Coalition of Humanities and Arts Infrastructures and Networks - CHAIN

A panel will discuss areas of cooperation and
practical work between the various initiatives
engaged in building e-infrastructure to support
the next generation digital research in the
Humanities.
Following from a panel session at DH2009,
in October 2009 representatives of numerous
important associations, networks and projects
met and resolved to form
CHAIN
– the Coalition
of Humanities and Arts Infrastructures and
Networks. The initial 'CHAIN Gang' comprised:
-
arts-humanities.net
-
ADHO - Association of Digital Humanities
Organisations
-
CLARIN
-
centerNet
-
DARIAH
-
NoC - Network of Expert Centres in Great
Britain and Ireland
-
Project Bamboo
-
TextGrid
The representatives of these various initiatives
identified the current fragmented environment
where researchers operate in separate areas with
often mutually incompatible technologies as a
barrier to fully exploiting the transformative
role that these technologies can potentially
play.
CHAIN
recognised that their current and
planned activities were interdependent and
complementary and resolved that they should be
oriented towards working together to overcome
barriers, and to create a shared environment
where technology services can interoperate and
be sustained, thus enabling new forms of
research in the Humanities.
CHAIN
will act as a forum for areas of shared
interest to its participants, including:
-
advocacy for an improved digital research
infrastructure for the Humanities;
-
development of sustainable business models;
-
promotion of technical interoperability of
resources, tools and services;
-
promotion of good practice and relevant
technical standards;
-
development of a shared service
infrastructure;
-
coordinating approaches to legal and ethical
issues;
-
interactions with other relevant computing
infrastructure initiatives;
-
widening the geographical scope of our
coalition.
CHAIN
will promote an open culture where
experiences, including successes and failures,
can be shared and discussed, in order to support
and promote the use of digital technologies in
research in the Humanities.
This session will feature panellists from the
CHAIN
gang, who will introduce the practical
measures that they are engaged in to build a
coherent, interoperable and maximally effective

2
services to support research in the Humanities,
and will address the following questions:
-
What are the main barriers to progress?
-
What are the most exciting opportunities?