Social Networks and Networked Data: A View from the Humanities

This paper draws on the work carried out by the Australian Research Council's Network for Early European Research (NEER) between 2005 and 2009 to build an international social network and shared data services for Early European researchers. It will examine the means used to connect this interdisciplinary research community and to encourage collaboration among its members. It will offer an assessment of the effectiveness of the methods employed. The NEER experience has formed one of the bases for a study of data archiving in the humanities, carried out for the Australian Social Science Data Archive (ASSDA) during 2009. This paper will also present some of the findings from this study and will outline its recommended models for delivering collaborative data services over the Web. It will examine areas of overlap and similarity between the social sciences and the humanities, as well as identifying areas of difference and distinctiveness.