Editors' Choice

Editors’ Choice: One Provocation for Big Data

I’ve started thinking a lot about Big Data and what it could mean for museums in a time when, as Danah Boyd and Kate Crawford write “The era of Big Data has begun.” …

… if Big Data is becoming increasingly important in research and the constitution of knowledge, and yet museums are not themselves necessarily likely to be the ones using it internally (assuming that our expertise lies elsewhere) how can we then think of continuity and succession planning for our data, to ensure it is useful for other researchers? Is this something we can even achieve?

Job Announcements, News

Job: Web Applications Developer, TAPAS Project

The Brown University Library and the TAPAS Project are seeking a
developer to lead the technical implementation of the TAPAS service.
Working with other members of the Brown Digital Repository development
team, the developer will install and customize an instance of
Islandora (Drupal and Fedora), and will develop functionality for
publishing, describing, analyzing, visualizing, and sharing scholarly
texts. The developer will collaborate with Brown systems and
development staff, staff at Wheaton College, and other TAPAS
participants, to create, refine, and implement ideas for building the
service, and will work with those groups to test and roll out new web
applications.

Job Announcements, News

Job: Digital Humanities Specialist

The Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) project is looking to engage the services of a specialist in the following scientific applications support role. The position can be filled via a consulting contract or on a sub-award basis, depending on an applicant’s particular circumstance, and compensation will be commensurate with experience and qualifications. This person will be responsible for the selection, adaptation, and deployment of Digital Humanities computational science tools/capabilities on the National Science Foundation’s XSEDE resources and for the development and support of projects by researchers and collaborations in Digital Humanities that will make effective use of these capabilities.

Editors' Choice

Editors’ Choice: Men and Women in Shakespeare

In previous posts, I’ve shown how WordSeer can be used to explore small, well-defined questions:what word did Shakespeare use for ‘beautiful’? Is the occurrence of the word ‘love’ the same in the comedies and tragedies? This post is different. WordSeer has now developed enough to support a simple, but complete, exploratory analysis.

The question we’ll think about is this:

“How does the portrayal of men and women in Shakespeare’s plays change under different circumstances?”

As one answer, we’ll see how WordSeer suggests that when love is a major plot point, the language referring to women changes to become more physical, and the language referring to men becomes more sentimental. You can watch a screencast here, or just read this post.

Read Full Post Here

Editors' Choice

Editors’ Choice: The Monologue in a Crowdsourced World

The monologue in a crowdsourced world: have digital resources rendered the inaugural lecture obsolete?

The longer I work in DH, and the more I consider what the digital medium makes possible the more the idea of me standing up and telling people what I think and thus by implication what they might think seems frankly bizarre. I increasingly dislike the idea of the single voice speaking with some kind of a spurious authority. One of the great assets of the digital, and what it encourages and enables is multiple voices entering into a dialogue and creating new knowledge out of conversation and discussion. In what follows, therefore, I propose to look carefully at this apparent contradiction.

 Read Full Post Here 

Job Announcements, News

Job: Digital Collections Librarian, East Carolina University

J.Y. Joyner Library at East Carolina University (ECU) seeks a knowledgable, creative, and service-oriented colleague for the position of Digital Collections Librarian. Reporting to the Assistant Director of Library Technology, the Digital Collections Librarian will work closely and collaboratively with Special Collections, Library Technology, Collections and Technical Services, and others to ensure that Joyner Library’s digital collections are an integral part of the library’s collections and services. The individual in this position will serve as a member of a team of librarians and staff at ECU’s Joyner and Laupus Libraries committed to effectively managing the libraries’ growing digital collections.

CFPs & Conferences, News

Call for Proposals for the 2013 Annual Meeting of the AHA

The 127th annual meeting of the American Historical Association will be held January 3–6, 2013, in New Orleans. The Program Committee welcomes proposals from all members of the Association, whatever their institutional affiliation or status, as well as from affiliated societies, historians working outside the United States, and scholars in related disciplines.
The theme for the meeting, described in greater detail in the article, is “Lives, Places, Stories.” While seeking proposals for sessions that explore facets of this broad theme, we also welcome submissions on the histories of all places and time periods, on many different topics, and on the uses of varied sources and methods. We also invite members to employ and analyze diverse strategies

CFPs & Conferences, News

Call for Proposals: Ignite Talks at DML2012

Do you have a creative idea around the future of education and learning that you want to share? Are you excited about new possibilities or a new way of thinking? Are you ready to explore your ideas with a diverse and engaged community?
We’re looking for a few courageous souls who want to get their early stage ideas out there in a short, spunky format – an Ignite Talk – at the DML2012 Conference. Ignite talks are radically different from traditional conference talks. We’re looking for humor, wit, energy and inspiration to be packed into one powerful five-minute talk.