Digital Humanities is an umbrella term that encompasses a vast array of tools and ideas focused on how scholars collaborate to conduct historical research. Digital Humanities is a new and innovative approach to analyze, study, and convey history to a broad audience. Open-source software allows all scholars to obtain the same information and interpret new ideas to build on prior knowledge and change how they conduct research and study the past. Digital Humanities is the intersection between technology and the humanities and how scholars utilize and depict information through various methods and media such as visualizations, mapping, text analysis, and GIS. Scholars utilize Digital Humanities to educate the public about past events of the human experience.
My above definition of Digital Humanities focuses on collaboration. Digital Humanities encourages collaboration through various media and tools such as visualizations to reach a broad audience and educate the public about past events and experiences. Scholars can use Digital Humanities to enhance how they collect data and interpret primary sources. Digital Humanities has changed how scholars interact with primary sources, conduct research, and share their ideas. Digital Humanities has combined traditional research and analysis with new media, tools, and techniques to study the human experience. I wanted to make my above definition as concise as possible to emphasize how collaboration is an essential component of Digital humanities and the new media has changed how scholars convey their ideas to a broad audience.
Digital tools and media allow scholars and the public to learn more about humanities and other topics of interest. It is challenging to create one concise and all-encompassing digital humanities definition. Nevertheless, Digital Humanities has allowed scholars to educate the public on human experiences and their shared history. The new media has allowed individuals an equal playing field to conduct historical research and share ideas. Digital Humanities have changed since its beginning to assist the public to obtain information and identify new ideas, interests, and experiences.
