iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

For the past few days, I'm seeing 100+ #IIIF annotation rooms created daily on liiive.now w/ images from Texas A&M - but no one's annotating! Totally fine (obviously!) but I'm super curious what's going on. Know anything? DM me - I'd love to hear what folks are trying to do & see if I can help!

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The Pelagios Network @pelagios.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Some news. Peripleo github.com/britishlibra... is set for a re-boot thanks to the Research Software Maintenance Fund www.software.ac.uk/research-sof.... We're going to rebuild Peripleo as an open, accessible, browser-based map app that can be configured without coding skills or hosting costs 1/2

software.ac.uk

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Thank you for this brief overview! #IIIF #IMMARKUS

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European Commission @ec.europa.eu · 09/06/2026

We have concluded successfully concluded negotiations on Australia’s association to Horizon Europe. Together, our researchers will drive progress in clean tech, digital transformation, health and climate resilience. More: link.europa.eu/tbK4xj

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Martin R. Kalfatovic @udcmrk.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

“IMMARKUS” presentation from - @hildedw.bsky.social & @aboutgeo.bsky.social at the @iiif.bsky.social Showcase #IIIF / Learn more about IMMARKUS here github.com/rsimon/immar...

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Voting is now open for DH Awards 2025–and #MachinaEmblematica, our enigmatic guide to the 16C Symbola et Emblemata, is nominated in the "DH for Fun" category. Check out all the great submissions and cast your vote here: dhawards.org/dhawards2025... Explore the Machina: machina.rainersimon.io

machina.rainersimon.io

Machina Emblematica

I am the Machina Emblematica, built to preserve the knowledge of Joachim Camerarius' Symbola et Emblemata and to guide those who seek it.

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Tom Elliott @paregorios.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Folks, the #PleiadesGazetteer has been nominated for the annual DH awards in the "dataset or model" category. There are, as always, many fantastic and important projects. If you use or have otherwise benefited from Pleiades, I hope you will consider voting for it: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com

DH Awards 2025 Voting Form

This is the voting form for the openly-nominated openly-voted Digital Humanities Awards 2025. Please go look at the nominated resources at http://dhawards.org/dhawards2025/voting/ before voting. Vo...

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James Cummings @jamescummings.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Vote early, vote once, ask your friends and neighbours to vote.

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IIIF Consortium @iiif.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

🗞️ ICYMI: the March #IIIF Newsletter is out, including: 📜 The preliminary program for the 2026 Annual Conference 🕯️ A viewer for cozy reading 🇫🇮 IIIF in Finland Read the full issue: mailchi.mp/iiif/mar-26

mailchi.mp

IIIF Community Newsletter: March 2026

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

We're very excited to be featured on the showcase in Amsterdam on day 1. We'll have an additional workshop in The Hague on day 4. immarkus.xmarkus.org github.com/rsimon/immar... with @aboutgeo.bsky.social Dawn Zhuang Lee SunKyu

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Small update to #Annotorious, my #JavaScript image annotation library: You can now rotate rectangle shapes! #OpenSeadragon #IIIF #ImageAnnotation #TypeScript #React

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Quick Q to the hivemind: has anyone successfully implemented image embedding in the browser *with WebGPU support*? All my attempts failed. Regardless of wether im using Transformers.js or onnxruntime-web, pre-built models or self-exported ONNX files – always seems to fall back to CPU. #help

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Look, I'm as skeptical of vibe-coding as the next guy. But if you need a quick utility for personal / niche use, it’s wild. This morning I needed a GUI to test stuff for IMMARKUS. With three prompts, I got a full test environment: loads models + images, tests segmentation, embedding, indexing

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Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History @bhmpi.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

📢 REMINDER: We're hiring a #DigitalHumanities Scientist to join our interdisciplinary DH Lab in Rome! 🔎 Focus: Digital art history, AI & machine learning, cultural heritage data, collaborative research ⏳ April 30, 2026 🔗 www.biblhertz.it/en/opportuni...

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OpenSeadragon @openseadragon.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

We have released OpenSeadragon 6! This new version brings a powerful new data pipeline and two new tile sources, along with many additional improvements. Congrats to all of the contributors who made it possible! 🎉 github.com/openseadrago...

github.com

Release v6.0.0 · openseadragon/openseadragon

NEW BEHAVIOR: OpenSeadragon Data Pipeline Overhaul (#2407, #2643, #2718, #2739, #2775, #2762, #2816, #2863, #2858, #2871 @Aiosa) DEPRECATION: Properties on tile that manage drawer data, or store d...

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Frederik Elwert @felwert.fedihum.org.ap.brid.gy · 03/03/2026

We’re looking for a Research Data Engineer (m/f/x) (3,5 years). If you have a #DigitalHumanities profile with experience in #TEI encoding, #OCR / #HTR, and #IIIF (or any of those and are willing to learn the rest), get in touch! The full time position can be split, so if (for whatever reason) […]

fedihum.org

Original post on fedihum.org

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Frederik Elwert @felwert.fedihum.org.ap.brid.gy · 03/03/2026

🚨 Job Alert: We’re hiring! The information infrastructure project INF of @sfb1475 currently has two openings for #DigitalHumanities researchers (full time, 3,5 years). We build the central research infrastructure for a collaborative research center comprising researchers working on metaphors in […]

fedihum.org

Original post on fedihum.org

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Sarah Bendall @sarahabendall.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

As someone who has published books with 100+ images, here are my tips for finding free #earlymodern images (and tips for discounts when you have to pay for them!) 🗃️ sarahabendall.com/2020/03/11/e...

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

I love the scrollytelling format, and the visualizations by @nadiehbremer.com‬ are always the most engaging and beautiful 🤩 (Also we learn: if you need to get Google Trends results for more than 5 terms, you must normalize against the base bird!)

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CLARIAH-VL+ @clariahvl.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

🖼️ #IIIF Fridays: Discover IMMARKUS, an annotation tool for working smarter with digital image collections (Cc: @aboutgeo.bsky.social). In this online session, @hildedw.bsky.social will demonstrate how IMMARKUS can support your workflow! 📅 30 March (14:00-16:00) 📝 Register: meemoo.be/nl/vormingen...

meemoo.be

IIIF-Friday 13: IMMARKUS-workshop

Verrassing: de dertiende IIIF-Friday vindt voor een keer op een maandag plaats! Tijdens deze editie maak je kennis met IMMARKUS, een annotatietool van KU Leuven die je helpt om slimmer met beeldcollec...

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Small update to #tinyIIIF, my no-nonsense #IIIF server! You can now choose your image server during setup: • IIPImage • Cantaloupe Running small- to mid-sized collections? Teaching with IIIF materials? Building IIIF-enabled tools? Check out tiny.iiif! github.com/rsimon/tiny-... #DigitalFriday

Decorative images with a screenshot of tiny.iiif in the background, and image server choices (as text labels) in the foreground: IIPImage, Cantaloupe.

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Peter T. Evans @petertevans.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

For the US #DigitalHumanities crowd: how does one go about looking for DH/DH-adjacent jobs? I live and work in Germany and know all the job boards and mailing lists to subscribe to here. But what about for the US scene? Specifically the Pacific North-West? Appreciate whatever help you can offer. 🙏

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

It's done! 🚀 The first formal open source release of liiive is out — my real-time collaborative #IIIF annotation environment. As of today: fully self-hostable. A big thank you to the University of Graz Department of Digital Humanities and the DHInfra.at initiative who's support made this possible.

The liiive annotation interface: image control bar on the top left (sharing, zoom, image rotation); drawing tool bar on the top right (move, rectangle, triangle, circle, trash, undo/redo), navigation bar at the bottom. Colored cursors and annotation shapes above a medieval manuscript page.

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Yay! The first image served from my new #tinyIIIF test instance. I'm running it on a 2 CPU/4GB RAM VM. Seems to be the absolute minimum & performance is pretty slow. If anyone has advice on which specs I'd need to get more #IIIF speed out of Cantaloupe – let me know!

The Waldseemüller map in liiive (a IIIF annotation tool).

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Hint to those who want to use Vatican Lib resources in other viewers like #Mirador, #Theseus, or #IIIF tools like immarkus.xmarkus.org, liiive.now: I always found the IIIF link a bit well-hidden on the Vatican site. It's the tiny "i" icon top-left (next to "Read more"), then ↓, "IIIF manifest URI".

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Chiara Palladino @geophilologist.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Planning for a postdoc in Classics using digital methods but don't know where to start? Join our training workshop in Durham! Small bursaries are available, but applications are due soon! #DigitalHumanities #digitalclassics digitalhumanities.webspace.durham.ac.uk/events/

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Quick Q: is anyone active in the Islandora ecosystem? I realized just now there are Islandora/Drupal modules for text/image annotation using my open source libraries, but not sure if they're still maintained. If you have contacts in that group: I'd love to chat about upgrading them!

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

The next release of #tinyIIIF will add a proper manifest editor for IIIF descriptive properties (label, metadata, summary, requiredStatement, rights, provider, navDate).

Screenshot of the (work in progress) tiny.iiif manifest editor.

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

I just published v0.1.0 of tiny.iiif 🚀 - the first official release of my new IIIF server! • Publish images as IIIF instantly • Organize images with simple drag+drop • Image Service + Presentation manifests + user-friendly GUI all in one package Available now! github.com/rsimon/tiny-...

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Christopher Pollin @chpollin.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

coOCR/HTR, ein Research Preview. Browserbasiertes Werkzeug für OCR/HTR-Workflows, lokale und cloudbasierte Modelle, zweistufige Validierung. Experiment mit Claude Code + Promptotyping. Work in Progress, CC-BY. Video: youtu.be/VJyhVc_ujeA

youtu.be

Live Hands-On: coOCR/HTR. Ein Promptotype für "Editor in the Loop" Transkriptionsworkflows

YouTube video by Digital Humanities Craft

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

New blog post: From Folder to Manifest in a Minute. An introduction into tiny-iiif, my new project that turns a folder of image files into a fully functional, online #IIIF manifest in a minute (or less!) liiive.now/blog/2026-02...

A screenshot of the tiny-iiif admin GUI.

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

tiny.iiif – my tiny (and so creatively named!) IIIF server now has a proper README to get you up and running instantly. github.com/rsimon/tiny-... Still a bit hacky & incomplete, but the basics work. I’ll be improving it over the next few weeks. Contributions welcome, feedback highly appreciated!

github.com

GitHub - rsimon/tiny-iiif: Publish your images as IIIF in a minute - or less!

Publish your images as IIIF in a minute - or less! - rsimon/tiny-iiif

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

I can finally share the happy news 🚀 liiive.now — my tool for real-time collaborative annotation of #IIIF images — is going open source! First code is available here: github.com/rsimon/liiive Self-hosted setup coming by end of February. #OpenSource #DigitalHumanities

Screenshot of the annotation interface, with toolbars (top-left, top-right, bottom-left), live user cursors and a medieval manuscript image with three annotations.

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Need to publish images as #IIIF — but have only 30 SECONDS to do it? tiny.iiif to the rescue! 🫨 • Drag & drop images → instant IIIF Image Service • Create a folder → drag images in → instant presentation manifest! Work in progress, but already a lot of fun. Ping me if you want to know more!

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

New side project is taking shape... #iiif

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Michela Vignoli @rockettara.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Great progress in our DH-RAG prototype #MachinaEmblematica <3 It works already quite well to explore the Latin texts and images. Coming up next: analysis and evaluation of the retrieved contents and generated text to see how well the model actually performs! Test it out at machina.ait.ac.at/chat/

machina.ait.ac.at

Machina Emblematica

I am the Machina Emblematica, built to preserve the knowledge of Joachim Camerarius' Symbola et Emblemata and to guide those who seek it.

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Ended up vibe coding (sigh) a crude admin GUI for my IIIF setup. (A frustrating way to code… but fast I’ll admit.) That's Cantaloupe (image server) + Astro (GUI) + NGINX (proxy) – bundled with Docker. Drag & drop images → instant IIIF 🚀 Still needs work + basic manifest editing, but it’s a start!

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Quick Q to the #IIIF community: if I want to set up #Cantaloupe, quick & painless via Docker, what's the recommended image? I've been using `uclalibrary/cantaloupe`. It's working great – I just want to make sure there are no other images I should be aware of that might be more recommended.

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Q to the hivemind: When using #Cantaloupe as a #IIIF image server, what are possible options for user-friendly management of image collections + manifests? Looking for basic stuff like end-user-friendly bulk upload, basic metadata editing (for presentation manifests) and sorting into collections.

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Need recommendations for nice pubs near the #BritishMuseum :-) (I remember being in a nice one a while back- The Cartwheel or something? But couldn't find it anymore...)

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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

It's #DigitalFriday ! This is my routine appeal to #skystorians and all other academics prepping for teaching to share any software, hardware, online resources (primary, secondary, teaching tools, blogs) tips and tricks that they've found useful this week! #AcademicSky 🗃️(pls boost to relevant feeds)

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

We made a few tweaks to #MachinaEmblematica – our enigmatic guide to the Symbola et Emblemata, a 16th-century encyclopedia. • Improved relevance ranking for image sources • Inline thumbnails when images are explicitly mentioned More UX and behavior tweaks are coming today + next week. Stay tuned!

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DH Awards @dhawards.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Nominations are open for DH Awards 2025. Anyone can nominate things that are #DigitalHumanities, available to voters, and updated in 2025. #DH Nominations close 2026-02-26 and the only way something gets on the ballot. You only need to nominate something once. dhawards.org/dhawards2025...

dhawards.org

DH Awards 2025 – Call For Nominations | Digital Humanities Awards

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kgeographer 🇺🇦 🇬🇪 🇦🇱 @kgeographer.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

Oops, left out the url to my web site that explains me more fully...https://kgeographer.org

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Daniel van Strien @danielvanstrien.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Built a 2.5MB image classifier that runs in the browser in an evening with Claude Code. I used a dataset I labelled in 2022 and left on @hf.co for 3 years 😬. It finds illustrated pages in historical books. No server. No GPU.

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Rainer Simon @aboutgeo.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

🎄 December = website refresh season! I’ve just updated my site with more info on how I help Digital Humanities researchers, DH labs, museums, libraries, and archives with solutions for data exploration, annotation, and analysis — plus a selection of past projects. Take a peek: 👉 rainersimon.io

rainersimon.io

Digital Humanities / IIIF / UX / Open Source

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

First steps for pilot work on the automated transcription, translation, and entity/event extraction of Qing archival dossiers and their linking across other datasets and other archival and historical sources. Impressive results even on cursive script.

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IIIF Consortium @iiif.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

🔊The Call for Proposals for the 2026 #IIIF Annual Conference is now open! Read the full CfP and find a link to submit: iiif.io/event/2026/n...

IIIF 2026 Annual Conference, The Netherlands, June 1-4, 2026.

Amsterdam, Leiden, The Hague

In collaboration with dutch digital heritage network

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