Stuff digital humanists should know
From CIRCA
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What should a digital humanist know in order to be able tomanage digital humanities projects? Needless to say the idea of abody of knowledge that defines a digital humanist can becontroversial, but nonetheless it can be useful for
- Knowledge Representation. You need to understand the
choices and strategies involved in representing human knowledge in
digital form. Further, to understand the issues you should have
been significantly involved in at least one project digitizing
materials so you have experience with the processes and real
issues.
- Digitizing Electronic Texts. Many digital humanists learn aboutknowledge representation through the digitization of texts. Textsare not the only form of knowledge we represent digitally, but theyare important enough to the humanities that a passing knowledge ofthe issues, standards, formats, and technologies for textdigitization and encoding is extremely useful. You will find thatmany projects have to represent textual data, even if thatisn't their primary objective. For that reason a digitalhumanist project manager should know enough to be able to manageothers digitizing texts.
- XML and Text Encoding. In particular you should know about XML and how to encode a text using XML. You should know about XML standards and guidelines like the Text Encoding Initiative guidelines.
Technology';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'Technology';this.style.color = '#000000';">Technology . You need to know enough about technology to be able to manage technologists and participate in making decisions.- Assessing Technology. You should be able to assess what technology will work best for a project.
- Budgeting Technology. You should be able to cost and budget for technology in a project.
- Talking About Technology. You should be able to talk comfortably about technology and present it to project stakeholders.
- Personal Computers and Operating Systems. You should know enough about personal computers that you can get around a PC or Macintosh. You should understand the basics of both operating systems and, if possible, UNIX (which is used for most servers.)
Databases and the Web';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'Databases and the Web';this.style.color = '#000000';">Databases and the Web . Two specific technologies that most projects end up using (in addition to XML) are databases and the web.- HTML. You should know enough HTML that you can read the source of a web page and create a simple page.
- Web Servers. You should know enough about web servers that you can negotiate for access and then post an HTML page so that it can be published on the web.
- Databases. So many projects end up using a database to keep information organized that you need to know the basics of databases and how they structure information. So many people think they want databases that you should also know when not to use a database.
Learning, Advising and Teaching';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'Learning, Advising and Teaching';this.style.color = '#000000';">Learning, Advising and Teaching . Above all you need to keep up with the field so that you can advise people.- Learning To Learn. You won't know everything, but you will be expected to know how to learn new technologies quickly so that you can make informed decisions.
- Teaching Technology. Inevitably you will have junior people working with you who don't know the technologies being employed by a project. You should know how to patiently teach them what they need to know to complete tasks.
