This third workshop, entitled 'From data to open-access geohistorical platforms', also known as the 'Haut Adour workshop', continues the cycle of geohistorical 'meetings and workshops' initiated by the IR* consortium Huma-Num Time Machine Projects.
For 2024, we will be continuing our reflection on data, procedures and working tools in the context of digital humanities and open science, with several new features that will distinguish this edition.
Firstly, we will be structuring our activities around a unifying theme: water and the know-how associated with it, as well as the different digital interpretations that can be made of it. In the social, cultural and environmental context of our societies, with a particular focus this year on the Haut Adour region, which is hosting this workshop.
Using the digital tools available, the aim will be to enhance and co-construct readings of gravity-fed hydraulic systems and their issues over the long term, giving priority to interdisciplinarity and the transchronological dimension.
Then, in the form of lectures and practical workshops linked to fieldwork, we will be looking at digital approaches incorporating both a participatory/citizen science dimension into the data creation/analysis process and expert and/or technological approaches using academic research methods, and in particular algorithmic processes otherwise known as artificial intelligence.
Lastly, this week will provide an opportunity to take stock of a technological development: the development of sensors and data capture tools that make it possible to collect massive multi-scale data, often in the form of point clouds.
The computing power available and the cost of these sensors mean that their use is now accessible beyond the sphere of hyper-specialists, with the popularisation of these technologies and a consequent exponential increase in the number of datasets accessible, which raises questions.
In the light of these issues, which are closely linked to those of open science and FAIR data, we need to consider, for example, the LIDAR HD data currently being made available by the Institut Géographique National (IGN), its potential uses in geohistory-related issues, and the dissemination and appropriation by as many people as possible of this 3D mapping of the whole of the ground and subsoil of France, disseminated in the form of clouds of rectified, raw or classified points, and the 3D digital modelling (MNT, MNS, MNH, etc.) that can be derived from it. ) that can be derived from them.
Our objective during the Haut-Adour workshop is to have a complete vision of the entire data processing chain, from collection in the field to its deposit in a FAIR warehouse.
So it's not a question of training technical experts, but of initiating and raising awareness of the potential and challenges of the socio-technical ecosystem that surrounds us and determines our relationship with knowledge. Our aim, then, is to lay the foundations for critical thinking about our technical practices.
Particular attention will therefore be paid to the tension between practices, tools and theories, with the emphasis on group exercises.
As in previous years, the Haut-Adour workshop will be open to a public made up of both senior researchers and up-and-coming researchers (from M2 level upwards). We will also be involving elected representatives, colleagues from local government departments and local residents in the lectures and debates and in a participatory exercise.
The week's operating principles :
- Building a dialogue between theoretical approaches and practices around the use of tools, in order to critically assess their potential for geohistory;
- Organise half-days of talks by specialists with a discussant from civil society to put points of view into perspective and interact with the public;
- Participate in practical workshops and tool demonstrations to initiate technical expertise in data processing and analysis;
- Handle the entire data life cycle: collection, structuring, analysis, retrieval and sustainability;
- Take part in workshops in the field involving local residents;
- Take part in evening workshops based on feedback from participants;
- Leave as much room as possible for discussion between activities. The time devoted to coffee and meal breaks will be long enough to encourage the building of links.
In addition to the fifteen or so speakers, a total of 15 people are expected to attend, selected on the basis of applications. A brief description of the current research project (1 page) is desirable, as well as the aspect of the project related to the questions being asked (half a page). For students, a letter of support from their supervisors should be attached to the application. This description and the application will be posted on the workshop website: https://ptmhautadour.sciencesconf.org/
Typology of approaches and lists of software envisaged:
The data collection and analysis approaches tested during the workshop will be designed to uncover processing potential and, through a better understanding of this potential, to open up prospects for future use by the participants.
The tools and approaches used and proposed during the exercises, combined with explanations from the experts, should generate discussion. A deliberate decision to broaden the range of tools on offer to include both standard products and products developed specifically for geohistory, as well as tools from publishers and open-source tools, is intended to provide a broader vision of the existing technical ecosystem available for geohistory.
The software used includes, but is not limited to: QGis, ArcGIS and the ESRI suite, FME, Cyclone, Cloud Compare, R (?), Python, Morphal, Metashape, etc.
There will also be a range of tools on site for testing and discussion: GPS, Total Station, 3D Scan, Lidar Drone, Photogrammetry Drone, Geophysics, etc.
