The project builds directly on our current AHRC project ‘Our Data Ourselves’ , which studies the content we generate on our mobile devices, what we call ‘big social data’ (BSD), and explores the possibilities of its ethical storage. We progress this research by engaging the cultural and technological elements entailed in the ethical sharing of that data. Our proposal addresses a basic research question: How do we transform BSD into open data, and in turn, empower the digital human and cultivate new data communities?
First, we developed an open linked data framework to effectively embed anonymised born digital cultural data. Our technological research developed proof-of-concept demonstrators that investigate the use of advanced anonymisation technologies for publishing cultural data. This was done in collaboration with Dr. Tom Heath, the head of research at the Open Data Institute. Second, we investigated what cultural research can still do with such an anonymised resource, making possible fundamental humanistic research and the investigation of (meta)data in the context of the material turn in cultural and media studies.
King’s lead researchers: Tobias Blanke; Mark Cote
Associated organisations: Open Data Institute