The first in a series of posts in which I set out to provide a short review of several different aspects of the digital humanities from a non-digital humanist perspective, with the mindset or culture of DH being just the beginning.
Category: Reflections
On 8 1/2 by 11
How to evaluate writing spaces.
What’s in a Wiki?
What are we really asking when we ask people to contribute to a crowd-sourced project? What do they gain? What are the ethics or politics? Is it best to ask …
tech versus culture: what makes for good digital collaboration?
Late last summer, social media fellow Jennifer Stoops and I collaborated on a grant proposal together. Sometimes that meant sitting cheek to cheek in front of the same computer where, …
Illuminating the Challenges of Web Design
I have always wanted an Artichoke Lamp. I could never afford one (or really any piece of mid-century decor), so when I found a relatively inexpensive substitute that looked really …
Speaking of ‘Speaking in Code’ (Part 2)
As noon approached, lunch beckoned and the discussion became atomic, situational, one-on-one. Folks began following each other on Twitter, gathering their thoughts, etc., and just then I heard fellow historian …
Speaking of ‘Speaking in Code’ (Part 1)
In early November I had the opportunity to participate in the Speaking in Code conference at the Scholars’ Lab at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, a summit on the …
Technically Speaking
Recently in our Digital Fellows weekly meetings we’ve been talking about doing skill shares with each other. A great idea, sure, but I was immediately gripped with anxiety at the …
All That is Digital Melts into Code
The world of DH is one in which lofty dreams and visions of the digital transforming the social are frequently confronted by the challenges of coding, the limitations of the real, and the contradictions--perhaps fallacies--of modernity and modernization. This analogy lends caution to DH undertakings ignorant of the realities of implementation. But this also means that all that is within the world of DH is easily collapsed onto the realm of "coding". Meaning that despite the realities of coding and implementation of DH projects, there is an assumed teleological link between project and coding. Without going into counterexamples of where this link breaks down, allow me to instead provide a brief clarification of the concept of 'coding' that I think underlies some of this confusion.
What’s in it for me?
Just over a year ago, I set out to create a wiki for philosophers – an online, collaborative resource that would help graduate teaching fellows and adjuncts create lesson plans …
