musicSpace: Using and Evaluating e-Science Design Methods and Technologies to Improve Access to Heterogeneous Music Resources for Musicology

人文艺术研究人员的信息资源越来越多地通过互联网提供，与此同时，研究人员自己也经常寻求打破传统的学科障碍，提出跨学科的研究问题。然而，目前的在线资源仍然是孤立的，这使得研究人员在多个系统中进行多次搜索，以获得与定义明确的研究问题相对应的材料。在单一来源中，搜索选项通常是有限的，对有效构建研究问题的标准没有足够的控制。在这个项目中，我们采用经过验证的基于电子科学的技术和设计方法，体现在mSpace软件框架中，并将其应用于一系列重要的音乐数据收集，提供一个单一的入口点，非常容易导航。与艺术与人文研究委员会的资源Cecilia， EPSRC CHARM， MIMAS的COPAC以及我们的商业合作伙伴，牛津大学出版社的新格罗夫音乐和音乐家词典在线，纳克索斯和RILM合作，该系统将支持音乐学3个不同领域的研究- 19世纪意大利歌剧，蒙特威尔第表演和20世纪的电声作品。这一系列的资源将提供音乐的许多不同方面的信息，包括作曲家和作品的基本数据，历史记录，收藏和图书馆馆藏。我们的方法集成了这些异构资源，并为复杂的探索提供了一个强大的、直观的界面。研究问题通常由一系列不同维度的标准约束（例如，1830-1840年在博洛尼亚创作的意大利喜剧歌剧），mSpace提供了一个直观的界面，允许用户通过信息组合不同的切片，并轻松调整和重组这些切片。特定搜索的边界（涉及从数据库到Web的多个数据源）可以快速地构建和重构，这样，以前需要几天、几周或更长时间才能完成的查询可以在几分钟内得到回答。这种流动性鼓励人们提出各种各样的问题（考虑到所涉及的低时间成本），并进一步探索信息，从而发现以前未发现的联系。该项目的一个关键目标是评估该系统在一段时间内对实际研究成果的实际使用情况。为此，我们有三个参与社区：我们将使用该系统进行上述三个领域的研究，如果没有该系统，这些研究将无法处理；我们还与Integra项目合作，让他们使用该系统进行研究，我们将做一个社区发布。从这一系列参与者中，我们将调查系统支持和影响研究实践的方式，以便调整它以改善对创新和发现的支持。因此，该项目将满足几个相关目标：使用eScience技术和设计方法(1)自动化异构研究资源的关联(2)提供接口，这将大大减少发现、访问和协调这些资源所需的时间；(3)通过资源整合和交互的新模型来解决新的研究问题；(4)展示一个可扩展的、可维护的基础设施，以支持其他人工智能领域的新资源整合；(5)展示这些方法对真正创新研究的有效性。

SummaryInformation resources for Arts and Humanities researchers are increasingly being made available via the Internet, while at the same time, researchers themselves are often seeking to break down traditional subject barriers and ask research questions that are interdisciplinary in nature. However, current on-line resources remain isolated leaving researchers to carry out multiple searches across multiple systems in order obtain materials corresponding to well-defined research questions. Within a single source the search options are often limited, giving insufficient control over criteria for the effective framing of research questions.In this project, we take proven e-science-based technology and design approach, embodied in the mSpace software framework, and apply it to a range of significant music data collections, providing a single point of entry with exceptional ease of navigation. Working with Arts and Humanities Research Council resources Cecilia, EPSRC CHARM, MIMAS's COPAC and with our commercial partners, the Oxford University Press's New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Online, Naxos and RILM, the system will support research in 3 diverse areas of musicology - 19th-century Italian opera, Monteverdi performance, and electroacoustic works of the 20th century. This range of sources will provide information on many different aspects of music, including fundamental data on composers and works, historical recordings, collections and library holdings.Our approach integrates these heterogeneous sources, and provides a powerful, intuitive interface for complex exploration. Research questions are typically bound by a range of criteria along different dimensions (e.g. Italian comic Opera dating from 1830-1840 composed in Bologna) and mSpace provides an intuitive interface allowing the user to combine different slices through information, and to adjust and reorganise these slices easily. The boundaries of a particular search, engaging multiple data sources from databases to the Web, can be framed and reframed rapidly, such that queries that previously took days, weeks or longer to assemble can be answered within a few minutes. This fluidity encourages the asking of a variety of questions (given the low time cost involved) and further exploration of the information, so that previously un-discovered connections may be found. A key goal of the project is to evaluate use of the system over a period of real use for real research outcomes. To this end we have three participant communities involved: we will use the system to carry out research specified in the three areas above that would not be tractable without this system; we have also partnered with the Integra project for them to use the system for their research, and we will be doing a community release. From this range of participants, we will investigate the ways in which the system supports and effects research practice in order to tune it to improve that support for innovation and discovery.The project will therefore meet several related goals: to use eScience technologies and design methods (1) to automate the association of heterogeneous research resources (2) to provide interfaces that will reduce significantly the time needed to discover, access and coordinate such resources; (3) to enable new kinds of research questions to be addressed through new models of resource integration and interaction, and (4) to demonstrate an extensible, maintainable infrastructure that will support integration of new resources in other AH domains (5) to demonstrate the efficacy of these approaches for real innovative research.