an efficient tool for accessing and managing database interactions. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | The API enables data scientists to automate the process of downloading significant portions of the dataset, eliminating the need to manually download and collate multiple CSV files. This tool provides researchers with immediate access to the most up-to-date version of the database. Additionally, the software team conducted a demonstration for their research colleagues, showcasing how to effectively utilize the API and report any issues to the software team. This ensured that the tool was well understood and could be seamlessly adopted by the broader research team. |
| URL | https://github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank/seshat_api.git |
| Title | Seshat Global History Databank Website - Integration of Maps pages |
| Description | The codebase for the website was developed prior to Data/Culture, but has been developed substantially during the project. The website provides a platform for associated researchers and experts to submit data with evidence, updating and improving the accuracy of the Seshat databank. The Data/Culture project involved developing a maps component to visualise the spread of polity borders throughout their duration. Polity border data came from the "Cliopatria" dataset which was developed in tandem and integrated into Seshat. Each polity page now contains interactive map, and there is a "world map" page which displays all polities from 3400BCE to present. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | Researchers are able to visualise the spread of polities over time and better contextualise their research questions. The website has become more public-facing and educational due to the interactivity. |
| URL | https://github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank/seshat |
| Title | Seshat database analysis tool |
| Description | SeshatDatasetAnalysis is a GitHub repository that aims to provide a robust framework for handling and analysing time series data from the Seshat Databank. |
| Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | The repository provides a data analysis workflow, beginning with the construction of a template dataset that organises the latest Seshat data downloaded via the API in a structured format. Each polity is represented by a single row, with variables encoded as Python dictionaries that capture temporal changes in values. This template dataset is designed to be flexible, accommodating various types of data, including single values, multiple entries with explicit dates, and disputed values, all while maintaining chronological order within the temporal bounds of each polity. The repository further provides a sampling mechanism that allows users to extract specific data points from the template dataset at desired time intervals. The sampling function enables customisable sampling and interpolation methods. This process allows users to construct time series datasets for any given time grid. In addition, the class contains methods to calculate complexity characteristics, impute missing data and run principal component analysis in accordance with previous work. The repository aims to provide the wider research community with tools to reproduce previous work and conduct data analysis with the most up-to-date data from the Seshat database. |
| URL | https://github.com/matildaperuzzo/SeshatDatasetAnalysis.git |
| Description | Autumn Data/Culture Workshop: Learn to work with big historical data! |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 3-day workshop teaching participants how to analyse maps and newspaper data. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Discussion on Indigenous Communities and the integration of their data into open science databanks |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | We brought together a diverse audience of representatives, leaders, NGO staff, and policy makers experienced in dealing with indigenous communities and their (data) rights. These discussions fed into the formulation of a set of guidelines on this issue, specifically on the issue of religious tolerance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Edinburgh University Summer School RSE & DH |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Each of the projects under Data/Culture was presented by the associated researchers and software engineers, in terms of the activity and progress of the research as examples of Research Software Engineering in Digital Humanities research. Additionally, training was provided in some key software skills, in particular collaborative coding with Git and GitHub. There was discussion around the options with regard to careers in Research Software for people coming from a Digital Humanities background. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Inaugural conference of the Metanoia Institute |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Talk given on the Seshat Global History Databank and the Data/Culture project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | K. McDonough, "Maps as Data for Open Historical Research," Roundtable on AI and the Historical Profession: Applications and Implications, American Historical Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA 4-7 Jan. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | About 100 historians attended this roundtable where McDonough presented results from the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | K. McDonough, "Using AI for French Historical Research," Society for French Historical Studies Annual Conference, Long Island, NY [virtual], 16 March. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented results from MRM and history of AI methods in a workshop introducing these topics to French historians. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Keynote at Infrastructure for Arts and Humanities conference, IIT Dhanbad |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A keynote was given for the Digital Humanities conference at IIT Dhanbad on sustainability of A&H infrastructure |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Magazine article, "How AI can make history" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Research referenced in article in The Verge following McDonough's presentation at the American Historical Association in Jan 2024. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.theverge.com/24068716/ai-historians-academia-llm-chatgpt |
| Description | Magazine article, "L'IA ouvre de nouveaux outils à la recherche en histoire" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | McDonough was interviewed by French journalist to feature MapReader research in an article about how AI is influencing historical research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://hellofuture.orange.com/fr/lia-ouvre-de-nouveaux-outils-a-la-recherche-en-histoire/#:~:text=U... |
| Description | Magzine article "The Future of AI Is Helping Us Discover the Past" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | McDonough interviewed by journalist to cover MapReader research in an article about how AI is influencing historical research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://reason.com/2024/05/05/the-future-of-ai-is-helping-us-discover-the-past/ |
| Description | March 2024 Seshat workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A workshop was held at Oxford University for Seshat affiliated researchers working across a wide variety of digital humanities projects, with the common theme of making use of the databank. Participants presented their research for comment and suggestions from attendees. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | McDonough, "Machines Reading Maps & MapReader," DHMaps Workshop, Lausanne, Switzerland, 25-26 April |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Workshop on using computational tools with historical maps. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.epfl.ch/schools/cdh/time-machine-unit/dhmaps-workshop-digitizing-historical-maps/ |
| Description | McDonough, Roundtable on AI and History, American Historical Association, New York, NY, 3-6 Jan. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Talk as part of a roundtable on AI and History. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | National RSE Capability skilled in Arts & Humanities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Research Software Engineer Leaders meeting talk to 50-60. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | November 2024 Seshat workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The main focus of this workshop was for the software engineer staff to train the research staff to effectively use some of the key developments in their research going forward, as well as to discuss additional changes required. This included the Seshat maps pages, Seshat database API, Cliopatria polity borders dataset, the project documentation and researcher discussion feature on the Seshat website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | RSE capability network stakeholder roadmap meeting 1/3 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 17 attendees attended the Research Software Engineering capability network stakeholder roadmap meeting on 30 July 2024. This group forms the co-creation of the roadmap, and includes discussion, objective setting and co-authorship. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | RSE capability network stakeholder roadmap meeting 2/3 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 16 attendees attended the Research Software Engineering capability network stakeholder roadmap meeting on 10 September 2024, kindly hosted by the University of Manchester. This group forms the co-creation of the roadmap, and includes discussion, objective setting and co-authorship. The initial design of the Capability was discussed and refined. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | RSE capability network stakeholder roadmap meeting 3/3 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 16 attendees attended the Research Software Engineering capability network stakeholder roadmap meeting on 19 November 2024. This group forms the co-creation of the roadmap, and includes discussion, objective setting and co-authorship. A first draft of the Capability was reviewed and revised, for publication end March 2025 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Ruth Ahnert and Daniel Wilson Invited Talk about Creating Open Data, Software and Communities, School of Advanced Study, London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited Hybrid Talk to the Digital Humanities Hub of the School of Advanced Study in London. A good number attended in person and on line including academics and also non-academic practitioners, local historians, genealogists, students and the public. A lively discussion about our research agenda for open data ensued. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.sas.ac.uk/about-us/institutes-centres/digital-humanities-research-hub |
| Description | Spring Data/Culture Workshop: MapReader |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 2-day workshop on MapReader, including focus on creating text on maps data. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Summer Data/Culture Workshop: Learn to work with big historical data! |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 3-day workshop teaching participants how to analyse maps (including text on maps) and newspaper collections. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | TALK (Ruth Ahnert and Daniel Wilson) Building sustainable communities around data and software: Living with Machines, |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk delivered at DH Hub, School of Advanced Studies, on Building sustainable communities around data and software, using the case of Living with Machines |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | TALK on radical collaboration for the English Association using the case of Living with Machines delivered by Ruth Ahnert, Daniel Wilson and Tim. Hobson |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A short talk and Q&A session about the experience of interdisciplinary collaboration on Living with Machines |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://englishassociation.ac.uk/thinking-forwards-collaboration-living-with-machines/ |
| Description | Workshop held on how to integrate indigenous data into open science infrastructrue |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A workshop was held on how to best integrate data on Brazilian indigenous communities into open science infrastructure |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | meetings with stakeholders for indigenous communities in South Africa |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Stakeholders were engaged on how to best include indigenous data (pertaining to religious freedom) into open science architecture. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |