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Last active June 14, 2018 12:28
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Text of a Facebook post in the Australian Historical Association group, 14 June 2018.

Posted to Australian Historical Association Facebook group, 14 June 2018

Recent government decisions about research infrastructure funding are, of course, disappointing for the humanities — particularly those of us who have working in the digital realm. But we need to remember that at it’s heart infrastructure is people, and there is much we can do now — right now, starting today — to support and develop capacity for digital research in the humanities. For example:

  • Ensure that people get appropriate recognition for digital projects in hiring and promotion processes. The Modern Language Assoc and the American Historical Assoc have both developed guidelines around this — it would be great to see this addressed in Australia.

  • Find ways to reward and encourage openness in the sharing of skills, tools, resources, data, and code. I have learnt so much through the generosity of others in the DH community, but we need to recognise that openness takes work, and has costs (both financial and emotional).

  • Create more opportunities for training in digital skills, at all levels from undergrad to academic staff. It’s not just about coding or stats — I’ve heard the gasps of astonishment when I show people how to collect PDFs of Trove newspaper articles using Zotero. We need to develop pathways that help people do their current research more easily, and make better use of digital collections, but also point them towards new possibilities for analysis and exploration.

  • Continue to lobby for funding schemes that support rapid, experimental digital projects. Let’s explore what’s useful, and what works, rather than funnelling all our energies into large lumbering LIEF or Linkage projects. Let’s also work to extend these opportunities to our colleagues working in the GLAM sector. Look at the Office for Digital Humanities in the NEH, the Institute for Museum and Library Studies in the US, or the Arts & Humanities Research Council in the UK — alternatives are possible.

  • Recognise that some of the most valuable research infrastructure might exist not in big institutions or the form of big machines, but in code repositories of individuals and communities, who work (often unfunded) to develop tools that respond directly to the needs of researchers. This sort of work is happening all the time, underpinning much research, but is rarely considered in discussions about infrastructure.

None of this is new, or easy, but it seems like a place to start. It’s too easy to get hung up on the idea that infrastructure is BIG THINGS and lose sight of what we can actually do about it.


See also my Twitter rant: https://twitter.com/wragge/status/1006861420233830401

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