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Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 33, No. 12. Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London Hosted by King's Digital Lab www.dhhumanist.org Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org [1] From: Patricia GallowaySubject: Re: [Humanist] 33.7: reliability? authority? (70) [2] From: James Smithies Subject: Archiving & Sustainability (34) --[1]------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: 2019-05-09 13:24:48+00:00 From: Patricia Galloway Subject: Re: [Humanist] 33.7: reliability? authority? Willard, I think archivists might have a bit to say on this subject when it comes to digital creations--and the Software Preservation Network is gathering information to motivate an effort to prepare emulation environments in trustworthy repositories. At least preserving software and environments may permit serious experimentation with reliability and authenticity. Pat Galloway School of Information University of Texas at Austin On 5/9/2019 12:10 AM, Humanist wrote: > Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 33, No. 7. > Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London > Hosted by King's Digital Lab > www.dhhumanist.org > Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org > > > > > Date: 2019-05-08 07:29:33+00:00 > From: Willard McCarty > Subject: reliability? authority? > > I've been asked to comment on two aspects of digital scholarship in the > humanities and interpretative social sciences: reliability and > authority. I'm inclined to answer as follows: > > (1) Reliability > > First, what do we want the machine reliably to do? I see a spectrum from > the close-to-absolute reliability of a machine instructed to do exactly > as told at the finest level of detail, to one given a set of initial > conditions and liberty within loose constraints to run with them (as in > a simulation). > > Second, how do we establish the reliability of results among skeptical > colleagues? Consider the results that are co-produced, negotiated in > Hutchins' sense: “the person-in-interaction-with-technology [that] > exhibits expertise” (1995: 155). This, I'd think, involves persuading > others as usual for any discipline plus getting them to take on board > the perspective which the machine defines. > > (2) Modes of authority > > First, to whom or to what authority does the new discipline look for > help? In the human sciences there is no Nature, no supreme authority, > however elusive. Computer science, as a whole, has other concerns. Is > not the authority in this sense the loose assembly of elder disciplines? > > Second, over what domain can digital inquiry claim to have authority? > I'd think the domain of all artefacts as data and all methods of inquiry > rendered into algorithmic form, focusing on (a) reasoning, sense-making > with these data and algorithms, and (b) study of the effects on > scholarly and social life. > > Comments? > > Yours, > WM > -- > Willard McCarty (www.mccarty.org.uk/), > Professor emeritus, Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London; > Adjunct Professor, Western Sydney University; Editor, Interdisciplinary > Science Reviews (www.tandfonline.com/loi/yisr20) and Humanist > (www.dhhumanist.org) --[2]------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: 2019-05-09 09:01:02+00:00 From: James Smithies Subject: Archiving & Sustainability Dear all, The list might be interested in an article, currently in preview, we've published in Digital Humanities Quarterly: 'Managing 100 Digital Humanities Projects: Digital Scholarship & Archiving in King's Digital Lab'. It describes our efforts to assess, sustain, and (where sensible) archive ~100 projects inherited from decades of DH activity at King's College London. We don't claim to have resolved all the issues, but have made real progress. We will be joining colleagues from the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM), Stanford University Press, and the Endings Project, University of Victoria, in a panel discussion titled 'Clearing the Air for Maintenance and Repair: Strategies, Experiences, Full Disclosure' at DH2019, Utrecht, to widen the conversation. These projects manage over 350 DH projects between them. We aim to be as open as possible, in the belief that this is the best way to improve understanding of the complex issues in play, across both the DH and policy communities. The article is available here: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/13/1/000411/000411.html. I encourage you to share it not only with colleagues, but also administrators who might benefit. On a personal note I would like to thank the team at King's Digital Lab for their care, attention, and advocacy for all our projects, and for the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at King's for their generous commitments. Best wishes, Dr. James Smithies Director, King's Digital Lab _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted List posts to: humanist@dhhumanist.org List info and archives at at: http://dhhumanist.org Listmember interface at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted/ Subscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/membership_form.php
Editor: Willard McCarty (King's College London, U.K.; Western Sydney University, Australia)
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