Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 16, No. 128.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 07:11:28 +0100
From: Willard McCarty <w.mccarty@btinternet.com>
Subject: mapping humanities computing at ALLC/ACH and after
The ALLC/ACH humanities computing conference will shortly take place in
Tuebingen, Germany, 24-28 July. The last event in this conference is a
plenary roundtable on "New Directions in Humanities Computing", which is
also the theme of the conference as a whole. Those of us involved are very
much hoping for vigorous discussion. As a starting point, discussion will
begin with the outcome of a meeting held in Pisa in April, at which a
number of us were brought together to sketch a preliminary "roadmap" of the
field. The roundtable will raise the question, how do the conference
proceedings cause us to modify, develop or add to the points listed there?
To aid discussion, Harold Short and I have produced an augmented version of
the reports submitted by the attendees of the meeting. In this version the
reports and additional commentary are hyperlinked from "A rough
intellectual map of humanities computing". See
<http://maple.cc.kcl.ac.uk/mccarty/map/>; this URL is also accessible from
the main ALLC page, <http://www.allc.org/>.
This is (as far as I am aware) the first attempt graphically to represent
where humanities computing fits into our intellectual and professional
topography, although it is but one of many attempts over the years to
figure out the lay of the land. Interestingly, I think, it subordinates
explanatory text to a graphical image whose suggestive potential goes well
beyond what the words themselves do. But this also is not a particularly
new area of work; see, for example, Xia Lin, "Graphical Table of Contents",
<http://faculty.cis.drexel.edu/~xlin/DL96/DL96.HTM>. (Other pointers of
interest would be welcome.)
Based on the discussion at the ALLC/ACH, we will be adding to our map and
will occasionally publish new versions. We would be most grateful for
suggestions on how the map might be improved better to reflect the field as
it is now coming into focus. Clearly bits of the map are very sketchy
indeed. There are doubtless many omissions for want of sufficient
knowledge. What we hope to accomplish with this map is not to define
canonical boundaries and relationships -- not only is it too early to do
so, but many of them are by nature unstable. Rather we wish to stimulate
the activity of mapping. Help us fill in the details -- or alter the larger
parts.
(Suggestions for the best kind of software for such purposes would be
welcome. The original was done -- here imagine a bit of blushing -- with
Word, the result image-mapped with LiveImage. We're reluctant, however, to
go so far as to require specialized plugins or other viewing software
beyond current browsers.)
Yours,
WM
Dr Willard McCarty, Senior Lecturer,
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London,
Strand, London WC2R 2LS, U.K.,
+44 (0)20 7848-2784, ilex.cc.kcl.ac.uk/wlm/,
willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk, w.mccarty@btinternet.com
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