Every now and then a digital research project comes along which attempts to make innovative use of various available technologies and turn them into something coherent and extremely useful for an academic discipline. I feel that the IHR’s ReScript Project is one such project that shows great potential in this regard. Of course editing and analysis of historical texts is at the centre of what most historians do, but there have, as yet, been relatively few attempts to transfer this process onto an online ‘editing platform’ that can be worked upon collaboratively and make heightened use of IT tools that have become available for such work.
It will therefore be interesting to hear what experts from the field have in mind when it comes to transferring textual processing and analysis skills into a digitalised forum. What can an online platform do that can’t be done using more traditional methods? What might we lose and gain from such a process? The workshop and ‘Ideas Cafe’ will look at the issues from three viewpoints: the researcher; the editor; and the technologist. This is by itself an appealing approach which will hopefully create discussion of a varied nature and help to form awareness for each of the interested parties needs, requirements and desires.
The event takes place at the IHR on Thursday this week (7July) between 12.30-4.30pm. If you would like to come along to take part in the event please email Donna Baillie (donna.baillie@sas.ac.uk). We will also be steaming the event live on the IHR website (with the option to contribute in the open discussion session) so if you can’t make it to the actual event, please feel free to listen in online.