Collaborative Notes for Session (add your own thoughts!)
Role-based Model for Successful Collaboration In this panel presentation, we will discuss our research findings concerning the most effective ways to structure collaborations in the digital humanities. Sustained dialogue and collaborative work between humanists and technologists have a great deal to offer both fields of inquiry. However, we believe that these teams are best structured to account for four different roles: Humanist, Technologist, Data Steward, and Catalyst. This approach is predicated on a few foundational convictions. First, we believe that, while humanists and technologists occupy distinct problem spaces, these realms are not of necessity in opposition to one another. Second, we bring to the fore essential questions about the status and function of data that must be addressed by the collaborators: what sorts of data are being used? What counts as effective and compelling analysis of this data? Third, we recognize that there are certain structural impediments to collaboration, such as different reward structures and motivations. Finally, the panel will discuss one of the most pressing issues in digital humanities collaboration—that each participant must have a deep commitment to their particular engagement with the project, something that requires sustained effort and the maintenance of disciplinary respect. We firmly believe that the most effective of these projects will not be based on technological solutions, but rather will be founded in the most humanistic of tools: empathy and respect.
