18.363 developer's wiki

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 18, No. 363.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

         Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 06:27:18 +0000
         From: sramsay_at_uga.edu
         Subject: Re: 18.358 developer's wiki

On Mon, Nov 15, 2004 at 07:04:41AM +0000, Humanist Discussion Group (by way
of Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>) wrote:
> ECHO TOOLS CENTER: The number of historians interested in using digital
> tools to facilitate their work has been rapidly expanding, as has the
> number of researchers developing online tools for the humanities. In order
> to facilitate contact between these two groups, Echo would like to announce
> the beta launch of its new Tools Center, an experimental, comprehensive
> resource for scholars interested in the nuts and bolts of online history.

First, let me say that this strikes me as a magnificent idea -- one
of those things that I have heard discussed off and on for years
("Wouldn't it be great if we had a wiki for humanities software
developers . . .").

But I must say that I cannot see why such a thing must bill itself
as a site for "historians interested in using digital tools." It
seems to me -- and certainly, the current entries bear this out --
that much of what is being discussed here is broadly applicable to
humanities computing as such. It is, of course, true that literary
critics or art historians will see the possibilities of, say, Flash
differently, but that difference doesn't seem so profound as to
warrant defining the resource so narrowly.

Why not open the field so we can all play?

--
Stephen Ramsay
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Georgia
email: sramsay_at_uga.edu
web: http://cantor.english.uga.edu/
PGP Public Key ID: 0xA38D7B11