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The Samaritan Archive Blog
Archive 2.0 Project Wraps Startup Phase, Whitepaper Published
September 4, 2009 - by Bill Hart-Davidson
With the submission and publication of a whitepaper entitled "Archive 2.0: Imagining The Michigan State UniversityIsraelite Samaritan Scroll Collection as the Foundation for a Thriving Social Network," the Archive 2.0 project team officially wrapped up the startup phase of their efforts today. Jim Ridolfo, graduate of Michigan State University's Rhetoric & Writing program and Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati is the lead author of the report. Mike McLeod and Bill Hart-Davidson from WIDE are also authors on the report. 
The whitepaper is one of the deliverables required by the National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities, the agency that provided funding for the initial phase of work on the project. The whitepaper reports on the project's origins and the history of both the Samaritan people and the collection of texts at the center of the project as well as the activities that took place over the nine month period of funding in 2008-09.
The paper notes that the title of the project - Archive 2.0 - is "more than simply adding the technological affordances of Web 2.0 to atraditional archive" it is also an opportunity for "reconsidering the very nature of anarchive, both what it is and what it does." Ridolfo, McLeod, & Hart-Davidson lay out recommendations for what Archive 2.0 projects should aspire to, including
- consent from cultural stakeholder communities
- engagement with cultural stakeholder communities (when applicable)
- community-centered design in addition to user-centered design
- broad interdisciplinary collaboration with area specialists,special collections, university archivists, and usability/designexperts
- active use of the archive as a communications tool to establish new extra-institutional relationships
- a Sustainable Metadata Ecology
First Few Days: WIDE's Research Trip to Israel
May 26, 2009 - by Michael McLeod
We are currently meeting with the Samaritan (Shomronim) community, living in both Holon, Israel and on Mount Gerizim, West Bank as part of our NEH-funded research project. We're doing interviews with members of the community about what they want to see in an online archive, and how they currently use digital technology.
The first part of our work began on Sunday, May 24 when we met with the leadership of the Samaritan community in Holon. After lunch we left Holon with Benny for Ben Gurion airport where we met Gus Walen and his son Eddie. Gus is the great-grandson of EK Warren, who was a benefactor to the Samaritan community in the early 1900s and who donated the MSU-held Samaritan manuscripts to the university upon his death. We then left the airport with Gus and Eddie and drove to Mount Gerizim in the West Bank, the home of the majority of the Samaritan community as well as their most important holy sites. Once we had safely arrived on the mountain we engaged several members of the community in brief usability interviews where we inquired into their access to and experience with digital technologies as well as their personal and social use of their sacred texts.
The next day (Monday, May 25) we had a series of meetings with many members of the community. The beginning of the day was spent touring the Samaritan village, including their school and their museum, where we we gained some insight into how Samaritan children acquire their literacies and the extent to which ancient texts form a core part of Samaritan identity. We were taken on a tour of several Samaritan holy sites, including their pilgrimage trail inside the remains of an ancient Byzantine fort. We met with their religious leader, the Samaritan High Priest Elazar ben Tsedaka ben Yitzhaq, who gave us significant insight into the community's drive to preserve their sacred texts as well as a tour of his personal library. From there we were graciously invited into several community members homes, where we were able to discuss their family histories and how their texts are passed down from one generation to the next. We gained important insight into not only how their personally-held ancient manuscripts (many of which are older than anything in the MSU collection) continue to be used in rituals, but also how those texts are stored and maintained and how they are passed from one generation to the next.
Our work with the community will continue later today (Tuesday, May 26) when we will conduct formal interviews with several members of the community in Holon. We have been moved by the hospitality of the Samaritan community. They have opened up their homes to us and we are grateful for their continued support.
For photos of our trip, view Jim's Flickr collection, Mike's Facebook albums (group one and group two), and follow our Twitter stream.
WIDE Research Team Off to Israel & the West Bank for Samaritan Archive Project
May 20, 2009 - by Bill Hart-Davidson
WIDE researcher Jim Ridolfo & WIDE interaction designer Mike McLeod are heading to Israel this week in conjunction with the Archive 2.0 Samaritan Scrolls project. While there, they will be doing community-driven design research with groups of cultural stakeholders in the project, members of the Israelite Samaritan community.
Mike & Jim will be accompanied by two other members of the research team: Sharon Dufour, North American Representative of the A.B. Samaritan Institute and a cultural liason for the project, and Janice Fernheimer, faculty member at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Fernheimer's research expertise lies in Rhetoric as well as Jewish & Israeli Cultural Studies.
The WIDE team will visit cultural centers in two Samaritan community locations: Holon, Israel and Mt. Gerazim, the Samaritan's Holy Site located in the West Bank. While there, they will conduct user-centered feedback sessions meant to inform the design of the MSU Digital Samaritan Texts Archive. The team's methods borrow from several traditions of design research including Scandinavian Participatory Design, Contextual Inquiry in the North American Tradition, and Cultural Design as framed by Native American scholar Craig Howe.
The overall goal of the team is to engage cultural stakeholders directly in design activity, establishing a design "language" that is equally accessible to cultural and scholarly stakeholders in the Digital Archive.
"Our research and design processes for this trip amount to a very simple, but important goal: listening," says Bill Hart-Davidson, WIDE Co-Director and Co-PI on the project along with Ridolfo.
Watch the WIDE blog for updates and pictures from the team!
Jim Ridolfo, WIDE RA & Network Admin, Defends Dissertation!
April 28, 2009 - by Michael McLeod
Jim Ridolfo, WIDE RA, PI of the Samaritan Archive project successfully defended his dissertation entitled The Pigeon & the Honeycomb: Rethinking Rhetorical Delivery for the 21st Century on Friday the 24th. Please help us to congratulate the esteemed Dr. Ridolfo! And for more images, check out Stacey Pigg's photo set on Facebook.
