Digital humanities

{

"text": "Digital humanities, often called DH, is a field of study where computing meets the humanities. The humanities are subjects like history, literature, philosophy, and art. DH is not just about using computers to store information. It is a way of doing scholarship through collaborative and computationally engaged research.

Scholars in this field recognize that the printed word is no longer the only way we share knowledge. They use digital tools to study cultural heritage and digital culture. This creates a two-way relationship between humans and technology. Researchers use technology to find new answers about human history. At the same time, they use humanistic questioning to study the technology itself.\n\nTo understand how DH works, imagine a \"stack\" of different layers. Scholars like Berry and Fagerjord suggest that DH can be viewed as a digital humanities stack. At the very bottom are the foundations of computational thinking and knowledge representation. On top of these foundations, researchers build different activities and skills. One major way the field is divided is by the type of data being processed. For example, some researchers focus on textual data. They use tools like natural language processing to study language. Others focus on physical objects. They might use optical character recognition to turn images of old documents into searchable text.

\n\nThe methods used in DH are incredibly diverse. Some scholars use data mining to find patterns in massive cultural data sets. This is sometimes called \"big data\" analysis. They might also use topic modeling to see what themes appear in many books. Other researchers use 3D modeling to recreate historical artifacts. Some use digital mapping to see how geography affected history. There is also \"hashtag activism\" analysis, where scholars study how people use social media. Because the field covers so many different areas, some call it \"big tent\" DH. It includes everything from analyzing video games to creating digital archives.\n\nThe history of this field goes back further than many people realize. It grew out of a discipline called humanities computing. In 1946, a Jesuit scholar named Roberto Busa began pioneering work. He worked with IBM to create the Index Thomisticus. This was a computer-generated concordance of the writings of Thomas Aquinas. In the early 1950s, Josephine Miles also began important work in this area. Other scholars, like Gerhard Sperl in Austria, used computers for Digital Assyriology. These early researchers used mainframe computers to automate tasks. They could search, sort, and count words much faster than using handwritten index cards.\n\nAs technology changed, so did the way scholars organized their work. The first specialized journal, Computers and the Humanities, debuted in 1966. In 1973, the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology association was founded. By the late 1970s, groups like the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing were established. A major turning point came in 1987 with the launch of the Text Encoding Initiative, or TEI. The TEI helped create standardized ways to \"tag\" digital texts. This led to the development of Extensible Markup Language, known as XML. This allowed researchers to move away from simple linear print and toward structured digital editing.\n\nThe term \"digital humanities\" became more popular due to specific scholars and organizations. In 2004, editors John Unsworth, Susan Schreibman, and Ray Siemens used the term in a major anthology. They wanted to show that the field was more than just \"mere digitization.\" Later, in 2006, the National Endowment for the Humanities launched a major initiative in the United States. This helped the field move from a niche area to a mainstream one. By 2009, the field became \"big news\" at a major convention in Philadelphia. It was even called the \"next big thing\" in scholarly research.\n\nDigital humanities is deeply connected to modern values like open access. Many DH projects use Creative Commons licensing. This means anyone with an internet connection can read the research for free. This commitment to open standards helps spread knowledge to everyone. The field also connects to \"software studies\" and "platform studies." It looks at how the code and the platforms we use shape our culture. By combining traditional subjects like music or archaeology with modern computing, DH changes how we see the world.

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"media": [

"File:Pride and Prejudice in Voyant Tools.png",

"File:Digital Humanities Stack (from Berry and Fagerjord 2017- 18).jpg",

"File:Digital Humanities on Twitter.png"

]

}