Melissa Terras
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melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras
@melissaterras.bsky.social
6.9K followers 5.3K following 620 posts

Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. Computers versus the past. Digital Humanities and somesuch, including CoSTAR network activities, Creative Informatics, and Transkribus. MBE FREng. .. more

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Melissa Mhairi Terras is a British scholar of Digital Humanities. Since 2017, she has been Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage at the University of Edinburgh, and director of its Centre for Digital Scholarship. She previously taught at University College London, where she was Professor of Digital Humanities and served as director of its Centre for Digital Humanities from 2012 to 2017: she remains an honorary professor. She has a wide ranging academic background: she has an undergraduate degree in art history and English literature, then took a Master of Science (MSc) degree in computer science, before undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree at the University of Oxford in engineering. .. more

Computer science 34%
Art 23%
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melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 9h
A little too ironic. Yeah I really do think…

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 11h
View from a hotel room, Istanbul. Here to keynote the cooperative AI conference. It would be #academicglamour but all the computers are down so no wifi… and no doors opening or locking. I may raid the minibar given that sensor is offline too. While I pile furniture against the door… #postdigital
Istanbul skyline

Reposted by Melissa Terras, Lesley A. Hall, Adrian Vickers

mikejonesphd.bsky.social
Mike Jones @mikejonesphd.bsky.social · 1d
Currently doing some marking. A reminder to everyone involved in archives and collections: digitisation is not preservation. If I digitise a box of records and put the files on a USB stick I haven't preserved a thing. It's all about what you do with the files post-digitisation. #archives #digipres
Colour photograph of a white USB stick. Printed text on the USB stick reads: '...this is not an archive.'

Reposted by Melissa Terras, Charles West, Michael Zimmer , and 1 more

cpaxton.bsky.social
Chris Paxton @cpaxton.bsky.social · 3d
Words to live by tbh

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 3d
And here's some known Roman Roads in Scotland: oldroadsofscotland.com/roman_roads....
Old Roads of Scotland
This site deals with the history of roads and tracks in Scotland.
oldroadsofscotland.com

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 3d
Well this is fab - Itiner-e – The Digital Atlas of Ancient Roads: the most detailed open digital dataset of roads in the entire Roman Empire. Hasn't quite reached Scotland yet (plenty of Roman roads up here yet to be added), but fun to explore! itiner-e.org
itiner-e
itiner-e.org

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 3d
How do we navigate gaps and challenges in quantifying and understanding innovation and R&D in the creative sector? Excellent roundup from @suzannerblack.bsky.social on how difficult it is to count and map innovation, and "return on funder investment", in the creative industries.

Reposted by Melissa Terras

suzannerblack.bsky.social
Dr Suzanne Black @suzannerblack.bsky.social · 3d
I have a new essay out on the CRAIC site as part of a larger piece of work around data-led approaches in the creative industries. I hope you enjoy it! craic.lboro.ac.uk/essays/captu... @designinf.bsky.social @melissaterras.bsky.social @lborouniversity.bsky.social
Capturing the value of creative R&D: data-collection for the Creative Industries Clusters Programme
Dr Suzanne R Black, CRAIC, Loughborough University London, and CoSTAR Foresight Lab Introduction This essay addresses gaps and challenges in quantifying and understanding innovation through ...
craic.lboro.ac.uk

Reposted by Melissa Terras

josephcox.bsky.social
Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 4d
The FBI is trying to unmask the owner of infamous archiving site Archive.is, according to a subpoena the site posted. No other information given, the site quietly posted the document a few days ago. FBI telling domain registrar to hand over all sorts of ID'ing info
www.404media.co/fbi-tries-to...
FBI Tries to Unmask Owner of Infamous Archive.is Site
The FBI has subpoenaed the domain registrar of archive.today, demanding information about the owner.
www.404media.co

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 6d
Its exhausting. 🫠

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 6d
I really do try to respond to every PhD application enquiry I get, but I've had 10 already today and its only 3pm... At some point, I'm going to have to make my peace with not being able to keep up...

Reposted by Melissa Terras

informationlabs.org
information labs @informationlabs.org · 6d
We’re thrilled to launch our new Humans of AI podcast!
Prof. @melissaterras.bsky.social of @transkribus.bsky.social — a cooperative AI platform transforming how libraries, archives, and museums bring history to life.
🎧 share.transistor.fm/s/ce0399b5
📺 youtu.be/qK5x4j7jiuQ
#AI #CulturalHeritage

Reposted by Melissa Terras

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 7d
Cat Burns singing in the library... lovely accoustics, showing libraries are not just for shushing! I wonder what those old white men in the portraits think... www.youtube.com/shorts/4a0Ih...
Ugh nothing beats singing with a CHOIR MANNNNN! ITS ALBUM RELEASE WEEK BABYYYYYYY
YouTube video by Cat Burns
www.youtube.com

Reposted by Kori Schake, Joanna Bryson, Meredith Broussard , and 46 more

lswisnom.bsky.social
Dr Selena Wisnom @lswisnom.bsky.social · 7d
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

Reposted by Melissa Terras

transkribus.bsky.social
Transkribus @transkribus.bsky.social · 7d
Did you miss our beginners' webinar last week? The complete recording of our step-by-step introduction to Transkribus is now available on YouTube 👇
Transkribus Webinar for Beginners (English)
Transkribus is the most popular tools for automatic text recognition of historical documents. By watching this webinar recording, you will learn how to upload documents to Transkribus, perform…
youtu.be

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 10d
Happy Halloween, all! New guisers this year include people wearing green hooded cloaks…

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 12d
🥁

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 13d
Also, given the 3D nature of the renders, its not clear how much of this is recreated/modelled based on best guesses, etc. But its a really interesting use of VR and 3D modelling to convey loss, and simultaneously the importance of the physical item, the aura, and value, worth, etc etc etc

Reposted by Michael J. Allen, Margot C. Finn

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 13d
Fascinating - Unesco has launched a Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects, presented in a futuristic, dreamlike virtual exhibition. Worth exploring (although they don't tell much about how/where things were stolen, and its a very curious juxtaposition of items): museum.unesco.org
UNESCO launches the World’s First Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural
Three years after its announcement at MONDIACULT 2022, UNESCO is launching an innovative initiative: the Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects. This global platform harnesses cutting-edge digital
www.unesco.org

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 13d
Also: look after your references and citations NOW. Will save so many headaches in the longer term. And web archives are your friend - save online resources there so they don’t disappear!

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 13d
Look after yourself physically! Leave the computer and do some exercise, regularly. This will also help with stress management…

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 17d
Welp 😖

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 17d
The is particularly true of current ukgov funded research on AI that starts from the premise “Yay! AI is Brilliant! Amazing! Woohooo!!!”
nisreenalwan.bsky.social Prof Nisreen Alwan @nisreenalwan.bsky.social · 17d
Research should inform policy but that’s tricky if it is almost entirely driven by policy. The independence of research is key to change because if you fund only research that responds to policy (even good policy) you’re less innovative, creative & responsive to the open options of the future.

Reposted by James M. Bullock, Melissa Terras, Margot C. Finn

nisreenalwan.bsky.social
Prof Nisreen Alwan @nisreenalwan.bsky.social · 17d
Research should inform policy but that’s tricky if it is almost entirely driven by policy. The independence of research is key to change because if you fund only research that responds to policy (even good policy) you’re less innovative, creative & responsive to the open options of the future.

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 18d
An evening with the wonderful Suzanne Vega in #Edinburgh
Suzanne vega singing

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 18d
The long-haired Burmese cat that hangs out in our local graveyard… #Edinburgh

Reposted by Melissa Terras

blackhole.bsky.social
Mark H @blackhole.bsky.social · 20d
I’m late to the party…

The photo at the end of The Shining was taken in Kensington! And like it says in the film, it was indeed 1921.

Full story here (from April!!!!)

petapixel.com/2025/04/08/t...
The Original Stock Photo From 'The Shining' Has Finally Been Found
It had been lost for 45 years.
petapixel.com

melissaterras.bsky.social
Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 24d
Fascinating article on Tommy Flowers, the little known engineer who actually invented the compute at Bletchley Park. I had never heard of him… www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Move over, Alan Turing: meet the working-class hero of Bletchley Park you didn’t see in the movies
The Oxbridge-educated boffin is feted as the codebreaking genius who helped Britain win the war. But should a little-known Post Office engineer named Tommy Flowers be seen as the real father of comput...
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Melissa Terras

ctschroeder.bsky.social
Caroline (Carrie) T. Schroeder @ctschroeder.bsky.social · 25d
Truly phenomenal work. #Coptic #Hebrew #Greek in #Braille plus #Cuneiform transliteration Braille guide
 Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D. @blindscholar.bsky.social · 25d
Today I published a new section of my website with resources for those who wish to learn, study, and/or teach ancient languages using braille. It rests on work we did over the past year to expand screen reader access to these languages through the LibLouis library. Check it out and share around!
New: Braille Resources for Reading Ancient Languages
[Photo by me. Tactile graphic by Crystal Peng.]   I recently created a new section of my website, which provides educational resources for anyone who wants to read ancient Middle Eastern and North …
www.blindscholar.com