The EAGLE Working Groups

EAGLE’s top priority is the establishment of strong links not only with the epigraphic and classical studies communities, but also with the general public. We are looking to share knowledge and experience with institutions/experts whose interests are germane to the project, as well as with independent scholars, students, and lovers of culture. For this reason the EAGLE Best Practice Network has established three Working Groups (WGs) within the overall consortium. The respective focuses of these WGs are:

  • content curation and translation
  • content harmonization (including GIS and terminologies)
  • IPR and user engagement

Content curation and translation

This Working Group is setting up a multilingual wiki for the enrichment of epigraphic images and texts (with special emphasis on translation) for the benefit of the general public. Translations that have already been completed are being published first. The objective of these efforts is to translate into English the most significant epigraphic texts. The task is roaring mightily into fruition in cooperation with the Wikimedia Foundation; Wikimedia Italia, the Italian chapter of Wikimedia, is sharing with EAGLE their unique skills, experience and platform so that we are can maximize our preparedness for the massive uploading of content to their Commons. The Commons hosts only free and reusable resources under public domain or Creative Commons-Attribution-Share Alike licenses. This means that all content is free of charge and may be used for every purpose by every user.

We believe that providing EAGLE content through the Commons will massively increase the visibility of its resources and serve as a framework for the crowdsourcing of translations. Wikipedia contributors will be able to embed EAGLE images and other resources directly into their articles, while Wikisource communities will be able to use them to populate their schools and libraries. All institutions with pertinent contributions to make to our efforts are cordially invited to join our WG. Please contact info@eagle-network.org for more information.

Content harmonization guidelines, including GIS and terminologies

The goal of this Working Group is to provide guidelines and recommendations to ensure the continuous addition of attractive qualitative and quantitative content produced by the EAGLE Best Practice Netwok. This includes the definition of vocabularies and terminologies for content harmonization and the analysis of tools and practices for adequate georeferencing.

IPR and user engagement: best practices and guidelines

This Working Group’s objective is to analyze and evaluate strategies and practices that foster the reuse of the epigraphic content provided by EAGLE.  The group’s parameters include:

  • studies of user behaviour
  • identification of user groups
  • analysis of the rights management issues and requirements to be taken into account

The groups addressed in this task include the general public (e.g., tourists), individuals with a special interest in cultural heritage and classical Greco-Latin culture, field specialists and academic experts (researchers, students, teachers).