Project Methodology

Robert Kalivoda

In accordance with the specifications, the project is divided into five stages according to the individual years of project processing. These stages can be divided into two phases based on the main objectives:

  1. analytical;
  2. implementation and interpretation.

1) ANALYTICAL PHASE
2023–2024

  • First Stage, Main Objective (2023): Start of the process of creating three intellectual elites’ correspondence sets (A: 1580–1670, B: 1870–1939, C: 1939–1989) for the NETLET Czech Correspondence Online database and preparing the assignment for the software tools development.
  • Second Stage, Main Objective (2024): Ongoing work on creating the three intellectual elites’ correspondence sets (A, B, C) for the NETLET Czech Correspondence Online database and completing the development and testing of the NETLET Converter tool; using it for extracting metadata from printed editions.

The project process will be based on the database needs. The database will include structured metadata containing mainly data on persons (sender, addressee, persons mentioned), time (date of the letter, data of receipt), places (place of sending, place of destination, places mentioned), language of the document, keywords, data on storage. Full texts of letters will be available on a selective basis.

Activities leading to the completion of the first and second stage main objectives, and the involvement of the project team members: 

  1. Creating subdatabases of individual correspondence files representing three crucial time periods (A: 1580–1670, B: 1870–1939, C: 1939–1989). For period A, the metadata of the correspondence of Amandus Polanus of Polansdorf (ca. 320 correspondence units), Jan Amos Comenius (ca. 560 correspondence units), Philipp Jakob Sachs of Löwenheim (ca. 140 correspondence units), Johannes Marcus Marci of Kronland (ca. 55 correspondence units), and Jesuit scholars (ca. 200 correspondence units) will be revised, supplemented, and reprocessed. Iva Lelková, Marcela Slavíková and Vladimír Urbánek will carry out this work package. Subteam working on Period B will process the correspondence metadata of Thomas Garrigue Masaryk (2000 correspondence units), the correspondence metadata of Alois Musil (1500 correspondence units), the correspondence metadata of Otokar Březina (2000 correspondence units), the correspondence metadata of Jakub Deml (1500 correspondence units), and also partly full texts of Deml’s letters (500 correspondence units). Jitka Jindřišková, Soňa Martinovská, Adéla Jůnová Macková, Pavel Žďárský, Daniela Iwashita, Šárka Kořínková, Eliška Müllerová, and other staff (in the agreement to complete a job form) will be involved in carrying out this work package. Subteam working on Period C will process the metadata and full texts of part of the correspondence of Jakub Deml (500 correspondence units) and revise and supplement the correspondence metadata of Milada Blekastad-Topičová (2500 correspondence units). The correspondence of Jaromír Neumann (600 correspondence units) and part of the correspondence of Jan Patočka (340 correspondence units) will be newly processed and entered into the database. The correspondence metadata of Robert Kalivoda (1000 correspondence units) will be enlarged and revised. This activity will be carried out by Daniela Iwashita, Šárka Kořínková, Eliška Müllerová and two other members of staff (Daniel Štěpánek and Tereza Johanidesová) employed by the Institute of Philosophy of the CAS (in the agreement to complete a job form). Vladimír Urbánek is the person responsible for this activity in cooperation with the individual sub-teams coordinators.
  2. Alongside these activities, the tools for searching all subdatabases simultaneously in Czech and English language will be optimised, keywords will be synchronised and the joint application of analytical tools developed within the project will be enabled. All members of the sub-teams mentioned in item 1) will participate in this activity, the person responsible will be Martin Lhoták.
  3. Creating an information website to be developed in the project’s first year (2023). The Library of the CAS sub-team will be responsible for this activity.

The main applied result of the first two stages (i.e. the first phase of the project) will be the development and implementation of a tool for semi-automated metadata creation from selected correspondence book editions. The tool will be applied within the project mainly on the correspondence of Otokar Březina, Jakub Deml, Thomas Garrigue Masaryk and Jan Patočka. A NETLET Edition Converter software tool will be developed for this purpose. This activity will be carried out by the Library of the CAS, with co-participants from the Institute of Philosophy of the CAS, the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the CAS, Institute of the Czech Literature of the CAS and Museum of Czech Literature participating in the preparation of source material, definition of tasks and testing.

2) IMPLEMENTATION AND INTERPRETATION PHASE
2025–2027

  • Third Stage, Main Objective (2025): development and testing of the NETLET Visualisation and Analysis and the NETLET HIKO software tools, ongoing work on creating the three correspondence files (A, B, C) and further use of the NETLET Converter tool.
  • Fourth Stage, Main Objective (2026): completing and releasing the NETLET Visualisation and Analysis and the NETLET HIKO software tools, checking the format and data compatibility of the three correspondence collections (A, B, C) and the preparation and submission of two publications (Jsc journal articles).
  • Fifth Stage, Main Objective (2027): completing the development and releasing the specialised NETLET Czech Correspondence Online database, completing the compatibility check of the three intellectual elites’ correspondence files (A, B, C), preparation and submission of two publications (Jsc journal articles) and one publication (Jost journal article), organisation of a conference presenting the project results.

Activities leading to the completion of the main objectives in the third, fourth and fifth stages, and the involvement of the project team members:

  1. Development, testing and finalisation of the NETLET Analysis and Visualisation tool applied to the collected correspondence collections metadata for the purposes of network analysis and digital visualisation; development and completion of the NETLET HIKO software tool; functionality testing, software integration and completing the specialised NETLET Czech Correspondence Online database.
  2. Application of the NETLET Analysis and Visualisation tool for network analysis and digital visualisation to the metadata contained in the database in order to explore 1) the centrality of the correspondence participants in a given correspondence network; 2) the extent to which they mediate between two or more networks; 3) co-citation networks mapping the people mentioned in the letters in relation to specific topics or debates. The same tool will be further used in order to create digital visualisations focusing on 4) the geographical horizon of individual personal correspondence collections; 5) comparative map displays within the three main time periods; 6) statistical graphs and timelines comparing the dynamics of the individual correspondence units development in the temporal dimension; 7) diagrams depicting the relationships between individual writers and recipients of the letters; 8) diagrams depicting correspondence relationships between different profession groups; 9) diagrams depicting thematic connections between letters and correspondence units.
  3. Preparation of scholarly studies for publication.
  4. Organising a conference to present the project results to the wider professional community.

Martin Lhoták and the Library of the CAS team will be responsible for activity 1), members of all sub-teams (the Institute of Philosophy of the CAS, the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the CAS, the Institute of the Czech Literature of the CAS and the Museum of Czech Literature) will participate in the definition of functionality, testing and final tuning.

The responsible person in case of activity 2) will be Vladimír Urbánek together with the FLU team.

Vladimír Urbánek, Martin Lhoták, Daniela Iwashita and Lucie Merhautová will be responsible for activity 3). Members of the sub-teams will also participate in the studies.

The responsible persons for activity 4) will be the sub-team coordinators (Vladimír Urbánek, Martin Lhoták, Jitka Jindřišková, Daniela Iwashita and Tomáš Pavlíček).

The main applied results of the third, fourth and fifth stages (second phase of the project):

  • 2026: the NETLET Analysis and Visualisation software tool enabling network analysis and digital visualisation using collected correspondence metadata of various personalities and will enhance the functionality of previously available digital tools such as Palladio, Raw, Gephi, Sigma.js and Polymaps.
  • 2026: the NETLET HIKO software tool, which allows mass import of data obtained from printed editions and linking to the NETLET Visualisation and Analysis superstructure interface.
  • 2027: the NETLET Czech Correspondence Online specialised database filled with data created over the duration of the project, which will use NETLET HIKO software for its operation and will also implement the NETLET Analysis and Visualisation tool into its public interface.

The publication and conference results of the third, fourth and fifth stages (second phase of the project):

  • 2026: 2 articles in Jsc type journals
  • 2027: 2 articles in Jsc type journals; 1 article in Jost type journal; scholarly conference summarising the project results

A set of interpretive studies will use digital visualisations created using the NETLET Analysis and Visualisation software tool.

Tool development will be publicly available on Github and all software tools will be available under an open source licence (GNU GPL, LGPL or MIT). Among other things, the tool development will use machine learning methods to enable greater efficiency and automation.