Digital Humanities meets
Information Science
Gregory Crane
Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Digital Humanities
Department of Computer Science
Universität Leipzig
Digital Humanities
Digital Humanities
A niche field, separate from the
Humanities as a whole….
Digital Humanities
A niche field, separate from the
Humanities as a whole….
“Maybe we should hire a
digital humanist to help the
real humanists with this new
technology ….”
Digital Humanities
A niche field, separate from the
Humanities as a whole….
“My research depends upon
building and analyzing corpora
but I am not doing Digital
Humanities.” (A Linguist)
Digital Humanities
A niche field, separate from the
Humanities as a whole….
“All of our data in Archaeology is
now digital but we don’t call it
Digital Humanities.” (multiple
archaeologists)
Digital Humanities
The term “Digital Humanities”
reflects, in some measure, the
reaction of research that is
grounded in rhetoric and
resistant to quantification….
What might a Computational
Humanities look like?
What might a Computational
Humanities look like?
Here is where you start today …
Scalable methods
http://books.cs.umass.edu/beta-sprint/Demonstration/Demonstration.html
http://books.cs.umass.edu/beta-sprint/Demonstration/Demonstration.html
http://books.cs.umass.edu/beta-sprint/Demonstration/Demonstration.html
http://books.cs.umass.edu/beta-sprint/Demonstration/Demonstration.html
http://books.cs.umass.edu/beta-sprint/Demonstration/Demonstration.html
Hamlet
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/dasmith/infect-bighum-2013.pdf
http://books.cs.umass.edu/beta-sprint/Demonstration/Demonstration.html
Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
Text Reuse in Newspapers
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/dasmith/infect-bighum-2013.pdf
Text Reuse in Newspapers
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/dasmith/infect-bighum-2013.pdf
Polylingual Topic Models from
Wikipedia Articles
http://mimno.infosci.cornell.edu/papers/mimno2009polylingual.pdf
Polylingual Topic Models from
Wikipedia Articles
http://mimno.infosci.cornell.edu/papers/mimno2009polylingual.pdf
Polylingual Topic Models from
Wikipedia Articles
http://mimno.infosci.cornell.edu/papers/mimno2009polylingual.pdf
Polylingual Topic Models from
Wikipedia Articles
http://mimno.infosci.cornell.edu/papers/mimno2009polylingual.pdf
Computational Historiography: Data
Mining in a Century of Classics Journals
http://mimno.infosci.cornell.edu/papers/a3-mimno.pdf
Computational Historiography: Data
Mining in a Century of Classics Journals
http://mimno.infosci.cornell.edu/papers/a3-mimno.pdf
Computational Historiography: Data
Mining in a Century of Classics Journals
http://mimno.infosci.cornell.edu/papers/a3-mimno.pdf
http://www.lexicalist.com/
http://mimno.infosci.cornell.edu/papers/a3-mimno.pdf
http://www.lexicalist.com/
http://www.lexicalist.com/
Digital Humanities
We live in a digital age.
Digital Humanities
We live in a digital age.
Digital Humanities
We live in a digital age.
How does that affect the way
that professional humanists
can advance the intellectual
life of society?
Shift from 20th Century Scholasticism
to 21st Century Humanism
Shift from 20th Century Scholasticism
to 21st Century Humanism
• Scholasticism in the popular sense: “academic
specialists producing for academic specialists
with active disdain for anyone else.”
Shift from 20th Century Scholasticism
to 21st Century Humanism
• Scholasticism in the popular sense: “academic
specialists producing for academic specialists
with active disdain for anyone else.”
• Humanism in the popular sense: “value of
ideas depends upon the impact of those ideas
in the hearts and brains of human beings.”
Shift from 20th Century Scholasticism
to 21st Century Humanism
• Scholasticism in the popular sense: “academic
specialists producing for academic specialists
with active disdain for anyone else.”
• Humanism in the popular sense: “value of
ideas depends upon the impact of those ideas
in the hearts and brains of human beings.”
Shift from 20th Century Scholasticism
to 21st Century Humanism
• Scholasticism in the popular sense: “academic
specialists producing for academic specialists
with active disdain for anyone else.”
• Humanism in the popular sense: “value of
ideas depends upon the impact of those ideas
in the hearts and brains of human beings.”
Cognitive Sciences and the Humanities
Shift from 20th Century Scholasticism
to 21st Century Humanism
• Scholasticism in the popular sense: “academic
specialists producing for academic specialists
with active disdain for anyone else.”
• Humanism in the popular sense: “value of
ideas depends upon the impact of those ideas
in the hearts and brains of human beings.”
Cognitive Sciences and the Humanities
Who is your audience?
2.3 billion net usershttp://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
Who is your audience?
2.3 billion net usershttp://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
Who is your audience?
2iceshs.cyfronet.pl
Digital Philology*
Digital Philology*
*Philology in a digital age.**
Digital Philology*
*Philology in a digital age.**
** Philology includes analysis of
any written sources: music, math,
and natural language
Digital Philology*
*Philology in a digital age.**
** Philology includes analysis of
any written sources: music, math,
and natural language
Itaque ubi, quae et qualis philologia
meo iudicio sit, quaeritis,
simplicissima ratione respondeo, si
non latiore, quae in ipso vocabulo
inest, potestate accipitur, sed ut solet
ad antiquas litteras refertur, universae
antiquitatis cognitionem historicam et
philosophicam.
Augustus Boeck, “Oratio nataliciis Friderici
Guilelmi III.” (1822)
Philology is the analysis of the ancient
world in its entirety, including
everything in the physical and the
intellectual world through the use of
written sources. [paraphrase]
Augustus Boeck, “Oratio nataliciis Friderici
Guilelmi III.” (1822)
No aspect of human culture is outside
the purview of the philologist. No
methodology is out of scope if it
allows us to draw meaning from the
words of the past – whether that
methodology involves archaeological
digs, irregular verbs, or probability
theory.
Augustus Boeck, “Oratio nataliciis Friderici
Guilelmi III.” (1822)
65
How do we start here..?
66
…or here …
67
…and arrive here?
A modest and Eurocentric beginning
(8 modern * 20 historical languges)
Manual solution is not rocket science
Manual solution is not rocket science
Manual solution is not rocket science
Named Entities
Named Entities
Named Entities
Treebanks
Treebanks
Aligned Translation
Aligned Translation
Aligned Texts
Aligned Texts
Aligned Texts
Aligned Texts
Parallel Text – translation as annotation
Alpheios.net
Alpheios.net
If we are to educate our students
to think in the present about the
past to build the future, then we
need to rethink how we educate
them from the primary education
through life-long learning
Conclusions
Conclusions
1. New forms of education
Conclusions
1. New forms of education
2. New forms of publishing
Conclusions
1. New forms of education
2. New forms of publishing
3. New forms of libraries
Conclusions
1. New forms of education
2. New forms of publishing
3. New forms of libraries
If the Humanities do not embrace
information science, then what do
they have beyond rhetoric?
Thank you!