Stuff digital humanists should know
From CIRCA
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What should a digital humanist know in order to be able to manage digital humanities projects? Needless to say the idea of a body of knowledge that defines a digital humanist can be controversial, 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';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'Digitizing Electronic Texts';this.style.color = '#000000';">Digitizing Electronic Texts . Many digital humanistslearn about knowledge representation through the digitization oftexts. Texts are not the only form of knowledge we representdigitally, but they are important enough to the humanities that apassing knowledge of the issues, standards, formats, andtechnologies for text digitization and encoding is extremelyuseful. You will find that many projects have to represent textualdata, even if that isn't their primary objective. For thatreason a digital humanist project manager should know enough to beable to manage others digitizing texts.XML and Text Encoding';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'XML and Text Encoding';this.style.color = '#000000';">XML and Text Encoding . In particular you should knowabout XML and how to encode a text using XML. You should know aboutXML standards and guidelines like the Text Encoding Initiativeguidelines.
- Technology. You need to know enough about technology to
be able to manage technologists and participate in making
decisions.
Assessing Technology';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'Assessing Technology';this.style.color = '#000000';">Assessing Technology . You should be able to assess whattechnology will work best for a project.Budgeting Technology';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'Budgeting Technology';this.style.color = '#000000';">Budgeting Technology . You should be able to cost andbudget for technology in a project.Presenting Technology';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'Presenting Technology';this.style.color = '#000000';">Presenting Technology . You should be able to talkcomfortably about technology and present it to projectstakeholders.Personal Computers and Operating Systems';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'Personal Computers and Operating Systems';this.style.color = '#000000';">Personal Computers and Operating Systems . You shouldknow enough about personal computers that you can get around a PCor Macintosh. You should understand the basics of both operatingsystems and, if possible, UNIX (which is used for mostservers.)Basic Technologies';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'Basic Technologies';this.style.color = '#000000';">Basic Technologies . There are also specific technologies like wikis and blogs that it is useful to have experience using so you can decide if they would help a project. See the Basic Digital Humanities Technologies for a list.
- Databases and the Web. Two specific technologies that
most projects end up using (in addition to XML) are databases and
the web.
HTML';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'HTML';this.style.color = '#000000';">HTML . You should know enough HTML that you can read thesource of a web page and create a simple page.Web Architecture and Servers';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'Web Architecture and Servers';this.style.color = '#000000';">Web Architecture and Servers . You should know enoughabout web servers that you can negotiate for access and then postan HTML page so that it can be published on the web. You shouldunderstand what a CMS is and have experience using one so youunderstand how they can be used in a project.Databases';this.style.color = '#ff0000';" onMouseOut = "this.innerHTML = 'Databases';this.style.color = '#000000';">Databases . So many projects end up using a database tokeep information organized that you need to know the basics ofdatabases and how they structure information. You should be able toSo many people think they want databases that you should also knowwhen not to use a database.
- 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.
