Linked Open Usable Data for Cultural Heritage · Chapter 9

9. Discussion

[Il] faut renoncer à l’idée d’une interopérabilité syntaxique ou structurelle par l’utilisation d’un modèle unique, qu’il s’agisse de la production, de stockage ou de l’exploitation au sein même d’un [système d’information]. (Poupeau, 2018) ^[363]

This chapter presents a comprehensive discussion where I interpret, analyse and critically examine my findings in relation to the thesis and the wider application of LOUD. Through an in-depth analysis of the design principles of LOUD and their implications for CH, this discussion aims to demonstrate the many challenges and opportunities inherent in this framework. The focus is on achieving community-driven consensus, rather than simply pursuing technological breakthrough.

The following sections are organised to provide a comprehensive review of the empirical findings, an evaluation abstracting LOUD, and a retrospective analysis of the research journey. Firstly, in Section 9.1, I will present a summary of the empirical findings from my research. This will include key themes and insights, structured to reflect the different areas of study and practice within LOUD.

Secondly, in Section 9.2 I will provide an evaluation of LOUD by means of using the LoA approach. This evaluation will focus on the impact of LOUD on the perception of Linked Data within the CH domain and the wider DH field. This will include the key themes and insights that have emerged, structured in a way that reflects four levels of abstraction. I will also explore the dual nature of LOUD implementation, involving both simplicity and complexity, and discuss the various factors that influence such dynamics.

Finally, in Section 9.3, I will offer a retrospective analysis of the research journey. This section will interpret the findings to situate LOUD as fully-fledged actors. It will reflect on the challenges, achievements, and lessons learned throughout the research process, providing a holistic view of the project’s trajectory and its implications for the future of LOUD.

9.1 Empirical Findings

This section summarises the empirical findings of my research and already offers some suggestions. The structure does not follow the exact order of the three empirical chapters but is organised around overarching topics that emerged throughout the study. The seven topics include Community Practices and Standards, Inclusion and Marginalised Groups, Maintenance and Community Engagement, Interoperability and Usability, Future Directions and Sustainability, Digital Materiality and Representation, as well as Challenges of Scaling and Implementation.

Community Practices and Standards

GitHub serves as a vital hub for community involvement, with a core group of active contributors often attending meetings regularly. This platform simplifies decision-making within the community, although it also reflects biases similar to those in FLOSS communities. Behind visible activities like meetings, there is substantial preparatory work managed by co-chairs, editorial boards, or driven by community-generated use cases. This foundational work often determines the direction and outcomes of formal gatherings. The LUX project at Yale, as seen in Chapter 8, has successfully fostered collaboration across various units, bringing together libraries and museums on a unified platform. The technological foundation of LUX, based on open standards, facilitates data integration and cross-collections discovery.

Not only does the deployment of FLOSS tools contribute to these achievements, but it also emphasises the social advantages of working collaboratively. The concept of the Tragedy of the Commons, as described by Hardin (1968), highlights the potential for individual self-interest to deplete shared resources. However, Ostrom (1990) offers a counterpoint by demonstrating how communities can successfully manage common resources through collective action and shared norms. In this context, initiatives like the CHAOSS initiative^[364] play a significant role by providing metrics that help evaluate the health and sustainability of open source communities. These metrics include contributions, issue resolution times, and community growth, offering valuable insights into how collaborative efforts can be maintained and improved.

Reaching consensus is another critical aspect of community practices and standards. While the minutes of meetings are valuable artefacts, they often reflect an Anglo-Saxon approach to decision-making characterised by few substantive points and critical turning points. The formal aspects of conversations captured in minutes do not fully encompass the decision-making process, which frequently involves informal conversations, consensus-building through open dialogue, and subtle cues that influence outcomes. These elements are integral to the English and American approach and hold valuable lessons for an international community. IIIF and Linked Art are international communities, but decisions are made in English and the majority of participants are based in North America and the UK, significantly imprinting this approach. Understanding these nuances can help us improve our collaborative efforts within the IIIF and Linked Art communities. By recognising and appreciating these different facets of decision-making, we can learn from each other and enhance our collective ability to make effective and inclusive decisions.

Some of the challenges associated with these practices include the major demand on resources for community building, the slowness inherent in distributed development, and the difficulty in achieving consensus. Additionally, the concept of social sustainability can be seen as an imaginary construct that papers over differences, as discussed by Fitzpatrick (2019). Addressing these challenges is crucial for the long-term success and effectiveness of the IIIF and Linked Art communities.

Inclusion and Marginalised Groups

The demographic homogeneity in these communities can perpetuate biases and neglect issues relevant to underrepresented or marginalised groups, as seen in Chapter 6. Participation in these standardisation processes is itself a privilege. The assumption that internet access and digital devices are universally available is critically examined, revealing key actors in the digital landscape. This mirrors issues within the IIIF community, where generating IIIF resources presupposes means that may not be accessible to all.

We need clear terms of inclusion, as highlighted by Hoffmann (2021). She argues that effective inclusion requires a critical examination of the frameworks and conditions under which inclusion is offered. The framework should ensure that inclusion initiatives do not merely add diversity to existing power structures but work to transform these structures fundamentally. This involves questioning who defines the terms of inclusion, who benefits from them, and who may be inadvertently excluded. Hoffmann (2021) suggests a participatory approach, where marginalised communities are actively involved in shaping inclusion policies and practices, thus making inclusion an ongoing, reflective process rather than a static goal.

The inclusion of marginalised groups is a necessary step, but it is not sufficient. To truly make a difference, there must be a strategic and concentrated effort to appropriate technologies, as emphasised by (Morales, 2009, 2017, 2018) and further articulated by (Martinez Demarco, 2019, 2023). This strategic approach highlights the political significance of challenging dominant neoliberal and consumerist perspectives on technology and individual engagement.

Martinez Demarco (2023) underscores the critical importance of focusing on practices that go beyond mere inclusion. Instead, it requires a deep understanding and critical assessment of how technology is intertwined with social, economic, and ideological contexts. It implies a reflective and deliberate process of technology adoption in which individuals creatively tailor technology to their specific needs, beliefs, and interests. Moreover, a key aspect highlighted by Martinez Demarco (2023) is the implicit and explicit critique of a universalist approach to inclusion, which often lends itself to all too easy instrumentalisation. Understanding and studying resistance to inclusion in an oppressive digital transformation context is paramount, particularly given the highly unequal conditions that prevail.

In this light, a comprehensive study of socio-material and symbolic processes, practices, and ‘imaginaries’ involved in embedding technologies into individuals’ lives is needed. This approach also recognises technology as a catalyst for change. It envisions the use of technology to drive meaningful change at multiple dimensions and realities—national, societal, or personal. By focusing on these practices, empowering individuals to navigate and use technology thoughtfully and purposefully becomes a reality, bridging the gap between technological advances and societal progress (Martinez Demarco, 2019).

Maintenance and Community Engagement

The tension between creating advanced specifications and their practical implementation by platforms is evident in the IIIF Cookbook recipes and Linked Art patterns, as discussed in Chapter 6. This ongoing development shows that the community is still finding the best ways to achieve broad adoption and interoperability. The deployment of the Change Discovery API, as illustrated in Chapter 7, demonstrates that establishing such a protocol on top of the IIIF Presentation API is feasible and straightforward. High-level support from leadership, particularly Susan Gibbons as Vice Provost, has been crucial in building trust and ensuring the project’s success as a valuable discovery layer at Yale. This integration of diverse collections through a unified platform, based on open standards, highlights the potential for transforming teaching, learning, and research by leveraging collaborative efforts. The topic modelling exercise in LUX reveals the intricate actor-networks composed of organisations, individuals, and non-human actors. This analysis underscores the importance of ongoing processes and relationships in maintaining and evolving infrastructure, akin to the concept of ‘infrastructuring’.

As detailed in Chapter 8, following best practices and guidelines such as the SHARED Principles is essential for better involvement, but it is also crucial to uphold these commitments consistently over the long term to ensure meaningful participation. Between the PIA team members, there were sometimes ‘disconnects between different communities who undertake collaborative research’ (Vienni-Baptista et al., 2023). This was something we had to navigate and learn from, which was manageable within the context of a laboratory setting. However, for any follow-up projects or whatever forms the digital infrastructure we built may take, it is imperative that these disconnects are addressed and solidified to ensure cohesive and sustained community engagement.

Interoperability and Usability

Within PIA, different APIs have been progressively deployed to meet various requirements while allowing parallel exploration of data modelling. Each API offers unique advantages, but their collective integration promotes semantic interoperability. For example, the IIIF Image API has been instrumental in rationalising image distribution across prototypes, providing efficient access to high-quality digital surrogates and the ability to resize them for different uses. Adherence to LOUD standards and schemas within LUX has generally been positive, although transitioning between versions of a specification can present challenges, highlighting the need to improve the consistency of compliant resources.

Linked Art, for instance, has the capacity to generate various insights and sources of truth around different entities. However, additional or entirely new vocabularies from sources like the Getty may need to be used – such as Homosaurus. Complementary to Linked Art, using WADM allows for assertions that go beyond purely descriptive narratives, though it may sacrifice some semantic richness. This complexity in managing vocabularies and maintaining semantic richness directly ties into broader usability considerations within the community.

Addressing these usability concerns, Robert Sanderson has suggested focusing on the use of full URIs in Linked Art to ensure computational usability, in contrast to IIIF’s approach of minimising URIs to enhance readability. This difference highlights a fundamental question in usability: balancing readability and computational usability. Understanding developers’ perspectives on these approaches is critical.

I would suggest as a way forward for the IIIF and Linked Art communities to focus on further improving usability of the specifications. This includes conducting comprehensive usability assessments of APIs to evaluate the experiences of new developers versus existing ones, understanding the steepness of the learning curve associated with each API, and guiding improvements in documentation, on-boarding processes, and overall developer support. Efforts should be made to lower the barriers to entry for new developers by developing more intuitive and user-friendly tutorials, providing example projects, and creating a robust support community. Ensuring that developers can quickly and effectively leverage APIs will foster greater adoption. Addressing the challenges of transitioning between different versions of specifications is critical, and developing tools and guidelines that help maintain consistency across versions will reduce friction and ensure smoother updates.

Future Directions and Sustainability

Survey findings, as discussed in Chapter 6, underscore the need for ongoing efforts to develop LOUD standards that foster an inclusive, dynamic digital ecosystem. Future strategies should include creating educational resources and frameworks that support interdisciplinary collaboration and reduce barriers to participation. While the Manifest serves as the fundamental unit within IIIF, the Linked Art protocol can play a similar central role as semantic gateways in broader contexts, allowing round-tripping across the APIs. The topic modelling exercise in LUX, detailed in Chapter 8, reveals complex actor-networks of organisations, individuals, and non-human actors, providing insights into the relationships sustaining the LUX initiative.

The next steps for Linked Art might involve forming a new consortium independent of a CIDOC Working Group, which could provide the necessary support to sustain the initiative. Alternatively, integrating Linked Art into IIIF as a new TSG and specification could address the discovery challenges within IIIF, as discussed during the ‘Connecting IIIF and Semantic Cultural Heritage Metadata for Discovery’ birds of a feather session led by Robert Sanderson (see Raemy, 2024b) at the 2024 IIIF Conference in Los Angeles^[365]. Design principles that act as bridges across different disciplines, as proposed by Roke and Tillman (2022), are crucial. IIIF has demonstrated that this collaborative approach is feasible, and Linked Art could follow in its footsteps. However, achieving this requires increased dedication from passive members and broader adoption of the model and the API ecosystem in the near future.

Digital Materiality and Representation

As explored in Chapter 7, the detailed digital representation of photographic albums, such as the Kreis Family Collection, demonstrates the need to comprehensively capture the materiality of digital objects. This includes the structure and context of images, which are crucial for maintaining their historical and social significance. The implementation of the IIIF Presentation API in creating a detailed digital replica of the Getty’s Bayard Album shows how digital materiality can be enhanced through thoughtful use of technology, but also highlights the scalability challenges for such detailed representations.

Creating these detailed digital representations can be seen as a ‘boutique’ approach, which, while labour-intensive and resource-demanding, is necessary for preserving the integrity and contextual significance of cultural heritage objects. The challenge lies in developing the appropriate means and methodologies to achieve this level of detail consistently. Future endeavours, whether through research projects or collaborative efforts between GLAM institutions and DH practitioners, should aim to address these challenges and create sustainable practices for digital materiality and representation. As Edwards aptly notes:

‘Presentational forms equally reflect specific intent in the use and value of the photographs they embed, to the extent that the objects that embed photographs are in many cases meaningless without their photographs; for instance, empty frames or albums. These objects are only invigorated when they are again in conjunction with the images with which they have a symbiotic relationship, for display functions not only make the thing itself visible but make it more visible in certain ways‘. (Edwards & Hart, 2004, p. 11)

Challenges of Scaling and Implementation

As seen in Chapter 6, the IIIF Cookbook recipes and Linked Art patterns reflect the tension between creating advanced specifications and their practical implementation. This gap between ideation and real-world application underscores the challenges faced by the community in achieving broad adoption and interoperability. In Chapter 7, the exploration of APIs like the IIIF Change Discovery API illustrates the practical challenges and potential of scaling these technologies for wider adoption. The successful implementation in PIA demonstrates viability, but also points to the need for continued development and community engagement to fully realise the benefits.

Furthermore, assessing the scalability of IIIF image servers, as discussed by (Duin, 2022) and exemplified by the firm Q42 with their Edge-based service Micrio^[366], highlights the importance of optimising data performance. Erwin Verbruggen aptly noted that ‘optimising data performance in my opinion mens sending as little data over as needed’^[367], emphasising the need for efficient data handling to enhance scalability. This insight reinforces the necessity of continual refinement in scaling digital infrastructure to support broader use and integration.

Reflecting on these findings, I would like to assert that continuous participation, particularly for institutions that can afford to be part of initiatives like IIIF-C, is essential. Active members should not only focus on their own use cases but also consider the needs and perspectives of other, perhaps marginalised, groups. Achieving the dual goals of making progress within one community, whether it be IIIF or Linked Art, while also engaging in effective outreach and creating a solid baseline, will benefit everyone in the CH sector and beyond. Addressing where LOUD fits in, how people perceive this new concept or paradigm, and understanding how LOUD differs from Linked Data in general are essential. These questions help to clarify the stages at which themes related to one of the LOUD design principles emerge, crystallise, and potentially disappear. My thesis does not fully resolve these queries but offers insights and hints for further exploration.

In conclusion, the empirical findings reveal the richness of the implementation and maintenance of LOUD standards in the CH domain. From the critical role of community practices and standards to the challenges of achieving interoperability and inclusivity, each theme underlines the complex interplay of social, technical and organisational factors. will look at the evaluation of LOUD and explore its overall impact, delving into the delta of what to do with it, particularly in terms of Linked Data versus LOUD, where my thesis provides pointers but does not provide definitive answers.

9.2 Evaluation: Abstracting LOUD

In this section I will assess the impact of LOUD within the CH domain and the wider DH field, examining its implications for community practices and semantic interoperability, and secondarily whether LOUD has affected the perception of Linked Data.

Referring to Figure 4.2, the following is a descriptive attempt to provide levels of abstraction of LOUD based on my empirical findings, focusing particularly on the deployment of IIIF within PIA and Linked Art within the LUX framework, aside from the data model abstraction level.

• Representation and Display: For PIA, the implementation of Leaflet provided an immediate and easy-to-integrate viewer to display high-resolution digitised images of CAS photographs. The context is accessible through accompanying metadata and related links on the GUI. Although not LOUD-driven per se, it functions as a mediator through the IIIF Image API. Balancing between immediacy and hypermediacy, the Mirador instance enabled the display of IIIF Presentation API resources with machine-generated annotations. We also incorporated the V3 plug-in to manipulate images^[368]. However, we failed to provide a robust authentication layer allowing users to add their own annotations easily, highlighting the limitations of a four-year research project not primarily aimed at tool development but at proposing a participatory system. IIIF-compliant software can aid in this, yet development needs to be community-driven rather than individualised. Exhibit was the only tool used for educational and teaching purposes that was well-received, though integration issues persisted. LUX exemplifies Linked Art hypermediacy, where the structure of the JSON-LD representation drives their GUI, including URL syntax^[369]. For both PIA and LUX, JSON-LD serves as an interface for certain users (software developers, data curators, data scientists). While resources can become BOs depending on the viewer, a few inconsistencies can still be overcome and will likely be understood by humans reading the files.

• Data Model: The data model of IIIF is primarily driven by its design principles and WADM. Also the main unit is the Manifest, often a digitisation or representation of a physical object, meaning the Presentation API is key to achieve an acceptable level of interoperability. The Shared Canvas Data Model is still somewhere, baked into the specifications, but one does not really need to know about this model to understand how IIIF works from Version 2 of the main APIs onwards, it is a piece of history though. IIIF is Linked Data, but has no real semantics value and should really not be treated as RDF triples. One could almost say the same about Linked Art, as it is not necessary to fully understand CIDOC-CRM to either start using its model or to deploy an API endpoint. However, some basics do need to be understood, such as the event-based model viewpoint, the important classes and their rdfs:domain and rdfs:range. However, Linked Art has bent some rules and created some properties and classes to meet the needs of the community. As far as implementation goes, I would suggest to directly implement and be consistent with the Linked Art API endpoints, rather than starting with the data model, as I see cross-institutional interoperability through interfaces as a more important milestone than data modelling as a pastime for the few specialists. For both PIA and LUX, dedicated data models were done to be consistent with the specifications, with some internal structure and data in LUX for their own purposes. Semantic data in PIA, as already realised through the Omeka A JSON-LD API was not done beyond templating of a few Linked Art resources and the workflow done with the University of Oxford, but there is not a productive PIA Linked Art API at the moment.

• Infrastructure: Serialisation mock-ups and JSON-LD templates on GitHub were the starting point to model IIIF Manifests and Collections for the PIA research project. Laravel and then Omeka A were the two main elements, in two different iterations, that were leveraged to present the IIIF resources. If single image Manifests were quite easy to serialised, the integration of more detailed representations of photographic albums presented challenges. A more robust infrastructure is definitely needed for the long-run, but efficient enough in a laboratory setting.

• Algorithmic and Computational Processes: PIA relied on virtual machines and had the necessary Kakadu licence embedded in our SIPI instance to encode the images. If the former proved difficult as performance was sometimes an issue, the latter was a good option as serving JPEG2000 images cannot currently rely on FLOSS solutions which are too slow. The LUX pipeline and the use of MarkLogic as a multi-modal database are examples of the data engineering expertise and outsourcing solutions required for such a platform. Some open source solutions, such as QLever^[370], a high-performance SPARQL engine, may also offer some hope to institutions that are not well-funded and need robust knowledge graph-oriented solutions.

The dual simplicity and complexity of implementing LOUD specifications and participating in community-led efforts can be attributed to the need for a reorientation of research projects. It is essential for these projects to actively engage in community processes rather than intermittently presenting their progress and subsequently withdrawing. This ongoing engagement fosters a more robust and collaborative environment, ultimately contributing to the advancement of shared goals and standards. Such a reorientation necessitates a fundamental change in how universities and GLAMs institutions operate, extending their involvement beyond the immediate project scope to ensure sustained participation and impact.

Despite the introduction of LOUD, the perception of Linked Data has not evolved significantly. Most software engineers continue to treat resources primarily as JSON, often overlooking the graph structure that underpins Linked Data. For IIIF, this approach is appropriate given its focus on content interoperability and presentation. However, for Linked Art, overlooking the graph structure could be problematic to some extent, as it limits the full realisation of the semantic relationships and rich interconnections that Linked Data can provide. This highlights the need for more focused efforts to integrate semantic web principles, particularly in contexts where these principles can significantly improve the quality of data.

I have faced challenges in moving many of the models developed within PIA into (beta) production, and the usability requirements of APIs have scarcely been addressed. However, the findings from this thesis should be viewed as starting points rather than conclusive solutions. The unseen aspect of this dissertation is my active involvement in both communities and my attempts to reciprocate this engagement within PIA. Each investigation presented could have warranted a dedicated thesis, indicating the breadth and depth of the topics explored. Ultimately, this work merely scratches the surface of numerous subjects, laying the groundwork for future research and development.

The next section will offer a retrospective on the work accomplished during this PhD thesis. It will reflect on the various milestones achieved, the lessons learned, and the potential directions for future research.

9.3 Retrospective: Truding like an Ant

In this retrospective^[371], I will offer an analysis of the research journey. This section will interpret the findings to situate LOUD as fully-fledged actors within the CH field. It will reflect on the challenges, achievements, and lessons learned throughout the research process, providing a holistic view of the project’s trajectory and its implications for the future of LOUD.

The empirical findings of my research reveal the nuanced interplay between socio-technical practices and implementations, synthesising insights through both thematic and abstract lenses. This dual approach underscores the importance of fostering collaboration and effective decision-making, while addressing biases and promoting inclusivity. The need for ongoing maintenance, interoperability and usability remains paramount, as does the development of educational resources and consortia to sustain initiatives. In addition, capturing digital materiality and addressing scalability challenges are critical to the widespread integration of LOUD standards. These findings lay the groundwork for future research and development aimed at bridging operational applications with more extensive design approaches.

How can LOUD be situated as fully-fledged actors within the CH field? Reflecting on the notion of ‘graceful degrading’, frequently mentioned during the 2024 IIIF Conference, LOUD specifications embody this concept perfectly. Even if not all embedded patterns of a given API-compliant resource are correctly interpreted or rendered by a client, some of its basic features should still be displayed. This flexibility is crucial for ensuring the broad usability and adaptability of LOUD standards, allowing them to transcend institutional boundaries and serve as robust mediums of knowledge transfer. To paraphrase Poupeau (2018)’s quote at the beginning of this chapter, there isn’t a unique model for interoperability, but there are definitely best sociotechnical practices to be learned from IIIF and Linked Art. The act of participation prevails over the relatively easy and one-off deployment of specifications for the short term.

By using LOUD, CH data can be effectively interlinked with different datasets, resulting in numerous potential benefits. An overriding benefit is the improved discoverability and accessibility of CH resources, facilitating enhanced search and retrieval capabilities. In addition, the adoption of LOUD promotes seamless data sharing and reuse within academic and memory institutions, fostering a culture of collaboration and interdisciplinary knowledge exchange. This approach not only enhances the overall utility and comprehensiveness of CH repositories, but also promotes collective understanding and appreciation of diverse cultural assets and historical narratives.

However, it is essential to critically evaluate the application of LOUD in the context of CH data. While LOUD offers promising prospects for improved data interlinking and accessibility, challenges and concerns persist. The transition to LOUD principles necessitates significant investments in resources, including infrastructure, expertise, and time, which may pose barriers for smaller institutions or those with limited funding. Moreover, ensuring the accuracy, consistency, and quality of Linked Data is a complex task, demanding meticulous attention to detail and ongoing maintenance efforts. Furthermore, potential issues related to data ownership, rights management, and the potential misuse or misinterpretation of interconnected data should be carefully considered. Standardisation across different CH domains, each with unique data structures, formats, and contexts, may present formidable obstacles to seamless integration. These concerns underscore the need for a nuanced and cautious approach to the implementation of LOUD standards, taking into account the complexity and specificity of CH data and its diverse custodians.

This thesis has been a journey of discovering Linked Art and a confirmation that the ethos of IIIF is yet to be fully manifested beyond product implementation. The sense of belonging to a community is an ongoing endeavour, much like the ants in Latour’s metaphor. This dissertation underscores that active participation in community processes is essential to achieving the dual goals of advancing the technological framework for semantic interoperability and fostering an inclusive and collaborative CH ecosystem.