Research summary
Humanities data, including cultural artifacts such as stories, photos and music, can help us understand our histories and societies—but only if the information is accessible. Losing it could lead to a general decline in knowledge and contribute to the spread of misinformation online. As Canada Research Chair in Digital Humanities, Dr. Constance Compton is studying whether data on the internet, including humanities data, are organized and connected in ways that make it easy for people to navigate and understand the relationships between different pieces of information.
She and her research team are creating new methods for bringing humanities knowledge to the web as useful linked data. They are also developing tools, workflows and a national network to protect these data from disappearing. In addition, Crompton’s team is exploring the historical and cultural silences that commercial linked data environments can create. Ultimately, their aim is to prevent a potential “digital dark age.”