List of publications - Status 7 November 2011

List of lectures - Status 7 November 2011

Facing Interfaces: Paul Otlet's Visualizations of Data Integration

Pre-publication - please quote printed version
C. van den Heuvel, W. Boyd Rayward, Facing Interfaces: Paul Otlet’s Visualizations of Data Integration, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(12), 2011, pp. ):2313–2326,
(received May 16, 2011, revised June 19, 2011; accepted June 20, - DOI: 10.1002/asi.21607

Most historical explanations of interfaces are technological
and start with the computer age. We propose a
different approach by focusing on the history of library
and information sciences, particularly on the case of Paul
Otlet (1868–1944). Otlet’s attempts to integrate and distribute
knowledge imply the need for interfaces, and his
conceptualizations are reminiscent of modern versions
of interfaces that are intended to facilitate manual and
mechanical data integration and enrichment. Our discussion
is based on a selection from the hundreds of
images of what we may think of as “interfaces” that Otlet
made or commissioned during his life. We examine his
designs for interfaces that involve bibliographic cards,
that allowdata enrichment, his attempts to visualize interfaces
between the sciences and between universal and
personal classifications, and even his attempts to create
interfaces to the world. In particular, we focus on
the implications of Otlet’s dissection of the organization
of the book for the creation of interfaces to a new order of
public knowledge. Our view is that the creative ways
in which he faces tensions of scalability, representation,
and perception of relationships between knowledge
objects might be of interest today.

Multidimensional classifications: Past and future conceptualizations and visualizations.

In Smiraglia, Richard P., ed. Proceedings from North American Symposium on Knowledge Organization, Vol. 3. Toronto, Canada, pp. 105-121

This paper maps the concepts “space” and “dimensionality” in classifications, in particular in visualizations hereof, from a historical perspective. After a historical excursion in the domain of classification theory of what in mathematics is known as dimensionality reduction in representations of a single universe of knowledge, its potentiality will be explored for information retrieval and navigation of the World Wide Web.

Interactions between elementary structures in universes of knowledge

R. P Smiraglia, C. van den Heuvel; T. Dousa (2011 ).  Interactions between elementary structures in universes of knowledge. In: Proceedings of the International UDC  Seminar Classification and Ontology, Formal Approaches and Access to Knowledge The Hague, 19-20 September 2011, pp. 25-40

Contrasts in 20th century classification theory relate to a transition from a universe of
“knowledge” system towards one of “concepts.” Initiatives to develop a Simple Knowledge
Organization System based on classification schemes and taxonomies within the framework of the
SW are attempts to bridge the gap. Current KOSs seem to reinforce “syntactics” at the expense of
semantics. We claim that all structure is syntactic but knowledge structures need to have a
semantic component as well. Therefore we consider classifications as artificial languages. The
UDC constitutes a natural language-independent notation system that allows for mediating
between concepts and knowledge systems. We discuss an elementary theory of knowledge
organization based on the structure of knowledge rather than on the content of documents.
Semantics becomes not a matter of synonymous concepts, but rather of coordinating knowledge
structures. The interactions between these systems represent interactions between different
universes of knowledge or concepts.

Visualizing Universes of Knowledge: Design and Visual Analysis of the UDC

- C. van den Heuvel, A. Akdag Salah, Knowledge Space Lab, Visualizing Universes of Knowledge: Design and Visual Analysis of the UDC, In: Proceedings of the International UDC  Seminar Classification and Ontology, Formal Approaches and Access to Knowledge The Hague, 19-20 September 2011, pp; 283-294

In the 1950s, the universe of knowledge metaphor returned in discussions around the “first theory of facetted classification”, the Colon Classification of S.R. Ranganathan, to stress differences with an universe of concepts system. Here we claim that the UDC has been either ignored or incorrectly represented in studies that focused on the pivotal role of Ranganathan in a transition from” top- down universe of knowledge systems” to “bottom-up universe of knowledge systems.” Early 20 century designs from Paul Otlet reveal a two directional interaction between “elements” and “ensembles” that can be compared to the relations between the universe of knowledge and universe of concepts systems . Moreover, an unpublished manuscript with the title “Théorie schématique de la Classification” of 1908 includes sketches that demonstrate an exploration by Paul Otlet of the multidimensional characteristics of the UDC. The interactions between these one- and multidimensional representations of the UDC support Donker Duyvis critical comments to Ranganathan who had dismissed it as a rigid hierarchical system in comparison to his own Colon Classification. A visualization of the experiments of the Knowledge Space Lab in which main categories of Wikipedia were mapped on the UDC provides empirical evidence of its facetted structure‟s flexibility.

Multilayered Grids and Dutch Townplanning. Flexibility and Temporality in the Design of Settlements in the Low Countries and Overseas

prepublication: please quote:
C. van den Heuvel, Multilayered Grids and Dutch Townplanning. Flexibility and Temporality in the Design of Settlements in the Low Countries and Overseas. In: P. Lombaerde, C. vanden Heuvel [eds.], Early Modern Urbanism and the Grid. Town Planning in the Low Countries in International Context. Exchanges in Theory and Practice 1550-1800, Architectura Moderna 10, Turnhout: Brepols publishers, 2011, pp 27-44.

Idea Collider: From a Theory of Knowledge Organization to a Theory of Knowledge Interaction

Richard P. Smiraglia, Charles van den Heuvel, Idea Collider: From a Theory of Knowledge Organization to a Theory of Knowledge Organization
Bulletin of the American Society of Information Science and Technology, April/May 2011 Volume 37- number 4, pp. 43-47

Note of the editor:
"A new and novel addition to core concepts of information science and technology is the Idea Collider, adapting the conceptual basis of the particle accelerator. The Idea Collider is presented as a theory of information and an information retrieval tool that deconstructs text to the underlying elements - the concepts, ideas, knowledge entities, taxons and knowledge bases - and then reconstitutes groupings of data. The authors champion the idea of a 'multiverse of knowledge', in contrast to the 'universe of knowledge' that is an important metaphor in traditional classification theory. A historical review of outstanding theoretical landmarks in classification theory explores the universe of knowledge metaphor, faceted classification theory and the universe of concepts, moving from a holistic view of existing knowledge to an elemental deconstruction that can account for all knowledge, past and future. The Idea Collider is proposed as a theoretical approach to identifying the essential parts of knowledge, dissociating those elements from culture- and time-bound dimensions and making them available for a bottom-up reassembly process." (Richard P. Smiraglia and Charles van den Heuvel ~ ASIS&T Bulletin)

Annotators and Agents in a Web-based Collaboratory: Disclosing Cartographical Collections

co-authored with Sandor Spruit, Leen Breure, Hans Voorbij- Cite as:  van den Heuvel, C. et al., Annotators and Agents in a Web-based Collaboratory: Disclosing Cartographical Collections . In J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds). Museums and the Web 2010: Proceedings. Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics. Published March 31, 2010. Consulted March 19, 2010. http://www.archimuse.com/mw2010/papers/heuvel/heuvel.html

This paper discusses two interrelated projects: 1) Manuscript map Annotation and Presentation System (MAPS) and 2) Multi-Agent Technology Contextualizing Historical Maps (MATCH-Maps). MAPS is based on a computer aided system that allows users to enrich manuscript maps with geo-references and annotations, and to link these to existing descriptions of archival documents. This bottom-up approach raises methodological questions regarding the authority of annotations and tags provided by professional versus non-professional researchers. In addition, users need to be able to search for contextual documents of old maps. For this purpose, we designed the multi-agent environment MATCH-Maps that complements the MAPS system. It will assist curators in restoring connections between manuscript maps and contextual archival documents and help users in searching for maps. Due to 19th century archival practices, many manuscript maps lost their contexts, when archivists separated them from the documents to which they belonged. Cultural heritage institutions are unequipped to reconstitute these lost relationships on their own. Involving users on basis of Web 2.0 principles seems a productive alternative. The annotations of users may provide valuable hints to the expertise of professional archivists. The multi-agent system will use annotation in suggesting possible links between manuscript maps and administrative documents. However, it will leave it to users and curators respectively to select and re-establish definitely their proper contexts.
Keywords: Web 2.0, Cultural Heritage, Annotation of digital images, Multi-agent Technology, Cartography, EAD/EAC standard

Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web in research from a Historical Perspective. The designs of Paul Otlet (1868-1944) for telecommuniication and machine readable documentation to organize research and society", prepublication please quote Knowledge Organization, 36 (4) 214-226

pre-publication, please quote C. van den Heuvel, Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web in Research from a Historical Perspective. The designs of Paul Otlet (1868-1944) for telecommunication and machine readable documentation to organize research and society, Knowledge Organization, 36 (4)pp. 214-226

Tim Berners-Lee described in Weaving the Web his future vision of the World Wide Web in two parts. In the first one, nowadays called Web 2.0, people collaborate and enrich data together in a shared information space. In the second part, exchanges extend to computers, resulting in a “Semantic Web” (Berners-Lee 2000a, 157). Most historical studies of World Wide Web begin with the American roots of the Internet in ARPANET or follow a historiographical line of post war information revolutionaries, from Vannevar Bush  to Tim Berners-Lee. This paper follows an alternative line. DDDD At the end of the nineteenth and in the first decades of the twentieth century various European scholars, like Patrick Geddes, Paul Otlet, Otto Neurath, Wilhelm Ostwald explored the organisation, enrichment and dissemination of knowledge on a global level to come to a peaceful, universal society. We focus on Paul Otlet (1868-1944) who developed a knowledge infrastructure to update information mechanically and manually in collaboratories of scholars. First the Understanding Infrastructure (2007) report, that Paul N. Edwards et al. wrote on behalf of NSF, will be used to position Otlet’s knowledge organization in their sketched development from information systems to information internetworks or webs. Secondly, the relevance of Otlet’s knowledge infrastructure will be assessed for Web 2.0 and Semantic Web applications for research. The hypothesis will be put forward that the instruments and protocols envisioned by Otlet to enhance collaborative knowledge production, can still be relevant for current conceptualizations of “scientific authority” in data sharing and annotation in Web 2.0 applications and the modeling of the Semantic Web.

Concepts as particles: metaphors for the Universe of Knowledge

co-authored with Richard P. Smiraglia. Pre-publication please quote: C. van den Heuvel, Richard Smiraglia, Concepts as Particles. Metaphors for the Universe of Knowledge,. In. C . Gnoli, F. Mazzocchi,  Paradigms and conceptual systems in knowledge organization. Proceedings of the Eleventh International ISKO – conference, 23-26  February 2010  Rome Italy, pp. 50-56

Discoveries in high energy physics have led to new understanding about the nature of that which exists. We use the metaphor of the particle collider to accumulate components of a theory of knowledge that underlies the science of knowledge organization. We outline the concepts of a knowledge universe, the central role of concepts, and the intertwining roles of works, instantiations and documents. This thought experiment provides a different epistemological reading of “knowledge” by demonstrating a semantics that is based on structure and on related forces between components, rather than on content, so as to enable the development of mechanisms for linking related knowledge entities with so-far undiscovered similarities.

MAPS Manuscript map Annotation and Presentation System

Published in Digital Humanities 2009  conference, 22-25 June, University of Maryland , Proceedings pp. 138 –141

The proposed paper describes a pilot entitled MAPS of the Virtual Knowledge Studio for the Humanities and Social Sciences (VKS) of the Royal Netherlands  Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Dutch  National Archives,  Leiden University Library and  the Department of Information and Computing Sciences of Utrecht University intended to disclose and use manuscript map collections in the Netherlands and potentially abroad for individual and institutional research in the humanities. MAPS provides a system in which users reconstruct historical contexts by means of bottom-up geo-references and annotations, complementary to the Encoded Archival Description standard. In a technological sense this implies the interoperability between (semi-)structured and “fuzzy” annotations and the (semi-)automatic linking of maps with contextual documents. Besides technical issues, methodological questions remain regarding the role and authority of annotations and tags of professional and non-professional humanities researchers in a Web 2.0 environment. The requirements for use of manuscript maps in humanities research will be mapped by means of observational user studies of annotation practices and by testing interfaces.

Historical Infrastructures for Web Archiving

co-authored with Meghan Doygherty - prepublcation - Published: Media in Transition MIT6 conference  2009, MIT, Cambridge (Mass.) 17pp

Historical infrastructures for Web archiving: Annotation of ephemeral collections for research
Charles van den Heuvel and Meghan Dougherty

The World Wide Web is becoming a source of information for researchers, who are more aware of the possibilities for collections of Internet content as resources. Some have begun creating archives of web content for social science and humanities research.
However, there is a growing gulf between policies shared between global and national institutions creating web archives and the practices of researchers making use of the archives. Each set of stakeholders finds the others’ web archiving contributions less applicable to their own field. Institutions find the contributions of researchers to be too narrow to meet the needs of the institution’s audience, and researchers find the contributions of institutions to be too broad to meet the needs of their research methods. Resources are extended to advance both institutional and researcher tools, but the gulf between the two is persistent.
Institutions generally produce web archives that are broad in scope but with limited access and enrichment tools. The design of common access interfaces, such as the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, limit access points to archives to only URL and date. This narrow access limits the ways in which web archives can be valuable for exploring research questions in the humanities and social sciences. Individual scholars, in catering to their own disciplinary and methodological needs, produce web archives that are narrow in scope, and whose access and enrichment tools are personalized to work within the boundaries of the project for which the web archive was built.
There is no way to explore a subset of an archive by topic, event, or idea. The current search paradigm in web archiving access tools is built primarily on retrieval, not discovery. We suggest that there is a need for extensible tools to enhance access to and enrichment of web archives to make them more readily reusable and so, more valuable for both institutions and researchers, and that annotation activities can serve as one potential guide for development of such tools to bridge the divide.
The contextual knowledge production evolving from annotation not only adds value to web archives by providing one solution to the problem of limited resources for generating metadata in web archives; it also forms part of our collective memory and needs to be preserved together with the original content. In the 19th and 20th centuries documentalists, such as Paul Otlet (1868-1944) began exploring methods to order, access, and annotate ephemeral, dynamic material for research. Otlet developed a documentation system in which bibliographical material describing content transmitted by all sorts of media (radio, film, gramophone and television) was stored together with various forms of annotations, ranging from updates to expressions of opinion. It imagined researchers working together on a global level to create and to enrich collective memory. We claim that these pre-web annotation initiatives are also of interest for future strategies to access and preserve more dynamic and ephemeral forms of digital cultural heritage, such as web archiving.

Building Society, Constructing Knowledge, Weaving the Web. Otlet's Visualizations of a Global Information Society and his Concept of a Universal Civilization

Prepublication: published in Boyd Rayward [ed.] European Modernism and the Information Society, London (Ashgate Publishers) 2008, chapter 7 pp. 127-153

The In_Between Machine

Dutch - Column on web archiving- Published in e-data&research, jg. 3, nr. 3, December 2008

Truth and Accountability in Geographic and Historical Visualizations

co-authored with Tim R. Wallace (first author prepublication) - Published in in The Cartographic Journal, Vol 42, No 2, The British Cartographic Society, September 2005, pp. 173-181 

The function and accuracy of old Dutch urban designs and maps

co-authored with Jakeline Benavides (first author) - Published in Digital Humanities 2008 Conference, University of Oulu, June 24-29 (Digital Humanities 2008  Book of Abstracts,  pp. 55-57

De versterkte stad

Dutch - in De Stad [voor E. Taverne], Rotterdam 2006, pp. 23-35

"Tot meerder bewijs." Een kaart en een model van Daniel Note van 1620 ter demonstratie van een nieuwe uitvining om de haven van Middelburg droog te schuren.

Dutch - Published in Bronnen van kennis, Leiden, 2006, pp. 100-108

Tussen papieren en digitale kaarten. De annotatie van een atlas en bijbehorende kaarten van Woerden

Dutch co-authored with Elwin Koster - Published in Aangeraakt. Boeken in contact met hun lezers. Een bundel opstellen voor Wim Gerritsen en Paul Hoftijzer, red. Kasper van Ommen, Arnoud Vrolijk, Geert Warnar, Kleine publicaties van de Leidse Universiteitsbibliotheek Nr. 75, 2007, pp. 150-156

De vesting als mathematisch en cultureel kennissysteem. Het onderwijs in de vestingbouw aan hovelingen, koopliui en ambachtslieden in de Hollandse Republiek (17de eeuw)

Dutch - Published  in G. Vanpaemel en A. Meskens (red.) Vóór en na de scheiding. De wiskundige cultuur in de Lage landen 1550-1650. [themanummer]  Scientiarum Historia 32 (2006) 1-2, pp. 99-117

Authoritative Annotations, Encyclopedia Universalis Mundaneum, Wikipedia and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

presentation at Wikipedia Critical Point of View Conference Amsterrdam 26-27 March 2010 session Encyclopedia Histories

This paper discusses an unfinished project of Paul Otlet (1868-1944) for the creation of his Encyclopedia Universalis Mundaneum, an encyclopedia in visual form that made part of a larger global knowledge infrastructure to update information mechanically and manually “beyond the index card box”. Although Otlet’s architecture of the Universal Decimal Classification system allows for linking top down classifications with socially-constructed information spaces, it will be argued that Otlet’s encyclopedia cannot be read simply as a Wikipedia avant-la-lettre. However, despite differences with Wikipedia,  the hypothesis will be put forward that the instruments and protocols envisioned by Otlet to enhance collaborative knowledge production, can still be relevant for current conceptualizations of “scientific authority” in data sharing and annotation in Web 2.0 applications. The latter will be illustrated by analyzing protocols for enriching project around the digital Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Como contar la verdad en mapas digitales de ciudadades: El papel y la ciudad virtual. Anotando y visualizando contextos históricos

Scripta Nova. Revista electrónica de geografía y ciencias sociales, Vol. VIII, núm. 170 (66), 1 de agosto 2004, 26pp.

Como contar la verdad en mapas digitales de ciudades: Ciudades de papel y ciudades virtuales.

Anotando y visualizando contextos históricos. (Resumen)
Monmonnier y MacEachren abordaron el problema de distorsiones de la verdad en proyecciones cartográficas y visualización de datos estadísticos y su impacto ético, centrándose primero en el espacio más que en el tiempo y la historia. Nosotros intentamos desarrollar métodos que integren y visualicen en planos digitales y reconstrucciones virtuales de ciudades, interpretaciones y contextos históricos, de tal forma que permitan a los usuarios escoger las herramientas adecuadas para su investigación, planeamiento o diseño de ciudades, para reconocer (técnica, histórica y conceptualmente) manipulaciones en mapas históricos y virtuales y además exponer los aspectos éticos relacionados con la edición de la información. La meta final es hacer trasparente la toma de decisiones en el proceso de digitalización. El texto se encaja en el programa de investigación Ciudades de papel y ciudades virtuales. Nuevas metodologías para el uso de fuentes históricas en cartografía urbana virtual, financiado por la organización holandesa para la investigación científica (NWO), el cual será presentado brevemente.

Palabras clave: Mapas y cartografía digital, historia de la cartografía, historia de la topografía, planeamiento de ciudades, ciudades virtuales, sociedad y nuevas tecnologías.

How to tell the truth in digital town plans: Paper and Virtual Cities. Annotating and Visualising Historical Contexts (Summary)

Monmonnier and MacEachren tackled the problem of distortions of truth in map projections and the visualisation of statistical data and its ethical impact. They focused foremost on space rather than time and history. We try to develop methods that integrate and visualise historical interpretations and contexts in digital town plans and virtual reconstructions of cities that allow users to chose the right tools in their research, planning or design of towns, to recognise (technical, historical and contextual) manipulations in historical and virtual maps and to expose ethical aspects related to editing of information. The ultimate goal is to make choices in the process of digitisation. This paper is embedded in the research programme Paper and Virtual Cities. New methodologies for the use of historical sources in virtual urban cartography, financed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) which will be presented briefly.

Keywords: Maps and computer assisted cartography, history of cartography, history of land surveying, town planning, virtual cities, society and new technologies

Willem Goeree (1635-1711) en de ontwikkeling van een algemene architectuurtheorie in de Nederlanden

C. van den Heuvel,  "Willem Goeree (1635-1711) en de ontwikkeling van een algemene architectuurtheorie in de Nederlanden", in Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond  96-1997 nr. 5, pp. 154-176.
[Dutch with English summary]

'De Architectura' (1599) van Charles De Beste. Het Vitruvianisme in de Nederlanden in de zestiende eeuw"

Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond,  94 (1995) nr. 1, pp. 11-23

Bartolomeo Campi successor to Francesco Paciotto. A different method of designing citadels: Groningen and Flushing

C. van den Heuvel,  “Bartolomeo Campi successor to Francesco Paciotto. A different method of designing citadels: Groningen and Flushing" in Architetti e ingegneri militari italiani all'estero dal XV al XVIII secolo, Livorno 1994 pp. 153-167

Stevin's Huysbou en het onvoltooide Nederlandse architectuurtractaat. De praktijk van de architectuur als wetenschap

Bulletin van de  Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond, jaargang 93,(1994) nr. I, pp. 1-18.