DIGITAL HUMANITIES is already a vast and multi-faceted field, and during our week in Taos we will only be scratching the surface of the surface. Our primary orientation will not be procedural in nature, that is how to use specific software or complete particular tasks, but rather directed toward gaining a broad overview of the many different kinds of methods, practices, and scholarly and creative work currently being conducted under this aegis. 

We will devote some attention to the history of computing in the humanities, and much more attention to discussing what computation can and cannot do in fields such as ours that privilege ambiguity, indeterminacy, and collective conversation. Specific themes and topics will include text analysis, text mining, visualization, the vexed trope of the "electronic book," the symbiosis between electronic text and textual scholarship, the implications of Google Books and mass-digitization, creative writing and electronic literature, literary gaming, and virtual worlds. We will pay particular attention to the relationship between digital humanities and the profession, and indeed ask whether digital humanities is simply a sub-specialty (like the 19th century novel, say) or a set of practices that cut across all specializations. 

While there will be some hands-on work, and while we will seek to introduce you to some useful tools and resources, the real value of the seminar will be in our discussions and conversation. To that end we encourage you to pitch in right from the start, and make the seminar about what matters to you through lively talk and critical engagement. 

Linden Lab: http://lindenlab.com/

Second Life Herald: http://www.secondlifeherald.com/

New Media Consortium: http://www.nmc.org/

Fatworld: http://www.fatworld.org/

Virtual Vaudeville: http://www.virtualvaudeville.com

Virtual Forbidden City: http://www.beyondspaceandtime.org/FCBSTWeb/web/index.html

Cathy's Book: http://www.cathysbook.com/