The DH Consortium Project of Japan (DiHuCo) is a consortium within the “Research and Development Promotion Project for DX in the Humanities and Social Sciences” promoted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). The Center for Open Data in the Humanities (CODH) will work on the DX of research in the humanities and social sciences, with a focus on the fields of maps and gazetteers.
Maps and Gazetteers Issues
This project will address three themes: Maps (geographic space), Gazetteers (information space), and Toponyms (connection between the two spaces).
- Maps (geographic space): Information that expresses geographic space, mainly geometrical data such as points and polygons.
- Gazetteers (information space): Information that is connected to geographic areas, and is mainly media data such as text and images.
- Toponyms (connection between the two spaces): entities that bridge maps and gazetteers, mainly names and spatial coordinates.
Datasets, software, and services related to the above three themes will be made available.
DiHuCo Hub for Data Applications
In addition to these research activities centered on the geographic areas, the creation of humanities use cases using AI and other data-driven methods is also an important issue.
- How can publicly available datasets, software, and services be used for digital humanities research?
- What new datasets, software, and services must be built to answer new questions?
While it is important to be useful for specific projects, we will also work to create use cases that are broadly useful for digital humanities research in Japan/the world.
Data Standards and Data Usage Group
The following topics will also be addressed as important issues for generalizing individual use cases.
- Research, development, and standardization of data standards for geographic information in Japan, and coordination with international standards
- Development of model guidelines for humanities data standards
- Creation of DH educational programs focusing on geographic information
We believe that the DX of research in the humanities can be encouraged through a combination of activities in three stages: aligning data standards as much as possible, creating guidelines that define the concepts and rules necessary to achieve these standards, and disseminating these guidelines through educational programs.