27311 - Humanistic IT (1)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student understands the concept of information and knows the methods of digital representation and the systems of automatic data processing in the field of humanities; he/she possesses theoretical knowledge, methodological skills and techniques to represent and process humanistic data.

Course contents

The course will guide the students in learning the principles at the basis of digital objects production in the humanistic domain, expecially in a Web-oriented dimension. In particular the students will acquire skills related to the complex process of conception, design and implementation of digital resources, choosing the most appropriate tools and languages, respect to the ideal model to achieve. In particular the topics of the course will be:

•    Phases of the project management plan (brief, benchmark, project document, production, development, testing, promotion);
•    Production principles. Character encoding and format, writing, usability of content, the architecture of the page, text and multimedia;
•    Markup Languages. XHTML, XML, HTML5, CSS. The role of TEI (TeibyExample; a tool: EditTEI);
•    Tools and models for the texts analysis. Indexes, frequencies, concordances (examples tools: Concordance, Tlab, Tapor);
•    Principles and environments for description, storage and preservation. The fundamentals of the process, the metadata (Dublin Core and Premis) and environments / infrastructure (examples tools: Fedora Commons, Archive-It, Dspace);
•    Fundamentals of interface design. Produce a mockup (example: Balsamiq). Filters, facets, positioning, responsive layout;
•    Systems of dissemination. The frameworks for Web distribution (examples: Boilerplate and Bootstrap); Content Management Systems - CMS (examples: Wordpress and Drupal). Complete sets (examples: Omeka, Heurist);
•    Problems of sharing and collaboration. Tools and models. The annotation in participated environment (examples: Catma and Pundit);
•    Toward Enrichment. Some tools: social media, SEO, tagcrowd, imagemaps, analytics.

Readings/Bibliography

The reference manual is: F. Tomasi, Metodologie informatiche e discipline umanistiche, Carocci, Roma 2008. Other materials will be made available on AmsCampus during the course. Students are asked to search Web resources that will be discussed during the lessons.

Information on tools for the digital humanities can be found here:

• DIRT (Digital Research Tools), http://dirtdirectory.org/;

• Digital Humanities Tools, http://dhresourcesforprojectbuilding.pbworks.com/w/page/69244319/Digital%20Humanities%20Tools

Teaching methods

Lessons will be theoretical and practical, with presentation of examples online and laboratory.
The practical activity of the laboratory should equip students with the skills needed to manage the production of digital resources in the humanities.

Assessment methods

The exam consists of a theoretical part and a practical part. Both will be discussed during the oral examination.

• The theoretical part focuses on the content of the manual (Tomasi, cit.), and on what was discussed in class (cf. teaching materials and resources recommended in the bibliography).
• The practical part involves the construction of a digital resource, using one or more tools and / or languages among those described during the course. This project, whose contents can be freely chosen, will be presented the same day of the oral examination and described in detail according to the project management plan developed. The project evaluation will be based on the verification of: technical accuracy, ability to describe every aspect of the resource produced using a specialized vocabulary, master the concepts learned.

Teaching tools

Classes are held in classrooms equipped with computer lab with PCs connected to the intranet and Internet.
Theory lessons will always be accompanied by a practical part: critical analysis and use of the tools available (Web sites, softwares, formal languages).
Will be subject to critical analysis the following categories of digital resources and related tools and languages ​​used for the implementation of these resources:

• publishing and ebooks (Pandora Campus Mulino Casalini books; interactive eBook Chialab);
• aggregation platforms for cultural heritage (Europeana, Cultural Internet);
• role of libraries (OPAC digital libraries [es texts. bibliotecaitaliana.it, but also images [cf. galleries and museums] video [es. Light Institute]]. A case of excellence: DP.LA);
• historical archives (general projects of the SAN. Regesta.exe activities. A case of excellence: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/);
• galleries and museums (eg. getty, british museum);
• a special case: the editions of texts (projects Net7);
• electronic journals (OJS - resources on AlmaJournal).

Office hours

See the website of Francesca Tomasi