Linked Ancient World Data Institute

The Linked Ancient World Data Institute (LAWDI) was an NEH-Funded program that hosted two three-day workshops that took place a year apart in May/June of 2012 and 2013. The first LAWDI event was hosted by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, the second took place at Drew University.

At the end of the last gathering a decision was made to use the Twitter hashtag #LAWDI to communicate any work relevant to the use of Linked Open Data for ancient studies. Because the term is no longer tied to any specific institution or event, LAWDI now stands for "Linked Ancient World Data Initiative."

LAWDI 2013 Announcement
Drew University and New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) will host the Linked Ancient World Data Institute (LAWDI) from May 30th to June 1st, 2013. The venue for the 2013 session will be the Drew University campus in New Jersey.

“Linked Open Data” is an approach to the creation of digital resources that emphasizes connections between diverse information on the basis of published and stable web addresses (URIs) that identify common concepts and individual items. LAWDI, funded by the Office of Digital Humanities of the National Endowment for Humanities, brings together an international faculty of practitioners working in the field of Linked Data with twenty attendees who are implementing or planning the creation of digital resources. Travel costs will be covered for students from the United States. Partial travel stipends are likely to be available to overseas participants. Accommodation on the Drew University campus will be provided to all participants.

LAWDI’s intellectual scope is the Ancient Mediterranean and Ancient Near East, two fields in which a large and increasing number of digital resources is available, with rich coverage of the archaeology, literature and history of these regions. Many of these resources publish stable URIs for their content and so are enabling links and re-use that create a varied research and publication environment. LAWDI attendees will learn how to take advantage of these resources and also how to contribute to the growing network of linked scholarly materials. A report on the first LAWDI session has appeared in Information Standards Quarterly: http://dx.doi.org/10.3789/isqv24n2-3.2012.08.

The organizers encourage applications from faculty, university staff, graduate students, librarians, museum professionals, archivists and others with a serious interest in creating digital resources for the study of the Ancient World. Applications to attend should take the form of an attached (MS-Word, PDF or other common format) one-page statement of interest e-mailed to  by Monday, February 18. A discussion of current or planned work should be a prominent part of this statement. As part of the curriculum, successful applicants will be asked to present their work and be ready to actively participate in conversations about topics presented by faculty and the other participants.

There is a LAWDI announcement suitable for distribution. The twitter hashtag is #lawdi

LAWDI Organizers

 * Tom Elliott, Project Director, (ISAW)
 * Sebastian Heath, Project Manager (ISAW)
 * John Muccigrosso, 2013 Host (Drew U.)

LAWDI 2013 Faculty

 * Bridget Almas, Perseus Digital Library (Perseus)
 * Gabriel Bodard, Kings College London (KCL Page)
 * Hugh Cayless, NYU Library/ISAW (Papyri.info)
 * Sean Gillies, NYU/ISAW (Pleiades)
 * Ethan Gruber, American Numismatic Society (ANS, Nomisma)
 * Corey Harper, New York University Libraries (LOD-LAM Page))
 * Leif Isaksen, Southampton (Pelagios)
 * Charles Jones, NYU/ISAW (Ancient World Online)
 * Eric Kansa, Alexandria Archive (Open Context)
 * Andrew Meadows, American Numismatic Society (ANS, Nomisma)
 * Daniel Pett, British Museum/Portable Antiquities Scheme (Portable Antiquities Scheme)
 * Andrew Reinhard, American School of Classical Studies (ASCSA Publications)
 * Christopher Warner, NYU/ISAW (Kernel Code)

Please note that the above list may change.

LAWDI 2013 Documents

 * LAWDI 2013 Things to read
 * LAWDI 2013 Websites