CFP: Modeling semantically Enriched Digital Edition of Accounts (MEDEA)

Call for Papers
Modeling semantically Enriched Digital Edition of Accounts (MEDEA)

Account books have long been used as primary sources for economic and
social history since they allow scholars to explore the development of
economic behavior on both a macro- and micro-structural level. A number
of projects in Europe and the United States have begun to explore models
for digitizing such sources.

The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) has developed useful models to encode
texts and digital scholarly editions, and the semantic web offers
opportunities to collect and compare data from multiple digital
projects. The MEDEA project looks at these methods with the goal of
developing broad standards for producing semantically enriched digital
editions of accounts. It will foster discussion of benefits and
deficiencies in existing standards by bringing together economic
historians, scholarly editors, and technical experts to discuss and test
the emerging methods for semantic markup of account books. For this
purpose we call for contributions of scholars with experiences in the
scholarly edition of historical financial records and ideas about how to
use digital methods within this context.

We invite proposals for participation in our first workshop, which will
be held in *Regensburg (Germany), Oct. 22-24, 2015*. Participants will
present current research projects using data from historical account
books, describe the encoding models of their projects, and share ideas
for a common model. The discussions and examples will focus on a set of
questions intended to elucidate the features of accounts of greatest
interest to scholars. Thus the activities will focus on the following
issues:

● How might we model the economic activities recorded in these
documents? In particular: What models of bookkeeping were followed
historically and how can they be represented formally? Are data models
developed for modern business reporting helpful?
● How can we model the economic reality behind the texts? Can we
establish common resources on metrics and currencies or even the value
of money that can be reused in other projects? Is it possible to build
common taxonomies of commodities and services to facilitate the
comparison of financial information recorded at different places and
times? That is, can we develop references on the order of name
authorities and standards for geo-referencing?
● How might we integrate topological information of the
transcription with its financial interpretation? Is the “table” an
appropriate method? What possibilities are offered by the TEI
Manuscripts module and use of the tei:zone element?
● How can we integrate a topological/documentary approach and the
growing linguistic interest in the texts with the interpretations that
economic and social historians extract from the documents?

Proposals should not exceed 700 words and should be submitted to
medea.workshop@ur.de by August 24, 2015.
The programme committee will assess the proposals and notify applicants
no later than September 2, 2015.
We particularly encourage proposals from early-career researchers from
Europe and from the United States. A limited budget is available to
support costs of travel and accommodation.
If there remain any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact
us.

See more details on the project at http://medea.hypotheses.org/ .


Kathryn Tomasek, Associate Professor of History

Wheaton College
Norton, Massachusetts


Ass.-Prof. Dr. Georg Vogeler

Zentrum für Informationsmodellierung – Austrian Centre for Digital
Humanities
Universität Graz
Elisabethstr. 59 / III
A-8010 Graz


Prof. Dr. Mark Spoerer / Kathrin Pindl M.A.

Universität Regensburg
Lehrstuhl für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte
93040 Regensburg