Isolated Projects: A Technical Approach to Interoperability in Digital Editions

DHXpresso, das Community-Event der GWDG für die Digital Humanities Community

Presenter: Paul Pestov and Mathias Göbel (Göttingen State and University Library)

Abstract: Digital edition projects have expanded significantly but remain fragmented, hindering collaboration and knowledge integration. While diversity in scholarly approaches is valuable, incompatible metadata standards (e.g., TEI, Dublin Core, project-specific schemas) and monolithic front end designs create technical barriers, preventing seamless data aggregation and cross-referencing. This isolation forces researchers to manually reconcile differences, duplicating effort and limiting comparative analysis.

To address these challenges, a federated interoperability framework is proposed, built on three pillars: (1) semantic mapping layers using linked data to translate between metadata schemas without requiring standardization; (2) standardized API contracts (REST/OpenAPI) to expose digital objects in machine-readable formats; and (3) distributed APIs for search, entity linking, and web annotations, enabling cross-platform scholarly discourse.

The reference implementation includes a Python-based back-end with a JSON database to accommodate heterogeneous metadata. The TextAPI organizes resources in a flexible hierarchy (collection-manifest-item), while complementary APIs (SearchAPI, IndexAPI, AnnotationAPI) support discovery and annotation workflows. The front end application, TIDO (Text Viewer for Digital Objects) , allows customizable views while maintaining consistency across projects. Configured views can be shared via URLs using IIIF-inspired content state encoding.

Key challenges include representing textual variants efficiently. Instead of storing variants as separate items, a token-level annotation strategy (using the output of CollateX) encodes differences as Web Annotations, though scalability issues arise with highly fragmented texts.

The framework preserves heterogeneity while enabling interoperability, transforming isolated editions into a networked scholarly infrastructure. By adopting modular components, institutions can integrate existing projects without sacrificing autonomy. The resulting platform is designed to receive updates and enhancements beyond the project’s conclusion, ensuring long-term sustainability and continued evolution of the system as scholarly practices and technical standards develop.