I’m interested in talking about a couple things involving the sustainability of DH tools and promoting user-centered development of DH tools.
My questions about these issues come from the project I’m currently conducting that is a type of user assessment of MONK (monk.library.illinois.edu). MONK is a web-based text-mining tool that originated as a DH research project (monkproject.org) and is now a research resource hosted by the University of Illinois Library. In this study, I ask: How are humanities scholars learning about and using MONK in their research? How can this tool be revised and improved to fit the broadest range of research needs for humanities scholars? What can and should be done to sustain this tool, and who should be involved?
These questions have also been asked this past week at DHSI, especially at the grad colloquium: student scholars have presented these amazing tools and resources they’ve built, but many of the projects have an uncertain future for their sustained support and longevity. So I think a great discussion could revolve around these questions, and I hope enough other people are interested in this topic to join me in a session!
