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ESCALATOR

Growing a community of practice around digital and computational research in humanities and social sciences

Anelda van der Walt

anelda@talarify.co.za

Nomalungelo Maphanga

noma@talarify.co.za

DH-IGNITE KZN

18 October 2022

Welcome & Opening

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Recap of the “why” of digital/computational skills

  • Times are changing - the output of our work or research has changed dramatically

  • There are many tools available

  • These tools actually makes our lives easier

  • These tools make our work better

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Old vs new: Real life example - transportation

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Old vs new: Real life example - O.R Tambo to Coastlands Umhlanga

120 hours ≈ 5 days

7 hours ≈ 0.3 days

70 minutes + 18 minutes drive

≈ 90 minutes or 0.06 days

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The research lifecycle

Adapted from Kramer & Bosman, 2022: https://tinyurl.com/escalatorworkflows

preparation

analysis

writing

publication

outreach

assessment

discovery

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Real life example - writing vs typing

Consider the time it will take to hand-write 100 pages

The time it will take to type 100 pages

VS

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Real life example - writing vs typing

42 hours - about 2 days

8 hour work day: 5.25 days

An entire week

About 1 day

8 hour work day: 2.6 days

Half a week

VS

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Modern ways: Writing

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Modern ways: Data capturing, manipulation & analysis

Manual

Excel and other graphical user interface software

Automation via OpenRefine and programming tools like R and Python

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Let’s take a look at what ESCALATOR offers

Champions Initiative

Stakeholder map

DH-IGNITE

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And….

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What is the champions initiative?

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What is the stakeholder map?

Coming up next…

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What is DH-IGNITE?

THis is yours Noma! :-)

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A hybrid event to catalyze a growth in digital and computational skills and networks within humanities and social sciences in South Africa

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DH-IGNITE: Connect

  • Meet peers

  • Find mentors

  • Identify new collaborators

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DH-IGNITE: Learn

  • New opportunities

  • New resources

  • New ideas

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DH-IGNITE: Learn

  • Skills

  • Networks

  • Confidence