b'DigiPal'http://www.digipal.eu/blog/2017-03-29T15:38:34+00:00TrueThe Last Days of DigiPal: DigiPal Publications2014-09-11T13:59:19+00:002017-03-29T15:38:34+00:00Peter A. Stokeshttp://www.digipal.eu/blog/author/pstokes/http://www.digipal.eu/blog/the-last-days-of-digipal-publications/<p>As we approach the end of the project, I've been spending some time looking back over it and what we've managed to achieve. I have to say that I've been very happy with it, thanks very much to an extremely effective <a href="http://localhost:8080/about/project-team/">project team</a> (which has also been a real pleasure to work with). Although the website has naturally been the focus, this is only one part of what we have been doing. As explained under <a href="http://localhost:8080/about/the-project/project-outcomes/">Project Outcomes</a>, the DigiPal project always had three different, though interconnected, components:</p>
<ol>
<li>The general framework which can be applied to a range of different scripts and contexts (including, now, decoration).</li>
<li>The application of that framework to the test-case of eleventh-century English vernacular minuscule. That is the site you're looking at now.</li>
<li>A series of publications, reflecting on and analysing the material from (1) and (2) above.</li>
</ol>
<p><span>It has always been clear to us that data is valuable – essential, even – but that it is a means and not an end, and so a key goal of the project was always to demonstrate how this website can be used in practice for 'real' palaeographical analysis. After all, if we on the team can't do this then who can? Well, I'm happy to say that we have been very productive in this field. The full list of publications is available from the <a href="http://localhost:8080/publications/">Publications</a> page, but in summary, in addition to the software, data and documentation, at the time of writing we have also produced: </span></p>
<ul>
<li>One monograph, on English vernacular minuscule.</li>
<li>One edited collection (currently in the final stages of preparation) on digital approaches to palaeography.</li>
<li><span>UPDATE: Eight peer-reviewed articles or chapters in books.</span></li>
<li>Eight working papers, short articles, posters or reports.</li>
<li>Nine videos of conference papers or lectures.</li>
<li>Thirty blog posts discussing various aspects of digital methods in palaeography.</li>
<li>Eighty-seven short announcements of news from the world of palaeography. </li>
</ul>
<p>Please do have a look at the full <a href="http://localhost:8080/publications/">list of publications</a> and let us know what you think. In the meantime, my personal thanks goes again to the project team and to the ERC for allowing so much to get done.</p>The Last Days of DigiPal: A Call for Testers2014-09-08T17:50:48+00:002014-09-11T14:01:46+00:00Peter A. Stokeshttp://www.digipal.eu/blog/author/pstokes/http://www.digipal.eu/blog/the-last-days-of-digipal/<p>DigiPal is coming to an end, and we need your help to test the framework as thoroughly as possible. First, though, let me tell you a bit more about what we've done and what's left to do.</p>
<p>Today marks the beginning of the last stretch of the DigiPal project. As regular readers will know, funding for this project ends on 30 September 2014, which is three weeks and one day from now. I'm very happy to say that this won't be the end of it: of course the DigiPal website will stay active, and indeed it will continue to be extended through the <a href="http://localhost:8080/blog/new-digipal-project-models-of-authority/">Models of Authority</a> and <a href="http://localhost:8080/blog/a-new-phase-for-digipal-ii-the-conquerors-commissioners-project/">Exon Domesday</a> projects, but the 'core' ERC-funded part will end soon.</p>
<p>The reason I say that today is the beginning of the end is that we have just released our last functional update of the DigiPal framework. That's right: the website as it stands today represents all the functionality that there will be as part of this project. From here on, at least within the scope of the core project, there will be no new features. So, let's have a look at what you can do:</p>
<ul>
<li>Search for <a href="http://localhost:8080/digipal/search/?from_link=true&s=1&result_type=manuscripts">manuscripts and charters</a>, <a href="http://localhost:8080/digipal/search/?from_link=true&s=1&result_type=scribes">scribes</a>, <a href="http://localhost:8080/digipal/search/?from_link=true&s=1&result_type=hands">scribal hands</a>, and <a href="http://localhost:8080/digipal/search/?from_link=true&s=1&result_type=graphs">graphs</a> (images of letter-forms).</li>
<li>Explore a <a href="http://localhost:8080/digipal/search/facets/">faceted search</a> of manuscripts and charters, images, scribes hands and graphs (this is still in 'beta').</li>
<li><a href="http://localhost:8080/digipal/page/">Browse</a> images of over 800 manuscript pages and charters.</li>
<li>Read descriptions of <a href="http://localhost:8080/digipal/manuscripts/527/">manuscripts</a>, <a href="http://localhost:8080/digipal/manuscripts/203/">charters</a>, and <a href="http://localhost:8080/digipal/hands/68/descriptions/">scribal hands</a>.</li>
<li>See images of <a href="http://localhost:8080/digipal/page/144/">manuscript</a> and <a href="http://localhost:8080/digipal/page/34/">charter</a> pages marked up with palaeographical annotations.</li>
<li>Form collections of images, whether of complete pages or of individual images, saving them to your browser or desktop, or sharing them via Twitter, e-mail, or whatever else you prefer. See, for instance, <a href="http://localhost:8080/digipal/collection/shared/1/?collection=%7B%22id%22%3A%221%22%2C%22annotations%22%3A%5B12107%2C12108%2C53241%2C53244%2C4284%2C4285%2C11612%2C11613%2C11614%5D%2C%22name%22%3A%22Eadwig%20Basan's%20b%22%7D">my collection of the letter <strong>b</strong> written by the famous scribe Eadwig Basan</a>.</li>
<li>Once you have a collection then you can send it to the Lightbox, which allows you to manipulate your images in various ways (resizing, rotating, overlaying, comparing and so on), where you can again share, download and so on. See, for instance, <a href="http://localhost:8080/lightbox/?annotations=[12107,12108,53241,53244,4284,4285,11612,11613,11614]&images=[]&editorial=[%20%20]&from=%2Fdigipal%2Fcollection%2Fshared%2FEadwig%2520Basan's%2520b">the collection of Eadwig's <strong>b</strong>s</a>.</li>
<li><span>Download our framework from our <a href="https://github.com/kcl-ddh/digipal">open-source repository on GitHub</a>.</span></li>
<li>Connect your software directly to the DigiPal data using our API (preliminary documentation is available on <a href="https://github.com/kcl-ddh/digipal/blob/master/digipal/api/digipal-api.txt">GitHub</a>) which in turn allows custom searches like this <a href="http://localhost:8080/digipal/api/annotation/?_graph__display_label__startswith=s&_image__id=80&@select=id,str,*graph,html">display of images associated with a particular hand</a>. (Remember, this is not designed for human consumption!) </li>
<li>We don't use these in DigiPal, but the framework also has a component for generating maps and timelines of your data which some associated projects are using.</li>
</ul>
<p>So, with all that, what are we we doing for the last month? Testing and documenting! Yes, that's right: we are going to be improving the layout of the site a bit, and we will be adding new and correcting old content, but for the most part we will be documenting the site and fixing any bugs. We will be explaining how people can search and explore better, what all the content means, and we will also document how it works 'behind the scenes' so you can use it yourself.</p>
<p>This is also where you come in. We want to know about <em>all</em> the bugs that are still in the system. We know about some – we have a long list of them! – but we're also sure that you'll find ones we haven't found yet. So please, test it, see what you think, and let us know of any bugs. So, contact us through the <a href="http://localhost:8080/about/contact/">feedback form</a>, write comments at the bottom of this page, or e-mail us at digipal@kcl.ac.uk. Most of all, remember that we can't do any more debugging after the funding runs out. So <strong><em>this is your last chance!</em></strong></p>