"In 1983 Boyd Rayward described the early diffusion abroad of the Dewey Decimal Classification (and indirectly of the Universal Decimal Classification) in Australia, Great Britain, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Russia. Here, I... more
"In 1983 Boyd Rayward described the early diffusion abroad of the
Dewey Decimal Classification (and indirectly of the Universal Decimal
Classification) in Australia, Great Britain, Belgium, France, Switzerland,
and Russia. Here, I discuss the enormous interest in the
decimal system in the Netherlands that went far beyond its original
role for the classification of bibliographic knowledge. I will present
Johan Zaalberg (1858–1934) and Ernst Hijmans (1890–1987) as two
advocates for the use of the decimal system in the administration
of public organizations and private companies and its role in the
development of scientific management in the Netherlands"
Dewey Decimal Classification (and indirectly of the Universal Decimal
Classification) in Australia, Great Britain, Belgium, France, Switzerland,
and Russia. Here, I discuss the enormous interest in the
decimal system in the Netherlands that went far beyond its original
role for the classification of bibliographic knowledge. I will present
Johan Zaalberg (1858–1934) and Ernst Hijmans (1890–1987) as two
advocates for the use of the decimal system in the administration
of public organizations and private companies and its role in the
development of scientific management in the Netherlands"
This paper discusses the relationships between American and European organizations concerned with knowledge organization and classification in the first half of the twentieth century based on newly discovered documents. It focuses on... more
This paper discusses the relationships between American and European organizations concerned with knowledge organization and classification in the first half of the twentieth century based on newly discovered documents. It focuses on perceptions in America and Europe of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) and the Universal Decimal Classification systems (UDC), in particular those of the Dutch connection, Frits Donker Duyvis (1894 -1961). This paper will first explore in more detail the different expectations of the developers of both classification systems that in the literature have been typified in very generic terms, as the need for a practical library system for shelf arrangement versus the desire of a theoretical bibliographic or scientific classification system. Using Otlet’s publications on the Future of the Book and unpublished manuscripts it will be explained why the UDC simply could not work as a translation of the DDC, but had to be adapted fundamentally. Secondly, whereas Comaromi and Rayward discussed the early history of the tensions between the DC and UDC this paper will discuss unpublished documents in the Archives of the FID that cover the period from the thirties until the end of the fifties of the twentieth century. Finally, Donker Duyvis’s juxtapostion of “Dewey’s philosophical conception of classification of knowledge” with the “practical UDC ” will be discussed. The claim will be made that the characteristics that Donker Duyvis ascribed to this “practical” UDC, were in fact essential components of a theory of classification that Otlet formulated in the first decades of the twentieth century.
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 –... more
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). Paul 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 will examine his designs for interfaces that involve bibliographic cards; that allow data 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 will 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.
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... more
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.
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... more
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.
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... more
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.
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.
Abstract: In this report, we summarize the state of the art of web archiving in relationship to researchers and research needs. This is a different focus than much of the earlier work in this area, including the JISC PoWR report... more
Abstract:
In this report, we summarize the state of the art of web archiving in relationship to researchers and research needs. This is a different focus than much of the earlier work in this area, including the JISC PoWR report which focused on institutional strategies for archiving web resources (JISC, 2008). It is important to note that this report focuses on the uses and needs of individual researchers. Research groups are also important, as some of the challenges that face individual researchers can quickly spiral into deeply complex tangles when dealing with collaboratories. For instance, national selection policies and national copyright rules can stand in the way of international projects, even if there are sound academic reasons to pursue international collaboration. While these issues are addressed here when appropriate, the bulk of the report focuses on individual researchers and institutions.
Keywords: Web Archives, Internet, Web, Preservatio
In this report, we summarize the state of the art of web archiving in relationship to researchers and research needs. This is a different focus than much of the earlier work in this area, including the JISC PoWR report which focused on institutional strategies for archiving web resources (JISC, 2008). It is important to note that this report focuses on the uses and needs of individual researchers. Research groups are also important, as some of the challenges that face individual researchers can quickly spiral into deeply complex tangles when dealing with collaboratories. For instance, national selection policies and national copyright rules can stand in the way of international projects, even if there are sound academic reasons to pursue international collaboration. While these issues are addressed here when appropriate, the bulk of the report focuses on individual researchers and institutions.
Keywords: Web Archives, Internet, Web, Preservatio
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... more
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 the digital Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The history of cartography has a long tradition in the study of the truth of maps. In 1968 two fundamental articles in Imago Mundi appeared that discussed the historical evidence of maps not only from a technical, but also from a... more
The history of cartography has a long tradition in the study of the truth of maps. In 1968 two
fundamental articles in Imago Mundi appeared that discussed the historical evidence of maps
not only from a technical, but also from a functional/contextual point of view: Koeman’s:
Levels of historical evidence in early maps and Harley’s: Evaluation of Early Maps. Towards
a Methodology. In this paper we take the herein proposed division of “evidence on, about and
of maps” as point of departure for a conceptual model which allows us to examine to which
extent existing methodologies concerning the historical evidence of maps can be used in the
analysis and design of digital town plans and virtual reconstructions of cities. The model contains
parameters of historical evidence based on form, function, (re-)use and transformations
of paper and virtual maps and on interpretations of users. Finally the process will be described
to allow mapmakers and users to annotate digital maps with information on historical evidence.
The proposed paper is embedded in a research programme of the University of Maastricht
and University of Groningen (The Netherlands): Paper and Virtual Cities. New methodologies
for the use of historical sources in virtual urban cartography,
fundamental articles in Imago Mundi appeared that discussed the historical evidence of maps
not only from a technical, but also from a functional/contextual point of view: Koeman’s:
Levels of historical evidence in early maps and Harley’s: Evaluation of Early Maps. Towards
a Methodology. In this paper we take the herein proposed division of “evidence on, about and
of maps” as point of departure for a conceptual model which allows us to examine to which
extent existing methodologies concerning the historical evidence of maps can be used in the
analysis and design of digital town plans and virtual reconstructions of cities. The model contains
parameters of historical evidence based on form, function, (re-)use and transformations
of paper and virtual maps and on interpretations of users. Finally the process will be described
to allow mapmakers and users to annotate digital maps with information on historical evidence.
The proposed paper is embedded in a research programme of the University of Maastricht
and University of Groningen (The Netherlands): Paper and Virtual Cities. New methodologies
for the use of historical sources in virtual urban cartography,
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,... more
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.
This paper discusses two interrelated projects: Manuscript map Annotation and Presentation System (MAPS); and Multi-Agent Technology Contextualizing Historical Maps (MATCH-Maps). MAPS is based on a computer aided system that allows... more
This paper discusses two interrelated projects: Manuscript map Annotation and Presentation System (MAPS); and 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 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 the 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 standards
Read more: Archives & Museum Informatics: Museums and the Web 2010: Papers: van den Heuvel, C. et al., Annotators and Agents in a Web-based Collaboratory: Disclosing Cartographical Collections http://www.archimuse.com/mw2010/papers/heuvel/heuvel.html#ixzz1AYR8EyP5
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives
Cultural heritage institutions are unequipped to reconstitute these lost relationships on their own. Involving users on the 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 standards
Read more: Archives & Museum Informatics: Museums and the Web 2010: Papers: van den Heuvel, C. et al., Annotators and Agents in a Web-based Collaboratory: Disclosing Cartographical Collections http://www.archimuse.com/mw2010/papers/heuvel/heuvel.html#ixzz1AYR8EyP5
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives
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... more
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.
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... more
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.
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.
In the years 1605 and 1608, the Flemish mathematician Simon Stevin (1568-1620) published five books in two volumes Wisconstighe Ghedachtenissen (Mathematical Memoirs) which can be seen as a compilation of his private lessons to Prince... more
In the years 1605 and 1608, the Flemish mathematician Simon Stevin (1568-1620) published five books in two volumes Wisconstighe Ghedachtenissen (Mathematical Memoirs) which can be seen as a compilation of his private lessons to Prince Maurice of Orange on mathematics and the natural sciences at the court in The Hague and in army tents during several sieges. In the fifth book Vande Ghemengde Stoffen (Miscellanea), Stevin explained in a note that he had not been able to finish several treatises announced in the table of content (Arithmetic, Book keeping, Architecture, Music Theory, Military Arts and other topics) in time for the printer and planned, therefore to publish these at a later moment. By the time Stevin died in 1620, only a few fragments had appeared in other publications. Fortunately, several scholars made tables of content and transcripts (Isaac Beeckman) published some of the material (Hendrik Stevin) and corresponded about the content of the manuscripts (Huygens, Mersenne, Descartes and others). This way crucial information about Stevin’s unpublished chapters was preserved. However, in the processes of preserving the content of these valuable manuscripts of Simon Stevin -in Hendrik Stevin’s words “na de Autheurs gevoelen” (as the author intended)- parts were left out, adapted, replaced and represented in new contexts or in different formats ranging from patents to poems. In this paper the various intentions of the scholars who translated Stevin’s manuscripts in various formats for reuse will be explored. It will focus on the implications of the transformation of Stevin’s manuscripts and drawings that circulated in correspondences, notes, technical designs and scholarly publications for the representation and visualization of knowledge in 17th century.
Research Interests:
According to the article on Hypermedia in Wikipedia, Ted Nelson coined the term in 1963 and published it in 1965. The definition in the article states that “hypermedia is used as a logical extension of the term hypertext in which... more
According to the article on Hypermedia in Wikipedia, Ted Nelson coined the term in 1963 and published it in 1965. The definition in the article states that “hypermedia is used as a logical extension of the term hypertext in which graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks intertwine to create a generally non-linear medium of information” and the World Wide Web is presented as a classical example. But it can be argued that the characteristics of hypermedia and their use in global collaborations go back much further in time. At the beginning of the 20th century the Belgian pioneer of knowledge organization Paul Otlet (1868–1944) began exploring “substitutes for the book” and to find new technologies to order and to link fragments of texts, images, sound, etc., for scholarly collaborations on a global level. Otlet sketched and commissioned hundreds of drawings of what we would call nowadays interfaces to synthesize global knowledge. It will be argued that Paul Otlet’s views and visualizations on substitutes for the codex book, interfaces, infrastructures and protocols for collective annotating by scholars might be relevant for recent discussions on the provenance and evidence of information in Web 2.0 and Semantic Web solutions for e-research, in particular in the digital humanities.
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... more
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 the digital Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.