DHNow: 2016 in Review

Digital Humanities Now is on hiatus until January 10, and as we close out another successful year, we want to take some time to reflect on 2016. After eight years of publication, Digital Humanities Now remains a community-curated publication that is driven by a group of dedicated staff members and a community of editors who graciously volunteer their time each week.

The most significant change for DHNow took place in February 2016 when we launched a new system for registering, managing, and communicating with our Editors-at-Large. By simply logging into WordPress, users can now register for an account, manage the dates they have volunteered as Editors-at-Large, and sort through and nominate content all from within the WordPress dashboard. This new system not only integrates the work of an Editor-at-Large into the WordPress environment, but it also reduces the amount of tedious user management our staff does on a weekly basis. By streamlining the process we have attempted to make the management of DHNow more sustainable as a core project at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media.

Our Numbers

Our statistics from 2016 demonstrate the continued production and influence of open source scholarship in Digital Humanities. Over the course of 2016, we featured an average of 2-4 Editors’ Choice pieces each week for a total of 149 published pieces. Additionally, we published an average of six to ten news items each week for a total of 285 items.

DHNow continues to have a substantive readership base with an average of 11,200 unique visitors to our site each month and just over 24,000 followers on Twitter.

Our Editors-at-Large, however, remain the core element to DHNow’s success. A total of 110 people volunteered to donate their time to serve as Editors-at-Large for at least one week and, on average, 3 separate weeks across 2016. DHNow had an average of 8 Editors-at-Large each week and we could not be more grateful for their time and effort. The participation of community members on a week to week basis continues to fuel the success of Digital Humanities Now.

New Staff

Managing such a large publication requires a large and dedicated staff at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM). In 2016 we’ve welcomed numerous new staff members who serve as Editors-in-Chief and who have helped us to diversify the content on DHNow and bring fresh perspectives to the publication. Abby Mullen, a Ph.D. Candidate at Northwestern University and the Project Manager for Tropy at RRCHNM, joined the DHNow team. Additionally, Graduate Research Assistants and Digital History Fellows at RRCHNM began working as Editor-in-Chief on a rotating basis during the semester. Alyssa Fahringer, Andrea Ordione, Jannelle Legg, Jessica Dauterive, Justin Broubalow, Jordan Bratt, Laura Crossley, and Sara Collini all bring diverse viewpoints and experiences in digital humanities and digital public history to their role as Editor-in-Chief. The work of an Editor-in-Chief is crucial to the success of Digital Humanities Now and we couldn’t be more grateful for the expertise, creativity, and hard work of all those involved.

Join us again in 2017!

On behalf of the DHNow staff, thank you for an extraordinary 2016. We will be taking a break from publication until January 2017. Don’t forget to join us again in the new year by nominating RSS/Atom feeds with relevant digital humanities content and by volunteering to serve for a week as Editor-at-Large.

This content was selected for Digital Humanities Now by Editor-in-Chief based on nominations by Editors-at-Large:

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