Modeling semantically Enriched Digital Edition of Accounts (MEDEA)

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Between May 2015 and April 2016, Wheaton College (Mass.) and the University of Regensburg will bring together economic historians, scholarly editors, and technical experts to discuss and test emerging methods for semantic markup of account books. The project directors hope that the proposed activities will mark the beginning of a long term collaboration that will extend for at least the next five years. The main activities proposed for initiating the bilateral project focused on Modeling semantically Enriched Digital Edition of Accounts (MEDEA) include three stages:- At a meeting to be held at the University of Regensburg in early summer 2015, the Project Directors will present the models of semantic markup of accounts that they have been exploring for discussion, critique, and suggestions from the invited experts.- After this meeting, participants will produce examples that may be used as models for further testing and development of best practices for transcription, markup, and analysis of accounting records.- At a second meeting, to be held at Wheaton College in March 2016, principals will present the results of this testing and consult with the assembled experts regarding next steps for expanding the communities of practice employing these models for historical financial records.Looking to the potential of developing broad standards for producing semantically enriched digital editions of accounts, the Project Directors have planned this series of activities to introduce pragmatic concerns early in the process so as to avoid introducing problems that might result from solely theoretical discussions. The examples to be produced during the second stage of activities will be chosen to demonstrate the wide range of documents that are included in the general category of accounts and to begin to suggest the breadth and depth of information to be found in such sources.A significant portion of the historical record for which cost-effective digitization models have yet to be developed, financial records of various sorts have been produced by most human communities. Account books have long been used as primary sources for economic and social history since they allow scholars to explore the development of economic behavior on both a macro- and microstructural level. Information derived from account books can help to answer questions about such matters as the distribution of wealth and the role of ¿the poor¿ in local, regional, and global communities. Account books also supply data at the most granular level, as they are often the only sources available for historical information about such historically significant individuals and activities as artisans and their work. Thus, the MEDEA project¿s larger goals of contributing to the development of broad standards for producing semantically enriched digital editions of accounts have the potential to transform humanities scholarship in a significant range of fields.