Blog post 2: Data & Digitization
While reading chapters two and three of The Digital Humanities Coursebook, by Johanna Drucker I was able to further my definition of digital humanities. While reading these chapters helped develop my definition it also broadened it. I did not realize just how many specific concepts fall under it. The second chapter dived into the data portion of the definition. This chapter talked about all the different ways that data can be used whether it was through structured or unstructured data. My main takeaway from this chapter is that "Data are the basic units of almost all digital works" (Drucker 27). In chapter three we expanded on the formats that digital humanities can be developed into, which could range from creating HTML with online tools to films and sound recordings. In this chapter I learned more about building websites and the standard protocol to do so. After reading these two chapters I was able to apply the information gathered,...
After reading all the assigned excerpts it is clear that digital humanities does not have one clear definition. Everyone has their own interpretation of it and the topic embraces these meanings, as said in The Digital Humanities Manifesto 2.0 "digital Humanities is not a unified field but an array of convergent practices that explore a universe" proving that it doesn't belong to one solid definition. I was not all that aware of what digital humanities was before reading these texts, my assumptions were based on the words themselves; digital, meaning the up-and-coming technology combined with humanities, meaning the study of human behavior. At all odds, my description wasn't too far off from Johanna Druckers who said, "digital humanities work is done at the intersection of computational methods and humanities materials." There are so many components to digital humanities it would be almost unfair to simplify it under one meaning. You have the process of creating it, the number of techniques to express it, and the meanings behind each part of it. The abundance of digital humanities is what makes it so compelling to our future, it expands human capability through efficiency and experience. To me, Digital humanities is the expansion of human knowledge in consequence of technology.
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