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!