Dsg 2015-02-26

Announcements

• Given that Julia and Syd will be out of town next week, the 3/5 DSG meeting will be replaced with a writing session.
• We have invited Ben Schmidt (History) to attend our 3/12 meeting to discuss Bookworm and grants.
• Graduate students (particularly those attending the NULab's weekly practicum) have expressed an interest in learning more about topic modeling. Jim will talk to Mike Foley (grad student in Network Science) about planning a potential informal event / will keep an eye out for opportunities to discuss topic modeling in a more formal capacity.

Discussion of Grants

Julia led a discussion of grants and how the DSG might keep an eye on grant cycles and grant-related DSG project needs. Additional info and a link to the DSG's grant calendar can be found here This discussion covered:

• the larger grant-writing schedule that the DSG should be aware of
• planning mechanisms (where documentation lives, potential uses of Podio, etc.)
• communication with DSG project leads / faculty members (the general desire to avoid situations where people at NU are competing for the same grants)

In terms of grants that are presently on the DSG's grants calendar, we have (see the "Grant Tracking 2015" tab in the Grants Calendar spreadsheet for more info):

• NEH PARD Text Analysis 2015 (January 2016; proposed Bookworm grant)
• NEH HCRR Hydra 2015 (May 2016; TEI and the DRS; TEI and Archives)
• NEH DH Implementation 2016 (September 2016; collaboration with NuLawLab)
• NEH IADH (late 2016 / summer 2017; funding to expand scope of planned summer institute)

Actionable items from this discussion included:

• Inviting Ben Schmidt to attend our 3/12 DSG meeting to brainstorm a grant that incorporated Bookworm and the DSG.
• Scheduling a meeting with Giordana Mecagni to brainstorm grant opportunities for Archives and Special Collections (Jim has schedule this meeting for 3/11)
• Incorporating a discussion of grants into the annual check-in progress: ensuring that at least one question on the form involves grants; determining whether the discussion of grants warrants its own separate discussion or if content can be sufficiently covered during the review meeting with the DSG (an issue that might complicate the bullet point below, for this semester at least)
• Scheduling a meeting with DSG project managers to discuss grant proposals for less "high-value" startup programs: DH startup grants, IMLS grants, foundation startup grants. This meeting could extend into a discussion with faculty / grad students. Jim will schedule the project manager meeting after spring break.
• Scheduling a meeting with DSG "tech" people (David, Ernesto, Eli, Ashley, Linda, Patrick) to discuss how grants impact their work. This meeting seems worth scheduling after the initial conversations with Ben, Giordana, and the DSG project managers.
• Determining how Podio might be used to track information about grants: Jim has created a Grants app in Podio and is currently testing out the template for information to store there (as suggested by Julia).

General discussion / brainstorming about grants included:

• Incorporating full-text TEI / XML into the next iteration of the DRS Project Toolkit and what this might look like / involve
• Ways of using Bookworm with the DRS: providing the DSG with a Bookworm instance, making Bookworm TEI-aware, etc. (following up with Ben when he attends a DSG meeting)
• A conversation (initiated by Hillary) about plans to create open access editions of books from Northeastern University Press (specifically, books from the Library of Black Literature); discussion of grants will also involve discussion of money for copyright negotiations in certain instances
• Ways of thinking about TEI and Archives / Special Collections
• Mention of the CLIR Hidden Collections grant and the implications of what a mass digitization project might look like at NU
• A general discussion of cost-sharing: staffing needs, percentages of matching funding, other resources that vary from grant to grant