(This is a proposal to extend ICT Guides; your comments are most welcome)
ToolFoundry: Investigating an opensource repository and development ‘ecosystem’ for tools in the digital arts and humanities
Summary:
C.1 The aim of this small-scale prototype study is to investigate and build a prototype design of a unique opensource community driven repository and development ‘ecosystem’ for the dissemination, promotion, and development of digital tools for the arts and humanities. The project will extend ICT Guides to better facilitate the development of tools; addressing a gap in the service and the needs of the arts and humanities community.
C.2 Building upon opensource repository software such as the version control system Subversion, the project will explore and expound collaborative practices for the storage, distribution, and distributed development of much-needed tools. The research will produce an online prototype as well as an extensive body of research that purports best-practice for distributed tools development. The prototype is aimed at the developers and users of tools and the present and future users of ICT Guides (see section E).
C.3 Description:
One of the seven recommendations made in a recent international report sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences was the need to develop and maintain open standards and robust tools for use by the digital arts and humanities.
University consortia such as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation should license software such as SourceForge, an enterprise-grade solution for managing and optimising distributed development in academic institutions.
C.4 The broader software development community recognises that the ‘distributed-development’ model is the most efficient means to develop and promote opensource software tools. This model can be explored within the arts and humanities community through the implementation of an innovative community driven tools repository that promotes and to some degree coordinates the development of much needed tools. It may also be used to explicate and promote the various licence agreements available to tools developers and users within the community. No such system exists in the arts and humanities at the present time thus tools development tends to be somewhat sporadic and unfocussed upon the specific needs of the community. The small-scale prototype will be driven by user requirements as per the JISC User and Innovation model and will be incorporated within the JISC funded ICT Guides service.
C.5 There have in the past been a number of noteworthy attempts to build tools portals for the arts and humanities and although there are lists of tools with valuable commentary and usage recommendations available (such as in the JISC funded OSS watch site and ICT Guides), there is no system dedicated to the development of tools. This not only means that there is a dearth of tools available within the arts humanities community to interrogate and utilise existing digital resources, but also the development of tools tends to be scattered, inefficiently replicated, and inadequately focussed upon the needs of users. This project will build on the valuable work of OSS watch and ICT Guides by addressing the gap not attended to by these and other systems. ICT Guides already deals with tools, but only in terms of a listing tools used in arts and humanities projects.
C.6 A tools development ecosystem that promotes and supports the distributed development of tools would greatly enhance ICT Guides and is much desired by the community. Such a system would support the development of tools in a coordinated, strategic, and focused way building upon the needs and great energy within the digital arts and humanities community.
C.7 Thus the primary objectives of the project are as follows:
• To extend ICT Guides to address a pressing gap in the system
• To develop a community driven tools repository prototype, utilising and modifying existing opensource software; to promote, coordinate, and disseminate tools for use within the arts and humanities.
• To create a prototype system utilising new social software techniques, that promotes and rewards (through interactive peer review), the development of digital tools and robust communities of practice.
C.8 Project timescale:
• 12 months from 1 March 2008 until 28 February 2009
C.9 The project makes a number of contributions to the JISC Users and Innovation programme as it utilises social-software practices to address the specific problem of tools development within the arts and humanities community. Lessons learnt in this community will be valuable for other research communities who wish to use social software techniques for the collaborative exchange of labour to meet a specific goal.
C.10 By providing a platform for tools developers to upload, develop and share code, to discuss and critique tools, to rate and evaluate tools, and to communicate with one another, the efficiencies of tools development is greatly increased. The project will explore ways to:
• Greatly increase the productivity of tools developers within the arts and humanities who will be able to build on the previous work done and share the load of development
• Facilitate the formation of distributed communities of practice to build tools or the arts and humanities
• Provide a user-involvement, peer-review system, utilising innovative social software techniques, to focus the energies of the community upon appropriate tools development.
• Promote common standards, tool-interoperability, and a sustainable community of developers to incubate ideas.
• Promote the take up of tools developed for the digital arts and humanities and provide valuable feedback about the use of those tools within real-world research contexts
• Integrate the system within ICT Guides.
• Explore options for integrating the system with other JISC funded initiatives such as OSS watch and Intute
• Build an economy of reward and ‘social capitol’ within the arts and humanities c ommunity in terms of tools development.
C. Quality of proposal and robustness of workplan
D.1 Workpackage 1: Project Management
This workpackage includes all management activities, including planning, coordination with external bodies, reporting, and assessment of risks and opportunities as the project progresses. It also covers project advocacy and dissemination.
D.2 Deliverables will include:
• Detailed project plan
• Progress and risk assessment reports
• Dissemination activities including tools workshops
• Software development and integration with ICT Guides
D.3 Workpackage 2: Use Cases
To ensure that the project is grounded in authentic user requirements, the research will first produce a detailed set of Use Cases relating to tools development. In particular it will investigate and document the requirements of the community for distributed tools development. The Use Cases will expand and enhance previous work done by the AHRC funded Methods Network and the AHRC ICT programme on ‘knowledge gathering’ and ‘resource development’. The AHDS has many years of experience in producing both Use Cases and in framing scoping studies that measure user requirements; through such reports as ‘Getting to Know our Audience’; the AHDS Performing Arts Scoping Study, and the AHRC funded ‘e-Science Scoping Study’. The Use Cases will be used to develop the system and will overlap significantly with WP 3 (Community Development).
D.4 Deliverables:
• Detailed use cases
D.5 Workpackage 3: Community Development
The AHDS has demonstrated experience in the community development and stakeholder analysis methodologies required to successfully undertake this project. The AHDS has worked closely with the AHRC funded Methods Network over the past three years and one of its members are involved in this bid. The aim of the Methods Network is to develop, promote, and build capacity nationwide in the use of ICT for arts and humanities research, in particular funding a range of projects and services that complement those already funded by the AHRC (and other national bodies such as JISC). The Methods Network is now incorporated within King’s new e-Research centre (CeRch); and the AHDS.
D.6 In a recent Methods Network funded event on tools development (which will be followed up in November of this year where this proposal will be presented), a group of senior academics, all experienced in the development of digital tools in the arts and humanities, stated that there needed to be a much stronger coordination of tools development. In particularly they stated that the promotion and ‘sustainability of tools over the long term was of crucial importance’ and stressed the need for ‘collaborative approaches’ that addressed the needs of the community that ‘should be evaluated from the outset’. This workpackage will specifically target developers of tools within the digital arts and humanities community utilising the User Innovation and Development Model developed by JISC. Thus the prototype service will be tested in subject communities and the lessons learned from this will be used to feed-back into the design of the system.
D.7 Deliverables
• Detailed report of interviews
• Detailed reports from focus groups
• Detailed stakeholder analysis
D.8 Workpackage 4: Software Architecture
This workpackage will include the development of the overall architecture for the system, together with the design of the processes and associated user input functions, and other services. The design will be evaluated to ensure that it supports the use cases in WP 2 and the analysis produced in WP 3 (Community Development).
D.9 Deliverables:
• Software architecture document
•
D.10 Workpackage 5: Software Development
This workpackage will include the detailed design, adaptation, coding, and testing of the software so that it can easily integrate within ICT Guides. The approach will overlap significantly with WP 2 (Use cases). WP 3 (Community Development) and WP 6 (Testing and Evaluation).
D.11 Deliverables
• Opensource software adapted to specific purpose
D.12 Workpackage 6: Testing and Evaluation
This workpackage includes activities relating to testing and evaluation of the software specifically adapted for the purpose of distributed tools development in the arts and humanities. To ensure the high quality and relevance of the system for the arts and humanities community, we intend to invest a significant amount of time on rigorous testing within the community. We will work in conjunction with tools developers and continually test the service online. CeRch (which will take forward the work of the AHDS and the Methods Network), and our related organisation; the Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH), have close links with tools developers in the arts and humanities community and we have national and international reach.
D.13 Testing activities will cover:
Deliverables:
• Modified source code
• Reports from testing
D.14 Workpackage 7: Final Reports
Produce final versions of all documents. Many documents will be produced in the first instance as drafts, and will be subject to update during the project as a result of feedback from user evaluation and other sources. In addition we will produce a Final Report, incorporating case studies addressing:
• The application of the service within the diverse arts and humanities community
• The experience of the shared-labour ‘distributed’ devices designed in the service
D.15 Deliverables:
• Final version of reports and other documentation
• Final release of software
• Final report, incorporating case studies
D.16 Summary of Main Deliverables:
• A set of Use Cases that will be utilised to design the system
• Modified code of Subversion or other open source products used in the project
• Criteria for evaluation and ‘peer review’ that promotes an economy of reward utilising Web 2.0 tools and techniques.
• An fully functional prototype online portal/ecosystem for tools development within the digital arts and humanities
• Case studies addressing the usefulness of the system for tools development
• Recommendations on the future development of such a system
• Integration with ICT Guides
D. Engagement with the community
E.1 The proposed project builds upon the extensive work already done in the arts and humanities community through the JISC funded ICT Guides and is strengthened by the relationship.
E.2 The key principles that inform the ICT Guides project are to develop a sustainable service that is of high quality, regularity, and usefulness for both the digital arts and humanities and the higher education sector in the UK. ICT Guides seeks to promote the use of ICTs in research and learning in the UK through cataloging good-practice digital arts and humanities projects so that humanities scholars can better equip themselves to build and use digital resources at the highest international level. ICT Guides is a unique service that records and disseminates the core research activity within the digital arts and humanities thus is makes a lot of sense to incorporate this new project within the established ICT Guides framework.
E.3 ICT Guides is the only portal of its type within the digital arts and humanities field and has become a core resource in the field; listing many definitive projects along with the methods and tools used is their construction. ICT Guides is built upon a conceptually solid, relational database model that not only lists numerous important projects, but also documents the tools and methods used within their construction. There is no other service available online that catalogues the key methods used in the digital humanities field (and methods are central to the digital humanities research activity). Having these projects and methods recorded in a central place means that later projects; seeking funding or otherwise, can benefit from the work that has already been done in the field and thus advance it.
E.4 It is the encouragement to develop new resources in the digital arts and humanities that is the raison detre of this new proposal, but in terms of advancing tools development, ICT Guides could do much better. At the moment ICT Guides simply lists tools in a relational manner; but it could be extended to promote the development of tools as well as the development of projects, which is currently its main function. It is tools development that is one of the most pressing needs of the arts and humanities community and through stakeholder analysis, focus groups, interviews, use cases, and the deployment of JISC’s User and Innovation development model, the requirements of the community will be thoroughly assessed to inform the prototype system to be incorporated within ICT Guides.
E.5 The knowledge gained in this exercise will be of immense value to the ICT Guides project as a whole as it will be used to inform the long term development of the service. ICT Guides is being developed in the medium-term as a ‘community platform’ and ‘web-service’ utilising Web 2.0 techniques and this new project will greatly augment the knowledge required to reach these goals. (Also see: WP 3 ‘Community Development’).
E. Budget
F.1 The project will provide JISC with value for money as it builds upon previous work done at the AHDS thorough ICT Guides and also provides a coordinated way to develop tools in the broader arts and humanities community thus addressing inefficiencies in the present isolated development models.
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