Projects

Speaking In Code

Details

  • When: 2013-2013
  • Project type: Internal Projects & Community Service
Speaking In Code logo or decorative image

Speaking in Code was an NEH-funded symposium and summit that brought together 32 accomplished digital humanities software developers at the Scholars’ Lab for two days in November 2013. The goal was to give voice to things that are almost always tacitly expressed in our work: expert knowledge about the intellectual and interpretive dimensions of DH code-craft, and unspoken understandings about the relation of that work to ethics and inclusion, scholarly method, and humanities theory and critique.

Together, we

  • discussed, from developers’ own points of view, what is particular to the humanities and of scholarly significance in our work;

  • examined particular hurdles or bars-to-entry, to people interested in DH software development;

  • and devised and experimented with ways to bridge gaps in critical vocabulary and daily practice that can sometimes spring up between the creators of humanities platforms or tools and the scholars who depend upon and critique them.

Our first meeting focused on creating inclusive, welcoming developer communities and ways to address the social implications of tacit knowledge exchange in digital humanities software development. The Speaking in Code web site remains as a place for publishing outcomes from the summit, sharing our original agenda, and fostering further conversation both online and face-to-face—including by making available a Codespeak Kit.

Visit the Speaking in Code site.

Collaborators: