Humanities and Social Sciences

This article is a draft

This is not a complete article: This is a draft, a work in progress that is intended to be published into an article, which may or may not be ready for inclusion in the main wiki. It should not necessarily be considered factual or authoritative.

Introduction

Scholars in the Humanities and Social Sciences are using increasingly complex computational tools, methods, and techniques in their research. There are three elements of the current landscape that place the Humanities and Social Sciences in a position for rapid growth:

• increasing open source data;
• increased access to significant computing power; and
• growing research computing competency among humanities researchers.

To support researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Compute Canada has a dedicated team of professionals led by Compute Canada’s Humanities and Social Sciences Specialist, Dr. John Simpson. For more information, please contact the Humanities and Social Sciences Team via email (hss@computecanada.ca) or browse the additional information below

Who We Are

For general support, please email the HSS National Team at hss@computecanada.ca

• John Simpson - University of Alberta, WestGRID
• Lydia Vermeyden - St. Francis Xavier University, ACENET
• Megan Meredith-Lobay - University of British Columbia - WestGRID
• Pier-Luc St-Onge - Scientific analyst at McGill University, Calcul Québec
• Alex Razoumov - Visualization and Training coordinator, WestGrid

HSS Support in Compute Canada

For general support, please email the HSS National Team at hss@computecanada.ca

HSS Services for researchers

National services are available to all members of the research community with documentation in both official languages, trained support team and robust system architectures.

• Advocacy and Outreach - Members attend conferences, make presentations to academic and other groups, and actively participate in the scholarly community in order to better understand our user needs.
• Collaboration Services – Sites located across Canada are capable of both delivering and viewing large video conferences.
• Cloud – Virtual-machine development space that includes an outward-facing IP address.
• Computation – Expandable power ranging from the equivalent of a second desktop to supercomputers with thousands of cores, terabytes of RAM, and a variety of system architectures.
• Data Integrity – Data storage and back-up systems provide stability and security options over your desktop.
• General Analyst/Consultant Support – Consultations regarding project architecture and resource needs with technical experts with skills ranging from specialty software selection to program optimization.
• Globus – Fast, secure, sharing and fire-and-forget file transfers.
• NextCloud – 50Gb of shareable, Dropbox-like space available across multiple devices.
• Portals – Hosting for specialized data and tools for entire research communities.
• Specialized Software – More than 250 software programs and packages already integrated with Compute Canada systems.
• Storage – Robust storage solutions for backup and mid- to long-term storage.
• Training – Training sessions covering core skills offered regularly and custom courses available on request. Please see below for training opportunities for your specific region.
  • Compute Canada training calendar
  • ACENET Training Resources
  • Calcul Québec Training
  • Compute Ontario
  • WestGRID Training
• Visualization Support – Dedicated 3D visualization expert available
• NEW Windows in the Cloud - run Windows applications in the Compute Canada cloud.

Other Resources for Canadian Digital Humanities Scholars

• Canadian Society for Digital Humanities
• ADHO
• DHSI

Project Showcase

• CWRC
• Voyant
• Archives Unleashed
• Others