Week One: Where is Home?

Despite the progress made on the discourse around the concept of “big tent” which would later produce a significant shift from its construct as originally conceived, conversations on the scope of Digital Humanities have, understandably, persevered and continued to permeate the discipline. The field’s full spectrum is yet to be reached, or even comprehended, as an increasing number of initiatives claim their right to be housed.

Nevertheless, if there was a “big tent”, it would probably be designed to resemble Reviews in Digital Humanities (a pilot of a peer-reviewed journal that facilitates scholarly evaluation of digital humanities work and its outputs).

Yet, the “structure” of Reviews in Digital Humanities has a peculiar flavor and appears to be a garden more than a pre-assembled construction, encompassing a natural openness to those projects that share the ability to harmoniously combine technology and humanities while providing a fertile territory for new initiatives. In this sense, in its latest issue, the journal examines a browser-based device which has the potential to simplify text-analysis and bring coding requirements for non-tech savvy scholars and other researchers to the bare minimum (jsLDA).

Here other interesting DH initiatives also discoverable through this publication: Pelagios and Linkedarchives

Assuming a common intent of cultivating a continuous dialogue whilst ensuring a wide understanding of technologies applications and an ongoing participation to standards development, platforms like Reviews in Digital Humanities perfectly serve the purpose, simultaneously representing a constant stream of information and a communication channel for the growing DH community.