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

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BAD (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it) The Canonically
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    21-Oct-2014
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My doubtless-faulty memory of a memorable talk by Chris Mackie, formerly of the Mellon Foundation.

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

Page 1: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

BAD(Digital)

Humanities Proposal(and how to avoid it)

TheCanonically

Page 2: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

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

Page 3: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

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

Page 4: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

WHYmight that be?

Page 5: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

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

Page 6: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

BAD(Digital)

Humanities Proposal

TheCanonically

Page 7: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

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.

Page 8: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

that we

want to

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

Page 9: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

We want it

to be

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

Page 10: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

except

is some kind of

commie plot

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

Page 11: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

but we hear

you like that kind

of thing, so...

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

Page 12: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

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

Page 14: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

WHAT’Swrong

with this picture?

Page 15: The Canonically Bad (Digital) Humanities Proposal (and how to avoid it)

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