The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

BAD(Digital)

Humanities Proposal(and how to avoid it)

TheCanonically

Background photo: “bamboo maze,” Jun AOYAMA, http://www.flickr.com/photos/jam343/2560663/, CC-BY

Hey, Mellon.

Why don’t you

have a website

linking to all the

digital projects

you’ve funded?

Chris Mackie

Background photo: “bamboo maze,” Jun AOYAMA, http://www.flickr.com/photos/jam343/2560663/, CC-BY

We can’t.

Almost all of

them are gone

without a trace.

Chris Mackie

WHYmight that be?

Background photo: “bamboo maze,” Jun AOYAMA, http://www.flickr.com/photos/jam343/2560663/, CC-BY

No planning for

post-Mellon

existence.

No discussion

with librarians or

technologists.

Chris Mackie

BAD(Digital)

Humanities Proposal

TheCanonically

Photo: “book shelf project 2 ~ striatic {notes},” hobvias sudoneighm, http://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/730978/, CC-BY

Hey, Mellon.

We’ve got stuff!

Stuff somebody

cares about. Somewhere.

that we

want to

Photo: “of an evening,” Bill Tozier, http://www.flickr.com/photos/vaguery/3498219743/, CC-BY

We want it

to be

Photo: “Open,” John Martinez Pavliga, http://www.flickr.com/photos/virtualsugar/316200555/, CC-BY

except

is some kind of

commie plot

Photo: “Open,” John Martinez Pavliga, http://www.flickr.com/photos/virtualsugar/316200555/, CC-BY

but we hear

you like that kind

of thing, so...

Photo: “Open,” John Martinez Pavliga, http://www.flickr.com/photos/virtualsugar/316200555/, CC-BY

We’ll do this a

whole new way!

Because every

wheel needs

reinventing!

Photo: “Black Opel / Vauxhall Astra G Tuning by WillVision,” WillVision Photography, http://www.flickr.com/photos/willvision/2108844874/, CC-BY

So fork it over,

Mellon!

Photo: “Money Hand Holding Bankroll Girls February 08, 20117,” Steven Depolo, http://www.flickr.com/photos/10506540@N07/5437288053/, CC-BY

WHAT’Swrong

with this picture?

Tales of Terror!• I will pass out stories about poor data management.

• Videos on DHWI wiki: http://mith.umd.edu/dhwiwiki/

• Your job: WHAT WENT WRONG?

• Assess and report out (4 minutes max):• What are/were the data at issue?

• What went wrong (or could go wrong) with the data-handling?

• What are the consequences of the poor data-handling to the research? The researcher?

• Could this problem have been avoided? How?

• What kind(s) of humanist research could this problem happen to?

• More horror stories• http://pinboard.in/u:dsalo/t:horrorstories