Digital Humanities as a Cooperative Enterprise in Network Society discusses how digital humanities is transforming from a solitary profession into a cooperative one through digital tools and networks. It provides examples of institutions openly sharing digital collections and resources to promote global scholarship. While new technologies provide opportunities, openness and accessibility will be key to ensuring freedom of expression and preventing the unintentional erosion of freedoms online. The future of research is one based on cooperation and open systems of knowledge management and exchange.
1. Digital Humanities as a Cooperative Enterprise in Network Society jalvarez@fsof.uned.es @alvarezuned Thisis a workingprocessdocument. Please use and quote as tentative and cooperative ideas. Tkankyouforyourobservations
2. Digital Humanities (Mind) Cooperative Enterprise (Body) Network Society (World) Hilary Putnam: Thethreefoldcord:mind, body, and world (Spanishtranslation J. F. Álvarez: La cuerda de tres cabos).
4. CYBERCITIZENS, CULTURE AND PUBLIC GOODS, “Network society is provoking dramatic changes in several aspects of our daily life as cultural traits, business and the more disparages spheres of privacy and social life. We must attend both to freedom of access and to new service generation because of the peculiar form public goods are rising in the Net. To supersede individual capability limitations and to diffuse digital and cultural gaps, electronic government could be a cultural decisive tool in this phase of cibersociety enhancement. Technologies enhanced the human capabilities, as well as with the social actions and its framework, including cultural production and management. Technologies are also transforming the generation, reproduction and transmission of (social) knowledge.” (J. Francisco Álvarez, Arbor, 2009)
5. A recurrent ideaMano Marks´ Blog Thursday, June 2, 2011 WorkingwithPeople “TheHumanities are traditionally a lonelyprofession. While in thehardsciencesit'snotuncommontosee a longlist of namesonpapers, in Humanitiesprofessionsthere'slittlerewardformultiplepeopleworkingon a project. Tenurewasbasedonarticlesyouwrote, soleprojectwork. One of thereasons I love digital humanitiesworkisthatpeople are comingtogether, breakingtherestrictivebonds of solitarywork” Mano Marks, Geo DeveloperAdvocate at Google http://randommarkers.blogspot.com/2011/06/working-with-people.html
6. The social turn in humanitiesisknocking at thedoor and itwillremainhereforever! @thatcampMadrid 21-22th november 2011 Good News forHumanities, if ….
8. Monitoringtrends, promoting and strengtheningcooperativeresearch Networks and open systems of knowledge management. Best traditions of archival and documentary practices. Future research model is based on cooperation and build on networks and open systems of knowledge management. DIGITAL HUMANITIES MANIFESTO
10. Let´sseeanexampleGranada 150 yearsago Notonly new directions in humanities, notonlysomeparadigmaticchange. We are living in a more radical change. A new era in humanitiesresearchiscoming, butwhatdoesit mean? New tools, new collections, new data: a huge and enormous set of data anybodyneverthoughtbeforeare now at ourfingertips. The online accessibilityto a largenumber of documents in real time isdramaticallychangingourresearchexperience. Thus, let’ssee a simple butnot trivial example: Whilst I waspreparingthislecture I asked me: Whathadhappened at theUniversity of Granada 150 yearsago? Whatdocumentscould I obtainfrommydeskwork?
11. new capabilities Open access Publicgoods 150 yearsago at theUniversity of Granada Nowit´spossiblewiththe support of Google, UCM and HathiTrustcollection
12. A Survey of Digital Humanities Centersin theUnitedStates. 2008 «Digital humanitiesimplieshumanities-basedresearch, teaching, and intellectualengagementconductedwith digital technologies and resources. The use of thesetechnologiesmay be prosaic (e.g., usingnew media toconducthumanitiesresearchorenhanceteaching) ortransformative (e.g., developingwholly new products and processesthattransformexistingknowledge and createnew scholarship)». Diane M. Zorich. November2008 A veryusefulworkbutthecooperationperspectivemust be reforced
13. SOME OBSTACLES TO INNOVATION IN HUMANITIES COPYRIGHT: A universitythatgoestoofarcouldend up facing a copyright-infringementlawsuit. The8.7-million-volume library pools digital copies of textsthat Google scannedfromuniversities. John P. Wilkin, itsexecutive director, estimatesthatHathiTrustmaycontain 2.5 millionorphanworks. HathiTrustpublishesthe full text of works in thepublicdomain, butnot of thosethat are orphaned. May 29, 2011 Out of Fear, CollegesLockBooks and ImagesAwayFromScholars Marc ParryChronicle of HigherEducation"
14. Whatrevolution?Technologicalisover “Usinginformationtechnologytoilluminatethe human record, and bringinganunderstanding of the human record tobearonthedevelopment and use of informationtechnology”. SusanSchreibman, Ray Siemens, and John UnsworthIntroductionto Digital Humanities p.16 “Today, onehearsless and less of it, perhapsbecause (as Ess notes) therevolutionhas succeeded: in almostalltheirpotential, no longerseemrevolutionary at all” p.17
15. Sociotecnicalrevolutionis happening Mythesisisthatnowadaysotherrevolutionishappening: the socio technicalrevolution in humanities, facilitatedbythepresence of ICT. It´s no a material orphysicaltool. Instead, itis at theverysocial structurethatisrising as a basicturn in humanities' practices and in e-science in general. Openness, accessibility, howinformationisusedand selected: a new curator, notonlynew software forsemanticwebs, nowtheSOCIAL WEB and its uses are transformingthepracticeof humanities.
16. WelcometotheShared Digital FutureHathiTrustis a bold idea withbigplansTOOLS and RESOURCES for a new era in humanitiesHathiTrust is a partnership of majorresearchinstitutions and librariesworkingtoensurethatthecultural record ispreserved and accessiblelongintothefuture. There are more thanfifty partners in HathiTrust, and membershipis open toinstitutionsworldwide. http://www.hathitrust.org/about CurrentlyDigitized 8,771,712 total volumes; 4, 789,293 booktitles, 212,672 serial titles3,070,099,200 pages 393 terabytes 2,382,779 volumes (~27% of total) in thepublicdomain View visualizations of HathiTrust:http://www.hathitrust.org/print/220
17. GoodnewsYale UniversityMay 11, 2011 http://opac.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=8544 New Haven, Conn.— Scholars, artists and otherindividualsaroundtheworldwillenjoy free accessto online images of millions of objectshoused in Yale’smuseums, archives, and librariesthanksto a new “Open Access” policythattheUniversityannouncedtoday. Yale isthefirstIvy League universitytomakeitscollectionsaccessible in thisfashion.Jon ButlerActingUniversityLibrarianYale University
18. Network Society: new capabilities As works in thesecollectionsbecomedigitized, themuseums and librarieswillmakethoseimagesthat are in thepublicdomainfreelyaccessible. In a departurefromestablishedconvention, no licensewill be requiredforthetransmission of theimages and no limitationswill be imposedontheir use. Theresultisthatscholars, artists, students, and citizenstheworldoverwill be ableto use thesecollectionsforstudy, publication, teaching and inspiration. (Yale, 10 May 2011)
19. Globalization and scholarshipcooperation "Sharingourartisticresources more fullyacross Yale and wellbeyondits campus is a top priority," assertsJock Reynolds, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Yale University Art Gallery. "Throughthis new universitypolicy, scholars, artists, teachers, and studentsworldwidewillnow be ableto more fullyengageourcollectionsfor active learning and use in publications, classrooms, and creativeprojectswithoutincurringanyfeeswhatsoever, eliminatingwhat has previouslybeenformany a dauntingfinancialhurdle." "High costs of reproductionrightshavetraditionallylimitedtheability of scholars, especiallyonesearly in theircareers, topublishrichlyillustratedbooks and articles in thehistory of art, architecture, and material and visual culture”, accordingtoMariëtWestermann, vice president of the Andrew W. MellonFoundation. "Yale's new policyprovidesanimportantmodeltofollow."
21. ExecutiveSummaryA reportpreparedforUNESCO’sDivisionforFreedom of Expression,Democracy and Peace --- itismore apparenthowfreedom can be erodedunintentionally as variousactorsstrategicallypursuetheirowndiversearray of objectives. Thefindingsreinforcethesignificanceof concernsoverfreedom of expression and connection, whileacknowledgingcountervailingtrendsand the open future of technology, policy and practice. Freedom of expressionisnotaninevitable outcome of technologicalinnovation. It can be diminishedorreinforcedbythedesignof technologies, policies and practices – sometimesfar removed fromfreedomof expression. Thissynthesispointsouttheneedtofocussystematicresearchonthiswiderecologyshapingthefuture of expression in the digital age.
22. In front of theresearch in solitudeorthearchivist in TheName of the Rose… Theco-building.
23. Thewe-generation.Furtherthan nerds ortechies A peculiar experiencetoreflectonnative digital. “Thereusedto be a time whenwewould be called ’nerds‘ or ’techies‘. Strangepeoplewith a near-obsessivecompulsionto embrace new technology, and who’drathercommunicatewiththeirfriends online than offline. Peopleforwhomthe Internet itselfwastheultimatesource of informationforsolvinganykind of problemwhatsoever.However, societyisnowslowlycomingtotermswiththefactthat a wholegenerationisgrowing up that has onlyeverknownthe ’digital age‘, and has thereforeentirelyacceptedthe digital way of doingthings. WecallourselvestheDigital Native generation.” we: DIGITAL_NATIVES byJonathan Imme 2008 Cooperativeenterprise Stephen Downes Art MindKiss and we-generation
24. HYBRID DAYS hybrid |ˈhīˌbrid| a thingmadebycombiningtwodifferentelements; a mixture:the final textis a hybrid of thestageplay and the film. • Biologytheoffspring of twoplantsoranimals of differentspeciesorvarieties, such as a mule (a hybrid of a donkey and a horse) ora hybrid of wheat and rye. This open eventisaboutHybridEnvironmentswherescience, society and technologyenhancing human capabilitiesbecausethe digital ismeltingwiththephysicalworld as a new layerthatincreasesthephysicalworldpossibilities. The digital isnotisolatedfromthephysicalenvironment.
25. Koppi, Bogle y Lavitt (2003) conclude their work by noting the importance of rewarding the production work of teachers. In their opinion, to develop a formal reward system that includes the production and use of open-content could be the biggest political issue to develop a large scale open education movement in the field of the learning process. Quotedby: “Impacto del Open CourseWare (OCW) en los docentes universitarios” (Universidad de Valencia, 2010) p.42
26. Further e-learningFurtherLearningmanagementsystems (LMS) MOOC (Massive open online course) v.g. is a new trend in learning that could transform the process of transmission of knowledge but also the building of new knowledge. The cooperative enterprise or, at least, a collective enterprise is in the nucleus of this kind of activities. How information is used and selected? This is the role of new curators. The humanist researchers could be who play this new role. We need not only some disruptive software to build well semantic webs. It is a priority to attend to the SOCIAL WEB and the way the very practice of humanities has been transformed.
27. Twoissues are nuclear in this new line: openness and accessibility “In additiontochartingareas in whichpastadvanceshavebeenmade, and in whichinnovationiscurrentlytaking place, thisvolumerevealsthat digital humanitiesisaddressingmany of themostbasicresearchparadigms and methods in the disciplines, tofocusourattentiononimportantquestionsto be asked and answered, in additiontoimportant new ways of asking and answeringthatare enabledbyourinteractionwiththecomputer.” p. 19 “Theprocessthatonegoesthrough in ordertodevelop, apply, and compute theseknowledgerepresentationsisunlikeanythingthathumanitiesscholars, outsideof philosophy, haveeverbeenrequiredto do. Thismethod, orperhapsweshouldcallita heuristic, discovers a new horizonforhumanitiesscholarship, a paradigm as powerfulas anythat has arisen in anyhumanities discipline in thepast – and, indeed, maybemore powerful, becausethe rigor itrequireswillbringtoourattentionundocumentedfeatures of ourownideation. Coupledwithenormousstoragecapacity and computationalpower, thisheuristicpresentsuswithpatterns and connections in the human record thatwewouldneverotherwisehavefoundorexamined.” p. 19
28. “All of thismeansthatitisnowpossibletostore and tomanipulatelargequantities of data stored in many places and accessiblefromremotesites, todaytypically at theresearcher’sdesk. Thisnewfoundcapacityisopening up what I oftenreferto as e-research, a new brand of research. Whetheritismanipulating and managing material in electronicjournalsorin large data bases such as StatsCanor in archives or in textmaterials, thereistodaytheopportunitytoaskquestionsthatwerenotpreviouslypossibletoanswer. Indeed, thequestionspossibletoaddresstoday are so far removed fromearlierpossibilitiesthatitwasn’tevenpossibletoconceive of completelynew questions”. “title “MindTechnologies” as itconveys a messagethatresearchers are nowchallengedtodo thingsthattheyneverimaginedbefore, whilehumanitiescomputingdoesnotfully capture thespirit of the new frontiersthat are nowopening up.” David Stangway p. x
29. AlternativeWor(l)ds: TheHumanities in 2010, Report of theWorkingGroupontheFutureof the Humanities (SSHRC, 2001) ( YES BUT … THE OLD IDEAS SE RESISTEN A MORIR) (Technologies) presentanexcitingopportunityforscholars, teachers and studentstobecomeinformedpartners and innovators. In particular, new technologiesprovideaccessto non-linear, visual methods of conveyinginformation. Judicious use of thesemethodscan enhancetheintegration(…) leadingtocollaborationbetweenseveral disciplines and technicalfields and bringingtogetheracademics, artists, multimedia experts, informationtechnologyspecialists, librarians and students. “Thehumanitiesmustcontinuetoseeklargerstructures of sense in ordertocreatecohesivenessand thetypes of ‘intellectualfilters’ that are necessarytosortoutknowledgefrom[mere] information: thispart of itsmissionremainsthesame.. Guidedby a larger plan, they (technologies) can howeverworktocreatesense.” — ConferenceDelegate Anotherconcernisthatwhilethe new technologies can provide a verywideaudiencewithaccessto a vastvariety and quantityof sources, data and documents, this “universal readyaccess” alsoraisesquestionsabouttheauthenticity and accuracyof textsand data. Thelinguistic and textual skills of thehumanistwillcontinuetoplay as essential a role in theage of electronictextsas theydid in the eras of handcopiedmanuscripts and moveable lead type.
30. Bibliography Borgman, C. L. (2007). Scholarship in the digital age : information, infrastructure, and the Internet. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. Crane, G., A. Babeu, and D. Bamman. 2007. eScience and theHumanities. International Journalon Digital Libraries 7:117-122 Echeverría, J. (1999). Los señores del aire: Telépolis y el tercer entorno. Barcelona, Destino. Echeverría, J. (2003). La revolución tecnocientífica. Madrid, Fondo de Cultura Económica de España. Zorich, D. (2008). "A survey of digital humanities centers in theUnitedStates." vii, 78 p.