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Much recent work in the digital humanities has focused on modeling professional reading and other activities associated with conducting and disseminating humanities research. On the importance of reading as an object of interest to humanities computing practitioners and a brief discussion of representative examples, see Warwick. For a discussion of professional reading tools, see Siemens et al., 2006; and the forthcoming “It May Change My Understanding of the Field.” Modeling the activities of the humanist (and the output of humanistic achievement) with the assistance of the computer has identified the exemplary tasks associated with humanities computing: the representation of archival materials; analysis or critical inquiry originating in those materials; and the communication of the results of these tasks. On modeling in the humanities, see McCarty (2004). On modeling as it pertains to literary studies in particular, see McCarty (2008). As computing humanists, we assume that all of these elements are inseparable and interrelated, and that all processes can be facilitated electronically.

Each of these tasks will be described in turn. In reverse order, the communication of results involves the electronic dissemination of, and electronically facilitated interaction about the product of, archival representation and critical inquiry, as well as the digitization of materials previously stored in other archival forms. See Miall (2001). Communication of results takes place via codified professional interaction, and is traditionally held to include all contributions to a discipline-centered body of knowledge—that is, all activities that are captured in the scholarly record associated with the shared pursuits of a particular field. In addition to those academic and commercial publishers and publication amalgamator services delivering content electronically, pertinent examples of projects concerned with the communication of results include the Open Journal Systems and Open Monograph Press (Public Knowledge Project) and Collex (NINES), as well as services provided by Synergies and the Canadian Research Knowledge Network / Réseau Canadien de Documentation pour la Recherche (CRKN/RCDR).

Critical inquiry involves the application of algorithmically facilitated search, retrieval, and critical processes that, although originating in humanities-based work, have been demonstrated to have application far beyond. Representative examples include Lancashire (1995) and Fortier (1993-94). Associated with critical theory, this area is typified by interpretive studies that assist in our intellectual and aesthetic understanding of humanistic works, and it involves the application (and applicability) of critical and interpretive tools and analytic algorithms on digitally represented texts and artifacts. Pertinent examples include applications such as Juxta (NINES), as well as tools developed by the Text Analysis Portal for Research (TAPoR) project, the Metadata Offer New Knowledge (MONK) project, the Software Environment for the Advancement of Scholarly Research (SEASR), and by Many Eyes (IBM).

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Source:  OpenStax, Online humanities scholarship: the shape of things to come. OpenStax CNX. May 08, 2010 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11199/1.1
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