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Tracking DLF
Tracking DLF
I am sometimes asked by observers and Board members, "What are the central points of focus, from your perspective, for DLF?
With the caveat that what follows in my own directorial contribution, here are some of the issues most salient for me and worthy of active development by DLF institutions:
DLF Thematic Tracks :
moving images : The value of moving image collections for teaching, learning, and research has been under-exploited. Too often we see video as entertainment, but this is naïve: film and video contextualize as they simultaneously deliver a richly immersive experience. Learning through moving images, and working interactively with them, is both more engaging and intensive than any other media experience. DLF's Lot49 meeting in 2007, which brought together diverse participants in the moving image community, has attracted the interest of archives, universities, government agencies including the LoC and NARA, and a wide array of funders, including Hewlett, Mellon, MacArthur, the NEH, and others. Our dedicated involvement in moving images increases DLF's profile across a wide range of cultural institutions.
science cyberinfrastructure : Digital libraries have led prominent efforts to advance the level of Humanities and (to a lesser extent) Social Sciences computing infrastructures and research. But in hard science lies the hope of humanity - here, and not in history or poetry - will we be able to save the planet for the use of our children and the other living things we share this space with; here we will be able to understand our place in the greater universe; here we will be able to advance ourselves sufficiently to earn the luxury of pursuit of art and architecture. We have tremendous expertise and insight to bring to these critical inquiries, and just as many things to learn. Science engages us with our faculty, taxes our technical foundations, and brings us into the very core of our institutions.
virtual worlds, social communities : Although virtual worlds such as SecondLife are past the inflection point of infatuation, the majority of organizations invested in education and research have wisely begun to subscribe to a longer view, understanding that there are huge gains to be obtained in research and education. We must appreciate the social bases of learning, and work with digital tools to bring people's diverse experiences together across the barriers of geography and established prejudices. The increasing wealth of insight we gain from multiplayer gaming, virtual communities, and interactive whole earth simulations points us towards a future where libraries are interleaved into an information infrastructure we can barely imagine now.
mobile applications : Our world is mobile; we move around as we experience the world. Our libraries and the information they hold must be placed in people's hands, not merely on their desks, made relevant to where they are, when they are there, and knowing who is around them. We must integrate our information with place, enabling delivery to a range of devices that have constant access to network resources. Mobile, location sensitive applications are at the forefront of computer science explorations. Significant funds are being invested in mobile applications by network providers, content publishers, search engines, and collaborative services. We have rich information and knowledge of the users most likely to seek it, and we must bring a seat to this table.
Pending for next year inclusion:
Information access in the developing world. I believe this must be a fundamental priority for the DLF. As a U.S.-centric organization, our perspective on opportunities and obligations is often provincial. The contacts that I have made across Europe, with parties seeking African economic development, private international funders, and activities coordinated through UC Berkeley, a leader in this area, convince me that if DLF is ever able to justify its assistance to the broader march of human achievement, then it must be here. The UC Berkeley I-School has nurtured ties to organizations within developing countries and the core technology companies of Silicon Valley that hold intrinsic long-term interests in achieving greater digital literacy across the world. These ties are easily exploited by the DLF, and I believe it our responsibility to do so.
Information access in the developing world. I believe this must be a fundamental priority for the DLF. As a U.S.-centric organization, our perspective on opportunities and obligations is often provincial. The contacts that I have made across Europe, with parties seeking African economic development, private international funders, and activities coordinated through UC Berkeley, a leader in this area, convince me that if DLF is ever able to justify its assistance to the broader march of human achievement, then it must be here. The UC Berkeley I-School has nurtured ties to organizations within developing countries and the core technology companies of Silicon Valley that hold intrinsic long-term interests in achieving greater digital literacy across the world. These ties are easily exploited by the DLF, and I believe it our responsibility to do so.
2 comments
I'm disappointed to see your comments about hard science cyberinfrastructure. Art and architecture as "luxuries" to be enjoyed after we've done our scientific work? No. That is exactly the kind of blind faith in the god of technoscience that we need to avoid building into our nascent cyberinfrastructure. Hard science may tell us many things, but it won't help us decide what kind of planet we want to leave for our children or how to understand our place in the larger universe--on the contrary, hard science has consistently abdicated responsibility for such questions on the grounds that they are out of scope. Our systems for pursuing, sharing and interpreting scientific knowledge need to accommodate multiple forms of inquiry and ways of knowing, including humanistic and social scientific strains, including scientific expert and non-scientific expert practitioner views, even when (ESPECIALLY when) the information being disseminated and discussed is nominally in the domain of hard science.
09/30/07 @ 14:12
Comment from: pbrantley [Member] 
Ryan, I don't disagree that science should be informed by the greatest possible array of sources. But a humanist by background, a social scientist in training, and yet I think that yes, science is our most crucial savior. My language is strong in part because there has been such an embrace of digital humanities that only a minority among the major research libraries are confronting the myriad challenges of hard science.
In part, I was informed by a re-reading of Charles Ferguson's story of Vermeer, "High Stakes, No Prisoners." In the frontispiece, he quotes John Adams, writing to his wife Abigail:
"I must study politics and war that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."
I worry, a lot, that we have so harmed our planet that - while we cannot put aside the arts - we must vigorously renew our efforts in science. Poetry will not stop the ice from melting; nor will science (now at least), nor even politics. But it will be science and a more artful embrace of politics than this country has recently demonstrated that will help us figure out how we might survive, if we shall.
In part, I was informed by a re-reading of Charles Ferguson's story of Vermeer, "High Stakes, No Prisoners." In the frontispiece, he quotes John Adams, writing to his wife Abigail:
"I must study politics and war that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."
I worry, a lot, that we have so harmed our planet that - while we cannot put aside the arts - we must vigorously renew our efforts in science. Poetry will not stop the ice from melting; nor will science (now at least), nor even politics. But it will be science and a more artful embrace of politics than this country has recently demonstrated that will help us figure out how we might survive, if we shall.
09/30/07 @ 14:51
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This is the personal blog of Peter Brantley, and the opinions expressed here are his own and are not reflective of any of his employers in the continuum of history, or the University of California, which provides support for this blog.
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