This was just forwarded to me and I thought I would pass it along, as it pertains to many of us. The May, 2007 issue of the CTWatch Quarterly is out, and they’ve done a special issue on using technology for networking humanities disciplines. I have to admit that, being less of a tech than many in this field, many of the articles are way over my head, but it does have some things to think about…
From the Introduction, Socializing Cyberinfrastructure:
Finally, a general question of considerable importance today concerns how to facilitate the development of critical techno-humanists able to converse in both the technical languages of engineering and computer sciences, on one hand, and the human sciences (including the arts), on the other. An important first step, which a number of engaged researchers are already in the process of taking, is to encourage ongoing conversations and interactions arranged around hands-on projects in what we call the human sciences. Vernon Burton et al, in the closing article of this issue, addresses some of the benefits, resource requirements, and challenges in establishing a university center to promote such collaborations between human scientists and engineers, computer scientists, and technologists. These interactions would identify the technological needs, interests, and possibilities at the interface of the human sciences and the digital. Techno-humanists will be better positioned to address collaboratively the engineering and social-humanistic challenges raised by digitization and preservation (stewardship), by textual, visual, and audio search engines, by data mining and analysis, by shared data bases and their management.
Indeed.
