Integration of the New Technologies in the Humanities and in the intermediation of culture
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Integration of the New Technologies in the Humanities and in the intermediation of culture – Knowledge organization, knowledge preparation and knowledge transfer of the future: The Goethezeitportal

The integration of the new media offers the humanities new impulses in research and teachings. In the last years the technical possibilities of knowledge transfer in the Internet, concepts of the digital presentation and the mediation of literature and forming art developed themselves as well as multimedia learning and e-Learning further with large steps. Meanwhile the Internet has the potential of a large science forum, in which scientists and research institutions represent and discuss the results of their projects global attainable. But due to the dynamic growth of the Internets and a missing central instance, which controls the quality of the information, it is difficult to get along in this information chaos. What´s missing is an entrance to reliably selected and professionally prepared volume of data of the humanities. A professional led online portal however can serve as a central approach place, by evaluating the knowledge and uniting the offers in a world-wide “knowledge network” with vertically fully opened “knowledge archives”.

 

1. Conflict Exposition

With the change to the information and knowledge society there were made new demands to the knowledge-organization.

The conflict Situation is „Information Overload” vs. „Lack of Information”.

 

2. Demand

This conflict requires new specialized methods and technologies.

 

3. Central Question I

Which method, which strategy is suitable for a contemporary handling with the scientific knowledge resources and our cultural property?

 

4. Proposal I

The use of information-technologically supported systems can be an interesting solution to organize and structure our modern knowledge world.

  • The new technologies offer new impulses to the traditional system of scientific communication as well as to the intermediation of culture.
  • The Internet as a medium for the knowledge administration allows new ways and practices for the scientific and cultural communication and research, for knowledge transfer as well as for the information retrieval.

 

5. Difficulty

Due to the dynamic growth of the Internet and a missing central instance, which controls the quality of the information, it is very difficult to get along in this dysfunctional information chaos.

  • What’s missing is an arranged access to reliably selected, professional prepared and evaluated knowledge resources.

 

6. Central Question II

How can we work against the mentioned deficits of the Internet, and find a meaningful way of integration which fulfils our desire for guideline assistance and research quality?

 

7. Proposal II

The complexity of the information structures in the Internet requires new ways of selection and representation: Portal

 

8. Specific Advantages of a Portal

  • Decentralized administered information gets virtually united

  • Quality assurance of the information
  • Portal-Community: (Pre-)Selection of potential communication partners to the same range of topics

 

9. Exemplary Conversion of the Proposal

The Goethezeitportal as a practical example of a functional instrument of innovative knowledge preparation and knowledge transfer.

 

10. What's the Goethezeitportal? Which ambitions does it pursue?

  • The Goethezeitportal is a tool that can be used for the innovative processing and dissemination of knowledge by applying the possibilities offered by the new media to the cultural and scientific discourse on the most significant phase in the history of German intellectual history between 1770 and 1830.
  • The Goethezeitportal is a multimedia network and an interface between the individual sciences, between science and public and between science and culture intermediation.
  • The scientific authority of the contributors and the control of a scientific curatorship guaranties for the quality of the contents.
  • The Goethezeitportal is divided into a culture and a specialized scientific portal:
    • 
1. Culture-Portal: gives a fast view into the classical and romantic period and interferes in this way the scientific discussion to the public.
    • 2. Scientific-Portal: serves the scientific research work and concentrates on there presentation of special fields.
  • The Goethezeitportal consists of a special communication-network, a virtual information center, an experimental knowledge-database and a comprehensive platform for publications.
  • Beside own content already decentralized existing information systems and projects are central merged into the network.
  • Paradigm for the Goethezeitportal: Victorian Web (George P. Landow)
  • New epistemological potential through conversion of the ideas of the time of Goethe with the new media. Owing to hypertext structure and multi-mediality it is possible to realize the artistic program of the time of Goethe according to its typical characteristic coactions of the single disciplines.

Im Rahmen des Kongreß »Neue Technologien und ihre Verwendung in den Geisteswissenschaften« unter der Leitung von Miltos Pehlivanos am Institut für Philologie der Aristoteles Universität in Thessaloniki am 24. und 25. November 2005.

Referentin: Dr. Danica Krunic

 

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