Announcement: DHA2014: Perth 18-21 March, 2014

May 142013
 
 Posted by on May 14, 2013 digital humanities, events No Responses »

The Australasian Association for Digital Humanities (aaDH) is pleased to announce that Perth, Western Australia, has been selected as the location for the second Digital Humanities Australasia conference.

“DHA2014: Expanding Horizons” will be held 18–21 March 2014, co-hosted by The University of Western Australia and iVEC. The local organisation committee will be chaired by Professor Jenni Harrison of iVEC and the program committee chaired by Professor Hugh Craig, aaDH and The University of Newcastle.

The Call for Papers for DHA2014 will be posted soon.

Review: Seminar, Training, and Large Collaborative Projects, Lynne and Ray Siemens

May 012013
 
 Posted by on May 1, 2013 collaboration, digital humanities, education No Responses »

I recently attended a seminar at UWS on Friday 26 April, 2013 led by Lynne and Ray Siemens of the University of Victoria in Canada. The theme of the event was collaboration in the humanities and in particular; how digital humanities projects exemplify effective collaboration in the broader humanities. This is because digital humanities projects often cross-disciplines and geography and the often more demanding collaborative terrain of computer science, computational methods and the humanities.

Lynne Siemens, specialises in project management and team building. She stated that people aren’t always well-trained to work together and outlined some of the positives and negatives of working in teams. She claimed that some people are better able to collaborate than others, often because they have developed skills of listening, are flexible, can negotiate, and can compromise.  Lynne described these as the ‘soft skills’ of effective collaborative teams. A team approach often produces more diverse and possibly higher quality ideas (and is a good way to learn new skills and perspectives), but some projects are better done as an individual (but of course, some projects are beyond the scope and skills-sets of individuals).

Lynne outlined some of successful team interactions she had observed, partly through research she had undertaken through case –studies.  Good communication skills are vital, as is project management, and the ability to think across technology and the humanities and indeed, culture and language. Also the objectives of the team, the outcomes, and the individual tasks need to be clearly described with not too many grey areas that may be potential areas of conflict. And teams operate within institutional contexts so there are certain contingencies to negotiate either within or between institutions.  Still, one of the best ways to build teams is through casual conversations, lots of face-to-face meetings, and large bottles of rum (I put in the last one).

Ray Siemans is a Professor of Humanities Computing at the University of Victoria in Victoria, Canada and is well known for his work in the Digital Humanities and in particular, through the founding of the annual Digital Humanities Summer Institute (that I attended 2 years ago and now attracts around 500 participants).  He discussed the important work of the digital humanities, particularly around content modelling and computational analysis of content (a core form of scholarship within the field). He also discussed the typology of curriculum development in the digital humanities either through stand-alone degrees or through digital humanities inflicted programs and in particular, the highly successful Summer Institute model.

 

DHSI (Digital Humanities Summer Institute) http://www.dhsi.org/

ETCL (Electronic Textual Culture Lab) http://etcl.uvic.ca/

Manifesto of the Digital Humanities

Mar 292013
 
 Posted by on March 29, 2013 digital humanities, gadfly No Responses »

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The Digital Humanities is not the humanities nor anti-humanities
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Examples of Digital Humanities
Can look like the humanities but are not the humanities.
We believe that the context of the works of digital humanities is already the humanities
The context for the Digital Humanities is nothing but the humanities
Pieces of Digital Humanities are not intellectual, however sometimes can be.
In Digital Humanities the visibility of the humanities is reduced to minimum, the humanities is just the intellectual manner
Every piece of the Digital Humanities is only about the Digital Humanities and nothing more,
therefor all pieces of the Digital Humanities are identical in context – all manifestations of the Digital Humanities have the same sense and meaning and express exactly the same.
In the context of the Digital Humanities,
all interpretations possible in the context of the humanities,
are reduced to one, are equalised, flattened to the Digital Humanities.
Interpreting the Digital Humanities as the humanities or being
about something other than just the Digital Humanities
deprives Digital Humanities of its purpose.
The Digital Humanities can be presented only in Digital Humanities chambers.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> A Digital Humanities chamber is a closed room
that is not a lecture theatre and because of its nature
cannot exist or be presented in a lecture theatre.
A Digital Humanities chamber serves only to show pieces of the Digital Humanities.
Pixilated walls of a Digital Humanities chamber are the only neutral background
for pieces of the Digital Humanities.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>There is no evolution of the Digital Humanities,
there is only its expansion.
Humanity is forever developing <<diverse whole>> . The Digital Humanities is forever expanding <<homogenous mass>>.

Download .PDF version

 

(This work is a parody of Yellowism that is a parody of Art)

DH Awards: Winners announced

Feb 192013
 
 Posted by on February 19, 2013 digital humanities No Responses »

http://dhawards.org/dhawards2012/results/
___________________________________________________________________

Digital Humanities Awards 2012 Results

The winners of the Digital Humanities Awards 2012 are as follows. Once ‘accidental’ duplicates were removed there were 4101 ballots cast by members of the public over two weeks voting for one or more of the categories. The full list of sites nominated is still available on the website. Sorry if your favoured resource did not win — open public votes are popularity contests and some of the contestants certainly did seem to campaign more than the others. Feedback I have received indicates that this has raised awareness of DH in the wider community and awareness of little known projects inside the DH community. The candidates were nominated by the public and voted for by the public.

The winners of the awards receive no cash prize, only the respect and honour of the DH community. They can also use the icons available at http://dhawards.org/dhawards2012/results/ on their websites if they wish.

Congratulations to all the winners! Thanks to all those who voted!

*Best DH tool or suite of tools*
Winner: Omeka http://omeka.org/
1st Runner Up: Paper Machines
https://github.com/chrisjr/papermachines
2nd Runner Up: Isidore http://www.rechercheisidore.fr/
Total votes in category: 877

*Best DH blog, article, or short publication*
Winner: Digital Humanities Now http://digitalhumanitiesnow.org/
1st Runner Up: Leonardo Flores: “I ♥ E-Poetry”
http://leonardoflores.net/
2nd Runner Up: Will Self (et al.): “‘Kafka’s Wound’: Re-imagining
the Literary Essay for the Digital Age”
http://www.thespace.lrb.co.uk/
Total votes in category: 1494

*Best DH visualization or infographic*
Winner: A Thousand Words: Advanced Visualization for the
Humanities http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/tacc-projects/a-thousand-words
1st Runner Up: e-Diasporas Atlas http://maps.e-diasporas.fr/
2nd Runner Up: ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of
the Roman World http://orbis.stanford.edu/
Total votes in category: 1099

*Best professional resources for learning about or doing DH work*
Winner: Digital Humanities Tool Box
http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-humanities-tool-box
1st Runner Up: Livingstone’s 1871 Field Diary: A Multispectral
Critical Edition: Project History, pages starting from
http://livingstone.library.ucla.edu/1871diary/initial_history.htm
2nd Runner Up: Bamboo DiRT http://dirt.projectbamboo.org/
Total votes in category: 1048

*Best DH project for public audiences*
Winner: CEISMIC: Canterbury Earthquake Digital Archive
http://www.ceismic.org.nz/
1st Runner Up: La Biblioteca Virtual de la Biblioteca Luis Ángel
Arango http://www.banrepcultural.org/blaavirtual/indice
2nd Runner Up: Dickens Journals Online http://www.djo.org.uk/
Total votes in category: 3161

*Best use of DH for fun*
Winner: The Future of the Past http://newspapers.wraggelabs.com/fotp/
1st Runner Up: DigitalNZ magic squares
http://wraggelabs.com/shed/magicsquares/
2nd Runner Up: 10 PRINT ebooks https://twitter.com/10print_ebooks
Total votes in category: 911

Dr James Cummings
DH Awards (Founder)

–
james@DHAwards.org

Announcing DH Awards 2012 open for voting!

Feb 052013
 
 Posted by on February 5, 2013 digital humanities No Responses »

It our pleasure to announce that the DH Awards 2012 is open for voting!

Digital Humanities Awards are a new set of annual awards given in recognition of talent and expertise in the digital humanities community and are nominated and voted for entirely by the public. These awards are intended to help put interesting DH resources in the spotlight and engage DH users (and general public) in the work of the community. Awards are not specific to geography, language, conference, organisation or field of humanities that they benefit. There is no financial prize associated with these community awards. There were many nominations and the international nominations committee took quite awhile to review and debate each nomination. We’re sorry if your nomination was not included. Please see http://dhawards.org/faqs/ for this and other frequently asked questions.

Anyone is allowed to vote, yes anyone, but please only vote once.

Please cast vote at http://dhawards.org/dhawards2012/voting/ before midnight (GMT) on Sunday 17 February 2013 when voting will

be closed.

Good luck!

James Cummings, Craig Bellamy, Sheila Brennan, Marjorie Burghart,
and Kiyonori Nagasaki

james@dhawards.org

41st Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference

Jan 212013
 
 Posted by on January 21, 2013 digital humanities, events No Responses »

CAA logo horizWeRes_CAA 2013 Perth Across Space and Time

 

25-28 Perth, March 2013

 

The Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) Annual Conference is the major international event in the calendar for scholars, specialists and experts in the field of informatic applications to archaeological, historical and cultural heritage scholarship.

The 41st Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology ACROSS SPACE AND TIME Conference (CAA 2013 Perth), for the first time in Australia, will explore a multitude of topics to showcase ground-breaking technologies and best practice from various archaeological, historical, cultural heritage and informatics disciplines, with a variety of case studies from all over the world. Some of these topics are specific to the Australasian region and include the application of computer science to cultural heritage management, historical archaeology, landscape archaeology, maritime archaeology, and rock art.

The conference will be held at the University Club of Western Australia, Perth (Western Australia), from 25th to 28th March 2013.

Registration to the CAA 2013 Conference is open: the Early Bird fee deadline is February 7th 2013.

For more information about the conference please visit the web site: www.caa2013.org

For general information please email the conference Chair, Dr Arianna Traviglia: chair@caa2013.org

The CAA Organisation

The Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) is an international organisation that brings together a range of scholars and specialists in the fields of archaeology, ancient history, cultural heritage, mathematics and computer science aiming to provide interdisciplinary communication and stimulate discussion.

With an international presence of over forty years the CAA’s annual conferences have continuously provided for the facilitation of interdisciplinary communication and discussion, as well as the building of lasting professional relationships. The Organisation therefore has a long-standing record of projecting new and innovative developments in the realm of archaeology, cultural heritage, history, arts and related disciplines.

For more information about Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology organisation please visit the CAA International Home Page: https://caaconference.org/.

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