Linked Open Usable Data for Cultural Heritage - HTML version of the thesis ready

10 views

Skip to first unread message

Julien A. Raemy

unread,

May 10, 2025, 9:20:32 AMMay 10

to IIIF Discuss

Dear IIIFers,

I am pleased to announce that my PhD Thesis in Digital Humanities titled "Linked Open Usable Data for Cultural Heritage: Perspectives on Community Practices and Semantic Interoperability" is finally available in HTML format. The PDF version was published in December 2024.

HTML Version: https://phd.julsraemy.ch/thesis.html
PDF Version on the University of Basel's repository: https://doi.org/10.5451/unibas-ep96807
Swiss National Library's e-Helvetica: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:ch:bel-bau-diss155487

As many of you have been participants in my research, I wanted to highlight sections that might be of particular interest to the IIIF community:

Chapter 6 on The Social Fabrics of IIIF and Linked Art examines the community dynamics, governance structures, and collaboration patterns within IIIF.

Section 9.1 of the Discussion summarises key empirical findings across several themes including:

Community Practices and Standards
Inclusion and Marginalised Groups
Maintenance and Community Engagement
Interoperability and Usability
Future Directions and Sustainability
Digital Materiality and Representation
Challenges of Scaling and Implementation

Grounded in Actor-Network Theory, the thesis analyses how GitHub serves as a hub for community involvement, explores the tension between creating advanced specifications and their practical implementation, and discusses the challenges of achieving interoperability and inclusivity. It also examines how the IIIF Cookbook recipes reflect the community's ongoing efforts to achieve broad adoption.

With the upcoming 2025 IIIF Conference in Leeds in June, I hope this research can contribute to ongoing discussions about community practices, inclusivity, and the future directions of IIIF. I look forward to discussing these findings with many of you in person in Leeds, or I'm more than happy to discuss it over a call or on Slack for those who are interested before then.