In this blog post, I am focusing on the code, software, and platform studies aspect of Digital Humanities (DH) research. In terms of the Veterans Legacy Project (VLP), this “emerging area” carries a lot of potential impact. VLP is a growing project in terms of its scope and the projects that fall under its umbrella. Its projects focus on spreading information to visitors to cemeteries, veterans, and there are projects specifically for teachers to use with their students. As a PhD student, I have been continually seeking out a better understanding of coding and programming so that I will be able to use it in my dissertation research as well as be more employable after my degree is complete.
As Burdick states on page 53, “The basic binary language of digital media is the foundation of all programming code, but software and computer languages have their own history as forms with grammar and syntax.” One of the most important balancing acts of a digital project is the balance between coding the what the code is going to represent, what information the website created by the code is able to impart. Being able to create an effective web presence for a project such as VLP (or any Digital Humanities project) requires having a web developer, or someone with the skills to build the website using at least three front-end programming languages (usually HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript). Even more important than finding someone with these technical skills is finding a developer with the ability to understand the project and its needs so that they are able to create the web presence needed to help propel the project forward.
Burdick also goes on to discuss the scholar’s point of view in regards to the use of encoding in technology and other fields: “Scholars fascinated by the encoded protocols and instructions that constitute the language of software also look at the cultural contexts in which business, defense, or communications industries fueled the development of increasingly sophisticated approaches to encoding” (pg.53). This fascinated perspective could offer further support for the need for recruiting experts to DH projects so there will be a professional that is able to keep the potential uses of encoding and coding in perspective in terms of long-term and short-term goals. As a budding coder and web designer, there have been multiple instances of associates telling me stories of having to manage a client’s expectations because the client wanted a final website produced in the fraction of the time it would actually take.
In going forward in consulting with VLP, it has been important to understand that any work created throughout the iteration of this course would be a draft or beta test that would be fleshed out and built upon throughout the summer. As it is stated in the fifth case study of the Burdick piece, “The prototype will be employed to beta test a new way of accessing information, interacting with knowledge, and experiences data research in physical and virtual space” – any product created for VLP would have to go through beta testing as well to ensure it is functioning correctly without any nasty surprises. Besides consulting for VLP, any coding and programming that I do for my own research projects would also be completed in a similar process of creation, beta testing, debugging, and finally release/publishing. The Digital Humanities is a field with enormous potential to incorporate technical experts into the projects, and this would probably improve the field overall. If a project team included a humanities expert working with a software developer, and the two were able to understand the other’s perspective, the potential products could be unlimited.
Jesslyn Parrish 