iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 9m

Guernica. Almost unbearable in real life, so confronting. Crowd in reverence #Madrid #Picasso #Art

Crowd in front of Guernica by Picasso in Madrid

Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

First in line this morning at the Prado with pre booked ticket, and a quick dash to see Las Meninas before the crowds… #winning #madrid

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

How excited am I to find these Halloween Malificent horns in Madrid! 10 euros well spent 😊

Halloween headdress horns like malificent

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I haven’t said anything about the strikes yet (I am so ANGRY but despite all my rage I’m still just a rat in a cage etc etc). So it can’t be me the carefully worded HR email is about, telling us all to be nice to everyone (implying SMT?) including on socials, on threat of disciplinary action?

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Infinity Eccch @infinity-eccch.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

INFINITY is building open AI tools & Multidimensional Knowledge Graphs for the European Cultural Heritage Cloud. Join our Stakeholder Network to get early updates, test our tools, and join our upcoming workshops: infinity-eccch.eu/stakeholders/ #InfinityEccch #CulturalHeritageCloud #EchoesEccch

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amianet.bsky.social @amianet.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Archivist Daylon Orr was visiting a bookseller friend in Virginia this summer when, in the back corner of his friend’s warehouse, he noticed a giant stack of boxes. loom.ly/8Mnuwoc

gothamist.com

A massive MTA archive ended up in a Virginia warehouse. A Brooklyn man brought it home.

The collection of documents comes from a subway obsessive.

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 28/09/2026

Wary of Trumpian tampering, scientists have taken matters into their own hands. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

motherjones.com

Germany is building a digital Noah’s Ark for US climate data

Wary of Trumpian tampering, scientists have taken matters into their own hands.

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

View from a train, #Scotland. On the way to that there London, but a different and longer route due to rail works, which I’m not entirely displeased by, given the views.

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

“All watched over by machines of loving grace” by Richard Brautigan, written in 1967.

All WATCHED OVER BY MACHWES OF LoViNg GRACE
by Richard Brautigan
I like to think (and the sooner the better!) of a cybernetic meadow where mammals and computors live together in mutually programmatic harmony
I like to think (right now, please!)
of a cybernetic
forest
filled with pines and electronics where deer stroll peacefully past computors
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms

I like to think! (it'has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labor and joined back to nature, returned to our mammal brothers and sisters,
and all watched over by machines of loving grace.

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Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 25/09/2026

The Politics of Open Infrastructures: Power, Governance, and Justice in Digital Knowledge Practices www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10… >

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Merchant Adventurers’ Hall @merchantshallyork.org · 24/09/2026

We are a very old building. We have lots of keys. We have lots of keys that don’t open anything. Join us for a one off installment of, “Keys of the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall that are pretty but completely useless”. 🔑 🧵

We are looking at two pewter plates with an assortment of large brass and iron keys in various shapes and sizes.

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

UKRI is using AI for grant reviewing. Alternatively, they could have modernised the grant review process by paying human reviewers for their labour, ensuring a wider pool and speedy turnaround. Using AI here is likely a race to the bottom: uniqueness is at risk of being ironed out. What a world.

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Ironlily @ironlilyart.com · 24/09/2026

Noa & Una’s Marginalia 📜 Soapwort In the Middle Ages, soap wasn’t something that could be mass-produced like it is today. So what if you wanted to wash your hands but felt that water alone wasn’t enough? That’s where “soapwort” came in! full article below! medium.com/@SisterNoa20...

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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

- Honestly my dear grandchildren, you’ll never believe how low rates were in the 2010s. - at least you built a load of infrastructure when borrowing costs were so low grandad? Right? Right?

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tante @tante.cc · 24/09/2026

"And then, finally, and perhaps most importantly, Silicon Valley executives may love over-optimizing their lives and running chatbots like a team of tireless assistants, but I’m just not convinced the general public wants to be a manager." Am I too boring to need an AI agent?

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Wending home soon… one of the things I love about travelling are the random things that catch your eye, the cultural differences, and the quirks that make you smile #bavaria #germany #passau

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Finishing up the @transkribus.bsky.social user conference. I’ve been working on this for over 13 years now and I am so, so proud of the infrastructure, community, and team delivering our ATR and information extraction tools, cooperatively. A strong sense of community here! 🦾

We Have Built Unique Al in a Sea of AI
Hundreds of Features
Thousands
of Projects
Tens of
thousands of Models
Hundreds of thousands
of Users

Slide presentation

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Musée de Cluny @museecluny.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

L'automne est arrivé au musée ! Dans l'art médiéval, les saisons sont principalement représentées à travers les calendriers des livres d'heures sous la forme des travaux des champs et des signes du zodiaque. Ici, le mois de septembre est illustré par le foulage du raisin et le signe de la Balance. 🍇

Détail d'une page enluminée représentant le pressurage du raisin et le signe astrologique de la Balance

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Fab impromptu tour of #Passau yesterday from @malterehbein.bsky.social, showing me historical bits and bobs on the way to dinner. The autumnal light was just so! #Germany #Bavaria

A church at the university in passau, recently restored

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Prof Laurie Stras @lauriestras.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

All the UK’s soft power in higher ed and creative industries circling down the drain (bless those of us at the intersection) and not a peep from the government. @elliereeves.bsky.social , constituent here, why is this being allowed to happen?

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Ellen Forget @ellenforget.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

A big thanks to everyone who came out to my talk about my braille character recognition model at the @transkribus.bsky.social conference in Passau today! (And thanks to @melissaterras.bsky.social for the photo!)

Ellen presenting in a lecture hall. The slide above them reads Training Braille Character Recognition Using Transkribus.

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Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Great news, and looking forward to a book historian becoming Chief Exec of the UK Space Agency sometime soon in this brave new world!

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

'The records have been digitised and indexed by the genealogy company Ancestry, which has partnered with the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at University College London.' Leaps and bounds forward in our understanding of the histories of the British enslaved. #Skystorians

theguardian.com

Nearly 4m records of enslaved people in 20 former British colonies now searchable online

Exclusive: Collection’s 300,000 pages record lives of enslaved people in countries including the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Mauritius, South Africa and Trinidad

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Doing my Transkribus thing! I talked about how we came out of two research projects, acknowledging Valencia, Innsbruck, and the original team members; the importance of documenting what we are doing for transparency (still research for me!); and the support we now provide for academic research.

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

And so we kick off the @transkribus.bsky.social user conference in Passau, with @caromein.bsky.social, chair of READ-COOP board, introducing and welcoming us to discuss all things advanced text recognition, and cooperative, ethical, AI approaches.

Annemieke kicks off the event with not all AI is created equal behind her on the screen

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UK-Ireland DH Association @ukiedh.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

🎉 We're excited to welcome 6 new Community Interest Groups to the UK-Ireland Digital Humanities Association! From #webarchives, #pedagogy, and #openknowledge, our CIG network now includes 10 active groups. 🔗 digitalhumanities-uk-ie.org/2026/09/21/2... #DH #DigitalHumanities

digitalhumanities-uk-ie.org

Announcement: New CIGs | UK-Ireland Digital Humanities Association

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

View from a hotel room, #Passau. Here for the @transkribus.bsky.social user conference next week! #academicglamour

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Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

When I tell you this is one of the most riveting, concise and accurate depictions of the catastrophically defective thought processes behind Effective Altruism and the larger Broligarch Epistemic Universe... Run, don't walk, to read the whole thing (link below), which concludes thus:

Example of the problematic thinking behind Effective Altruism.

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Quinn Daedal @quinnanya.me · 19/09/2026

Of all the ways I imagined Google Scholar going up in flames, being made inaccessible from university IP addresses due to AI-driven scraping wasn't at the top of my list.

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Pavel Iosad @anghyflawn.net · 15/07/2026

So this Defence Universities Alliance thing… we do actually need defence capacity but it’s a bit insane that somehow the defence sector still has nothing to do with languages, area studies, history and suchlike. Complete loss of institutional memory. This used to be widely recognised!

Chosen from almost 100 applicants, founding members of the DUA will strengthen connections between academia and the defence sector, helping to support a pipeline of skilled graduates into exciting careers, including cyber security, robotics, Al, aerospace engineering and advanced manufacturing. In doing so, the initiative will ensure young people leave university ready for work, with a bridge between study and employment.

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Josh Pizzuto-Pomaco @joshpizpom.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

EXC: 90 programmes in Edinburgh University's College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences are to be closed. The casualties, which include 48 language and literature programmes, will be 'taught out', w/ no admissions after 2027. @heraldscotland.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/news/2655839...

heraldscotland.com

Ninety programmes to close at leading university as savings plan takes shape

According to the document, a total of 90 programmes will be “taught out” over the next several years, including 48 in the School of Language.

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Apropos of nothing: it would be normal at a modern, responsive uni to offer new courses and deprecate others regularly. But a mass shuttering of courses suggests senior managers haven’t had their eye on the ball when they should have, for quite some time. 😒 Planning? Governance? Accountability?

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Digging the “school crossing” signs in #krakow

Crossing - kids with a balloon/stip sign

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Dr Caitlin Burge @caitlinburge.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Melissa Terras with the most relatable opening to a DH keynote at #EADH2026 @melissaterras.bsky.social

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

In Krakow today to keynote the European Association of Digital Humanities Conference. They even put my name on the poster! #nopressure Looking forward to talking about how we build hopeful futures when *waves arms* societal bin fires are all around…

Poster outside EADH conference - digital humanities without borders is the theme

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A decade or more ago I stopped engaging with entertainment (books, tv, film, even music) where the central premise is a woman gets killed or tortured. It cuts down stuff to a manageable choice and has done wonders for my feelings of wellbeing and trust. Because, fuck that for funsies.

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Our wonderful @designinf.bsky.social @sgsah.bsky.social PhD student @erdorfman.bsky.social is working with the Traverse theatre for her work placement, and helping set up this new development programme for folks across Scotland wanting to write for digitally immersive theatre. A great opportunity!

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Anna Girling @annagirling.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This is utterly horrendous for everyone working and studying at University of Brighton, & the community more widely. It also feels like Brighton is the canary in the mine – their unjustifiable 2023 cuts have since been emulated across the sector. Will this removal of workers' rights come for us all?

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Getting a v early morning flight means you have the time to wander around before hotel check in and explore as you fancy #krakow #poland

Cool restaurant with me reflected in the glass in Krakow

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

The oldest child has been deposited at University. All the feels today, while excited for his next steps, and seeing him bloom. And fun to experience This Biz 🤗 as a parent…!

A university hall of residence from hallway to quad. Modern red brick. Sun shines..

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I grieved for the Internet, I grieved for Social Media, now I grieve for universities, and their communities. This is all part of a mass-dismantling of social connection (and university leaders have been blithe to their part). What does that leave? We all become selfish? Not why I work at a uni…

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

oh hai this contains me! Also, @infinity-eccch.bsky.social would love a follow on here! The project is trying to overcoming the challenges of semantic fragmentation and ethical ambiguity that plague vast digital collections of Cultural Heritage Digital Objects (CHDOs) across Europe...

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Changes afoot in data-led training in Arts & Hums at Edinburgh Uni! The centre I set up 7 years ago is now being fully integrated into the @edfuturesinstitute.bsky.social delivery team, given its success, and the fact the plucky little @edcdcs.bsky.social team has always punched above its weight!

Infographic showing what CDCS achieved - the small grants we gave out (£90k) and the larger grants those folks brought in as a result (£5.49m). People from over 55 countries attended our events, over 10,000 people used our online resources. Now EFI is taking over the reigns of this wonderful team...

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Fabulous tour of the newly restored RBGE Palm Houses, for @thebotanics.bsky.social supporters, with @expert-sleepers.co.uk - great lunch too, chatting all things heritage, plants and digital. Great to see the houses looking so gorgeous - and I learnt some more about ferns!

The palm houses! Nearly finished! Still with fences up

Inside the palm houses, some tall tree ferns

Inside the older Georgian glass house with tree ferns

Expert Sleepers and the supporters board at the Palm Houses

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Merisa Martinez @merisamartinez.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Tonight the truly brilliant folks in the Baskerville Small Performances project are introducing the new Baskerville Punch font, based on the imaging, RTI, and archaeometallurgic research carried out over the past two years in this project. The type designers are Riccardo Olocco and Michele Patane.

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