Monday May 24

09.00 – 12.30	Refresher on computer architecture and networking Vittore Casarosa (ISTI-CNR and University of Pisa) The Summer School will deal with “digital tools”. For the benefit of all those who were exposed to Computer Science a long time ago, or have been only marginally touched by it, we will briefly review the basics of computer functioning and the representation of information within a computer. We will also see how the evolution of computer technology and of communication networks has led, in the early ’90, to the explosive growth of the Internet and the Web. We will conclude with a glimpse on the evolution of the actual Web towards the Semantic Web.
12.30 – 14.00	Lunch
14.00 – 17.30	Designing and managing a project in DH Enrica Salvatori (University of Pisa) The main characteristics of a hypothetical DH project involving private and public realities of the territory will be illustrated, with the description of the main phases of its organization, implementation, maintenance and conservation. In the practical part we will try to create a work team on a concrete project and to design a possible work plan.

Tuesday May 25

09.00 – 12.30	Digital collections and digital libraries Vittore Casarosa (ISTI-CNR and University of Pisa) Starting with the needs of digital collections and digital libraries (such as information retrieval and conceptual models), we will have a brief overview of the tools and services needed in some of the main fields falling under the umbrella of Digital Humanities, not covered in this School. We will touch upon Open Science and FAIR data, and related repositories and services such as Zenodo and the services provided by CLARIN (the European Research Infrastructure for Language Resources and Technology). We will have a glimpse of NLP (Natural Language Processing), with the tools provided by Voyant, and the tools and resources provided by NLTK and WordNet. We will conclude with a brief overview of EVT (Edition Visualization Technology), an open source tool specifically designed to create digital editions.
12.30 – 14.00	Lunch
14.00 – 17.30	Designing and managing a project in DH Enrica Salvatori (University of Pisa) On the web we now frequently find digital libraries and archives, i.e. collections of digitized and annotated objects (items with metadata) that can be researched. This basic condition is not usually enough to enhance the digitized cultural heritage and make it really useful: in order to do this (Digital) Public History practices must be activated.

Wednesday May 26

09.00 – 12.30	Organizing virtual exhibitions Claudio Loconsole (Professional Affiliate, TeCIP Institute – Institute of Communication, Information and Perception Technologies, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa) Virtual exhibitions represent a challenging task in terms of managing collections of digital documents and making them accessible via the web. A specific tool to organize virtual exhibitions is Omeka, a free, flexible and open source web-publishing platform for the display of library, museum, archives, and scholarly collections and exhibitions. Indeed, Omeka in Swahili means precisely ‘show’, ‘spread’. By the end of this session, participants will: understand the building blocks and basic affordances of Omeka as a content management system; understand the basics of Dublin Core metadata schema; be able to add items (individually and in batch), enable plugins and build exhibits; be familiar with the data design challenges of creating a digital collection; understand when Omeka is the right tool for the job.
12.30 – 14.00	Lunch
14.00 – 17.30	Organizing virtual exhibitions Claudio Loconsole (Professional Affiliate, TeCIP Institute – Institute of Communication, Information and Perception Technologies, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa) Continuation of Organizing virtual exhibitions and practical exercises.

Thursday May 27

09.00 – 12.30	How to make an e-catalog and why Nicoletta Salvatori (University of Pisa) A catalog is a publication which lists artworks, books, products or services. Readers will be able to browse it easily, enjoy pictures and view all the required information on every items. And this means a good organization of the contents and an elegant and effective layout. But an e-catalogue is not only a digital version of a print copy. An e-catalogue can be interactive with features such as photo-galleries, audio and video. Your readers can get a much more inclusive experience. They will be able to share their choices or send their comments. You can also embed links to external sites where you will be able to give to the reader more information and sell on-line. Moreover you can realize your catalogue in different format (epub 2, epub 3, pdf, AZW) each of which has its pros and cons. Each decision will affect the final result.
12.30 – 14.00	Lunch
14.00 – 17.30	How to make an e-catalog and why Nicoletta Salvatori (University of Pisa) Continuation of How to make an e-catalog and practical exercises.

 

Week 2 – May 31 to June 4 2021

Monday May 31

09.00 – 12.30	GIS – Geographical Information Systems Augusto Ciuffoletti (University of Pisa) The tutorial covers the many facets of the Geographic Information System (GIS) technology from the perspective of a digital humanist that wants to use it for purposes of research and documentation. The tutorial starts by introducing the basic concepts and terms and showing how GIS resources have an impact on humanistic research. Then it proceeds by illustrating four tools that are representative of distinct approaches to this technology. OpenStreetMaps (OSM) is a project that wants to provide free access to good quality maps and is based on collaboration among users. It is an example of a cloud-based GIS service with an inclusive accent. It provides minimal editing tools, but no storage for user resources. In contrast, QGis is a standalone tool that concentrates on map processing and production. The tutorial covers a small fraction of its capabilities but gives an idea of its potential. Umap mediates between the two giving access to OSM maps and allowing the user to add features and store maps. User maps are available for sharing and can be embedded in web resources. The last tool presented is an Android app, Gaia GPS, which is representative of the many smartphone apps that can be used for on-field activity. The app tracks movements using the Global Position Service receiver embedded in most smartphones and records notes and pictures. Collected data can then be processed or published using the tools introduced previously. At this point, the seminar changes point of view and accompanies the scholar inside the implementation of a Web service with a GIS interface. The topic is the leaflet library that extends the JavaScript language with GIS capabilities. The presentation requires limited programming skills and proceeds step-by-step adding functionalities to a minimal app. The final result is representative of a GIS Web application that integrates with QGis. Overall, the teaching methodology is inspired by the “learn-by-doing” paradigm. For each of the topics, the scholar is given tools and suggestions on how to practice the concepts and thus acquire a valuable experience. To this purpose, the tools presented in the first part are free to use and the StackBlitz service supports the programming activity in the second, thus avoiding any configuration on scholar’s computer.
12.30 – 14.00	Lunch
14.00 – 17.30	GIS – Geographical Information Systems Augusto Ciuffoletti (University of Pisa) Continuation of Geographical Information systems.

Tuesday June 1

09.00 – 12.30	Graphic applications and 3D objects Paolo Cignoni (ISTI-CNR and University of Pisa) Marco Potenziani (ISTI-CNR and University of Pisa) Nowadays 3D data are becoming more and more a key digital media. In particular 3D data can be a key technology for Cultural Heritage in a number of different ways, from documentation, to analysis, to restoration and to dissemination. After an introduction to all these thematics we will focus on Cultural Heritage assets, which are experiencing rapid and chaotic growth. Nevertheless, the resulting panorama, despite the variety of approaches, reveals several shortcomings and “missing links”: unsolved issues, uncovered users, neglected fields. 3DHOP (3D Heritage Online Presenter) is an open-source software solution aimed at filling these empty spots. Developed by CNR-ISTI as a publishing framework for the interactive visualization of complex 3D datasets online, it has been expressly designed for simplifying the creation of Web3D contents specifically addressed to the CH domain. This course will introduce the subject of 3D web publishing: interactive visualization tools and methodologies, the quest between local and web-based tools, data sharing and cooperative visual analysis. Moreover, it will give a brief overview of 3DHOP, introducing its main features and characterizing tools. Finally, there will be a “hands one” final part in which students will be able to experiment with 3DHOP.
12.30 – 14.00	Lunch
14.00 – 17.30	Graphic applications and 3D objects Paolo Cignoni (ISTI-CNR and University of Pisa) Marco Potenziani (ISTI-CNR and University of Pisa) Continuation of Graphic applications and 3D objects.

Thursday June 3

09.00 – 12.30	Digitization of documents Federico Boschetti (ILC-CNR) The theoretical part of the course illustrates methods and open source instruments for the preprocessing, acquisition by OCR/HTR, and postprocessing of text extracted from images of two-dimensional text-bearing objects (manuscripts, printed editions, maps, etc.). Techniques of preprocessing to optimize the images are described. The necessary steps to the text acquisition, such as training of OCR/HTR models, recognition, and accuracy evaluation are addressed. Finally, alignment techniques of multiple outputs and the application of linguistic models to improve the accuracy of the OCR/HTR results are discussed. The practical part of the course provides the students with the skills necessary to manage the workflow for the acquisition of textual samples from different kinds of documents.
12.30 – 14.00	Lunch
14.00 – 17.30	Digitization of documents Federico Boschetti (ILC-CNR) Continuation of Digitization of documents.

Friday June 4

09.00 – 12.30	Linked Open Data for the Digital Humanities Seamus Ross (University of Toronto) Linked open data, a set of principles and techniques for structuring, interlinking, and querying data published directly on the web, has emerged in the last decade as a powerful strategy for enhancing the discovery, visualization and analysis of digital resources. This session will provide an introduction to the Semantic Web and linked data technologies, and will present some tools and applications in fields of interest for the Digital Humanities.
12.30 – 14.00	Lunch
14.00 – 17.30	Linked Open Data for the Digital Humanities Seamus Ross (University of Toronto) Continuation of Linked Open Data for the Digital Humanities.