Institut des Textes et Manuscrits Modernes (CNRS-ENS, Paris) / Maison Française d’Oxford (CNRS-MAEE, Oxford)

The Institut des Textes et Manuscrits Modernes (ITEM), the Discovery Project's coordinating institution, is a joint research unit of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the École normale supérieure (ENS), Paris. Since the 1970s, it has specialized in modern literary and philosophica l manuscript studies and developed a successful critical method (genetic criticism) supported by an international journal (Genesis) and numerous publications and colloquia. ITEM has now become the centre of genetic studies worldwide, and has been a leader in the adoption of digital technology for the publishing and study of manuscript sources. Its members have participated in several national and European programs promoting research on electronic or online manuscript publishing: Patrimoine Ecrit, Philectre, Malvine, Archives de la Création, HyperNietzsche, Optima, Cybernard, Open Scholarly Communities on the Web, ScholarWeb. During the third year, the project moved to the Maison Française d'Oxford which opened a new research area dedicated to Digital Humanities.

Key persons: Discovery Coordinator: Paolo D'Iorio. Philosophers: Manuel Dries, Thomas Bartscherer, Matteo V. d'Alfonso, Benedetta Zavatta; Philologists: Irmgard Betz, Christian Dünisch, Armin Schwehr; Librarian: Christine Madsen; Software architect: Danilo Giacomi; Text Encoding Guidelines: Fabio Ciotti; Management: Marcello Aglietti-Zanon, Roberto Guglielmi.

Lessico Intellettuale Europeo e Storia delle Idee, Rome

The Lessico Intellettuale Europeo e Storia delle Idee (ILIESI) is a CNR institute that conducts research on European philosophical and scientific thought or, more generally, the history of ideas. Special attention is paid to the evolution of languages and especially of philosophical concepts. ILIESI has extensive experience in the automatic treatment of texts, particularly in the fields of computational philology and lexicography. Historical periods covered by ILIESI projects include Antiquity and Late-Antiquity, as well as the Early Modern Age (from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment). In more than 40 years of activity, ILIESI has established a large data base including philosophical and scientific texts of the 17th and 18th century in several languages and has published roughly one hundred volumes.

Key persons: ILIESI Coordinator: Antonio Lamarra. Philosophers: Roberto Palaia, Eugenio Canone, Marco Veneziani, Pina Totaro, Delfina Giovannozzi, Emidio Spinelli, Alberto Manchi, Daniela Papitto, Giuseppe Iannotta, Cristina Marras, Dagmar von Wille; Developers: Ada Russo, Simona Lampidecchia; Management: Paola Cataldi.

Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen, Bergen

The Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen (WAB) is part of the Department of Culture, Language and Information Technology (AKSIS) at Unifob AS, Bergen. AKSIS conducts research and development in the areas of language and text technology, ICT and e-learning. With WAB as one of its actors, it develops information technology solutions for text encoding, digital editorial philology, and classification and organisation of large text collections.

Key persons: WAB Coordinator: Alois Pichler. Philosophers: Claus Huitfeldt, Kjell S. Johannessen, H.W. Krüger, Deirdre Smith, Christian Erbacher; Developers: Tone Merete Bruvik, Øystein Reigem, Sindre Sørensen; Management: Eldbjørg Gunnarson.

Department of Electronics, Artificial Intelligence and Telecommunications at the Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona

The SeMedia group, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy (UNIVPM) pursues a diverse research agenda, including signal processing, neural networks, telecommunications networks, knowledge representation, and general informatics. The informatics group has focused increasingly on Semantic Web research, and in particular on integrating multimedia into Semantic Web structures. Current projects include MPEG7audioENC, an open source MPEG-7 encoder and Mpeg7AudioDb, a framework for the automatic extraction of high level semantics from low level Mpeg7 descriptors. Within UNIVPM, the SeMedia research group has developed innovative contributions to the Semantic Web P2P field with the RDFGrowth algorithm for replication of “aspects” of knowledge across peers and methodologies for applying digital signatures on RDF graphs. SeMedia has also experimented with configurable Graphic User interfaces for domain specific SW applications within the DBin project.

Key persons: DEIT Coordinator: Francesco Piazza. Software Architects: Giovanni Tummarello, Christian Morbidoni, Michele Nucci, Roberto Tofani; Ontology and formal logic: Stefano David; Management: Angelica Briganti, Elisa Filippini.

Net7 - Internet Open Solutions, Pisa

Net7's core business is the development of Open Source and Free Software applications supporting scientific projects. Its humanities-dedicated research group collaborates with major international research institutions and is participating in several large-scale international research projects, including an EU COST Action and the Groupement de Recherche Européen (GDREplus) Hyper-Learning. In collaboration with the University of Pisa’s Computer Science Department, Net7 is also developing a Master’s program in Open Source Management. Projects include Opera Liber, a web application built with Semantic Web technologies such as RDF and OWL and used to support the study of Italian opera libretti and HyperJournal, an Open Source web application for facilitating the Open Access publishing of electronic journals on the Web. Net7 is also active in the fields of functional languages, Content Management Systems, and E-Government.

Key persons: NET7 Coordinator: Michele Barbera. Software Architect: Daniel Hahn; Management: Federico Ruberti.

RAINET, Rome

The RAI, Radiotelevisione Italiana is Italy’s public broadcast network. It operates three terrestrial television channels and three radio channels, as well as satellite and digital services. RaiNet makes RAI content available on the Web through the RAI.IT portal and develops original new web content. The portal also provides public information about institutions and government, including streaming audio and video from the Parliament. RAI has a large archive of sound and video files featuring prominent philosophers discussing a wide range of philosophical topics. Key projects and series related to philosophical research include the Multimedia Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences, The Roots of European Philosophy, Philosophy and Current Affairs, The Masters of Thought, and The Universe of Knowledge.