> I think the phrase 'open source' is always in danger of simply becoming a
> mantra [...]
I have always taken "open source" as a philosophy rather than in its specific meaning (programming source code). Under this respect, I suspect that "open data" and "open methods" may be just the specific form that the open source philosophy assumes in the (Digital) Humanities.
One important distinction, however, is that between open source and open access. I mantain that this is the point we should not lose of sight, while breaking down the general concept of "open source" into more specific ideas.
> I think you're right about the value of data. From my own experience, the
> TEI-XML files available for download on Perseus were pure gold. Indeed,
> having them in a 'finished' state (rather than a work-in-progress) made my
> life easier - I could simply build on a huge amount of scholarly effort
> without worrying too much about hidden bugs.
Should not this be what research in general is about? Producing high-value data ("finished", in this sense) to be further reworked (so still "work in progress"). The first point has to do with value, the second with collaboration. We should resist the temptation of preferring value (thus settling with "open access" to finished data) over collaboration.
Of course this is not what Henry Lynam was implying, but this is what most Humanities scholar lean towards.
And this is where I'd like to make a point.
The digital world give us the opportunity to 'publish' our research material at any stage of the work, instead of only publishing those tidy paper articles on peer-reviewed journals when the work is done.
What becomes crucial, then, is our ability to declare the scholarly status (or "value") of the materials we publish (source, accuracy, methodology, but even just author, updating information etc.).
A good example under this respect might be "The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha project" <http://ocp.tyndale.ca/>. Each text published has an "Introduction" (e.g. <http://goo.gl/2ppnW>) with a "Text Status and Contents" section.
I myself am at the dawn of a research project on scholarly digital edition of classical texts based on manuscripts. I am exploring ways to make the *whole process* of my research 'open', transparent from the very (and very dim) beginnig.
I am not even sure of the advantages that this may eventually bring about, but I see this as an experiment.
I am starting with building up a website for this purpose:
http://www.unipa.it/paolo.monella/lincei
More to come in the next months, of course.
Paolo Monella
Post-doc, Accademia dei Lincei, Roma
http://www.unipa.it/paolo.monella
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