James Baker
@jwbaker.bsky.social
Professor of Digital Humanities · Director of Southampton DH · Programming Historian Trustee · Historian of various things · Likes watching football and cycling · He/Him · Born at 342 ppm · #COYW
Pinned
James Baker
@jwbaker.bsky.social
· Jul 25
My author copy of latest issue of Third Text just arrived in the post. What a cover.
Reposted by James Baker
It is so surreal to see how CaSDaR has grown!
From launching earlier this year, to hosting our first Townhall (which all of you made such a success! 💜 ), having Cassie join our team and now having our funding call, it has been nothing but an absolutely joyous and fruitful journey
From launching earlier this year, to hosting our first Townhall (which all of you made such a success! 💜 ), having Cassie join our team and now having our funding call, it has been nothing but an absolutely joyous and fruitful journey
November 13, 2025 at 1:58 PM
It is so surreal to see how CaSDaR has grown!
From launching earlier this year, to hosting our first Townhall (which all of you made such a success! 💜 ), having Cassie join our team and now having our funding call, it has been nothing but an absolutely joyous and fruitful journey
From launching earlier this year, to hosting our first Townhall (which all of you made such a success! 💜 ), having Cassie join our team and now having our funding call, it has been nothing but an absolutely joyous and fruitful journey
If you missed yesterday's wonderful Deswarte Prize seminar - ' (Fe)male Voices on Stage: Finding Patterns in Lottery Rhymes of the Late Medieval and Early Modern Low Countries with and without AI' - it is now on the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History Seminar youtube channel youtu.be/iwT7PRy-eQs?...
Marly Terwisscha van Scheltinga, Sara Budts, and Jeroen Puttevils: (Fe)male Voices on Stage
YouTube video by IHR Digital History Seminar
youtu.be
November 5, 2025 at 8:38 AM
If you missed yesterday's wonderful Deswarte Prize seminar - ' (Fe)male Voices on Stage: Finding Patterns in Lottery Rhymes of the Late Medieval and Early Modern Low Countries with and without AI' - it is now on the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History Seminar youtube channel youtu.be/iwT7PRy-eQs?...
Reposted by James Baker
Join the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar on 4 November (12:00 GMT on Zoom) to celebrate the winning entry for the 2025 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History and to learn about gender and lottery rhymes in the medieval/early-modern low countries ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
Tuesday 4 November 2025 - Deswarte Prize Seminar - Marly Terwisscha van Scheltinga, Sara Budts, and Jeroen Puttevils (University of Antwerp): (Fe)male Voices on Stage: Finding Patterns in Lottery Rhym...
This seminar is 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm GMT live on Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/96338659032 later posted to our YouTube channel. Session chair: James Baker. This seminar will celebrate the winning entry for ...
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk
October 27, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Join the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar on 4 November (12:00 GMT on Zoom) to celebrate the winning entry for the 2025 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History and to learn about gender and lottery rhymes in the medieval/early-modern low countries ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
Went back to some old code a colleague and I put together (mostly them, for pairwise comparison of catalogue data) and found that it is well documented (high five historical us!) so I could - mostly - adapt it for what I need now, which is nice. DOCUMENT YOUR CODE.
October 29, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Went back to some old code a colleague and I put together (mostly them, for pairwise comparison of catalogue data) and found that it is well documented (high five historical us!) so I could - mostly - adapt it for what I need now, which is nice. DOCUMENT YOUR CODE.
Join the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar on 4 November (12:00 GMT on Zoom) to celebrate the winning entry for the 2025 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History and to learn about gender and lottery rhymes in the medieval/early-modern low countries ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
Tuesday 4 November 2025 - Deswarte Prize Seminar - Marly Terwisscha van Scheltinga, Sara Budts, and Jeroen Puttevils (University of Antwerp): (Fe)male Voices on Stage: Finding Patterns in Lottery Rhym...
This seminar is 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm GMT live on Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/96338659032 later posted to our YouTube channel. Session chair: James Baker. This seminar will celebrate the winning entry for ...
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk
October 27, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Join the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar on 4 November (12:00 GMT on Zoom) to celebrate the winning entry for the 2025 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History and to learn about gender and lottery rhymes in the medieval/early-modern low countries ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
Reposted by James Baker
'The University of Derby has reported itself to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) after sending letters that revealed which staff members were at risk of redundancy.'
Adding insult to injury.
Adding insult to injury.
University of Derby staff upset by redundancy notice letters
The university has apologised for sending letters that identified staff at risk of redundancy.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 23, 2025 at 7:31 AM
'The University of Derby has reported itself to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) after sending letters that revealed which staff members were at risk of redundancy.'
Adding insult to injury.
Adding insult to injury.
Reposted by James Baker
Reposted by James Baker
why is the shadow home secretary posting screenshots of a Google AI summary of British legislation? are there no actual researchers left in CCHQ?
October 17, 2025 at 2:40 PM
why is the shadow home secretary posting screenshots of a Google AI summary of British legislation? are there no actual researchers left in CCHQ?
Reposted by James Baker
"The protocol taught us that technology can be based on human values like ethics and morality. It showed that voluntary compliance works when all parties benefit."
On robots.txt.
www.heise.de/en/backgroun...
On robots.txt.
www.heise.de/en/backgroun...
Obituary: Farewell to robots.txt (1994-2025)
The voluntary compliance protocol that civilized the internet has departed, bids Henning Fries farewell.
www.heise.de
October 16, 2025 at 8:16 PM
"The protocol taught us that technology can be based on human values like ethics and morality. It showed that voluntary compliance works when all parties benefit."
On robots.txt.
www.heise.de/en/backgroun...
On robots.txt.
www.heise.de/en/backgroun...
Reposted by James Baker
👀 👀
The AHA is pleased to announce the winners of its 2025 prizes, which honor exceptional books, distinguished teaching and mentoring in the classroom, public history, and other historical projects. Congratulations to the 2025 awardees! #AHAPerspectives🗃️
American Historical Association Announces 2025 Prize Winners – AHA
The American Historical Association is pleased to announce the winners of its 2025 prizes.
www.historians.org
October 15, 2025 at 6:48 PM
👀 👀
🔊 Join the IHR Digital History seminar Tuesday 21 Oct (17:30 BST, on Zoom) for Bronagh McShane and Felix Vanden Borre on 'Digitising Death: Gender, Genealogy, and the Experimental Recovery of Women’s Histories in Early Modern Ireland' #dhist
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
Tuesday 21 October 2025 - Bronagh McShane and Felix Vanden Borre (Trinity College Dublin): Digitising Death: Gender, Genealogy, and the Experimental Recovery of Women’s Histories in Early Modern Irela...
This seminar is 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm BST live on Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/93388586494 later posted to our YouTube channel. Session chair: Alexandra Ortolja-Baird Abstract: This paper explores how digita...
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk
October 15, 2025 at 8:14 AM
🔊 Join the IHR Digital History seminar Tuesday 21 Oct (17:30 BST, on Zoom) for Bronagh McShane and Felix Vanden Borre on 'Digitising Death: Gender, Genealogy, and the Experimental Recovery of Women’s Histories in Early Modern Ireland' #dhist
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
Reposted by James Baker
Today is International RSE Day, where we celebrate the Research Software Engineers making vital contributions to research all over the world.
Join the celebration by sharing your stories and successes.
#InternationalRSEDay #RSEDay2025
Join the celebration by sharing your stories and successes.
#InternationalRSEDay #RSEDay2025
October 9, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Today is International RSE Day, where we celebrate the Research Software Engineers making vital contributions to research all over the world.
Join the celebration by sharing your stories and successes.
#InternationalRSEDay #RSEDay2025
Join the celebration by sharing your stories and successes.
#InternationalRSEDay #RSEDay2025
Reposted by James Baker
Risk-averse universities “hindering REF performance” by ignoring non-traditional research.
Institutions should “pull their socks up”, @nataliejessic10.bsky.social tells the 2025 Hidden REF Festival (@hiddenref.bsky.social).
Free to read: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
Institutions should “pull their socks up”, @nataliejessic10.bsky.social tells the 2025 Hidden REF Festival (@hiddenref.bsky.social).
Free to read: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
Risk-averse universities ‘hindering own REF performance’ - Research Professional News
Hidden REF Festival: Institutions urged to “pull their socks up” and submit more non-traditional outputs
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
October 7, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Risk-averse universities “hindering REF performance” by ignoring non-traditional research.
Institutions should “pull their socks up”, @nataliejessic10.bsky.social tells the 2025 Hidden REF Festival (@hiddenref.bsky.social).
Free to read: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
Institutions should “pull their socks up”, @nataliejessic10.bsky.social tells the 2025 Hidden REF Festival (@hiddenref.bsky.social).
Free to read: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
Reposted by James Baker
Wish I could say I was shocked, but here's the Labour government constraining the right to peaceful protest again...
'You can protest but only according to our rules. The rules are: you're not allowed to use any of the tactics that make protest effective.'
'You can protest but only according to our rules. The rules are: you're not allowed to use any of the tactics that make protest effective.'
NEW: Home Office announces planned new anti-protest powers, mainly aimed at pro-Gaza protests like those for Palestine Action. Police will be able to consider the "cumulative impact" of repeated protests and potentially order that they be relocated.
October 5, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Wish I could say I was shocked, but here's the Labour government constraining the right to peaceful protest again...
'You can protest but only according to our rules. The rules are: you're not allowed to use any of the tactics that make protest effective.'
'You can protest but only according to our rules. The rules are: you're not allowed to use any of the tactics that make protest effective.'
Reposted by James Baker
just because you have a freedom "doesn't mean you have to use it at every moment of every day"
Just roll that sentence around your mental palate and taste the underlying logic
Just roll that sentence around your mental palate and taste the underlying logic
October 5, 2025 at 8:45 AM
just because you have a freedom "doesn't mean you have to use it at every moment of every day"
Just roll that sentence around your mental palate and taste the underlying logic
Just roll that sentence around your mental palate and taste the underlying logic
Reposted by James Baker
NEW: Home Office announces planned new anti-protest powers, mainly aimed at pro-Gaza protests like those for Palestine Action. Police will be able to consider the "cumulative impact" of repeated protests and potentially order that they be relocated.
October 5, 2025 at 7:05 AM
NEW: Home Office announces planned new anti-protest powers, mainly aimed at pro-Gaza protests like those for Palestine Action. Police will be able to consider the "cumulative impact" of repeated protests and potentially order that they be relocated.
Reposted by James Baker
Wikipedia. Not unproblematic, but still perhaps the greatest thing to come out of internet utopianism and optimism about collective behaviour. And they want to destroy it.
October 4, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Wikipedia. Not unproblematic, but still perhaps the greatest thing to come out of internet utopianism and optimism about collective behaviour. And they want to destroy it.
Somehow we need to construct a world where negative energy prices for clean energy are a social good --- "Storm Amy brings negative electricity prices to UK" - on.ft.com/3WmR628 via @FT
Storm Amy brings negative electricity prices to UK
Gusty weather drives huge amounts of wind power into the grid
on.ft.com
October 4, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Somehow we need to construct a world where negative energy prices for clean energy are a social good --- "Storm Amy brings negative electricity prices to UK" - on.ft.com/3WmR628 via @FT
Reposted by James Baker
The situation with Blackboard - now its owner is bankrupt and it's coming under new private equity ownership and control - is serious enough the UK agency for HE tech is advising all affected universities to seek assurances regarding data security inspiringlearning.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2025/10/s...
October 3, 2025 at 6:25 PM
The situation with Blackboard - now its owner is bankrupt and it's coming under new private equity ownership and control - is serious enough the UK agency for HE tech is advising all affected universities to seek assurances regarding data security inspiringlearning.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2025/10/s...
Reposted by James Baker
New @hf.co BigLAM dataset: 9,363 OA books with page images + rich MARC metadata for evaluating (and training) VLMs on metadata extraction.
Libraries are starting to explore AI-assisted cataloguing, but we lack public evaluation data. Hoping this helps fill that gap.
huggingface.co/datasets/big...
Libraries are starting to explore AI-assisted cataloguing, but we lack public evaluation data. Hoping this helps fill that gap.
huggingface.co/datasets/big...
October 2, 2025 at 6:51 PM
New @hf.co BigLAM dataset: 9,363 OA books with page images + rich MARC metadata for evaluating (and training) VLMs on metadata extraction.
Libraries are starting to explore AI-assisted cataloguing, but we lack public evaluation data. Hoping this helps fill that gap.
huggingface.co/datasets/big...
Libraries are starting to explore AI-assisted cataloguing, but we lack public evaluation data. Hoping this helps fill that gap.
huggingface.co/datasets/big...
Reposted by James Baker
⏳ The DisCouRSE Network+ has launched its first Flexible Fund, offering up to £10,000 to support projects that strengthen leadership training and career pathways for digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs).
Find out more at www.software.ac.uk/news/discour...
Find out more at www.software.ac.uk/news/discour...
October 2, 2025 at 1:17 PM
⏳ The DisCouRSE Network+ has launched its first Flexible Fund, offering up to £10,000 to support projects that strengthen leadership training and career pathways for digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs).
Find out more at www.software.ac.uk/news/discour...
Find out more at www.software.ac.uk/news/discour...
Reposted by James Baker
Join us on 20 November for the Annual Digital Lecture, a partnership between The National Archives, UK and the School of Advanced Study. The wonderful @nannathylstrup.bsky.social will be speaking about ‘When saving becomes loss: archival memory in the digital age’. Free to register!
When saving becomes loss: Archival memory in the digital age
Explore archival memory, data loss, and attempts to preserve the past in the digital age at this year’s Annual Digital Lecture.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
September 30, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Join us on 20 November for the Annual Digital Lecture, a partnership between The National Archives, UK and the School of Advanced Study. The wonderful @nannathylstrup.bsky.social will be speaking about ‘When saving becomes loss: archival memory in the digital age’. Free to register!
Reposted by James Baker
Change is possible, in a good way.
Kudos to the Mayor of London, who had a plan, implemented it and stuck to it.
Kudos to the Mayor of London, who had a plan, implemented it and stuck to it.
For the first time ever, London has met legal limits for nitrogen dioxide.
When I became Mayor, we were told it would take 193 years. We did it 184 years earlier than expected.
Cleaner air means a healthier city and big savings for the NHS.
When I became Mayor, we were told it would take 193 years. We did it 184 years earlier than expected.
Cleaner air means a healthier city and big savings for the NHS.
October 1, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Change is possible, in a good way.
Kudos to the Mayor of London, who had a plan, implemented it and stuck to it.
Kudos to the Mayor of London, who had a plan, implemented it and stuck to it.
Reposted by James Baker
Applications are still open for the @softwaresaved.bsky.social #Fellowship Programme, but not for long. The deadline is Monday 6 October.
For more details and resources, please visit: www.software.ac.uk/news/resourc...
Apply here: www.software.ac.uk/apply
For more details and resources, please visit: www.software.ac.uk/news/resourc...
Apply here: www.software.ac.uk/apply
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
September 29, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Applications are still open for the @softwaresaved.bsky.social #Fellowship Programme, but not for long. The deadline is Monday 6 October.
For more details and resources, please visit: www.software.ac.uk/news/resourc...
Apply here: www.software.ac.uk/apply
For more details and resources, please visit: www.software.ac.uk/news/resourc...
Apply here: www.software.ac.uk/apply
Reposted by James Baker
Think this is absolutely true - so much is written about boys and Andrew Tate - Tate is more popular with grown men than boys!
We worry about Very Online Kids much more than their Very Online Parents, and I'm not sure that's wise
September 27, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Think this is absolutely true - so much is written about boys and Andrew Tate - Tate is more popular with grown men than boys!