tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025015963470395882024-03-12T17:08:17.795-07:00Tudor and other studiesWelcome! You may read here my papers I am working on nowadays. Any comment would make me happy and grateful.Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-55209885928963272102023-06-08T10:51:00.000-07:002023-06-08T10:51:37.844-07:00A Scholarly Home: Closing Speech of the Theatralia Conference<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">It is a privilege for me to
have been selected as the speaker to deliver one of the concluding addresses at
our conference.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: HU;">I would like to express my
heartfelt gratitude to the institutions whose support made this conference a
resounding success. Foremost among them is the Masaryk University and its
exceptional Department of Theatre Studies. It is with great pleasure that I
remark upon the venue, which proved to be nothing short of perfect—a harmonious
blend of intellect and joy. The conference room itself was a haven where ideas
blossomed, infused with flawless technological arrangements. However, let us
not forget about the Other place—a sanctuary where primal needs such as hunger,
thirst, and moments of small talk were gracefully accommodated with delicious
food, drinks, coffee and tea, and occasionally wine. Furthermore, I extend my
thanks to the Visegrad Fund for their financial support.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: HU;">The achievement of this
momentous occasion is owed not only to the collective efforts of institutions,
but also to the dedicated individuals who have tirelessly contributed in the
days leading up to this event. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to
our colleagues who have played an integral role in reaching this point.
Firstly, I extend my heartfelt appreciation to the members of the organizing
committee, namely Sarka, Ivona, Klara, Eliska, and Lenka. Their unwavering
commitment and meticulous planning have laid the foundation for the success of
this conference. Additionally, I am deeply grateful to the chairs of the
various panels and plenary lectures, namely Nico, Anna, Jacek, and Ivona, whose
expertise and guidance have enriched our discussions. Furthermore, I would like
to extend my thanks to the students who have offered invaluable assistance
throughout this journey: Klara, Tereza, Johana, and Aneta. Finally, I extend my
most sincere appreciation to the participants of this conference and the
enthusiastic audience. Your active engagement and support have truly
contributed to the vibrancy and success of this event. To each and every one of
you, I extend my gratitude. Thank you all!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: HU;">In addition to the
institutions and people, I must express my gratitude towards the conference
itself—a magnificent gathering that had a single objective, i.e. to bring us
together after months of working together but not meeting in person. This event
has brought us together under the common objective of exploring our Visegrad
Fund sponsored project, which aims to unravel the relevance of Shakespeare in
our region, how his works continue to resonate with us, enriching our lives in
multifarious ways. The structure of the conference mirrored our shared purpose,
featuring a harmonious blend of plenary and shorter presentations and engaging
discussions on the four position papers that have been laboriously crafted over
the past few months and weeks. And let us not forget about the coffee breaks
where discussions went on, ideas were shared about Shakespeare, the project and
stories of more personal nature. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: HU;">Within the confines of this
intellectual and infrastructural framework, I am immensely grateful for the
invaluable insights I have gained. Pavels’s poignant words continue to
reverberate within me, compelling me to contemplate the multifaceted personas
that have shaped Shakespeare’s identity: the actor’s Shakespeare, the
emancipatory Shakespeare Intelligentia’s Shakespeare, Folk’s Shakespeare,
Publishers’s Shakespeare, Shakespeare for the initiates, Shakespeare as custom
and routine. Along with these, that our approaches may be geared towards dramacentric, metaphorical, and to a relation
to avoid hierarchies. Marta’s exploration of an innovative YouTube <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Henry V</i> and its relevance in the Polish
academic and theatrical context, and how much the play is “horrifyingly actual.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: HU;">The shorter conference papers
also illuminated aspects of Shakespeare’s reception. Martin’s discussion of
Machacek’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Henry V</i>, David’s
Fortinbrases, Filip’s discussion of the roles of the Porter and Lady Macbeth’s simply
put alternatives offered to Macbeth. Anna’s (impersonated by Filip) </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">presentation
of</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> dramaturgical translation, Kinga’s exploration of Shakespeare’s presence in
three films about Romani people, and last but not least David’s Dark Ladies via
Emilia and Lucy Negro.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: HU;">In conjunction with these
captivating presentations, it was truly a feast for the intellect to delve into
the world of position papers, exploring the myriad ways in which the concept of
border crossing can be conceptualized. Engaging in spirited discussions, both
in writing and during the round table sessions. The discussions started and
will continue in the form of commentaries added to the google documents. And
also during the round table sessions the teams really have been hungry for the
feedback to improve the papers. It has been a feast to understand what there is
in a name, what connotations are carried by a choice of how to refer to the
cultural region. How politics emerges on the stage and how this emergence can
be seen in a variety of border crossings, and how cultural memory can be
enhanced to shape the present by coming to terms with the past. How Shakespeare
has been popularized around us, what the common features are and what the
national, territorial differences are to be seen, from mobility to the
burlesque, from cabaret and television to experimental theatre practices. How
theatrical blending, i.e. textual/intermedial/transmedial hybridity takes place
with Shakespeare, from ballet and dance theatre, through puppetry, to musical,
and opera, in which the movement away from the text enables inter-and
transnationality. Furthermore, it has been a fascinating endeavour to identify
the areas of overlap, recognizing the gaps that present themselves as
opportunities for enrichment, and exploring ways in which we can harness the
achievements of other teams.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: HU;">What is it that we are going
to take home? Peace and happiness? Yes, because we have achieved much as far as
the project is concerned. No, because we also see that there is much work ahead
before the position papers can be handed in on 31 August.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: HU;">But more importantly what we
take away is a sense of home. Amidst all the differences that we carry with us,
it is remarkable to recognize that we can find a sense of belonging within this
region. It is a delightful reminder that even while being far away from our
familiar surroundings, here in Brno, at the Masaryk University’s Department of
Theatre Studies, we can create a collective feeling of being at home. This sense
of home emerges from our unwavering ability to continually discover the shared
threads that bind us, transforming us into a scholarly family. Together, we
embark on an intellectual journey where humanist friendship flourishes, and our
diverse perspectives converge, creating a harmonious tapestry that transcends
physical, cultural and personal borders. It is through this profound connection
that we find solace, kinship, and a sense of belonging, despite the distances
that may separate us. So let us take this sense of scholarly home with us when
heading home!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: HU;">(7 June, 2023, Masaryk University, Brno)</span></p>Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-61122763499234524402023-03-02T01:14:00.000-08:002023-03-02T01:14:48.440-08:00ChatGPT and Higher Education<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY7ZMGLroce93965O6jfGagAETmboCMlyIdQCsP1CShMrkJYPGRGXEvH_7XmTAbQnKO9JYgyMUIIQSIHWDBsAT2llwqDpOwDXm4_Z0SFuDPXg0JdDkOlFf4at6jQyvF7vZ_ZEHQUBpqJ5d6glu6_SjFsAkZgWypvbhGcfb-JyodUcw8FS9Mg-l0Ap-/s512/UWqALfo8aL0G5dyqJAPr--3--b2lbk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY7ZMGLroce93965O6jfGagAETmboCMlyIdQCsP1CShMrkJYPGRGXEvH_7XmTAbQnKO9JYgyMUIIQSIHWDBsAT2llwqDpOwDXm4_Z0SFuDPXg0JdDkOlFf4at6jQyvF7vZ_ZEHQUBpqJ5d6glu6_SjFsAkZgWypvbhGcfb-JyodUcw8FS9Mg-l0Ap-/w266-h266/UWqALfo8aL0G5dyqJAPr--3--b2lbk.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NightCafé Studio 02/03/2023</td></tr></tbody></table>As
the arrival of ChatGPT has opened up new possibilities for students to complete
written assignments, universities must carefully consider how to approach this
new tool in their policies. This careful consideration is even more important
for universities where the students are not native speakers of English, where
linguistic proficiency is part of the evaluation of student performance. There
are several options available, each with its own advantages and drawbacks, but my preference is some forward-looking option.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">One
option is to ban the use of ChatGPT and to implement severe punishments for any
students caught using it. This a choice made by a few educational institutions
worldwide, and the advantage is that this is clear and simple. However, this
approach may not be practical, as it may be difficult to monitor the use of
this tool effectively, even if there have been tools developed to spot the use
of ChatGPT. Moreover, some students may still find ways to use ChatGPT
discreetly, making it difficult to enforce such a policy effectively.<o:p></o:p></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjws4FLPrsAHaGwjG69a6l_k3pn_tZCuZC6R5EGaM1KqsDlHcnLP3zbwP2cptCUp58b8zLJvnXqrqBQ86ChKjXdI0XtFo-_8dVXxy_l_svssUxhsneUIjllFHKDeLYwvVMksEYwCILcKYrYrQA8tu8kai0c0WwZYXVN1E2Ftqt7reIMGj_fGLJ0JCKW/s512/smecxGtTz3h45C8ffH1D--2--52ozp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjws4FLPrsAHaGwjG69a6l_k3pn_tZCuZC6R5EGaM1KqsDlHcnLP3zbwP2cptCUp58b8zLJvnXqrqBQ86ChKjXdI0XtFo-_8dVXxy_l_svssUxhsneUIjllFHKDeLYwvVMksEYwCILcKYrYrQA8tu8kai0c0WwZYXVN1E2Ftqt7reIMGj_fGLJ0JCKW/w200-h200/smecxGtTz3h45C8ffH1D--2--52ozp.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NightCafé Studio 02/03/2023</td></tr></tbody></table></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Another
option is to do nothing and to treat ChatGPT as a tool similar to spell,
grammar, and style checkers. If students can use the latter tools, why not let
them deploy a somewhat more advanced tool as well. While this approach may seem
reasonable at first glance, it raises several issues. For one, it makes it
challenging to evaluate the student's actual writing ability, especially in the
case of non-native speakers of English. Moreover, ChatGPT's ability to produce
perfectly written papers may be a threat to academic integrity, as it could be
difficult to differentiate between work produced by students and that produced
by AI. Thus, when it comes to evaluation, it is difficult to tell who is evaluated.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT_vgOxHtzGqZ1B5afZ6-aOsattO63AjqGbgX8F5eAvm2L0EMH0kInUET3KWE5BonDDt76mfATcoP-7QxvjRxCcRAGpGFH4q7v_AONl5fjO3MzbkmSTeWaA1xzLMpqO0vDO8bTe0VPhHCZBN34zNSJP5BxWfVLXAV68FzZXL7l75a2VYDVjva07Fv-/s512/UWqALfo8aL0G5dyqJAPr--1--189nm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT_vgOxHtzGqZ1B5afZ6-aOsattO63AjqGbgX8F5eAvm2L0EMH0kInUET3KWE5BonDDt76mfATcoP-7QxvjRxCcRAGpGFH4q7v_AONl5fjO3MzbkmSTeWaA1xzLMpqO0vDO8bTe0VPhHCZBN34zNSJP5BxWfVLXAV68FzZXL7l75a2VYDVjva07Fv-/w234-h234/UWqALfo8aL0G5dyqJAPr--1--189nm.jpg" width="234" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NightCafé Studio 02/03/2023</td></tr></tbody></table><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">A
third option is to abandon written assignments that are not done in class
altogether. This is again a simple and effective choice. However, this approach
may not be beneficial, as written assignments are often an essential part of
many courses and can provide valuable opportunities for students to develop
their writing skills, skills that are transferable skills, so can be used in
every walk of life. And if the future of content creation is the use of
applications similar to ChatGPT, then the educational programme enforces a
methodology that is alien to real life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">A
more forward-thinking approach may be to teach students how to use ChatGPT
effectively, responsibly, and more importantly critically, recognizing that
AI-generated texts may well be the way of the future. This approach may involve
revising the evaluation of written assignments to take into account the use of
AI tools, emphasizing the importance of critical thinking and the ability to
integrate information from multiple sources in the writing process. It may also
involve teaching students how to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of
information generated by AI. And when the students’ linguistic abilities<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJtIbsIEot1uEeWq7U1kidyGehm9H_0t5ahu2t23SMWEk06AAsLRTEnWXTBvfvMsZxrs558qRQ43GMkfcoP9eKhcV-Xc0RJSRu75fhG2xx-5w30oGFwvujYE89LsYKlc2aJKOTEkTZ2P7Sdr6YysZe3mQ5OQzXZR-yzEox2Fgc0JfJVwCjvVwp3l3x/s512/UWqALfo8aL0G5dyqJAPr--4--mmxd7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJtIbsIEot1uEeWq7U1kidyGehm9H_0t5ahu2t23SMWEk06AAsLRTEnWXTBvfvMsZxrs558qRQ43GMkfcoP9eKhcV-Xc0RJSRu75fhG2xx-5w30oGFwvujYE89LsYKlc2aJKOTEkTZ2P7Sdr6YysZe3mQ5OQzXZR-yzEox2Fgc0JfJVwCjvVwp3l3x/w229-h229/UWqALfo8aL0G5dyqJAPr--4--mmxd7.jpg" width="229" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NightCafé Studio 02/03/2023</td></tr></tbody></table>are to
be evaluated, the in-class methodology can be used. So teaching the responsible
use of ChatGPT and revising the evaluation methodology go hand in hand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Whatever
the chosen approach, universities must also consider what to do with students
who choose not to use ChatGPT. This is even more so, if students’ choice is
motivated by the lack of technological resources. Instructors must make it
clear that students have a choice in how they complete their assignments, but
that they will be evaluated on the quality of their work, regardless of the
tools they use. But again, the quality of the product may well depend on the
students financial background or technological interests, so the avoidance of deepening the digital divide should be in the focus of our attention.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In
conclusion, the arrival of ChatGPT presents both opportunities and challenges
for universities in their approach to written assignments. While it may be
tempting to ban the use of this tool, it is essential to recognize its
potential benefits and to find ways to integrate it effectively into the
learning process. This requires careful consideration of the implications of
AI-generated texts and the development of policies that promote responsible use
of this technology. What would be your choice?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> PS. I have given very detailed prompts and introduced quite a few sentences, clauses. So again, it is rather difficult to differentiate what is mine and what is exclusively that of ChatGPT.</o:p></span></p>Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-52296049611754444692023-02-07T06:07:00.001-08:002023-02-07T06:49:52.188-08:00Text Synthesis and the Beehive<p style="text-align: justify;">In the previous blogposts with the help of the OpenAi chatbot I launched a series of posts casting light on how AI may/will change academic work. In this post the starting point is that the way we speak about AI will inevitably determine how we think about it, so it seems important to create a vocabulary which will enable a rational discourse on OpenAI chatbot. For this end I am going to focus on the vocabulary to represent machine and human text creation. As far as the method is concerned, this post is the result of composing the responses of the OpenAI chatbot to a variety of questions into a coherent post. Again colours will distinguish between the voice of the bot and mine. Let’s get down to details then.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihrvM-J0a9A-bZEL8XOKWKDvL2GCwEIwatHS26wHL7t5z_eApR3zg0cX9zc2OoqhluUOIEdJG-AMAyOlCVSgNUil5tVZeySfph1nGqJpURnCHW8b0qGJM14Ro-MZ8a2js8tIcS8Dkxd26gUqabecvEACKmt51pi5ReAB30MaXcQyKuvCg8ttKDTNpI/s640/Fy7OkLJA0dKFPfyYKTf9--4--bcg82.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihrvM-J0a9A-bZEL8XOKWKDvL2GCwEIwatHS26wHL7t5z_eApR3zg0cX9zc2OoqhluUOIEdJG-AMAyOlCVSgNUil5tVZeySfph1nGqJpURnCHW8b0qGJM14Ro-MZ8a2js8tIcS8Dkxd26gUqabecvEACKmt51pi5ReAB30MaXcQyKuvCg8ttKDTNpI/s320/Fy7OkLJA0dKFPfyYKTf9--4--bcg82.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NightCafe Studio 07/02/2023</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #800180;">There are several terms and metaphors that can be used to describe the process of text creation by AI. One common term is "text generation," as it accurately describes what AI is doing: generating text. Some people also describe AI text generation as "text composition," which emphasizes the idea that AI is composing text from various elements in a structured way, much like a composer composes music. Another term is "text synthesis," which emphasizes the idea that AI is synthesizing text from various sources and patterns that it has learned.</span> In this post the focus will be on “text synthesis” and a metaphor related to it.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #800180;">The term "text synthesis" refers to the process of generating a new text by combining and transforming existing texts. In the case of AI, text synthesis is the process of using algorithms and models to generate coherent and meaningful text based on patterns and structures learned from training data, which can include a variety of written content such as news articles, books, websites, and more. The AI system then uses this training data to learn patterns and relationships between words, phrases, and sentences, and can use this knowledge to generate a new text.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUafAkjYKDK6OkJ7I5Z7qkv_E1-4yNU4UBHlhF1rfmBE2eH0Co2h_qN3303h91CbEjlJh_FVfTITmqI41hS1fEDdTQqc2t81xNPQ5RXJlEaVxH7kzMRxJYft3O6U90Qxska_HTGru1-d9OKTs0rgXeZYlqK9OoOyJQA6wXfN0w3up7cx7fLp4jle-E/s640/y15NKWUMS2qbgv8i2clW--2--8pu9i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUafAkjYKDK6OkJ7I5Z7qkv_E1-4yNU4UBHlhF1rfmBE2eH0Co2h_qN3303h91CbEjlJh_FVfTITmqI41hS1fEDdTQqc2t81xNPQ5RXJlEaVxH7kzMRxJYft3O6U90Qxska_HTGru1-d9OKTs0rgXeZYlqK9OoOyJQA6wXfN0w3up7cx7fLp4jle-E/s320/y15NKWUMS2qbgv8i2clW--2--8pu9i.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NightCafe Studion 07/02/2023</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #800180;">Two significant aspects of text synthesis may illuminate the process. One key aspect is that text synthesis is a probabilistic process. This means that the AI system generates a text based on the probability of certain words, phrases, and sentences appearing together, rather than by following a strict set of rules. Another important aspect of text synthesis in AI is that it can be controlled and fine-tuned through various means, such as adjusting the amount of randomness in the output or controlling the length of the generated text. This can help to ensure that the generated text is coherent, relevant, and meets certain quality criteria.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">To further explore the idea of text synthesis I will use an analogy from the animal world, namely that of a beehive. <span style="color: #800180;">Just as a beehive is a collective,” networked “entity made up of individual bees working together, AI text synthesis is a process in which individual pieces of information are combined and transformed into a cohesive whole. Just as bees gather nectar and pollen from flowers, AI text generators gather information from a wide range of sources. This information is then processed and transformed into a numerical representation that the AI can use to generate responses. Just as a beehive is able to produce honey through the collective efforts of its individual bees, AI text synthesis is able to produce coherent and informative text through the collective efforts of the information it has gathered. And just as the honey produced by a beehive is a unique and original product that reflects the collective efforts of the bees, the text produced by AI text synthesis is a unique and original product that reflects the collective efforts of the information that was used to train the AI.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The analogy with the beehive points towards the notion of the network, as the activity of the bees is a networked activity. <span style="color: #800180;">Text synthesis is thus similar to working with a network, a network that is made up of nodes and edges.</span> So how does text synthesis work if described as working with edges and nodes?</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #800180;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWZNwz06KJDVvvVMtGkRGBHqHeLtGE4upQPI3njpsfQsaTFXSYoh6z9cE6VFtNF5YlGLZPRwlTroo-r3ZeMDsnXoCMA5RiJ4LykS1p2F93j2cstUgOxCRf3D0ssBCoHA4FBrhC-45BD_lAv6ozJ_ZUkh9zsC0akDGDleYfIpyJGpFDytoQHRCbefoB/s640/OstJPp09OKnWrf5pg5vL--2--effmk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWZNwz06KJDVvvVMtGkRGBHqHeLtGE4upQPI3njpsfQsaTFXSYoh6z9cE6VFtNF5YlGLZPRwlTroo-r3ZeMDsnXoCMA5RiJ4LykS1p2F93j2cstUgOxCRf3D0ssBCoHA4FBrhC-45BD_lAv6ozJ_ZUkh9zsC0akDGDleYfIpyJGpFDytoQHRCbefoB/s320/OstJPp09OKnWrf5pg5vL--2--effmk.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NightCafe Studio 07/02/2023</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Think of each word or phrase in a text as a node in a network, and the connections between these nodes as edges. In text generation, the AI's algorithms use these nodes and edges to generate a new, coherent text. The nodes in the network can represent different types of information, such as parts of speech, concepts, emotions, and more. The edges between the nodes can represent relationships between these elements, such as associations, dependencies, and similarities.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #800180;">When the AI generates text, it uses this network to determine which words or phrases should be included in the text, and in what order they should appear. It can generate text by connecting existing nodes in new ways, or by creating new nodes and edges to represent new information. For example, if the AI is generating a story, it might start with a node representing a protagonist, and then use edges to connect this node to other nodes representing events, characters, and locations in the story. As the AI generates new text, it can continue to build upon this network, adding new nodes and edges to create a complete, coherent story. In this way, text generation by AI can be thought of as a networked activity, as the AI uses nodes and edges to connect and build upon existing information in order to generate new text.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In conclusion, after having seen that AI or more precisely Machine Learning instead of writing, creating texts only synthesises other texts into a new one, two considerations may follow. One that the concept of “new” is to be elaborated on. To what extent can we talk about a new and genuine text if it is a synthesis of relevant texts? Does ML processes echo the ideas of texts that it has been trained on? Two, and this is a little unsettling, I created this text by synthesizing the responses that the OpenAI chatbot provided in reaction to my inquiries and prompts. This then complicates rather than simplifies the discourse on text synthesis as a distinction between human and machine text creation, doesn’t it?</p>Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-41376040588605214672023-01-28T01:16:00.000-08:002023-01-28T01:16:13.386-08:00Creative process: Machine learning vs Human<p style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #800180;">Artificial intelligence (AI) has come a long way in recent years, and one area in which it has made significant strides is in the realm of image generation. AI image generators like DALL-E, Stable Difusion are able to create images from text prompts, and the results can be quite impressive.</span> Although both machine learning and artists rely on images made before them, <span style="color: #800180;">it's important to note that the creative process behind images </span>constructed by image generators<span style="color: #800180;"> is quite different from that of an artist.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoLQ9E4IhwB8XkjkwTdUnE8w5TCVHw6lb9zTrU5JEJOR_FxiBUflTzjzANxFqXKLMTbW9PpSxLpeMUwU0bhISASvRtt_3p2gLCk7fyYP2eYeGc6mLa8BfFd70o5HoaqrJ6Hk12bqiGfLBM8ab44_t1xwr9baxJKkuVmVMxIKkQx-zrhZreuzeJjclA/s640/8cqyAms2UmtMIR1SqmMR--2--4oemo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoLQ9E4IhwB8XkjkwTdUnE8w5TCVHw6lb9zTrU5JEJOR_FxiBUflTzjzANxFqXKLMTbW9PpSxLpeMUwU0bhISASvRtt_3p2gLCk7fyYP2eYeGc6mLa8BfFd70o5HoaqrJ6Hk12bqiGfLBM8ab44_t1xwr9baxJKkuVmVMxIKkQx-zrhZreuzeJjclA/w200-h200/8cqyAms2UmtMIR1SqmMR--2--4oemo.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NighCafe Studio (25/01/2023)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #800180;">Artists often look to the work of other artists for inspiration. They might study the techniques and styles of their predecessors and contemporaries, and use this knowledge to inform their own creative process. Artists might also look to the natural world, as well as their own experiences and emotions, for inspiration. The goal is to find new ways to express themselves and create something that is unique and original </span>in light of the traditions.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #800180; text-align: left;">In contrast, AI image generators like DALL-E use a different approach. They are trained on a vast dataset of images, and they use this data to learn patterns and relationships between different elements. When presented with a text prompt, the AI uses these patterns to create an image that best matches the prompt. The AI does not have the ability to look at an image and find inspiration in the way an artist would. Instead, it finds common denominators based on the text prompt and creates an image accordingly.</span></p><div><span style="color: #800180; text-align: justify;">This difference in approach is reflected in the images produced by the two methods. Images generated by AI tend to be highly detailed, but they can also be somewhat formulaic. They often lack the sense of spontaneity and individuality that is often present in the work of an artist. In contrast, images created by an artist tend to be more expressive and unique, reflecting the artist's personal vision and creative process.</span><span style="color: #800180;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxabq1QeFEwxiHWR5S4cE4Gil_uy2TZ-ClHxxqizG2f_OXOl9NGJKVYWCWs-VdlT3c1xlEvwzP3JwSTzjPSnNcoZEXNhiOS5otqo2juQwRKpi4b0QTpRW7gJkTRd3wQh1tRW5wj_EZz7f5-BmRDPavJEzoyI8jcqRmapDYkslyXGfAtk-nDLTk9KhV/s640/8cqyAms2UmtMIR1SqmMR--3--srz5a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxabq1QeFEwxiHWR5S4cE4Gil_uy2TZ-ClHxxqizG2f_OXOl9NGJKVYWCWs-VdlT3c1xlEvwzP3JwSTzjPSnNcoZEXNhiOS5otqo2juQwRKpi4b0QTpRW7gJkTRd3wQh1tRW5wj_EZz7f5-BmRDPavJEzoyI8jcqRmapDYkslyXGfAtk-nDLTk9KhV/w200-h200/8cqyAms2UmtMIR1SqmMR--3--srz5a.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NightCafe Studio (25/01/2023)</td></tr></tbody></table></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I<span style="color: #800180;">t's worth noting that AI image generators can be a useful tool for artists, and can be used to create images that might not be possible with traditional techniques. For example, an artist might use AI to generate a complex pattern that they can then incorporate into their own work. Additionally, AI can be used to create variations on a theme, which can be a useful starting point for an artist to create their own unique work.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzNmIp9UBqO_ulpVQ6WSlBn1vS1xisHGWmYYp-rp2WoTKmxyDEH_J-vYuPuIuajMuEJH3_07V0_TLxhnHxq42HsC3o2Qpfs71BAjR8G3E0R0_ytfDCLm7KlxzBhhBsEt41tKSbS6Fg_zBvVBevHHKJqeCgTzJQA04pkY2QdJITigLBaO7axZXGrfhk/s640/8cqyAms2UmtMIR1SqmMR--1--8xf9l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzNmIp9UBqO_ulpVQ6WSlBn1vS1xisHGWmYYp-rp2WoTKmxyDEH_J-vYuPuIuajMuEJH3_07V0_TLxhnHxq42HsC3o2Qpfs71BAjR8G3E0R0_ytfDCLm7KlxzBhhBsEt41tKSbS6Fg_zBvVBevHHKJqeCgTzJQA04pkY2QdJITigLBaO7axZXGrfhk/w200-h200/8cqyAms2UmtMIR1SqmMR--1--8xf9l.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NightCafe Studio (25/01/2023)</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">I<span style="color: #800180;">n conclusion, while AI image generators like DALL-E can create impressive images, the creative process behind them is quite different from that of an artist “even if both processes rely on previous traditions”. Artists look for inspiration in the work of other artists, the natural world and their own experiences, and emotions, whereas AI image generators rely on patterns learned from a vast dataset of images. The resulting images are highly detailed and formulaic, lacking the sense of spontaneity and individuality that is often present in the work of an artist. However, AI can be a useful tool for artists to generate variations on a theme and create images that might not be possible with traditional techniques.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">PS Similar to the previous post, I kept the words I wrote and those of the OpenAI chatbot separate when I was writing this one. As it is visible, in this post, my words are almost insignificantly few. This is true, but not because the chatbot has evolved between posts so quickly that it no longer needs my input. This post differs from the previous one in that I provided a more detailed prompt this time, outlining the genre, the required length, the claim, as well as the supporting evidence and applications. This raises even another issue, namely how to conceptually and visually separate the various voices and determine what is my work and what is that of OpenAIchat. It is very likely that in the forthcoming posts I will explore this problem in more detail.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p></div>Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-70241833312562762462023-01-19T08:55:00.003-08:002023-01-19T08:55:50.214-08:00ChatOpenAI, Copyright, Editorial work<p style="text-align: justify;">In the
previous post I used quotation marks to indicate the text has been generated by
chat OpenAI. This practice seems to be somewhat disorienting, so I am going to
use different colours for the two voices: my words will be in the standard
green of this blog and those of chat OpenAI in purple. This distinction in
voices is particularly crucial here, as in this blog post I am going to start
meditating about copyright issues.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_B4Yn5-6bveuU3KtvDuzaEiAHUf4Ms5t40-x5I-YHwnYnpeIUPCI8TFvpg4PBFyNhLPon0QP6Q01qLti2fFbeSXbksNJYzx-MVhKuYpNfNpkEwKRJxzoTfiT6ZD2ht_L2xjxUJDqxvec89Fj_wYBQ9-3onZn8AUKefKJdFW_2vatecRcAXlCb-JXz/s640/C13flTF1xJaXXnCDwIzC--4--3lul3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_B4Yn5-6bveuU3KtvDuzaEiAHUf4Ms5t40-x5I-YHwnYnpeIUPCI8TFvpg4PBFyNhLPon0QP6Q01qLti2fFbeSXbksNJYzx-MVhKuYpNfNpkEwKRJxzoTfiT6ZD2ht_L2xjxUJDqxvec89Fj_wYBQ9-3onZn8AUKefKJdFW_2vatecRcAXlCb-JXz/w320-h320/C13flTF1xJaXXnCDwIzC--4--3lul3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nightcafe (19/01/2023)</td></tr></tbody></table>When
generating the text below, first I asked questions from OpenAI, requested
clarifications, further explanations. Then I put the responses into a prompt
before requesting OpenAI to create a blog post. The outcome wasn't terrible,
but it wasn't perfect either, so I made OpenAI rewrite the post with a little
shift in emphasis. Although the outcome was already better, there was still
need for improvement, so I copy-pasted into it an answer to a previous
question, rearranged the order of the paragraphs, united and divided paragraphs
when necessary, and deleted sentences. This is what I do as an editor to
journals, too, so I treated the texts as one written by a human being. And below
is the result.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #800180;">With AI,
it is possible to generate high-quality content quickly and efficiently, making
it an attractive tool for businesses and individuals alike. However, there are
some concerns about copyright when it comes to AI-generated text. In this blog
post, I will explore the importance of properly acknowledging sources and
avoiding plagiarism when using AI for text generation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #800180;">First and
foremost, it is important to ensure that the sources that the AI is using are
properly acknowledged and cited. This means that any content that is generated
by the AI should include proper attribution to the sources that were used. This
can typically be done by including in-text citations and a list of references
at the end of the generated content, just as you would with any other type of
written work. It is also important to ensure that you have the necessary
permissions to use the sources in your content, and to give credit to the
original authors in a way that is consistent with copyright laws and best
practices. This is important for two reasons: first, it ensures that the
content is not plagiarized, and second, it allows readers to easily verify the
accuracy and reliability of the information presented. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #800180;">When,
however, it comes to training the OpenAI model, it draws on patterns and
structures that it learned from vast amounts of text data that were fed into it
during its training process. This data can include a wide range of text, such
as news articles, books, websites, and other types of written content. The
model processes this data and transforms it into a numerical representation
that it can use to generate responses. However, it's important to remember that
because the AI model does not have access to the specific texts that were used
to train it, it is not possible for the model to identify specific texts or
sources that were used in its training process. That's why it is a good idea to
perform a thorough check of your content before publishing it to ensure that it
does not contain any potentially infringing material. This can include running
your content through a plagiarism checker or reviewing it manually to ensure
that all sources are properly cited and acknowledged.<o:p></o:p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMlkyH6i5OdUAzk6pMDzgaQkat6a7LIxVbWfWqIbjsBvpfiqxtnGbaNTL_gJT_DK8SQJMbRSvIeCh_S0UTkZbyaZd7S-5eO5oDLDP7diH4SPMYbvc0it-uCz4qYbE46XdkoVeiBikgoaHAhf5FuLkzDH64TR2GSwA6EtAxlIq78Z8mWvxoZGf7o9uP/s640/C13flTF1xJaXXnCDwIzC--2--ki1sg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMlkyH6i5OdUAzk6pMDzgaQkat6a7LIxVbWfWqIbjsBvpfiqxtnGbaNTL_gJT_DK8SQJMbRSvIeCh_S0UTkZbyaZd7S-5eO5oDLDP7diH4SPMYbvc0it-uCz4qYbE46XdkoVeiBikgoaHAhf5FuLkzDH64TR2GSwA6EtAxlIq78Z8mWvxoZGf7o9uP/s320/C13flTF1xJaXXnCDwIzC--2--ki1sg.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nightcafe (19/01/2023)</td></tr></tbody></table></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #800180;">In addition
to acknowledging the sources that the AI uses, it is also important to
acknowledge the work of the AI itself. This can be done by including a
disclaimer or statement in the content that is generated, indicating that it
was produced using AI. This ensures that the work of the AI is recognized and
credited, and helps to avoid any potential confusion about the authorship of
the content.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #800180;">In
conclusion, AI can be a powerful and efficient tool for text generation, but it
is important to navigate copyright issues in a responsible and ethical manner.
This includes properly acknowledging the sources that the AI uses,
acknowledging the work of the AI itself and avoiding plagiarism. By following
these best practices, we can ensure that the benefits of AI are realized while
also respecting the rights of others.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">It should
also be emphasized though that it is rather challenging to accurately credit
OpenAI’s efforts because I was unable to colour-code the editorial efforts and
prompts that went into the creation of this particular text. Therefore, in
terms of execution of the task and drawing of conclusions, this article may be
considered a failure in and of itself. Even if this is the case, I hope it has
at least provided some food for thought. If you have suggestions for how to
properly attribute OpenAI’s work, please leave them in the comment area below.
You may also do this if you think there is something in the text that needs
more explanation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-84861688296215484532023-01-07T01:06:00.000-08:002023-01-07T01:06:23.310-08:00Artificial Intelligence and Academic Work – introductory thoughts<p> <span style="text-align: justify;">“As someone who is interested in the
intersection of artificial intelligence and academia, I have been closely
following the development of AI text and image generation tools and the ways in
which they are beginning to influence the way we work and create” in academia. And
also as 2023 </span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">will be clearly about AI. “In
this series of blog posts, I want to delve into the potential impacts these
tools may have on academia, specifically in terms of academic work and
workflow.” What is going to be, however, more interesting is that I am going to
give prompts to these tools about what they should write and what images they
should generate, and this way we’ll also see how effective the tools are. This
post has been written mostly by OpenAI chatGPT, and the images have been
generated exclusively by NighCafe Studio. To distinguish the different voices,
I'll put the words that Open AI chatGPT generated between quotation marks and my
own lines without them.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYFTTWOVTsjtPAswQl7cxRrkYA-9LvlNuZll-cRVnE4i4iITX-A9uSdxqNI4XGrxvljAEcjbPOcfQrgrVIFoxiKPqgoGJr5ZVcVBEyOTvL1q6-KLHmGjDKzHxrJpLd0r-i4BUMIz5wibuRMDMQr7UNARiJeWvy8eQJVcJdTL7ykdsvw9Yl5tY7eNwu/s512/humanmachinecooperation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYFTTWOVTsjtPAswQl7cxRrkYA-9LvlNuZll-cRVnE4i4iITX-A9uSdxqNI4XGrxvljAEcjbPOcfQrgrVIFoxiKPqgoGJr5ZVcVBEyOTvL1q6-KLHmGjDKzHxrJpLd0r-i4BUMIz5wibuRMDMQr7UNARiJeWvy8eQJVcJdTL7ykdsvw9Yl5tY7eNwu/w337-h320/humanmachinecooperation.jpg" width="337" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NightCafe Studio (07/01/2023)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“What are AI text and image generation tools?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">AI text generation refers to the use of
artificial intelligence to produce written content. These tools utilize machine
learning algorithms to analyse and understand language patterns, allowing them
to generate coherent and often convincing text on a variety of topics. This can
be something as simple as a social media post or as complex as a research
paper.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">AI image generation involves the use of AI to
create original images or manipulate existing ones. This can range from simple
tasks like adding a watermark to a photo to more complex tasks like generating
entirely new images based on a set of specified characteristics.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">How are these tools being used in academia?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">One area where I have seen AI text generation
being utilized in academia is through the use of automated abstract and summary
writing “and also in higher education potentially by students to generate home assignments.
These tools can analyse a research paper and produce a concise summary of its
key points, saving researchers time and effort in the process.” Furthermore, as
I teach at a university in Hungary, I know students will start using it for
their written assignments. Instead of being afraid of this, I will teach them
how to use it, and show that even to be able to appreciate it we have to learn
much together. As I teach essay writing, I will introduce this to my students.
Also I will thematise its use, its fair use.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“AI image generation is also being used in
academia, particularly in fields such as biology and medicine. For example, AI
can be used to create realistic 3D models of biological structures, which can
be useful for education and research purposes.” Also for the sake of creating
illustrations, one may well use these tools. And also, I will use the images as
a model to chart cultural, visual biases, as the images are related closely to
the corpus that machine has been trained on. For example, it is interesting to
explore the image of this post: the colour scheme, the human hand (why a man
and not a woman – the prompt was gender neutral), why a wooden desk, no ring on
the fingers, why a pullover and not a shirt, why a laptop and not a PC, the
perspective?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“What are the potential impacts of these tools
on academic work and workflow?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">As someone who has seen first hand the demands
placed on academics to publish research and teach, I can see the potential for
AI text and image generation tools to increase efficiency and productivity. By
automating certain tasks, researchers can save time and focus on more important
and complex aspects of their work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Another potential impact is the democratization
of information. AI text generation tools have the potential to make research
more accessible by generating summaries and abstracts that can be easily
understood by a wider audience. Similarly, AI image generation tools can help
to make scientific concepts more visual and easier to understand for a wider
audience.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">However, it's important to note that these
tools also have the potential to be misused. For example, there have been
instances of AI-generated text being used to spread misinformation or
propaganda.” And it is also possible that papers, assignments will be written
with the help of AI. “In order to mitigate these risks, it will be important
for researchers and university educators to establish guidelines for the
ethical use of these tools.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Conclusion:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">As AI text and image generation tools continue
to develop and improve, it's crucial that we consider their potential impacts
on academia. While these tools have the potential to increase efficiency and
productivity, as well as democratize information, it's important to also
consider the potential risks and establish guidelines for their ethical use. In
this series of blog posts, I plan to explore these topics in greater depth and
examine the ways in which AI text and image generation tools are shaping the
future of academia.” If interested in these cooperative meditations, please,
read and maybe comment on the posts!<o:p></o:p></span></p>Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-73540245025402753662019-12-04T08:59:00.000-08:002019-12-04T09:03:00.890-08:00Opening Speech #V4Shakespeare<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: "consolas"; font-size: 12pt;">I spent Monday and Tuesday (2-3 December) at a conference we organized at Pázmány Péter Catholic University. These were two awe-inspiring days, when we listened to each others' project descriptions and aimed at finding the common denominators. The theme was "Shakespeare in Central Europe after 1989: Common
heritage, national identity," a topic that is both rather timely, interesting and also fascinating for people from the Post-Communist countries of the region.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "consolas"; font-size: 12pt;">Instead of providing a <a href="http://btk.ppke.hu/en/academics/institutes-and-departments/institute-of-english-and-american-studies/shakespeare-in-central-europe/kick-off-conference" target="_blank">summary </a>of what happened, I thought that my opening speech may capture the essence, the objective and atmosphere of the conference. So here it is!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "consolas"; font-size: 12pt;">And
therefore as a stranger give it welcome.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "consolas"; font-size: 12pt;">There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "consolas"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Than are dreamt of in your
philosophy. (Hamlet, 1.5.186-8)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "consolas"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A</span><span style="font-family: "consolas"; font-size: 12pt;">s at this conference and in the project we are dealing with Shakespeare’s theatrical reception, and from the theatre, we may well learn that words can be adapted to the present, let me adapt Hamlet’s words to the moment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "consolas"; font-size: 12pt;">We, 14-15 participants in the project used to be strangers until Dr Jana Wild, Jana has welcomed us, brought us together, initiated this project. We should be and are grateful to her.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "consolas"; font-size: 12pt;">Our relationship with the Visegrád Fund was that of a stranger as well. The Visegrád Fund did not know us before, and yet they welcomed us, the reviewers found value in our project, the administrative staff helped us through the ups and downs of the application process. We, thus, are grateful to them as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "consolas"; font-size: 12pt;">And we as a research team were strangers to Pázmány Péter Catholic University, too. And yet the leaders of the university, the faculty and institute welcomed us. And also it was an angel, i.e. Zsuzsanna Angyal who was the first to welcome us, and who supported our endeavours in a million ways. Furthermore, neither the project nor the present conference could come into being without my dear colleagues, Dr Kinga Földváry, and Dr Gabriella Reuss, dear, dear Gabi and Kinga thank you so much. So for this welcome, our gratitude goes to them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "consolas"; font-size: 12pt;">And though Dr. Wild welcomed us, and we have worked so far as a team, we are still strangers to each other. We, the 15 participants, from 4+2 countries (Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland + Romania, UK) and 11 universities have been socialised in different educational, cultural, historical contexts, national identities. So welcoming each other in Hamlet’s manner is still a task ahead of us. We should and I am positive we are going to demonstrate that in spite of and with our differences we will form a cooperative, supportive scholarly team that aims at unravelling the mysteries of that aspect of the universe that we have chosen and by our education and interest are determined to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "consolas"; font-size: 12pt;">God may help us in our endeavours!</span></div>
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Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-6317419742071881522018-04-19T09:03:00.000-07:002018-04-19T09:21:01.309-07:00Talk to the Scholar (Book)<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have worked on more than fascinating projects this term (besides teaching and administrative duties), all of which may deserve a different post. We worked pretty much with more down than ups on re-establishing Digital Humanities MA programmes in Hungary. At the moment though I do not have a clue about the outcome of these efforts, the documents are in the ministry to be decided upon. I am working on the <a href="https://msha.btk.ppke.hu/" target="_blank">Hungarian Shakespeare Archive</a> which fills me with joy, though sometimes I am not sure whether the time and energy I invest into this project are useful to anybody. I worked on the board of two Digital Humanities journals, a Hungarian one (<a href="http://ojs.elte.hu/index.php/digitalisbolcseszet" target="_blank">Digitális Bölcsészet</a>), and the other more international (<a href="http://elte-dh.hu/digitalscholar/" target="_blank">Digital Scholar</a>) and reviewed articles for both. Also, I had the opportunity to take part, teach four classes at the <a href="https://pds.ceu.edu/courses/text-analysis-across-disciplines-text-mining-boot-camp" target="_blank">Text Analysis Across Disciplines Boot Cam</a>p at CEU. For the sake of advertising Digital Humanities in Hungary, I wrote up a longish Wikipedia entry about <a href="https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digit%C3%A1lis_b%C3%B6lcs%C3%A9szet" target="_blank">Digital Humanities</a>. Furthermore, I am working on an online course focusing on Digital cultural memory to be finished by September the latest.</div>
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All these are projects that I just enjoy immensely, but all these would like to line up into a more ambitious project, i.e. improving academic life. This terribly, horribly, frighteningly ambitious project consists at the moment in two distinct subprojects. One of them is automating everything that is possible in a literary scholar's job, while the other is understanding and thus making education at an English department more meaningful. To put these more bluntly, I am lazy enough to let the machine do what it is better at than me, and easing my job in a way that I can tell my students why it is beneficial for them to attend my (or for that matter anybody's) classes.</div>
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When daydreaming about this ambitious project, I keep looking at the world what other people, teams are doing in this area. Keeping an eye on these is pretty easy with Twitter and RSS feed. The next book on my reading list, for example, is the most inspiring Cathy N. Davidson's new book The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux (New York: Basic Books, 2017), which I came across via my Feedly. The other finding is the <a href="https://books.google.com/talktobooks/" target="_blank">Talk to Books</a> project announced 5 days ago on the <a href="https://research.googleblog.com/2018/04/introducing-semantic-experiences-with.html" target="_blank">Google research blog</a> (THX, Feedly again). And it is this project that I would like to write about now, as it nicely fits the scholarly aspect of the dream project.</div>
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Talk to Books may well give a hand in research if it manages to improve diligently, and there seems to be every chance for this. Talk to Books is a project within Google Books and it promises a semantic search engine. What Talk to Books does is rather fancy: You ask a question, the machine makes sense of the question and searches 100.000 books at the moment and tries to answer the question by leading the researcher to books wherein the answer lies, and highlights the sentence in the book which seems to answer the question. This seems to be similar to <a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/" target="_blank">WolframAlpha</a> insomuch as semantic search is concerned, and similar to <a href="http://labs.jstor.org/shakespeare/" target="_blank">Understanding Shakespeare</a>, the Folger Shakespeare Library and JSTOR cooperation for both are to help scholars with gathering secondary sources. What differentiates the Talk to Books project from WolframAlpha is that the latter provides information, while the former provides information that is documented. And Talk to Books is more sophisticated than the Folger and JSTOR collaboration to the extent that there is an element of a communicative situation in it. Of course, the communicative situation is in a way a fake one, the machine does not understand the question as a human being would, and the answers are sometimes completely off the track, but the method of faking communication works pretty well.</div>
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The model underlying Talk to books relies on Word vectors, a statistically trained model of relating meaning to strings of letters by analysing the context in which words occur. The model, in this case, is trained on the contexts provided by the natural language used and includes a highly complicated set of testing, curation of verbal contexts, filtering mistaken contexts (noise) and reducing the examples to relevant verbal contexts. The sets of code that is under the hood of Talk to Books is Google's machine learning toolkit, Tensorflow. More about this can be found at <a href="https://www.tensorflow.org/tutorials/word2vec" target="_blank">TensorFlow tutorials</a>.</div>
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Now tasting is the ultimate test of this pudding, so let us see how Talk to Books works. I am writing a paper about spectatorship, so it might be interesting to check if Talk to Books may come in handy here. After some trials and specifications -- the user should also adapt to the abilities of the machine -- I came up with this question "what is spectatorship in a theatre?" After hitting the search icon approximately 15 books and quotations from these books and links to these books in Google Books showed up on the screen. Out of these books, seven were closely related to theatre studies and I found rather relevant quotations. Three of the books centred on spectatorship in the cinema, which is understandable as spectatorship studies are closely linked to the movie, and even these books referred to directly or indirectly to the theatre, so these would not be irrelevant either. The rest of the books referred to spectatorship in divers contexts, such as social research, folklore studies, discourse analysis, rhetoric.</div>
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The results of this simple search are telling on three accounts. First, the results seem to be rather relevant, so the word vector technology lying at the backend of deep learning technologies in general, and Tensorlfow, in particular, seems to be promising. Second, even the irrelevant hits may well prove beneficial, because they help one look out of the box, bump into scholarly findings semantically but not discipline-wise related to one's research. Thus, if I intend to be really generous, I should admit that the search engine facilitates interdisciplinary studies as well. Third, Talk to Books may well ease and help the scholar's tasks: it is easy to copy and paste the relevant quotation, one can check the context of the quotation via the link to the entire book, or rather to a page in Google Books, get hold of the bibliographical data of the book.</div>
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Although Talk to Books is promising I can see room for development in three steps. Talk to Books as it is now, does not have a specific target audience. Judging by these first impressions it seems to me that the target audience is the educated, English-speaking community of intellectuals. This wide user set is understandable from the perspective of the developers, since they need statistically relevant results to test the application. From the scholarly user's point of view though, the target audience should be the scholarly community, and thus the linguistic behaviour of the scholarly community should be more relevant for the textual corpus used for training Tensorflow. Second, again from the scholarly community's perspective harvesting metadata is still more laborious at the moment than it could be. If one intends to use, say, <a href="https://www.zotero.org/" target="_blank">Zotero</a>, one has to click many times, i.e. one has to go to the page in Google Books, find the "information about this book" link, search for the ISBN number, paste it into Zotero. Instead of these numerous clicks, one click would be better... Third, some filtering methodology would help the scholarly user on the one hand and a wider corpus including journals would come in handy, provided the application is to serve scholars. OK, I understand that Talk to BOOKS is about books, but scholars use journals as often as edited volumes or monographs.</div>
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In conclusion, I am just overwhelmed by the Talk to Books project. I am overwhelmed, because I can see my dream project, i.e. automating whatever can be automated in scholarly work, come true with this project, or at least one significant aspect of this. I am overwhelmed because I find in this project a promising use of deep learning technologies in ways that are already beneficial. And whatever misgivings I have concerning Google, there are amazing people in their ranks who can and do shape our digital futures.</div>
Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-91963951577076024952017-10-25T09:24:00.001-07:002017-10-26T05:01:54.174-07:00Conference, OJS<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Yesterday (24 Oct.) I
attended a brilliant one-day conference about Modern Platforms for the Publication of
Journals. Before all the important ideas I came across there sink into
oblivion, let me jot them down. I am doing this in the hope that I may use
these ideas later on, and that you will find them beneficial, too. As memories
fade into darkness soon, and I had no pen or pencil with me yesterday, I used
twitter for sharing and keeping the best ideas, and I will use my tweets as helping
hands in the act of recollection.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">First and
foremost the conference focused on the journals managed by the publishing house
of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, which publishing house is owned by
Kluwer. Now, Kluwer is a profit oriented Dutch enterprise, so let me share with
you my dissatisfaction with the fact that the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as
a publisher does not have financial and scientific freedom but is dependent
on a private organization. Anyways, this is what life is, let us move on
towards more productive ideas. Or no, let me play on a bitter note, the
presentation was about what value a publisher adds to the process of
publishing, and I am quite convinced that the work flow presented is needed and
is necessary. On the other hand, however, during the QA session the answer to
the question about payment for the authors and peer reviewers was just
shocking: 1-3-month access to the journal free of charge. Please!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilz10D_kGAFVHO8a25j6Mi-L_yP5G4IgFiW_u2e7gLUm7ugxs5rnjRC0tr5AWbD_qp-DQvmnUXhPLyw3CDqgYtCuwmNP6hz_8Bi7OoowQuw8OzfpNzv260hq_j731eKssp1UktnrHTjLc/s1600/open-journal-systems-hosting.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="150" data-original-width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilz10D_kGAFVHO8a25j6Mi-L_yP5G4IgFiW_u2e7gLUm7ugxs5rnjRC0tr5AWbD_qp-DQvmnUXhPLyw3CDqgYtCuwmNP6hz_8Bi7OoowQuw8OzfpNzv260hq_j731eKssp1UktnrHTjLc/s1600/open-journal-systems-hosting.png" /></a><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The
conference implicitly and the speakers explicitly were meditating about the
<a href="https://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/" target="_blank">Open Journal Systems</a> (OJS from now on), which is an open access and open source platform
for the management of submissions to and publication of a journal. The wikipedia <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Journal_Systems" target="_blank">article </a>on OJS is rather informative. All the
speakers agreed on its usefulness from different angles. Some speakers shared
their experience as far as impressions were concerned: both authors and
reviewers found OJS as something that added value and significance to the
journal, maybe the journal itself seemed more professional. Others mentioned
that the management of submissions is awesome, it is very difficult to make
mistakes, submissions do not disappear, every step of the editorial process can
be tracked. Another speaker (Andrea Horváth) claimed that since they had started
using the OJS the number of submissions doubled, tripled. The downside of OJS
is the learning curve, which is steep and occasionally the editors needed some
help when facing the then seemingly irresolvable problems.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA-6kEka9fKAvuHm9SYh5zQLydl8HhsMCdbBxaTXJtyp2wvkrIyNSe4YJFKDl38uVZ_sk1sJsktqFvd2AX58FCuJ8ZpAEJwlp10FT6-7eLSin9spZtYNkLvU21smD9CEPbzYo0T-qXYMM/s1600/DOI_logo.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA-6kEka9fKAvuHm9SYh5zQLydl8HhsMCdbBxaTXJtyp2wvkrIyNSe4YJFKDl38uVZ_sk1sJsktqFvd2AX58FCuJ8ZpAEJwlp10FT6-7eLSin9spZtYNkLvU21smD9CEPbzYo0T-qXYMM/s200/DOI_logo.svg.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">Another advantage
of OJS is its flexibility and compatibility with other applications, services. It
is rather beneficial that OJS can seamlessly work with DOI (</span>Erika Bilicsi<span lang="EN-GB">). A Digital Object Identifier (aka
DOI) is necessary for the sake of relating each paper of the journal to an, say,
ID card, i.e. in the cyberspace with a DOI that will provide an “everlasting” identity
to the digital object. Metadata, such as a URL, are linked to the object, and while
the metadata may change, though should be updated, the DOI does not. For more details visit the <a href="https://www.doi.org/" target="_blank">DOI webpage</a> and the relevant Wikipedia <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier" target="_blank">article</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbQoG5eYScmPQ1giLKl_AUjIrt-EgmxqM9DMs-3_Od63G5F_92sIUd2b_pbUnYPAKZ9Sf6-jujfGGjMU31RFhZs59OIOYtJztLmP2qsPKHoYYXSornZM2bNRAn4c-FVuxbH5GWhW4kpz0/s1600/ORCID_logo_with_tagline.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="1200" height="71" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbQoG5eYScmPQ1giLKl_AUjIrt-EgmxqM9DMs-3_Od63G5F_92sIUd2b_pbUnYPAKZ9Sf6-jujfGGjMU31RFhZs59OIOYtJztLmP2qsPKHoYYXSornZM2bNRAn4c-FVuxbH5GWhW4kpz0/s200/ORCID_logo_with_tagline.svg.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">Another
speaker (</span>László
Peregovits<span lang="EN-GB">) argued that
an <a href="https://orcid.org/" target="_blank">ORCID</a> is very important, too, and it works nicely with OJS, too. If the
DOI is used to identify a digital object, such as a journal article, the ORCID is the identifier of the researcher, author. The ORCID can be used when
submitting an article, is useful to link academic activity to a researcher.
This helps visibility for the author and visibility for the products of
research like research articles. If you are interested in more details about ORCID check out the ORCID Wikipedia <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORCID" target="_blank">entry</a>. Furthermore the same speaker claimed that they
only allow authors with an ORCID to submit manuscripts. The creation of an
account at orcid.org, and thus obtaining an ORCID is not a big issue, it
took me 2 minutes, surely adding publications etc. is the more laborious part.
This seems to be a worthy project, so I’ll sooner or later provide my data there
as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">During the
conference I also found that the people at HAS Library are really nice and
helpful. This is rather reassuring on two accounts. First, because I am a member
of the editorial board of a new journal, which is run on OJS. I can tell that
the learning curve is steep and one needs help occasionally. Secondly, because
if I happen to try to convince PPCU to use this fantastic platform for our
digital journals, then it is good to know that there are helpful people out
there who can and are willing to help.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">All in all,
the conference was absolutely inspiring. I learned a lot including the
significance of DOI, ORCID, OJS and some trends in terms of journals,
platforms and publication. I hope I may make use of this knowledge in the near
future especially in ways that foster Open Access publications, after all this is Open Access Week.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-57622821581251535462017-10-23T09:15:00.000-07:002017-10-23T09:15:36.319-07:00János Arany and Europeana<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This post is dedicated to
the János Arany jubilee year in Hungary and to Europeana. The two topics will
be linked insomuch as I will explore what an interested reader may find in
Europeana about / from János Arany and what (s)he can do with the findings.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Barabas-arany.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Barabas-arany.jpg" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="613" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Barabas-arany.jpg" title="Miklós Barabás [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons" width="153" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/%20commons/0/0a/Barabas-arany.jpg" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Miklós </span>Barabás: János Arany</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Arany_J%C3%A1nos_%C3%B6reg_k%C3%A9p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="563" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Arany_J%C3%A1nos_%C3%B6reg_k%C3%A9p.jpg" width="146" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/%20Arany_J%C3%A1nos_%C3%B6reg_k%C3%A9p.jpg" target="_blank">Anon. photograph</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The jubilee year (200th
anniversary of his birth) celebrates János Arany as one of the greatest
Hungarian poets, scholars, translators in the 19th Century. Arany’s poetry is
taught in schools, is recited in theatres, is published again and again in
popular and scholarly publications. He is also celebrated as a fantastic
translator, who rendered from Greek drama to Shakespeare a great variety of
authors into Hungarian. As far as translations are concerned he was not only a awe-inspiring master of the Hungarian language but also did much for the
translation of the entire Shakespearean dramatic <i>oeuvre</i> into Hungarian as the president of the Hungarian Shakespeare
Committee. The Committee was brought into being as a working committee of the
Kisfaludy Society and was responsible for the publication of the first complete
Shakespeare (1864-1878). Arany himself translated the <i>Midsummer Night’s Dream</i>, <i>King
John</i> and <i>Hamlet </i>for the project,
which translations became iconic, sacred translations of these plays and
remained so until the end of the 20th century. A more <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1nos_Arany" target="_blank">detailed article</a> on Arany
can be found in Wikipedia.</span></span><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9D6vmCvvdgH8xwJVZLA-2MWcC6PlaBmprXMtWrmBLw45Q-V0tqxowGi5ZpGaqi1OpxjQoRJ7qsU5NvEwRPIaInaQHgdvp1JG0nkjMf_84JVsw6Y1Qsp7jxzvgnMOEIPyVMo01LUS9o_I/s1600/results.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9D6vmCvvdgH8xwJVZLA-2MWcC6PlaBmprXMtWrmBLw45Q-V0tqxowGi5ZpGaqi1OpxjQoRJ7qsU5NvEwRPIaInaQHgdvp1JG0nkjMf_84JVsw6Y1Qsp7jxzvgnMOEIPyVMo01LUS9o_I/s200/results.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My screen image -- ZSA.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now, what can be found
about Arany in Europeana? When searching for the name “János Arany” the
user is given 856 hits, most of which are relevant and a few to be eliminated,
as they are about contemporaries and other topics, people, objects. Then I used
the awesome filtering option of the portal (gateway) to narrow down the search
for images and the machine found 435 image files. I have checked them first by
12 images per page. I could find this way interesting portraits about him from
a variety of ages and purposes. Some of them represent him as seated in
Hungarian traditional garments or just suits with his unmistakeable large
moustache, some of them show him as a middle-aged gentleman, some as an old
man. Most of the images cannot be included in this post (unfortunately mostly
Hungarian), as their copyright statement claimed that permission is to be
requested from the institution owning the object.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3w2oZCS4jLoY68T7mzKrLIk_Wz3o62JdSd9L-ex20Yt4mTP_501fzcTLJlLrC4U7qSJ81E-I_ZZtIUN_xgGKydmxnWtHmyPv6D2Wgzj6Ly6IbrSFJHJzKKuy4TMv0NhzDjEEC71P51Qs/s1600/Clipboard01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="400" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3w2oZCS4jLoY68T7mzKrLIk_Wz3o62JdSd9L-ex20Yt4mTP_501fzcTLJlLrC4U7qSJ81E-I_ZZtIUN_xgGKydmxnWtHmyPv6D2Wgzj6Ly6IbrSFJHJzKKuy4TMv0NhzDjEEC71P51Qs/s200/Clipboard01.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/2048128/3598.html?q=J%C3%A1nos+Arany" target="_blank">Arany's statue in front of National Musuem</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maybe I am too lazy, or maybe
I represent the majority of users, I did not have the time and energy to
request the permission so for the sake of remaining on the safe side I will not
include them in this post. The only image that I have found useable from the
Hungarian collections can be seen here: “Statue of János Arany in front of the
Hungarian National Museum”. The significance of this photo is that it fosters
Arany’s iconic status as the statute is located in front of one of the most
important Hungarian sites of memory.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqbpSTgiktlpBTnOB_YeWShed2c1Hyfe_X5RUmvevYDGe79AOBaFv-OWyhpjdPztc4Kdln9IbqAv7dXZZSB9GI9zWV1GQqTmkr12jLLfDP-Uiqwke262dKuuLM91HZyWDZc-ge1OJbAuc/s1600/2058206_10970_objects_H518690.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="703" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqbpSTgiktlpBTnOB_YeWShed2c1Hyfe_X5RUmvevYDGe79AOBaFv-OWyhpjdPztc4Kdln9IbqAv7dXZZSB9GI9zWV1GQqTmkr12jLLfDP-Uiqwke262dKuuLM91HZyWDZc-ge1OJbAuc/s200/2058206_10970_objects_H518690.jpeg" width="175" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/2058206/%2010970_objects_H518690.html?q=J%C3%A1nos+Arany" target="_blank">Museo Postal y Filatélico de Barcelona</a><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then I checked images
located originally in European countries outside Hungary. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2V5AQd7Vqut_rOaRasjxcHtsAWP3RpFMwaDxxI_qFkbvtRtjxCJnP1y7zCSTNkKI3fEk4V5WPatHRgnSiJw5RKdPQZe7rRS-IvhPKavFrh82mA09ud9jGpbRDd4AaZYrT9GqXd948uq8/s1600/2048047_Athena_Plus_ProvidedCHO_Institutul_Na_ional_al_Patrimoniului_CEB596984852479CA67E9361C5A9E85F.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="421" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2V5AQd7Vqut_rOaRasjxcHtsAWP3RpFMwaDxxI_qFkbvtRtjxCJnP1y7zCSTNkKI3fEk4V5WPatHRgnSiJw5RKdPQZe7rRS-IvhPKavFrh82mA09ud9jGpbRDd4AaZYrT9GqXd948uq8/s200/2048047_Athena_Plus_ProvidedCHO_Institutul_Na_ional_al_Patrimoniului_CEB596984852479CA67E9361C5A9E85F.jpeg" width="168" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/2048047/Athena_Plus_ProvidedCHO_Institutul_Na_ional_al_Patrimoniului_CEB596984852479CA67E9361C5A9E85F.html?q=J%C3%A1nos+Arany" target="_blank">Arany's armchair</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Having found digital
objects in the UK (Bodleian Library) and in Germany and Spain (this latter is on the left), I would like
to mention only the ones from Romania. These images are of objects in Arany’s
memorial museum located in Szalonta, Romania. These images can be freely used
(OK, NC-ND licence) so you can find some of them here as well. I am not quite
sure that Arany actually used these items, whether he sat in this very chair,
and if yes, when in his life, whether he used the inkwell below.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span></span><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span></span></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinkOYzQ4ymXn95XSloE5am-mAxg7IHiI4mRgc9ss5lxEhnYdFUdsWh8U9u57u6ljG7bB8FR3BKnODDfwTGrdkOV_6WfzLonzJj5YBWDCHaeHeKwH5pwGSMbYfLtQ8ko0Qsjbq7crqqVSQ/s1600/2048047_Athena_Plus_ProvidedCHO_Institutul_Na_ional_al_Patrimoniului_C7C3B66BE6F143F79B219EB9342789C0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="371" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinkOYzQ4ymXn95XSloE5am-mAxg7IHiI4mRgc9ss5lxEhnYdFUdsWh8U9u57u6ljG7bB8FR3BKnODDfwTGrdkOV_6WfzLonzJj5YBWDCHaeHeKwH5pwGSMbYfLtQ8ko0Qsjbq7crqqVSQ/s200/2048047_Athena_Plus_ProvidedCHO_Institutul_Na_ional_al_Patrimoniului_C7C3B66BE6F143F79B219EB9342789C0.jpeg" width="148" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/2048047/Athena_Plus_ProvidedCHO_Institutul_Na_ional_al_Patrimoniului_C7C3B66BE6F143F79B219EB9342789C0.html?q=J%C3%A1nos+Arany" target="_blank">Arany's inkwell</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Though I am not quite
sure about the intimate relationship between Arany and the objects, I am rather
positive that these and the rest of the items in Europeana are worth calling
attention to. And also that Arany himself is worth remembering as an
outstanding poet, a scholar and translator not only in Hungary but in Europe as
well. He was a man of great talents and used these talents to culturally
integrate and link Hungary to Europe, Europe to Hungary. Both the jubilee year
and Europeana remind us of the great cultural heroes in Europe, and present
models to follow. Happy Birthday, János Arany!</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-6698352664718254142016-12-02T08:19:00.005-08:002016-12-07T02:24:58.371-08:00Obituary József Gedeon<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-8ea3cf80-c04d-a4da-7585-c5cba4ef5cdd" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">József Gedeon (Igor Grín 2008)</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">József Gedeon, manager of the Castle Theatre in Gyula, Hungary, organizer of the Shakespeare Festival (Gyula), member and founder of many Hungarian and international art associations, died Nov. 25. He was 60 years old.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">József Gedeon was born in Gyula, spent most of his life in his hometown with the exception when he studied in Szeged, where he obtained his degree in Comparative Literature, and in Budapest to study Art and Design Management at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. When in his hometown he worked as an extra and then as an actor in theatrical productions, was a teacher of Literature and English, was the head of the Cultural Department of the Local Government, and became the director of the Castle Theatre in 1995. As the director of the Theatre he organized the annual Summer Festival, part of which was the Shakespeare Theatre Festival. He also brought into being an International Jazz festival. He was the founding member of the Hungarian Erkel Ferenc Society, the Association of Outdoors Theatres, the Hungarian-British Friendship Society at Gyula, and member of the Steering Committee of the Hungarian Shakespeare Committee, initiator and founder of the European Shakespeare Festivals Network.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">József Gedeon was a man of vision, charisma and uncompromising power. His achievements as a local cultural patriot, as a national and international figure of cultural life need no further commentary. I have known him since the refoundation of the Hungarian Shakespeare Committee, when he was invited to act as an active member of the board of the committee. Since then I have been in touch with him in a variety of capacities, mostly owing to events related to Shakespeare’s reception. He was full of energy and enthusiasm for whatever he was involved in: he was keen on giving a lecture on the history of the Hungarian Shakespeare Festival (he travelled 300 kms to Budapest and another 300 back home for this speech). Besides being passionate and knowledgeable about Shakespeare, the theatre, Gyula, he was always happy to listen to other people’s opinions, he was open to discussions concerning the conference during the Shakespeare Festival, but he was also able to disagree when he found reason for doing so.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">His death does not solely fill everybody who knew him with remorse but also creates a vacuum in the Hungarian cultural, theatrical life, also in the Hungarian Shakespeare reception, a vacuum that can hardly be filled. A man of heart and steel has been lost, a man who was one of us and also above us, a man who made history, cultural history, a man we on every side of Shakespeare reception sorely miss.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Zsolt Almási</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Secretary of the Hungarian Shakespeare Committee</span></div>
Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-82159089453815550872016-07-25T23:03:00.000-07:002016-07-25T23:03:53.124-07:00Academic blogging: why?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Now that the summer is at its full swing, when being away from everyday bureaucratic work, thus having the freedom to ponder about stuff that normally is suppressed by daily duties, I started thinking about why I love blogging. Although I can easily list a hundred reasons why I should not write these blog posts, yet I just love musing about ideas that concern me most temporarily.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">To begin with, let us see why it may seem counterproductive to spend time with writing up blog posts. First, blogging has no academic value, it does not count in one's list of publications, so it is a waste of time. Two, a blog post is not peer reviewed, so its contents may well be questionable. Three, this is at least a feature of my blog, that rather few people read it: it is not academic enough for my colleagues, and maybe too academic, at least topic-wise for others. And fourth, I do not publish blog posts regularly enough to attract readers. Surely this last one is a person specific problem, as I run this English and I also have a Hungarian one, the posts appear either here or there so the appearance of new posts are rather rare.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Though these counterarguments seem sound, I would still like to reflect on them. Of course these blog posts do not surface in the list of publications, and yet they are not completely valueless. The list of publications does not have a merit on its on, and I hope and believe that what is meant by scholarly value may change over time. But undeniably at the moment scholarly value remains a problem. Two, clearly the blog posts do not go through the process of peer review. Although peer review has its on discontents, I do not intend to rehears them here, first and foremost because I deem peer review a necessary and beneficial institution. But some sort of peer review is at work in case of blog posts too, even if not in the prepublication phase. Comments function as postpublication peer review, which is as important and relevant as the prepublication one. Three, the problematics of too few readers. I reckon not much more people read my other writings that are hidden behind the paywall, and a comment by Jonathan Hope means much more to me than many references by other scholars. Fourth the two-language blogging. Writing blog posts is really fun, and if it is fun in two languages, then let it be like that, I can live with maybe loosing readers because of the small number of posts per blog. Maybe in the future I will unite the two blogs, where both English and Hungarian posts will appear next to each other.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Refuting counterarguments provides insufficient reasons for blogging though. So why do I find so much fun in writing blog posts? One of the reasons is my fascination with Open Access. I reckon blogging is just contribution to the growth of Open Access content and ultimately to the cause of the Open Access movement, which is in a sense an end in itself for me. It also matters that I enjoy the process of writing up of shorter pieces. Sometimes I get tired of creating longer writings, joy is deferred so much that sometimes I sometimes get tired of that type of work. Writing up a blog post though gives much more immediate satisfaction, since I can finish a short, max. 1000-word long piece in an afternoon. And also there is no suffocating feeling of a must-do activity. Journal articles must be written, a book is under way, these are necessary parts of academic life, and I enjoy these too. But writing blog posts is really for joy: if I have an idea to verbalize in a post, and I have the free-time to work on it, then I enjoy myself this way without the pressure of a compulsory work. It is also significant that I just love putting ideas into words, as an academic and old fashioned humanist I believe in the power of words,that shape reality even if in the most remote sense.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Why I like blogging so very much is also due to the change in register. I appreciate the tense, academic style that addresses the initiate. But I also find pleasure in turning to a somewhat more colloquial style that shoots beyond the small circle of academics. This is one of the reasons why I contribute to Wikipedia with entries from my field. This doesn't mean though that I would have a clear notion of who reads my blogs. Most of the (small number of) comments on this English blog are from friends and academics, but I have no idea who reads this one without commenting. The Hungarian however is clearly read by non-academics as well, I have received comments from people I know to be outside the circles of the academia, and I am also aware of people reading the blog from all walks of life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And a last reason lies in the fact that very few Hungarian scholars have a blog. Although there is a growing number of academics who write blog posts, still this medium is not so fashionable as it is in the Anglo-American world. There might be some cultural reasons for this difference, e.g. shyness, not so much inclination for writing etc. The cultural differences, however, do not hinder me from this activity but rather encourage me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">These are some of the reasons why I keep using the medium of blogs. They may sound weak for some people, from certain perspectives, yet they are sufficient for me at the moment.
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Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-51974964277694260632016-06-03T01:25:00.001-07:002016-06-03T01:25:24.618-07:00Open Access and the new culture of information flow<div class="MsoPlainText">
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<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;">I consider myself an advocate of the Open Access movement not only in words but
in deeds as well. That said I have to admit or rather just because of being an
advocate I must admit that I have some problems with Open Access publications.
Namely, I am not quite sure that Open Access publications can reach their
target audience as effectively as their counterparts behind the paywall.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Creative Commons</td></tr>
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bWQdt3DkCE0wd4it/2r3kafuo9URK/9nYyKbvCYiH+n6iNaJlWw7Y3p7dzgcls0kpC1Ga8p1fgPts8Edf3K9mIKda+LvgvLG+qjgscBmxZ1KaRq0bL4CpXg7QHQwV6JA31sbUC9L2cylclnRVPiMSmuU8fVhtxY2YO1TxiUSmjryU1SVV+21LizyKteZCdSlLXVrOfArfoTFfbIxuFWuQ0/Mhb5IFmiU2Zxr4i2PZBCS2pJZym1U3Zmot6Ekqdi01wkZXF/qmyr1kKZLuSLoyuyacvkbjw5m7mEjgXKg7D4Bx70nT19jqBTE5NJVTzMqQ4991QRFot4fSk2FnPmQ88/9r2vDuTEr3VUqGlV+zEk6V7RH4ME0n1P12GMipPrcCGezo9T6afKcUlgGJ2ndpxqgKb+VoYwkgdI6TZMWiowky1aRvT4KemBXsXFwBAeataZmR14yKK2PSeFU0MlZVNaBGPagtBvw+YZsF1/n/rOK76BbybpSNMFHclxxMmB/xEG8ywaowTnxA5v1GeEc7UM6FnOxaOc4lYpl50YgMfJNa4czfORlQBVVBKr2FGmJnfg7+meSkq1qhLnWijKBkCt0C80HUoDRsfthFYiKotpRzCOlFFf8HxhMR6agBmT2IuEDA2wb6/5jaWEjUp0nQcq0IZYatLlQwxEZH+/Oah1NyECQVPaWHT6BO1qWHpqi2XXQaNK8gW/J/X6aGX/EyFe7IeXoc1mJVXnwAY4pBV6+QSOJXLENCr5Qz7qrY+dCJDaik8NyHDXLVtE2LjhPqEuZyJPjPOSYZZCmBbbfTvlLSxH3HtxK4V1vSVBtoOgUJSm7KzrDp/CBzivz1fK2G6+AzSekJ5D3kKSrLB0ZglQYkqRjJ9OTp8Hg4CGNcIAKE+qcBI3StOVGeotoXGwityw5gX5SHp0x4fytHvExpTmuWjCvnkBr4ADOTLlhqfMKpEdzFGn3KEBaV1y1KzatbEcVokdduclcMqSadcXg4YT2f9VW5ltw6toko+2qM4l6YkEJvPXaqlYzEnscly0Q0zzRg2ctJfhwOu2iiAe6t1EKPF7EqHwDRf3aY5vHf41tabGLI9fuUlKzzjku3awwxXM+2o4GM+V+5AN2Aq2zWDBcwwTRJLpwd5XbUYdbJpQJFh37r4U76z0eQ25fOfjbaYpMtqNkFKiO1lvGfgogDmWu4tyFFK3bypFEhMdGdt9rC5w4dpL9pAPfo/7REpG2Up+wQ5R1lrYs+OOc3hTl/hO8D+eF01I0pKvu4sk0h0ZSVYKpytHQUak/ub9NeV7AMh7DVtpMu4s2uuNI/Jb0nSOKGfZg/4spa2u9WC/prmMsni0/TkCO/tu2HlRBTMM1+cyJSmNy86GwDMzHPbTeo6vKfng9tR5ZQDwIu726GOpH4/WzHBgC7qvd+hjcxkaUOkZ+1yEMe6TVwvbpjnpvI5FDM1zqrimWMUUcvr7rdYwlEnqWLRraesd24ZnjqhcySqCo7cunNiWow0iWT0pFYfYR7W5ojx6bAlCo9aUT1zBOYARHBx119Z9C0Q577/dphb7ptk44Zvs6TRachREMONBOCTkna7fep0+14thJE3Sal7d3bLk+Qmd3mQ9wnke+nS9B/tG4W2d14N5JE3R9Z/YXNRKGC/3/GGtZtFMqlVH10S/obofWyXsJSkwtXtn6qgScBVoShw4Pq27hpd0pUD6hR+jTBrPL8gRk88D29bOamlihvQ50cAy00LMtrLqNHQ2jntuzlPA6DidY0CC41f3sC+ifJ2WWxfCwc1fUxAfGxV/jPbSw1Lr5dkO5e9JToEwr8lauH8pHwIOMJeaeZ3grZeV40/jRteWmA7MOgdS3PP1iq8qmBUzcMpd5lG3vHzXdFh3n5J5rO4JYIYZ8ft7lQ7h1HF5yKHPOWrcngZMKH0WUJDbq20niG6MEXL2kZByJdRLXLyo9r6V2YIAOlhOzL2FrnDDAFRy7Ut+gpPy+yda24pHzsQEx+7LQImFp+Xn8qNarSM+ZK7GsJxDCyhGGDBnh9okTbQ9vcRqqGLf6rxao/9ya2AyaE6Ctha3GZStQLbGKjPXbT6set+lxJLo1gZi0rX1cwHagR9t86wlyh3IMDWPtk9WoVQwfcf6yH1SDIzuIi/50AxKC27Q+HAG8pfFRWfYZwX7njXYsO8ZVCPq1/dTJT2ClckIWJFp8pS1om/0dqVkzKxmveZsi0o5v8PdFTBWpf5MuI+avNAZ9rCNP0FW19eKgdnbc9x6EZZ5kYYxOKlEzu1dMX2KKh0HhOkbgqWDb8D2RLUUqmQnTIuvFtwBpvfqv7cAeBCkUdtLUqqoTH+Ty4s35C+fCdGGGcp2RMHgjJ9lRBfuB1N2izzqbCLwUTausMCpCNM5la+cDvP3nTZhDvtsJlsMp1/MLwo+jF3UEMgwWFk++Tlw9o9QFOJ1YxzuSAgTPynrliO52ypfCueWHV4+CtUnpIRGsG570qodoxRL7Jq19+AyCygrDkFZkVHPD6/Y1ukXz2M4Pcj0uSzkNZkVHGEPQo4ihHy5iGT8qdD2v7Hppv912LrAGnZvzpeauaeIelhnOWncGrPq75kkjSnzixwZJdGUjpOeqJt1vq5lwwGHWnAPqlKAWMTFm9ySEytraFxEiwfSxEOFVftQBt16dAy/6ULKO0Rqj6I7J2mhb60BI36X3YnD2xSpSNL5ufREPDnKupGnc85BiuyuQ3H41n8JACm/PmVcgyg5Yma7q4mN2nGreD+d21yfttUbZCyh8IQ+bh9TZb6iEEIB6EXIdmp891kzhG1LRcVsPLjRedVZaoFtW3VUp6t6z03I+W4n5k67Zm3IlqTWrCUuY4G2aXIqsHtQ67We8cxywdtROCtkr1CZq0Yw634usnkEKgaRiUwKSdXZVcX2qdEbM7yYJuQ1VE4qC1msfzlihPO2HSr+NVTQhRfUNORYRy8YTcKzbI/M/hyHQ8NZ9XQX68ptlCaFJ0wBVLfbpawQM/7VzWXENyP3d6ZUGJDThzHOPW0fg4r20khMis/jO+FYBGU1oe0efe5POMjsRAQpDbt8sShiZjKa9sOmoBXPQevySiEVEKuTbD9Z6EzJZxqooDzluxaqfKTPt+2mXRYFpvy0SbIUnyzNHPb3meT8dNp+zFGn+uZePvAhpCBgLr1npuDt/6WlTdd7sjUhluxv8vmfr632LIhnQxvQ+p99+CUE9H4GA6veLqM/b9dI+lVgV+K8Ow+sIZW9MYtvOe9R77DpD2jpQMf2Lt7wIxOFNhUxLQ2/dUrV4ediH70vtqaCYjpmR9JNn9yXDO8Dc/t3e0UGpD3oepr5/rY9a/p4isDbYyri24w1gDGgPXe8iv6H77dHTAPdc4YQj7XfICtXrDDhQ3KpiPyMu9s9d/nzuLuuCvvns+/0j5IQrVAFb7+hqAu0kWTecHm3hSo/q+om3ytyVo7zwds9mSl+CISreuK8sTtcscC/yPcXeD/hG2ONr4QZkqnp0gx37cj7s91dGzXmf2QhFdiHGYdvJx2+C07qp0JH5GRJocfVculsRj0WW1nTz9o76xp6QWl0KpKb6Jus1I14V+93uUkSObGqLHpXS74Knlts2lfYyeuyTeBsMNXs5PZN9vRB84v2an8ZByV9Or+15PWG87O5+AamS+QzwRkfGeHtBThuAsmzz1F7p9xKsn8iDcdjKvMLqjb7M6gf1Hs6VKMR3QjJY4fQNYdz5Z99Mt1I6QOxkudPhqzw4blbEfiu0lsVBJ/VIvvH+4lyNxqbhpy463MkyzXD3o+I0aLxGqIYhKbXe9PXWhn7s7fLGYfU/4r4KOLYaD1rH2llqrpl+lEkPUzof1z/+UkSnNVBnnnZrOsV0d5L3CHx4saHres/3xL0XhbpIFro1RZEh/ms5AN06NukB374k2A5t0+ViohiJRX3ThmerL8KYn2GTpe4ey+CPrGOoEXa54Nq5pOlDniUz8GSRQyr15J0O8CeRdFTuoYVLqs53SvLdJT8jLfkNr3/dtzqZyPqS3311CkPE5Y01r5+Gdmzhf+xQoHEPsBLsoZgPPVfmvhdTtZ7SmH2i5y728CmiN8bIX4ChnICETc5R8AnazhQbIKvWYz/Y9yNQ6YkdIGWuE6qtd87QsLftltT4HRMFWesoNb3Y9CxKmno5cCuQv72Dn4Elz/bhA1wveFmCQ7WIqbFRmf/MOns3LPmJMHhL47Jyap5K9+l84SL//jWMfgjktar4QK27KRwersqja/z+5fuyGV+E4lQOkjy+ds/ThFdXbL99Pbo3xnKi2MmHZ7oHVcVXQ0aT2jT8A8w/pA4F2zpDX2qnsj4pXdCaH3+Dd1TiIl0QHVENQb0JxUShyh5nOBhv/nH41EAkX+UlxER0wUmaFVyhZMrJwIUj39rF1+HL/dkR1n9zeq6gZKYi5OoWwAN9TrH5aZgKnYWEKeHvB6u7Rxmqh8cHPDf3sv4CaIq6B6TUy7PeK1OFDz274MzRr9HiveBie8uPuz9yFovL0/g/fuMkteBO3NfyBHvytS9mjv5tD1/FBHkS2O5YFQIqBx//hgi3N8bEmSDJE/oSdFwUUnu73JeP5Po50Klhy4pEoeeD5gs1u/Yb/R6QYsUVW/1lZ1KLh8Ey/JIgoxtmpYiMv29IH0jeP/3vc3v9MKykKzblnMje7vkrchE9sHmUfkMpQnk1TcFg4xgeD8KPrhC+CF94vwvuN5EjW/66xtPay44oa9H9aoF/iYRbHuQGZWy5Nxo0lATDbKBdfp8zW0HB+offAshferRXvR05GMTnrx2a9QNwaVbPQ86C/A0/ApL00SsR/Y9BtQQuS9H6vG/3/8ed1fFKaI9XPX/39sF3grw72u2g6Pw7MrF9EePdbLWXdhTVYuXn75elKhycZSVvYtpRIu4VvfHLlbgMJLjHM5UwUvzBnOXUyXE22q82uCpgK6Wxt+Oio+fZO1FP5/Mh/if1Hl+GmeP1a3ryITp9cxGvls/dcpX+HwWHdVhw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" width="176" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GNU</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I consider myself an advocate of the OA movement, because whenever I have the
opportunity, I speak about it. Surely, I can speak about the concept of OA in
the greatest depth during my Digital Humanities classes. There I have the
opportunity to elaborate on the difference between free and OA, about the
various shades of OA (gold, green), the numerous licencing opportunities from
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.en.html#GPL">GNU GPL</a> to <a href="https://creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons</a> and the degrees within these, the <a href="http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/boai-10-recommendations">Budapest Open Access Initiative</a>. I frequently use the OA
button in my browser. Furthermore, I also am happy to speak about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz">Aaron Swartz</a>
and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Elbakyan">Alexandra Elbakyan</a>, about <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3268458/">The Internet's Own Boy</a></i>, and <i><a href="http://sci-hub.bz/">SciHub</a></i>. When reading
out parts of the "<a href="https://archive.org/stream/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto/Goamjuly2008_djvu.txt">Open Access Gerilla Manifesto</a>," my voice betrays my
emotional involvement, similarly to the moments when reciting Bertrand Russel's
"Preface" to his <i>Biography</i>, or when reading out Lear’s words carrying
Cordelia’s dead body on stage.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
</span>
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</div>
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Aaron_Swartz_profile.jpg/800px-Aaron_Swartz_profile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Swartz smiling" border="0" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Aaron_Swartz_profile.jpg/800px-Aaron_Swartz_profile.jpg" width="144" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aaron Swartz</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/Alexandra_Elbakyan.jpg/800px-Alexandra_Elbakyan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Alexandra Elbakyan" border="0" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/Alexandra_Elbakyan.jpg/800px-Alexandra_Elbakyan.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alexandra Elbakyan</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Being an advocate of OA does not only involve talking about this fantastic
concept, practice and responsibility of the Internet, but also I try to act
accordingly, too. Running a blog is one step towards academic openness. With an
English colleague we founded an OA journal, e-Colloquia, which is not alive at
the moment but should / could be resurrected soon. I regularly contribute to
Wikipedia, and request my students to do so within the framework of editathons,
too. I share the PowerPoint and Prezi presentations for my classes on
Slideshare and make them open on Prezi so that others can make use of them. I
share my course descriptions so that anyone can copy and develop them. I am
also happy to share my projects (scripts and texts) on <a href="https://github.com/">GitHub</a> so that anyone
interested can copy, download or fork them. So I try to act according to what I
preach.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
That said I also have to share my problems with accessing OA objects in general
and OA books in particular. The case is easy once I learn about an OA object or
book: I only enter the relevant strings in the search window of the browser and
Bob's my uncle. The problem arises when I just do not know or simply forget
about, say an OA book. If I do not know anything about an OA book, then I will
not be able to find it. Where is the problem here?—one might ask. Why would you
look for something that you do not know if it exists at all? Yes, this is true
and the very problem at the same time. I learn about books that are expensive,
written by authorities in the field, counting as landmarks in the discipline,
well before their publication, as news, would reach me very fast. Appetisers,
i.e. academic advertisements would call my attention to them, and by the time
of the publication, I would be eager to purchase and read them.</div>
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
But this is not the case with OA books. Their authors do not mention their OA
publications either during the pre-publication phase or after it, clearly
because of shyness, or because fearing self-promotion, believing that a good
book, article does not need advertisement, you name the reasons. The publishing
house does not have an interest in advertising the OA publication, as
advertisements need investment without return. Most of the time the funding for
the OA publication does not include the cost of advertisements, thus beyond the
fact that advertising OA publications is not in the best interest of
publishers, funding authorities never think about this: their sole objective is
to have the results of a research project published.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;">Should
then the cost of advertisements be built into the research costs? Maybe. Or
should a new academic culture of "care and share" be created? The
digital arena does not only foster OA publishing but also provides ample
opportunities to let colleagues know about one’s publications: they may be
notified via personal emails and email lists, the books can be advertised
through social media: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Academia.org. But do we have
the time and energy and self-confidence for this self-promotion? This initial
step should be made, I’m afraid. But then it is the scholarly community’s
responsibility to inform others about the news of an OA publication moving in
concentric circles. Furthermore it is also the task of the big names in the
guild to promote these publications, as their voice is stronger, it reaches out
to more people and is heard more easily. Does this mean that the channels of
promotion on the basis of the principle "care and share," a new
advertising culture is to be built? A culture that is not founded on profit but
on the responsibility for colleagues and for the welfare of the discipline?
Maybe.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Images:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Creative
Commons: creativecommons.org<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">GNU
GPL: gnu.org<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Aaron
Swartz By Fred Benenson - User: Mecredis -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/creativecommons/3111021669/, CC BY 2.0, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6587124">https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6587124</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Alexandra Elbakyan: By Apneet Jolly -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajolly/4696604402/, CC BY 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47280109</span></span></div>
Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-40883000403881699232015-10-27T08:00:00.000-07:002015-10-27T08:00:03.997-07:00Quantitative Analysis with Question Marks<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">The fall break started two days ago, and I have had
just the leisure to get back to writing a short Python script. I
have been working on this project for a while, but as a newbie I just take
steps forward pretty slowly. The script I am working on is supposed to analyse any
text but actually every modification I introduce into it is the result of the
problems I face when I run the script to analyse quantitatively the quarto
edition of Shakespeare’s </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Much Ado About Nothing</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">.
I am wondering if you have to tune the script for every text. But then this
would mean that comparing different texts would be impossible. This, however,
would lead too far, so instead of this let me mull over a specific problem.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In this post I am going to share one type of insight
into the text that I have gained when working with the quarto text of <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i>. When running the
script I encountered a problem. This problem concerns the hyphens in the text, insofar
as words divided at the end of lines with a hyphen were counted as two separate
words. To overcome this problem I tried to remove these hyphens from the end of
the lines automatically, but then I ran into a further problem: the machine
either removed them simply but left the words divided without a hyphen, and
this was no good, as they remained two separate strings. Or if they were
removed and the two halves of the words were united, this was no better either, because then the two lines
in which the two halves were located became united, too, and this resulted in
the distortion of the number of lines. So finally I removed the hyphens and
united the words manually so as to avoid the unification of lines. The manual
unification of words was beneficial on a further account as well, as I could
make a decision on an individual bases in which line the word was to be placed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizeywsVuK0cyMi6GQ4uH7bygiXVz_ELWZGZbVdRVQXQv1nRWpId74LnuRoK4Q9Mb5ETy2N_nq20k4F2v2aS-OuFtskaaQH8U7Gt1zrV_TXeLShdvrMDYpwwL8yd24S2y4DiEYKghIWXz0/s1600/manq+coverp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizeywsVuK0cyMi6GQ4uH7bygiXVz_ELWZGZbVdRVQXQv1nRWpId74LnuRoK4Q9Mb5ETy2N_nq20k4F2v2aS-OuFtskaaQH8U7Gt1zrV_TXeLShdvrMDYpwwL8yd24S2y4DiEYKghIWXz0/s320/manq+coverp.jpg" width="234" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When working on this task, which did not last long, it
took approximately 15 minutes, I noticed that actually compound words divided
with hyphens appeared in mid-line position as well. So what I did next was
writing up a short script to collect all these instances of compounds separated
with a hyphen, count the number of lines where there are instances of this and
also count the number of lines of the play. Once having these numbers I also
counted the relative frequency of the lines in which compounds appear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Compound words
divided with a hyphen in the order of appearance in the quarto edition of <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i> are the following:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">['turne-coate,'], ['Hare-finder,'],
['Ballad-makers'], ['warre-thoughts,'], ['ouer-heard'], ['March-chicke,'], ['start-vp'],
["heart-burn'd"], ['mid-way'], ['ouer-masterd'], ['day-light.'], ['Schoole-boy,'],
['ouer-ioyed'], ['tooth-picker'], ['sun-burnt,'], ['working-daies,'], ['loue-gods,'],
['kid-foxe'], ['night-rauen,'], ['out-rage'], ['ouer-heardst'], ['hony-suckles'],
['heare-say:'], ['wood-bine'], ['bow-string,'], ['hang-man'], ['tooth-ach.'], ['tooth-ach.'],
['Dutch-man'], ['French-man'], ['lute-string,'], ['tooth-ake,'], ['hobby-horses'],
['Ote-cake', 'Sea-cole,'], ['Sea-cole.'], ['Hot-blouds,'], ['worm-eaten'], ['cod-peece'],
['gentle-woman,'], ['night-gown'], ['Sea-cole,'], ['eie-liddes'], ['ouer-whelmd'],
['candle-wasters:'], ['tooth-ake'], ['milke-sops.'], ['out-facing,',
'fashion-monging'], ['trans-shape'], ['vnder-neath,'], ['gossep-like'], ['Lacke-beard,'],
['grey-hounds'], ['carpet-mongers,'], ['witte-crackers'].<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">It seems that out
of the 2589 lines of the play, hyphenated compounds appear in 54 lines, and in
two lines there are two of these compounds, so altogether there are 56
hyphenated compound words in the text. The relative frequency of the lines in
which there are hyphenated compounds is 0.0208574739282 . Furthermore, as there
are 22, 171 words in the text, the relative frequency of hyphenated compound
words in the texts is 0.00252582201976.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjU8qanbShaZX5sGD1wHIz1AM2OCzj3jou3engbO0RGAhUihZ6rCufgjEKeXDeiT9HYQjpFvTViij1oylxuYUFRoEmc1Q2gL9g7xF_fhLMfG5pNlif7MxkOIO32QmUearzzqA_qvhUchc/s1600/compound+script.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjU8qanbShaZX5sGD1wHIz1AM2OCzj3jou3engbO0RGAhUihZ6rCufgjEKeXDeiT9HYQjpFvTViij1oylxuYUFRoEmc1Q2gL9g7xF_fhLMfG5pNlif7MxkOIO32QmUearzzqA_qvhUchc/s400/compound+script.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Now why are these
numbers important? The significance of these numbers can only be gauged if
compared to another text, to other texts, because then a pattern may emerge. But
then what kind of texts are to be compared and contrasted to. Those of
Shakespeare? Or those of the printer? If Shakespeare’s, only the quarto
editions, as these are close in time, or all the early prints, i.e. the First
and Second Folios as also books of the same period or only those early printed
editions that go back to some form of a manuscript, as <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i>, because then these may reveal something
about Shakespeare? Or only those that were published by Andrew Wise and William
Aspley, as they were the publishers of the quarto edition of the play, or those
that were printed by Valentine Simmes, as it is his employees who created the
printed text in the final analysis? Or in reality these features do not have anything
to do with Shakespeare but rather with the publishers, i.e. Wise and Aspley, or
the printer, i.e. Simmes, and these features should be compared only to books one
of these parties printed and not necessarily authored by Shakespeare, as they
are the people who are responsible for the text that we can witness nowadays.
In other words is this statistical analysis related more to studying the
history of the book, or the history of spelling than to studying Shakespeare? Answering
these questions might be unavoidable when looking for texts to compare the
quarto of <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i> to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-67622187346214085672013-07-29T00:47:00.000-07:002013-07-29T02:53:18.765-07:00An Enchanting Day at the Gyula Shakespeare Festival, 2013<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I had the privilege to spend a long day (13<sup>th</sup>
July, 2013) at the <a href="http://www.shakespearefesztival.hu/?lang=en">Gyula
Shakespeare Festival</a>, Hungary. It was an enchanting day due to three
absolutely great programmes I could attend: a mini-conference focusing on
Shakespeare’s monologues in general and the “To be or not to be” soliloquy in
particular; Steven Berkoff’s solo performance about Shakespeare’s villains; and
lastly a <i>Measure for Measure</i> in the
Castle Theatre. All these programmes proved to be special in their kind, giving
inspiration and food for thought since then.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The most interesting aspect of the
mini-conference was what may be called its multidisciplinary approach, as the
participant came from a variety of walks of (intellectual) life. The eight
people who gave a talk at the conference included an actor, Steven Berkoff,
directors, Csaba Kiss, Yuriy Butusov, Emil Boroghina, and from the academia Maria
Shevtsova, Ádám Nádasdy, Gabriella Reuss and myself. I am not claiming that
there was much communication between the disciplines and approaches, but at
least many representatives of the fields of Shakespeare’s reception were
together and could listen to each others’ talks and hopefully learned from each
other—I learned a lot at least.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">After the conference and some rest we could
watch Steven Berkoff’s performance, representation and interpretation of
Shakespeare’s most notable villains. The list included Macbeth, Lady Macbeth,
Richard III, Hamlet (yes, Hamlet was also included, for being “a serial
killer”). Although the villains were in the thematic focus of the performance,
yet through and with them we saw the stage and the screen of Shakespearean
performances, great actors with Berkoff’s eyes. Or more precisely the focus was
on MAN, and indeed with capital letters: the mediocre, the fallible, the
fallen, the happy, the frustrated and jealous MAN, who is there everywhere,
over there and in here. It was professional skillfulness, self-indulgence and
self-irony that made this performance memorable and enchanting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The greatest surprise of the day was <i>Measure for Measure</i> by the Vahtangov
Theatre, Russia. The performance cannot be unknown to the English audience, as
it was staged during the <a href="http://bloggingshakespeare.com/year-of-shakespeare-measure-for-measure">2012
London Globe World Festival</a>. This very performance at Gyula really made my
day, as this production was one of the very few theatrical performances that
was composed and directed in an innovative and creative way, where from the
large picture to every little movement was worked out and measured with a
coffee spoon. The stage was located within the walls of the Castle, which
created a special atmosphere for the production. The stage was surrounded by
the high solemn brick walls of the Castle. These walls towering above the stage
created the atmosphere of a suffocating area, a prison from where there is no
escape. Or if there was some room for escape that was only upwards, as the
stage was not roofed, which circumstance made Isabella’s prayers all the more
powerful, credible and even moving.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">I found the repetitions and doubling fantastic, when complete scenes were repeated during the performance. The most
powerful repetitions were those of the opening and closing scenes where the
same characters and the same litter filled the stage including the Duke’s
immovable eternity, Mistress Overdone’s eroticism, the chaos of the Viennese
people, the painful loneliness of the characters with the exception of Claudio
and Juliet who represented through their dance some unity and harmony. Also the
seduction scenes imitated each other with the long row of tables to separate
Isabella and Angelo for the first time and Isabella and the Duke for the
second. The initial separation was in both cases overcome by the aggression of
chasing and catching and pinning Isabella to a table. Doubling was also really thought-provoking.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Besides the general features of the performance
I was also enchanted by the skill and refinement of the actors, especially
those of Evgeniya Kregzde (Isabella) and Sergey Epishev (Duke/Angelo). Evgeniya
Kregzde’s Isabella was the most innocent, incredibly unhappy Isabella I have
ever seen. In this production the question was not whether she is to be raped
or not, but here the rape was an unavoidable fact, the question was rather who
would rape her, when and where and how many times. Under these painful
circumstances Kregzde could remain innocent with her adolescent eagerness to
find her place in Vienna, looking for and accepting love. Especially her scene
with her brother in the prison was most natural, the playful chasing of each
other, the long brotherly embraces made us believe that they were really a loving
brother and sister. Her small teenage stature was played upon really thoughtfully
when during her first encounter with Angelo she was blown by the provost and
Lucio, and she was running up and down like a feather, a butterfly energized
and influenced by the male characters. Even here, she could avoid being seen as
a lightweight woman, a butterfly of the night, the frail woman, but remained
with her dance-like tiptoeing back and forth a woman who was both reluctant and
eager to plead, who intends to remain herself even under the pressure of the
unwelcoming circumstances. Kregzhde could represent through her refined and
thought-over acting style the mystery of a woman, the irresistible attraction
that does not emanate from hot eroticism but from charismatic innocence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">In her presence both Angelo and the Duke lost
control, which was acted out with utmost precision by Sergey Epishev. What
Epishev’s acting pointed out was that Angelo and the Duke were both dangerous
men, dangerous but in different ways. Angelo seemed to be dangerous because of
his repressed frustration that surfaced in his mania for order in the smallest
details. This display of repression appeared when meeting Isabella, in his uncontrollable
shaking which turned into an iconic long and mute shriek that he kept until he
staggered backwards throughout the whole stage. The danger in his Duke was
rather the danger of the cunning, indifferent man of power for example when dressed
as a monk, he played with heads as if they did not belong to living human
beings, when he did nothing in the midst of chaos, aggression and filth of his
dukedom, when he arranged the tables in the same way as Angelo had done and
chased Isabella and nailed her down like Angelo. Epishev with his superb skills
brought out form his characters what was the most frightening in them with incredible
subtlety.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">So if I say I was enchanted that <a href="http://www.shakespearefesztival.hu/vilmos-naploja/csucs/">very day in
Gyula</a>, there is not much exaggeration in this. The conference, the two
performances opened worlds to me that I still fight to digest. And for this enchantment
I owe many thanks to the Gyula Shakespeare Festival, the conference speakers,
the actors and directors of the performances and ultimate organizer of the
Festival, József Gedeon. So, I can hardly wait for the enchantment that is to
come next year! Are you going to join me?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-52836713970466363492013-04-23T01:07:00.001-07:002013-04-23T01:07:05.272-07:00Happy Birthday, Will Shakespeare!<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It was a beautiful and hot afternoon in June,
2012 when the idea of re-establishing the Hungarian Shakespeare Society was
conceived. The narrative about the conception and what has followed from it is
the topic of this blog post, which in turn is my contribution to the
celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday (#hbws) in the <a href="http://www.happybirthdayshakespeare.com/">blogosphere</a>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">On that beautiful and hot afternoon I was
writing a paper in my office, and as always Twitter messages kept popping up—a
peaceful afternoon indeed. I was just about to fall asleep, a post-lunch
biorhythmic problem so to say, when a Direct Message from Stanley Wells woke me
up. Kindly he asked if we were going to meet in Gyula, Hungary at the annual
Shakespeare Festival where he was an invited guest. As the office happened to
be in the US, at the University of Notre Dame, where I was fortunate enough to
act as a visiting fellow, I had to respond that it was rather unlikely that I
could make it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Having agreed on this, he—by the way—asked which one of his books I think should be translated into Hungarian, as the organizers of
the Festival could have it translated. I was about to respond with a book title
when it occurred to me that this would be a great opportunity to practice what
I preach, i.e. the power of collaboration. So instead of sending the DM
immediately, I sent a circular out to a dozen Hungarian colleagues to enquire
about their opinion. I thought that a day-or-two delay would cause no problem.
To my greatest surprise after two hours emails started pouring in, and five
hours later my fellow Shakespeareans from all over Hungary voted for a book, so
my task lay in channelling the winner back to Stanley Wells.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Now, four considerations followed from this chain
of events. First, there exists a sense of belonging to each other among Hungarian
Shakespeare scholars. Second, it is worth asking about the opinions of others,
because together we are cleverer and wiser—the title I sent over to Prof. Wells
was not the one I voted for. Three, modern technology can be deployed to
overcome distance: inspiration came via Twitter and the rest could be solved
through email. Four, all of us proved to be enthusiastic about forming general
opinion, or, in other words, shape Shakespeare’s Hungarian cult, as the choice
was made with an eye on what the reading public may need.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">These four considerations formed the premises
for a conclusion: this collaboration and belonging together may well be
institutionalized. Not pondering too much, when letting my colleagues know about
the winner of the poll, I also asked a further question about re-establishing
the Hungarian Shakespeare Society. Actually, I was not really surprised at the
fast and enthusiastic responses. The idea, thus, was in the air before asking
it, but somebody had to phrase the timely question.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">This way there began the meditation about
organizing the Society, which took some time. We pondered about what the aim of
the Hungarian Shakespeare Society should be, what kind of an institutional
structure would foster this aim. Many emails were sent around, many Google
spreadsheets were filled, analyzed by the time the new Hungarian Shakespeare Society
could elect a president and a steering committee, could decide on what the Society
should do, who should be involved and why. This time of thinking, brainstorming
and discussions proved not only fruitful but joyful as well, scholarly
friendships came into being and old ones got stronger, so this phase was really
beneficial. As a result, eight months later, on 26 January, 2013 during
the biannual conference of the Hungarian Society for the Study of English we
could announce the (re)establishment of the Hungarian Shakespeare Society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The identity of the Hungarian Shakespeare
Society was fashioned with an eye on the previous ones, as there had already
been three. The first HSS came into being in 1860 as a project committee
overseeing the translation of Shakespeare’s works into Hungarian. This
committee worked within the Kisfaludy Society, and the head of the committee was
</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1nos_Arany"><span lang="EN-GB">János Arany</span></a><span lang="EN-GB">, poet and Shakespeare translator.
When the committee ran out of money, it slowly dissolved. The next Hungarian
Shakespeare Society came into being at the beginning of the 20<sup>th</sup>
century to help the study of Shakespeare, e.g. a Shakespeare Library section was
founded in the University Library at Budapest. After decades of silence HSS no.
3 was founded by Tibor Fabiny and late István Géher. The objective then was the
inclusion of the theatre and fostering foreign cooperation. The years of political
changes in the 1990’s, however, brought an end to this Hungarian Shakespeare Society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The new, i.e. no. 4 Hungarian Shakespeare Society
learned from the previous ones and took four steps forward. The present HSS
keeps the objectives of its predecessors insofar as it fosters research, communication
among scholars, theatre people and translators. In contrast, however, with the
previous ones the present Hungarian Shakespeare Society has opened its gates to
another stakeholder in the Hungarian Shakespeare reception, namely secondary
schools. Also we have tried to balance Budapest centeredness, and have made use
of digital technology, such as mailing lists, a </span><a href="http://mashakespearebizottsag.wordpress.com/"><span lang="EN-GB">website</span></a><span lang="EN-GB"> and a </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/MagyarShakespeareBizottsag"><span lang="EN-GB">Facebook page</span></a> were created<span lang="EN-GB">. We organize public lectures twice
a term, the first was by Prof. György Endre Szőnyi about filmic versions of <i>Henry V</i>, the second is due on 10 May and
József Gedeon will talk about the history of Gyula Shakespeare Festival that he
organizes with great success. We have also announced a blog post writing
competition. Furthermore we have plans about books to be written and creating a
database for the Hungarian translations of Shakespeare’s plays to help theatre
people and translators.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">So, Will Shakespeare, on behalf of the new
Hungarian Shakespeare Society let me wish you a happy birthday! And if your
followers come to Hungary, tell them that the Hungarian Shakespeare Society
will be happy to provide the opportunity for them to give a talk to your
Hungarian followers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-72090145474234061682013-02-17T07:26:00.001-08:002013-02-17T07:26:45.989-08:00The materiality of a digital edition<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">In what sense can one talk about the
materiality of a digital edition? This question sounds rather odd, as a digital
edition, a digital text does not have, is not constituted by matter in the
straightforward and simple manner. A digital text is processed through
electronic, digital signs, i.e. signs that can hardly have tangible physical
qualities. And if they had, to what extant would they be relevant for the
reading of a text? In this sense, thus, the question addressing the materiality
of the digital text sounds erroneous. Hopefully, there is more to this question,
however, than mere refusal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">In a more pragmatic context the question may
well make sense. Materiality can be conceptualized not only as an ontological category
but rather as a category that is deployed for the sake of exploring layers of
meaning constituted by the container and carrier of the linguistic aspect of a
text or an edition. This seems to be a viable solution, as when the materiality
of a printed text is referred to in the context of literary studies most of the
time it is used in a pragmatic manner. Materiality in this pragmatic context
denotes the sum of those qualities of a book that influence the reading process
and thus the construction of meaning beyond the linguistic aspect of a work.
Without believing that the forthcoming list may be comprehensive, these
qualities include the size of the book, the binding, the quality and size of
the paper, the letter size and typeset, the width of the margins, decoration,
marginalia. This pragmatic concept of materiality, i.e. an exploration of a
list of qualities and features that influence the reading process can be applied
directly and indirectly to a digital edition as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">In the case of a digital edition there is
clearly a visual aspect that influences the reading process in a more flexible
way than in the case of a printed book. In a digital edition the text is made
up of letters that have visual qualities that can be anchored in size and type,
these letters fill the “page” so even here one may meditate about space between
the letters, lines, about the width of margins. Nevertheless, in some cases,
depending on the encoding of the edition and on the file format these qualities
can be changed by the customer, or reader: the type, the size can be open to
modification, one can zoom in or out in certain cases, one can read the text on
the screen of a laptop, a tablet pc or on a smartphone qualifying the physical,
visual aspect of the edition. All these are there for the sake of influencing
the reading process, as much as in the case of a printed book, although in a
different manner. But what seems relevant is that it is only the manner that
has changed and not the extralinguistic means: they are present but in a
different way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Another aspect that influences the reading
process is the way the digital edition can be “read.”A digital edition can be
read as a book, i.e. in a linear manner. Also a digital edition can be read in
two nonlinear ways. First, as a hypertext through clicking in diverse
directions enriching the reading experience in a way that the sequence of the
parts of the reading material is created during the act of reading itself.
Second, digital reading involves machine reading, that is making sense through
queries, exploring algorithmic patterns and a variety of visualizing
techniques. Furthermore, it is also relevant in the case of a digital edition
what kind of colours, shapes and frames surround the text itself, what kind of
note-taking techniques can be applied, how one may share these findings, notes,
observations if it is a web-based edition. All these possibilities,
opportunities, tools and methods influence the act of making sense of a digital
edition beyond the strictly speaking linguistic aspect of a digital text. And
thus all these contribute to the process of the construction of meaning, the
signifying process of a say literary work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">A further aspect of the change from print to
digital that contributes to the understanding of digital materiality concerns
the shift from the fixed to what Hayes terms as procedural. A printed text
through its materiality is present for anybody almost objectively. This
material fixity is constituted by the technology of printing: if a work is
published the result is there for a long time, and in a way that was constructed
by the publisher, printer. Along with this every modification to the book—pages
torn out, damaged, written on it—will be seen as either contribution to the
signifying process or as corruption. In the case of a digital edition, however,
what matters is the ever-changing quality of the visual appearance of the
work. What lies behind what is perceived
is a series--complicated though—of digits. This series then is translated with
certain software into different signs that are interpreted by further
programmes; the results are further made readable for other programmes until
the desired effect is reached. Because of the great number of translations, and
the number of programmes that make these translations there is a heightened
effect of fluidity in the case of these digital editions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">This fluidity is further complicated by the
fact that the process of translations takes place not only once and for all but
every time the digital edition is opened. To account for the fluid aspect of a
digital edition it is also to be added that the hardware that underlies these
procedures also influences the reading process, insofar as the speed and
resolution of the visual effect are concerned. In this respect what counts are
the quality of the processor, of the hard drive, the graphic card, maybe the
internet connection and the quality of the monitor. All these result in such a
diversity of the possibilities of difference that instead of the discourse of
fixity and corruption it is only the procedural quality that one can meditate
about. This lack of fixity is part of the material aspect of a digital edition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Thus, it seems to me that exploring the
materiality of a particular digital text is not entirely futile. In this
respect it is not the traditional physical quality that is at stake but rather whatever
there is from coding to hardware that influences the reading process besides
the linguistic aspect of a text.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-58548103896111286882012-09-27T01:35:00.001-07:002012-09-27T01:35:48.484-07:00Sabbatical with Question Marks and Wodwo<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisFX8HFKxJy8ZT_ReHyHQvjQbpHXBbOAGMDMkgDpx3BLlhtE6clG_6XHEstCxxNOA32YwahcQlVXBn_yAFm0f-Fa_FW5xhTgxtkBCraMt_uZjIIVgu2vBNwOTkMskwf2mGJQ7AhGR7pjA/s1600/nyaralas+014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisFX8HFKxJy8ZT_ReHyHQvjQbpHXBbOAGMDMkgDpx3BLlhtE6clG_6XHEstCxxNOA32YwahcQlVXBn_yAFm0f-Fa_FW5xhTgxtkBCraMt_uZjIIVgu2vBNwOTkMskwf2mGJQ7AhGR7pjA/s320/nyaralas+014.jpg" width="320" /></a>I am back
from my sabbatical term, which I liked so much that it is rather difficult to
get back on the teaching track. Not that this was an ideal sabbatical, because
being a member and a chair of a variety of committees at my university, I could
not leave behind all the duties I have, and these distracted me from pure
research and writing to some extant. Nevertheless, even with this limitation I
just loved to be free from teaching responsibilities to be able to read and learn.
Also I wrote as much as I could, for the record and for my bosses who may read
this post, I finalized a volume of essays on Tudor cultural issues, an article
on a fascinating early modern book, started another one on the decorated
initials in the early prints of <i>Hamlet</i>
and some blog posts on the critical assessment of digital textabases of
Shakespeare. Also I could attend some
conferences in <st1:city w:st="on">Sevilla</st1:city>, in <st1:city w:st="on">Budapest</st1:city>,
in <st1:city w:st="on">Edinburgh</st1:city> and at our university, and these conferences occasioned meeting good scholarly
friends, and making some new friends from the <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region>,
through the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Czech</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Republic</st1:placetype></st1:place>.
The climax of the sabbatical was the month I could spend at the Nanovic
Institute, University of Notre Dame, a place ideal for the scholarly hermit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Even though
I had such ideal circumstances I did not achieve everything</span><span lang="EN-US"> I intended. Before the sabbatical I
prepared for a really beneficial leave during which I intended to complete, or
at least draft a monograph on the 21<sup>st</sup>-century digital reception of
Shakespeare. First and foremost I read and considered when preparing for the
term whatever has been written about a sabbatical at ProfHacker. I also made
plans, e.g. how many words are to be written every day so as to achieve the
desired objective. And actually I think I could keep to that and yet not even
the first draft of the volume has been completed. So in a word, planning was
not enough. Throughout the leave I wrote for immediate requests, for coming
conferences, did editing, because these were obligations I could not postpone.
Although all or most of these activities formed steps towards the writing of
the volume, reconsiderations of the general topic from a variety of angles, for
a variety of purposes and audiences and all these did good to the future volume
but were and are not identical with the generation of pages for the book itself.
This is so even if the pages written in English and Hungarian will all be part
of the book in the long run. Thus, from the perspective of the ultimate aim of
the sabbatical, it turned out to be something less successful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Beyond the
successful and the disappointing tangible outcomes of the sabbatical leave there
was a more complex result as well, which can hardly be placed on the measurable
hierarchical scale. This complex outcome was the result of having the time and
opportunity to step back from the hurly-burly of the works and days of everyday
life. This step occasioned thoughts to surface, thoughts that were always
lingering at the back of my mind. These thoughts have been formed in the
Wodwoian manner: “What am I?” or “What am I doing here..?”, which questions
boil down to the general problem with English Studies, or to doing research in
my particular field, i.e. Renaissance English Studies. Most of the time I write
and publish in English, most of the time I read papers at conferences in
English. So I can hardly reach out to Hungarian people who do not take the
trouble to read in English (and why would they?). Research in this field as far
as my experiences with funding are concerned is not encouraged because of
limitations in financial resources—whether it is an individual grant or one for
a team the result was the same in the last five years. I or we received top grades,
90-100% in project evaluations, and finally our project was turned down, and others
focusing on Hungarian literature won. This is all understandable, because
ultimately we are in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Hungary</st1:country-region>,
there are poor financial resources, and taxpayers’ money should end up in
projects that are relevant for more people in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hungary</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">“What
am I, then?”</span> OK, my research is not marketable in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hungary</st1:place></st1:country-region>, but then the
Anglo-American world should be fine. And it is so, but it is precisely the
sabbatical, and the trip to the University of Notre Dame, that taught me that it
is very difficult to play on the same field as my American or British
colleagues. Not that they (you) are not kind and friendly enough, far from it,
but rather that because of the limited access to sources—primary and secondary
as well—sometimes I felt that the paradigms we were caught up in are not
necessarily identical. More precisely what is natural to them (to you), and seems to be
part of the everyday discourse on Renaissance or early Early Modern phenomena
sounds far from natural to me. And this is so even though I use twitter and I
read blogs and search for books that they (you) published recently. What is the
most tragic about this is that this gap becomes only visible when there is time
to read, reflect and meet people (you) in person. When functioning as a screw
in the large machine of the Hungarian higher education I don’t even notice this
distance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKV0euhVdGG4cmMA6HnWx-DTzqok_kM_IPlfv7FAjiCmHWAJOGLxK2EF6R15zP3tMuFLk3TjQOzqrFuVoXul92qCaCbty7doNoSj2pngUI9sYwYpkPjEIq9TJgzWZ2oIAwm8wpcz24KAU/s1600/DSCF2923.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKV0euhVdGG4cmMA6HnWx-DTzqok_kM_IPlfv7FAjiCmHWAJOGLxK2EF6R15zP3tMuFLk3TjQOzqrFuVoXul92qCaCbty7doNoSj2pngUI9sYwYpkPjEIq9TJgzWZ2oIAwm8wpcz24KAU/s320/DSCF2923.JPG" width="240" /></a><span lang="EN-GB">The next
Wodwoian question is “what am I </span><span lang="EN-US">[</span><span lang="EN-GB">to do], then?”
A likely response may be that my next move could be the comfortable turn of
the screw, i.e. accepting that the fact of life is some sort of isolation until
the next sabbatical. Or the other solution is this: I try to do my best to
obtain grants for a month visit to places either in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region>, or in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> where I can efficiently work.
One month must be sufficient for writing up an article that might be published,
if I go to the target place well-versed in the topic with some background
research and a 0.2 version of the paper. At least this seems to have worked during
my visit to the University of Notre Dame. [And another fruit of this last visit
to ND was that my family could survive without me nicely enough. First and
foremost because my children are getting more and more mature (between 10 and
18), so they do not miss me so much—and there is skype and google talk to keep
in touch. And my wife is just hyper-understanding—how lucky I am!] So, "I’ll go
on looking…."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-1216697213004653382012-04-23T00:30:00.000-07:002012-04-23T00:30:03.103-07:00Digital Shakespeares 5 and HBWS12<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This is the
final post in the series exploring the databases containing Shakespearean texts.
From Stoppard I have learned that “there is an art in delay.” In this
series of posts dealing with digital databases of Shakespearean texts I have constantly
postponed revealing the collection of these databases. I have done this through
introducing the topic and then for four posts I posted a list of criteria that
I think helps to assess digital databases. Originally I thought it would be
enough to post the sixteen questions I found relevant in meditating about
databases, but then realized that these criteria formulated as questions
without explanation would be less beneficial, so I pasted a paragraph-long
explanation to each of the questions. Last week having finished the posting of
these questions, I had to admit that the delay is not righteous any longer. So
this time, I should present the list of databases on the one hand.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">On the
other hand this post is not just a post directing attention to databases that
might come in hand</span><span lang="EN-US">y
when doing some research on Shakespeare, but also a contribution to another
project, i.e. the celebration of Shakespeare’s 448<sup>th</sup> birthday. The Happy
Birthday Shakespeare website can be found <a href="http://birthday2012.bloggingshakespeare.com/">here</a>. This is not the
first time that a blog post functions as a gift to the long dead and still
living Bard. Last year I wrote up a <a href="http://tudorstudies.blogspot.com/2011/04/happy-birthday-will-shakespeare.html">post</a>
in the same project about the given theme: “How did Shakespeare shape my life,
my intellectual life?” That said it may be clear that this year if I intend to
take part in this festive event again, I cannot retell the same story. Of
course, hermeneutics would remind me that a year later—having changed (hopefully
for the best)—the same story would not, could not be the same, yet I think this
year I should do something else. So this year, as I guess Shakespeare would be
interested in what happened to his texts, I present him and anybody else interested
in this, the list of databases that contain Shakespeare’s texts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">So this
time, both as a gift and a conclusion to my previous posts I am going to lists
databases, not unexpectedly in an indirect way, making the experience
interactive. There is a simple way for whoever is interested in this list, as
following the link to my Delicious stack, “<a href="http://delicious.com/stacks/view/S7wHUr">Databases of Shakespearean texts</a>”
one may well go to the list directly, and check out the items immediately
without reading the rest of this post. Those, however, who would like to stay
here for longer, I shall give some explanation on how these otherwise different
types of databases can be classified as databases. I am quite sure that a lot
of databases have been left out, but as I promised it in the
introductory post, I have only dealt with databases that have some either
institutional basis, or scholarly references or both.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">There are seven
ways the individual databases can be classified. Some of the databases can be
downloaded, or at least the text analysis software, such as WordHoard or WordCruncher,
the rest of the databases can be used via a web browser. Most of the databases
are dedicated to Shakespeare studies, while two of them are rather text
analysis tools demonstrating their power on the Shakespearean corpus, i.e.
WordCruncher and Wolfram|Alpha. Most of the databases are Open Access but some
are massively behind the pay</span><span lang="EN-US">-</span><span lang="EN-GB">wall, such as Gale
Catalog: The Shakespeare Collection, XMAS, and one project though not behind
the pay-wall yet it needs a password which may or may not be granted is The
Shakespeare Electronic Archive. Most of the databases are dedicated to
Shakespeare, while there are two that include texts by Shakespeare and many
others as well: Project Gutenberg, The Internet Archive. Most of the databases
include a text analysis tool, but there are a few that only contain digital
texts, such as The Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive, the Shakespeare
Quartos Archive, the Shakespeare in Quarto, etc. Some of the databases deploy
either an unreliable corpus or a somewhat questionable one from a strictly
philological point of view, while some others use either the digital versions
of reliable early prints (Shakespeare Quartos, Shakespeare in Quarto), or even
modern critical editions (Internet Shakespeare Editions, The Shakespeare
Electronic Archive). Most of the databases are device independent, while there
is at least one that has been built only for the iPad: Shakespeare's <i>The Tempest</i> for iPad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The lines of this classification
create a rather complicated matrix upon which the individual databases can be
located. This complexity is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It is an
advantage as it demonstrates the interest in Shakespeare in the digital space,
that scholars use digital technology in studying and thus representing the
Bard’s texts in the 21<sup>st</sup> century in a great number of ways and modes.
But this variety also demonstrates that enthusiasm towards digital scholarship
is also dispersed, funds are scattered instead of uniting forces and resources
to create a database that would be equally useful and beneficial for a variety
of scholarly approaches, number of levels of interest from the scholarly to the
general. Do you like this, Will? <b>Anyway,
I wish you a happy birthday in the heavenly theatre with this multifocal
symphony of textual databases.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">PS. The
advantage of checking my Delicious stack is that it may well be improved in the
long run. I can imagine, however, that somebody would like to see the list here
as well, so here it is:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.gale.cengage.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet%3Fregion%3D9%26imprint%3D000%26titleCode%3DGAL75%26cf%3Dn%26type%3D4%26id%3D195003&ei=WthPT8WvMMbV-Ab59MjJDA&sig2=-51Ap0PwX_RDEZ5rcJZl2g&ct=b" title="http://www.gale.cengage.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?region=9&imprint=000&titleCode=GAL75&cf=n&type=4&id=195003">Gale
Catalog - The Shakespeare Collection</a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://shea.mit.edu/ramparts/welcome.htm">Hamlet
on the Ramparts</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.leoyan.com/global-language.com/ENFOLDED/index.html">Hamlet
Works</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://archive.org/index.php">Internet
Archive</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/">Internet
Shakespeare Editions</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">6.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://monkpublic.library.illinois.edu/monkmiddleware/public/index.html">MONK
Project</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">7.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/works.htm#Fax-folio-quarto">Mr. William
Shakespeare and the Internet</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">8.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://openshakespeare.org/">Open
Shakespeare</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">9.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/">Open
Source Shakespeare</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">10.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collection?collection=Perseus:collection:Renaissance">Perseus
Collection: Renaissance Materials</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">11.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.playshakespeare.com/">PlayShakespeare.com:
The Ultimate Free Shakespeare Resource</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">12.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page">Project
Gutenberg</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">13.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.rarebookroom.org/sindex.html">Rarebook
Room</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">14.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.shkspr.uni-muenster.de/">Shakespeare
Database</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">15.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.bl.uk/treasures/shakespeare/homepage.html">Shakespeare in
Quarto</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">16.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shakespeares-tempest-for-ipad/id516373702?ls=1&mt=8">Shakespeare’s
The Tempest for iPad</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">17.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.shakespeareswords.com/">Shakespeare’s
Words</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">18.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://shakespeare.mit.edu/">The Complete
Works of William Shakespeare</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">19.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://shakespeare.nowheres.com/FirstFolio/">The
First Web Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Works</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">20.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://shea.mit.edu/shakespeare/htdocs/main/" title="http://shea.mit.edu/shakespeare/htdocs/main/">The Shakespeare Electronic
Archive</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">21.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://shakes.meisei-u.ac.jp/e-index.html">The
Shakespeare Folios Electronic Library</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">22.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.quartos.org/">The Shakespeare
Quartos Archive</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">23.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://wordseer.berkeley.edu/shakespeare/view.php">View Shakespeare's
Works</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">24.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/shakespeare/william/">William
Shakespeare: free web books, online</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">25.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/">Wolfram/Alpha</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">26.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.wordcruncher.com/wordcruncher/default.htm">WordCruncher</a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">27.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://wordhoard.northwestern.edu/userman/index.html">Wordhoard</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 54.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB">28.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://web.mit.edu/shakspere/xmas/">XMAS 3.1</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<br /></div>Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-47665399354185186682012-04-12T06:39:00.000-07:002012-04-12T06:39:08.903-07:00Digital Shakespeares: Features of a Database 4<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">This post
is number five in the series of posts dealing with working out a possible methodology</span><span lang="EN-US"> for assessing and accounting for
databases containing Shakespearean texts. After an introductory post four other
ones have been dedicated to listing and explaining, contextualizing questions
that might come in handy when pondering about these databases. So far areas of
basic facts, transparency and flexibility were covered in the first three
posts, and now, as I have promised I am going to meditate and present questions
pertaining to what I would like to term as “interdisciplinary openness.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Most of the
databases reduce texts to their linguistic aspect. Queries focus on words,
strings of words, linguistic units, grammatical units and verbal statistics.
They can also visualize tendencies, create diagrams in a variety of formats
about the linguistic construction of the text. All this is fine, as most of the
time when reading a Shakespearean play the reader will be interested in the
ways a text communicates its layers of meaning through verbal means. There has
been, however, a tendency in scholarly circles claiming in a great number of
ways that a text does not only reveal layers of meaning via its linguistic
construction but that meaning is also a social construct embedded in the
material ways a text functions in the world. So, scholars claim that bibliographical data
from the date of publication to publisher, from the typeset to the type of
paper, from decoration to page size play their part in the process of
constituting meaning. Here, a long list of authors, theoretical and pragmatic
may be presented from David Scott Kastan to John N. King, from Woudhuysen to
McGann, from Shillingsburg to Hayles, from Marshall McLuhan to Andrew Murphy to
mention a few authorities in the field. It is beneficial if a database allows
for research other than ones pertaining to the linguistic aspect. The next
three questions, thus, explore ways in which a database may cater for interests
in aspects other than the linguistic one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<i style="text-align: justify;"></i><br />
<ol><i style="text-align: justify;">
<li><i><span lang="EN-GB">Format of the digital text (txt, xml, jpg, tiff etc.)</span></i></li>
</i></ol>
<i style="text-align: justify;">
</i><br />
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Interdisciplinary
research presupposes the complexity of possible questions to be asked, and this
complexity can only be provided through presenting the texts in a variety of
formats. Sometimes the best choice is to have a rather unmarked list of
words, e.g. in a txt file, this is sufficient and even more fruitful for some
queries, especially when it is not clear how the file is read by a text
analysis tool. For another set of questions encoding is needed, say for
tokenised or lemmatised queries, other times it is the best if there are images
only that may be analyzed in ways unimaginable before. It is the format of the
file that enables these differing approaches, so it is fine if the same text is
accessible in a variety of formats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="2" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">Is it the linguistic, digital or bibliographic aspect that is emphasized?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
linguistic aspect refers to the language, linguistic elements of the digital
text. The bibliographical aspect refers to the material aspect, but in this very
case, this does not define the digital text, as digital, but as an outcome of
the visual aspect of some original printed material. The digital aspect refers
to the computational coding of a text that enables the visual aspect and also
the searchable quality of these texts. It is clear that builders of databases have to
decide on what they intend to achieve. Unfortunately there is no such database
that would/could lay equal emphasis on every aspect of a digital text.
Databases vary among paying special attention to the text as a linguistic unit,
or to the text as a deeply encoded entity that allows for complex and
intelligent queries, or to aspects that are relevant for the historian of the
book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">Which aspect of the text is open to queries?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">If it is
possible to present the text in a variety</span><span lang="EN-US"> of formats, thus a variety of disciplinary
approaches may be occasioned within the database. If this is so, it is also
relevant which aspect of the text is open to queries, as it is a query that
makes computer enabled research fruitful. It is the query that makes research
faster and more accurate, so it is great if the image file is there that
enables research related to the history of the book, but if this aspect of the
text is not open to queries, computation is like a disabled giant: it is there
but the scholar cannot make use of the power of computer technology. The Text
Encoding Initiative enables marking up a text for queries about the visual
aspect of a work, and there are even free image mark-up tools, so
technologically it is not impossible to prepare a database in which the
bibliographical code is open to queries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
* * *</div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">This time,
thus, we have seen the remaining three criteria for assessing a database. These
questions covered practically an area that I have labeled as “interdisciplinary
openness.” The interdisciplinarity of a database manifests itself in the
variety of formats of the files, the types of queries that a user may conduct.
Naturally, these criteria may or may not be true for each and every database and
can only be used as a means of orientation. So neither these three criteria nor
the other thirteen should be thought of as complete and compelling ones, but
rather as means to be able to discuss critically a database or databases. What
follows form this is that a positive assessment does not necessarily mean that one
can give the highest possible scores for each and every criterion, as it can
easily happen that a database can fruitfully be used even though reviewing it
with the help of the above sixteen criteria should suggest that the database is
less good. Assessment at its best relies on criteria relevant to the individual
database. Having thus finished the meditation about the criteria of assessment,
next time I shall start a new series of posts exploring databases one by one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-38280867070603377752012-04-02T01:03:00.002-07:002012-04-02T01:03:49.187-07:00Digital Shakespeares: Features of a Database 3<span lang="EN-GB" style="text-align: justify;">This is the
last but one post in the series “Digital Shakespeares: Features of a Database.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-align: justify;">”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="text-align: justify;"> The previous posts presented and explained the
first eight questions of the list that I used when assessing databases containing
Shakespeare</span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-align: justify;">’s texts.
The first eight questions explored some basic facts and the documentation of
the database. This time the focus will be on another aspect that I label as
flexibility. This is an important aspect, as it makes a database more usable
if it can be bent to the researchers’ expectations and interests. Before this
larger area of questions there are two extra ones that pertain to the ease of
the usage of a database.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<i style="text-align: justify;"></i><br />
<ol><i style="text-align: justify;">
</i></ol>
<i style="text-align: justify;">
</i><br />
<li style="display: inline !important;"><i style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB"> 9. Is the interface clear and logical?</span></i></i></li>
<i style="text-align: justify;">
</i><br />
<ol><i style="text-align: justify;">
</i></ol>
<i style="text-align: justify;">
</i><br />
<ol start="9" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
question about whether the interface is clear and logical does not invite an
answer in a form of a subjective aesthetic judgement, but rather reflection about
the pragmatic aspect of the interface. What I am interested in here is whether
one could without much thinking and many mistaken steps </span><span lang="EN-US">navigate from one action to another
with relative ease. Nevertheless, I am aware that this feature of a database is
a rather subjective one, as something that seems illogical and complicated for
one user may well be straightforward and simple for another. Yet hopefully the
response to this question will not reflect on the interface in isolation, but will
keep an eye on other databases and even other applications, and then
subjectivity can be avoided via experience and comparison.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="10" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">Is it possible to create a researchers room?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">A
researcher “room” is a handy opportunity if the database is an online one. It seems
handy if one can stop working whenever it is necessary without losing the
findings of the then current research, and can continue working when it is
possible again. This feature is also important as this may be the cyber-spatial
“room” where one may share the results with colleagues and may expect some
reaction from them to her/his work. A researcher “room” can be a place that
anybody can, may customize to her/his expectations, work-method and needs, can
leave notes and reflections on where one is in the process of research.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB">Flexibility</span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">The
theoretical problem that is addressed by the following questions seems to be the
following. A database most of the time is built for one type of research, which
is no problem as how can one foresee what other researchers would like to do
with a particular database. One may well argue that the virtue of a database is
that it does what it promises in the best way, and I agree with this argument.
An equally powerful claim could be, however, that if a database is tuned for
only one type of research, naturally the one that best suits the builder, then
why and how could it be used by other researchers with either slightly, or
completely different purposes? So in this Kantian or Pyrrhonian situation,
where there are two equally powerful claims in opposition, I would like to vote
for some sort of a flexibility providing more opportunities than the ones
envisioned by the builders. I can imagine that a database that can be adapted
to a variety of purposes will be the one that will attract researchers’
attention.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="11" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">Can the digital text be downloaded?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Sometimes
it seems beneficial to be able to download the text that one works with. This
adds to the usability of a database, as it can easily happen that the analytical
tools of a database do not harmonize completely with the needs of a researcher.
It is then beneficial if the text, or texts can be downloaded and fed into
another search engine. This may well be the case with absolutely cleansed texts
to be used with independent text analysis tools, or with deeply marked-up
texts, when the mark-up is deeper than what the facilities of the database allow
to explore. In this latter case it is also possible that queries tuned for
specific aspects can be executed elsewhere than within the database.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="12" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">Can the results of the query be saved, downloaded?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">It may well
be fruitful if the findings can be saved and downloaded to be deployed
elsewhere than within the application. This may be appropriate if results in
one database are to be compared with the findings in another one, or if to be
arranged in another way than what is occasioned by an application. A third
scenario when saving, downloading is fruitful may be when one intends to
insert, or copy-paste the results of the query into an article, paper,
blogpost. (Only between round brackets do I dare to insert here, that as a
Zotero fan, it would be nice if a database could be linked to Zotero, and then
referencing would be a matter of clicking here and there. I am aware that this
is only the lazy researcher</span><span lang="EN-US">’</span><span lang="EN-GB">s dream…)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="13" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">Is the source-code open, i.e. can the search tools be modified?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">This attribute
is something that is both beneficial and nice. It is beneficial because the
tools may be tuned for the analysis of texts from another database without
starting the building of the search-tool from nothing. Naturally it can happen
that it is easier to start from nothing, but it can happen as well that coding
means just fine-tuning. The open-source code is nice too, as it tells the user
that the builder trusts his/her users, shares with them everything, admits that
the application can be developed, used elsewhere and in other ways than first
envisioned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">To sum up, this
time I pondered about the features of a database that I labelled “flexibility.”
Flexibility of a database lies in whether a researcher can or cannot adapt the
texts included in the database, the analytical tools to her / his needs.
Flexibility is not only important because the database then will be one that may
serve a variety of purposes but also because this way it will attract more
users. Having, thus, accounted for this feature of a database what remain for
the next post are the attributes that I classify</span><span lang="EN-US"> as</span><span lang="EN-GB"> “interdisciplinary openness.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-53214599724844403512012-03-26T02:37:00.002-07:002012-03-26T02:40:36.114-07:00Digital Shakespeares: Features of a Database 2<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">This post
is the s</span><span lang="EN-US">econd in the
series describing and interpreting a set of questions that I have used when
exploring databases containing Shakespearean texts. The last post presented and
explained the first four questions. This time I shall cover questions 5-8
exploring documentation, purpose, fitness for purpose, and the quality of
the text. Let’s start then with question 5.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<ol start="5" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Is the documentation of the database clear and succinct?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Documentation
of responsibilities and sustainability (even if theoretical) purposes and
origins may well be a characteristic feature of a database. These should be
explored in detail and even the problematic points may be clarified. It is also
relevant here whether this documentation can be found easily or is buried at a
location that can hardly be found. Naturally it is open to debate what is meant
by “detailed” documentation, especially because I can hear the counterargument
that a good project does not need documentation as the database and its
usability speak for themselves, it is, thus, not needed to document this. There
is much truth in this claim, since who needs the documentation for something that
works properly and with considerable success, who reads the documentation of <i>Twitter</i> and <i>Facebook</i>. I reckon the case is different with applications and
databases that if only partially but still would like to attract scholarly
audiences as well. For the scholarly community to be able to take the results
of a project and research or query seriously must be able to look behind what
is immediately visible. What is going on behind the scenes is as important for
a serious user as the results of a query provided by the database. So a clear
and succinct documentation is indispensible for an intended audience that would
like to be taken seriously.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<ol start="6" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Is there a clear statement about the purpose of the database?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">This
question speaks for itself. It is reassuring to know what the database was
built for. It does good both to the creator, because to have a clear purpose
help one stay</span><span lang="EN-US"> focused.
Also this does good to the user, because then (s)he knows what to expect, be
confident to use the database for what is was created for.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<ol start="7" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Quality of the texts.<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The quality
of the text is one of the cornerstones of a database. Even if this is only one
of the four aspects of a database, this is the first aspect that a Shakespeare
scholar will enquire about, and if it does not live up to scholarly standards
the database will not be used.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="a">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Is the origin of the digital text documented?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This has
two advantages. If the textual and editorial choice have been explained, it is
very likely that the creator of the database has given thought to the choices
made. In this case it is very unlikely that it can happen that someone created
a powerful, fancy and interesting tool, and then feeds into it an unedited text
found somewhere in the public domain without say checking that the King Lear
under consideration was written by Nahum Tate. If a text is documented
appropriately it is very unlikely that such a mistake is made. The second
advantage of documentation is that the Shakespeare scholar does not have to
spend or waste time with discovering slowly that the text is unreliable and
useless for a scholarly purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<ol start="2" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="a">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Is there somebody responsible for the digital text?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
documentation should not only reveal the origin of the digital surrogate but
also should name the creator of the text. Even in cases if the text was not
created by the creator of the database but (s)he uses someone else’s text. This
is important because even if a text is left without editing, when preparing the
machine readable text there must be decisions made, and it is indispensible
that somebody takes responsibility for these decisions. This is part of
scholarly honesty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="a">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Are the editorial decisions
explained and documented?<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Of course,
the expectation is not to explain every single editorial decision, because that
would mean the creation of a documentation similar to a critical edition. The
expectation, however, lies in the exploration of general editorial decisions
with a few examples for the sake of clarification. Decisions are the ones that
pertain both to the text and to the encoding of the text.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<ol start="8" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Is there a harmony between the purpose of the database and the
search engine, quality of the texts, level of encoding?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It can
happen that the purpose of the database and the search engine, quality of the
text and the depth of encoding have not been harmonized. It can happen that a
database intends to serve scholarly purposes for which a powerful search engine
has been installed, which should secure the scholarly outcomes of the queries.
The search engine, however, cannot secure scholarly purposes in itself, if not
accompanied with an appropriate text. The excellence of the engine cannot
compensate for the weakness of the text. Unfortunately in this case there is no
real compensation, the weakest part determines the power of the database. It can
also happen that the search engine has not been tuned for the depth of
encoding. It can happen that the level of encoding does not harmonize with the
power of the search engine, or it can also happen that the text is encoded in
more depth than what the search engine has been tuned for.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">This time I focused on
the aspects of documentation that should ensure the quality or at least the transparency
of the database. These qualities may well attract or distract a Shakespeare
scholar to or from the database. Next time I shall continue the list and
explanation of the questions that help analysing a database focusing on
Shakespearean texts.</span></div>Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-2068152591779395562012-03-19T06:33:00.000-07:002012-03-19T06:33:45.131-07:00Digital Shakespeares: Features of a Database 1<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">In the
previous post I launched a series of post that are going to deal with digital
databases presenting Shakespearean texts. I also promised that this time I
would list the questions I have used for the analysis. Back then I though it
was sufficient to list the questions, but then I had to realize that without
some explanation questions cannot fulfil their purpose. So I explained them and
found that the explanation would exceed the thousand-word limit of a blogpost,
so again I have to chop the meditation up into pieces. Out of the sixteen
questions this time I shall explore the first four.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The first
three questions gather basic facts about the database. Basic facts or data can,
however, be revealing about the agenda of the project, its concept of the user,
and, thus, play their significant part in the modes a database processes its
cultural signification. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">Is it open access or behind the pay-wall?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">I am first
and foremost interested in databases that are non-profit, Open Access. The
reason for this special interest has two reasons: a pragmatic and a somewhat
more theoretical one. The pragmatic reason is that my home institution does not
have access to most of the profit-oriented databases, or if it does have then
the subscriptions are occasionally left without renewal after their expiration.
The theoretical reason is that I am very much in agreement with the Open Access
movement among digital humanists, and actually act accordingly: with a British
colleague we created a very modest OA academic, digital journal (e-Colloquia), I
also blog—as you can see—about my research both in English and Hungarian so
that colleagues be informed about what I am working on, and those also who do
not belong to the guild of scholars but are interested in these matters.
Research, experimentation are all about openness, why to bury them behind the
pay-wall?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="2" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">Is it an online or offline database?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Most of the
databases are located in the cloud. Nevertheless, there are some that either
partially or completely reside on the users hard-drive. Both solutions have
advantages and disadvantages, which qualities do not depend on theoretical
considerations, but rather depend on the database and its purposes. It is no
good to force somebody to download terrabites of information, but it sounds
great if there is neat and clever software without fancy display that one can
download and manipulate, or even develop on ones laptop.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">Is it possible or is it necessary to register, or can it be used
without registration?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Again this
may be appropriate or useless, but this is also a fact about a database.
Occasionally, however, the impression is that if there is a need for
registration, the database and the project that lies behind it seem more
serious. Sometimes it is more advantageous to be able to register, as there may
be more facilities for registered users. Also registration filters users, as
the user has to take the trouble to register, and thus implies that it is
important for her or him to be a visible member of the community of users. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">After the
basic information about a database, the next set of questions explores aspects
of <b>Transparency. </b>Out of this set, this time I am going to deal with the first and leave the rest for the next post.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="4" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">Who built the database and who takes responsibility for it?<o:p></o:p></span></i></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">For a
database to be taken seriously as a scholarly, reliable and useful one two
considerations seem adamant: responsibility and sustainability. For a database,
if expecting serious users, it is of crucial importance to have either a
scholar or a team of scholars behind it. An Open Access (not to mention
for-profit) project does not mean that anything goes, projects do not need
reviewing, should not be open to criticism. All these lead to the concept and
virtue of responsibility. Without real human beings shouldering responsibility
for their activity, even if it is a noble project of passing on Shakespearean
texts and information and features of those texts free of charge to an unknown
but yet foreseeable target audience, a project cannot be taken seriously.
Scholarly discussion, accountability, expression of critical opinion are vital
for a project to be worthy of scholarly attention. If there cannot be found an
individual or a team who can participate in a discussion, or whom questions can
be addressed to, the air is withdrawn from scholarly objectivity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">As far as
sustainability is concerned a nameless enthusiast as the creator and builder of
a database will very likely miss the financial resources to create a strictly
speaking reliable project. Eagerness burns out after awhile, interest can be
lost in a hobby-like project. Institutional affiliation, funding processed by
committees all secure reason for believing that the project will survive even
after the disappearance of the first love for the project. From the users
perspective making use of, thus relying on the outcomes of a research in a
database, and the criteria of repeatability are all parts of the problematics
surrounding a database. Sustainability seems to be less of a problem for a
profit-oriented project, but is not a mission impossible for a project that has
institutional and affiliations and opportunities to have a share from national
or other funding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Unfortunately
this time I could only cover these first four questions. But even this post may
have been beneficial because this could either function as an appetiser or
something that will tell you that it is superfluous to read one. Either case is
just fine. Time and energy are valuable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-521905982791388232012-03-06T01:41:00.001-08:002012-03-06T01:41:34.272-08:00Digital Shakespeares: Introduction<div style="text-align: justify;">
Having
finished editing a book for CSP on Tudor authors belonging to the period C.S. Lewis
labelled as the “Drab Age,” I am going to focus on a somewhat different area
for the next period. This shift of focus lies in turning to new aspects of reception
studies and histories, something I worked on in my Tudor research as well. What
is new, however, is that instead of dealing with how certain ideas and trends
of thoughts or authors were received in England and in English in the long
Tudor era, now I shall ponder about how Shakespeare’s reception has witnessed a
change with the digital area.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The 21<sup>st</sup>
century has brought some change in the reception (history) of Shakespeare, as
digital projects by individuals and teams, the use of digital tools in social
media contribute to a turn in how Shakespeare both as an icon and as a literary
figure acquires a mode of signification in present day digital cultures. This new
mode of signification consists first, in the accessibility of the digital texts
of his works in a great variety of formats, reliability and purposes. Adjacent
to the availability of texts, social media also affect how Shakespeare figures
in the contemporary world. Social media—relevant to a variety of degrees in
this research—include micro-, meso- and traditional blogging services, Facebook,
LinkedIn and Google+ insofar as they open the gates between academic and
popular cultures, blur the technical distinction between academia and widening
circles of enthusiasts and the interested, change the concept of peer-review.
The accessibility of texts and the relaxation of the demarcation lines among so
far segregated circles of readers present a new phase in the way Shakespeare is
perceived.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Naturally
the claim is not that there is a revolutionary and dramatic change going on
nowadays. Many aspects of reception are not necessarily affected by the digital
shift that I deal with, as theatre, filmic adaptations, printed editions etc
remain, or may remain unaffected, and circles of the academia remain as closed
as before. What, however, the claim asserts is that for a growing number of
Shakespeare scholars and for a growing number of other people (the numbers can
hardly be estimated but because of openness of the internet I dare to believe
that this is not an insignificant set) the world of Shakespeare is in change.
This change—both present and future—cannot, should not go unreflected, and it
is the task of humanities, maybe digital humanities, to ponder about and
account for this phenomenon that pertains to the first decades of the 21<sup>st</sup>
century. This is true even though Michael Best is right when explaining the
academic resistance to web 2.0, especially to open Shakespeare databases in his
“Shakespeare and the Electronic Text” (151).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">I am aware
of the problems, mainly theoretical ones that lie at the heart of this type of
research. At the moment the theoretical framework hovers around cultural
semiotics, or more precisely the phenomenology of signification in culture. This
phenomenology focuses on how meaning is constructed in the digital context
relying on material—whatever this means in cyberspace, linguistic and
computational aspects. But this theoretical background is still in its
sedimentation phase, so I have not assumed or forged an ultimate stance. What,
however, is rather clear is the steps that I am going to take here. I am going
to devote posts first to reflections on digital databases of Shakespearean
texts, and then I am going to meditate about how Shakespeare is present in
digital social media.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The
forthcoming first set of posts, thus are going to deal with databases devoted
exclusively or not exclusively to presenting digital Shakespearean texts in a
variety of formats and with a variety of purposes. Now, of course, it is far
from clear what expectations one may have towards a Shakespearean database, and
as far as I can see in the literature, especially in two seminal issues of journals, i.e. <i>Shakespeare</i> 4.3 (2008)
and <i>Shakespeare Quarterly</i> 63.1 (2010)
there is no absolutely theorized and standardized protocol to follow in the
assessment of what is going on in the world of Shakespearean digital texts.
Although a widely accepted protocol is missing I am still inclined to meditate
about the individual databases with addressing the same questions to each one
of them so as to be able to help a compare-and-contrast analysis. The objective
of this analysis is not to place databases into a hierarchical order, naively
claiming that one is better than the other, but rather to explore their virtues,
and to establish trends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The questions I shall
ask reflect my preferences towards a Shakespearean digital textual project, but
hopefully these questions will not be classified as merely subjective preferences
and naïve essentialist assumptions, but assumptions that explore the possible
heart of a textual database. The template of the questions covers three areas
that I find essential for a database: first, transparency, i.e. whether there is
an individual or a team who shoulders responsibility for the database with
clear and detailed documentation about ontologies and purposes; second, flexibility, i.e. if the database allows the user to temper with anything in
the project or if it is open to collaboration; third, interdisciplinary openness, i.e. what kind of approaches to the texts these
databases enable. The
next post is going to cover the questions themselves with explanation.</span></div>
</div>Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902501596347039588.post-14704050005631368872012-02-10T02:53:00.000-08:002012-02-10T02:53:02.942-08:00Blogoshpere 30 January – 05 February 2012<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Due t</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">o some illness I can only post this
review of the blogosphere in my fields of interest now. Anyway, people out
there worked much last week fortunately. In the Early Modern set there is a
fascinating variety of posts including a comparison of EM news to blogging
about historical events nowadays, climbing hills and conversion, Isabella’s
virginity, burlesque, EEBO and about Twitter. Digital Humanists wrote about definitions of
Digital Humanities and about measuring impact. H</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">appy reading!</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Early Modern Studies:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">NM in the post entitled “<a href="http://earlymodernnewsnetworks.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/historys-birthday-blogging-early-modern-news/" target="_blank">History’s Birthday – Blogging Early Modern News</a></span><span lang="EN-US">” provides
a fascinating phenomenology of writing news. This phenomenology then provides a
way of comparing EM news (ballads etc) and blogging about historical events
nowadays. This is a though-provoking post, indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US">“</span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://europeanconversionnarratives.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/climbing-hills-and-mountains-the-labouring-convert/" target="_blank">Climbing hills and mountains: the labouring convert.</a></span><span lang="EN-US">” explores
the English uses of the metaphorical journey to the hilltop in writings dealing
with conversion. A must-read post.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Liz Dollimore in her “</span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggingShakespeare/~3/kGxBOzaLXt4/shakespeares-sources-measure-for-measure" target="_blank">Shakespeare’s Sources – Measure for Measure</a></span><span lang="EN-US">” argues
that Isabella’s virtue seemed to have been an issue for Shakespeare. She claims
that in Shakespeare’s sources, in George Whetstone’s <i>Promos and Cassandra</i> (1578) and in Giraldi Cinthio <i>Epitia and Juriste</i> (1566) Isabella’s
forerunners lost their virginity, which is preserved, in turn, in <i>Measure for Measure</i> with the bed-trick
featuring Marianna.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Stanley Wells’ post, “</span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggingShakespeare/~3/HHLPlNtpoUc/send-up-for-shakespeare" target="_blank">Send Up for Shakespeare!</a></span><span lang="EN-US">” is a very informative writing about the
burlesque adaptations of Shakespeare. Fun!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Anna Bagitelli reflects on research in the digital age in her “</span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://earlymodernonlinebib.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/eebo-interactions-and-bibliography-linking-the-past-to-the-present/" target="_blank">EEBO Interactions and Bibliography: Linking the Past to the
Present</a></span><span lang="EN-US">”. She reviews the novel approaches to texts, and then she writes about
the merits of EEBO Interactions: a chat-room for EEBO users. The only problem
left without discussion is that contribution is massively behind the pay-wall.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">Sava Saheli Singh compares in a fascinating way 16-17<sup>th</sup>-century
note-taking techniques and Twitter in his post, “<a href="http://hastac.org/blogs/sava/2012/01/29/old-paradigms-new-mode" target="_blank">old paradigms for a new mode</a>.”</span><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Digital Humanities:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Melody Dworak defines crowd-sourcing and digital humanities in an
illuminating way in her “<a href="http://hastac.org/blogs/melody-dworak/2012/01/31/defining-terms-my-first-step-visualizing-dh-crowdsourcing-models" target="_blank">Defining Terms: My First Step in Visualizing DH Crowdsourcing
Models</a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shawn Moore defines Digital Humanities in his “<a href="http://hastac.org/blogs/shawnwmoore/2012/01/29/affective-response-defining-digital-humanities" target="_blank">An Affective Response to Defining Digital Humanities</a>.” It
is also worth reading the comment thread, too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ernesto Prieggo distinguishes between “quantitative” and “qualitative”
impact in social media in his “<a href="http://hastac.org/blogs/ernesto-priego/2012/01/30/sharing-right-people-or-why-online-metrics-assess-impact-should-be-q" target="_blank">On Sharing With the Right People, or Why Online Metrics to
Assess "Impact" Should Be Qualitative (Too)</a>.” When defining
“qualitative” impact he does this with exploring an example: “I call this
qualitative impact: in this specific case my sharing of one particular link
produced only one click, but the person who clicked on it would not have found
the article that quickly otherwise (perhaps she wouldn't have found that
article at all!). Moreover, the person who did the only one click was indeed
the exact target audience for that article.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>Zsolt Almásihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02494166377675082889noreply@blogger.com0