“Digital Humanities-2024” in Washington: Reinvention, Responsibility and Hybrid as a Lifestyle

Volodin Andrey Urievich ORCID: 0000-0001-9681-3214 PhD in History Associate Professor; Department of Historical Information Science; Lomonosov Moscow State University Academic Director; Digital Humanities Research Institute; Siberian Federal University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Lomonosovsky ave., 27k4, office G-423 volodin@hist.msu.ru Other publications by this author

"In that case," said Socrates, "let's go together."
and, in order to change the saying, we will prove,
what is "to people worthy of a feast
The worthy one comes without a call."
Plat. Smp. 174b

The annual Digital Humanities Congress, which is hosted by the International Alliance of Digital Humanitarian Organizations (ADHO), this year was dedicated to the theme "Reinvention and Responsibility" (Reinvention & Responsibility) ^[1].

The Congress was held at George Mason University, located in Arlington, a suburb of the US capital on the right bank of the Potomac River. As already reported in our magazine ^[2], the congress was organized by one of the oldest centers of digital history – the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) ^[3], in 2024 the Center celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. R.Rosenzweig (1950-2007) co-authored one of the first guides to the preservation of historical and cultural heritage, Digital History: a Guide to Collecting, preserving and presenting the Past on the World Wide Web ^[4], did much to develop public history in the United States and the world ^[5]. Under his leadership, the Center for History and New Media developed such well-known tools among digital humanities as the personal information manager Zotero ^[6], the Omeka digital online collections management system ^[7], the digital photo documents manager Tropy ^[8].

The annual DH Congress is an exhibition of the achievements of the global community of digital humanities researchers. After Covid, the congress is confidently held in a completely hybrid format, when approximately equal numbers of full-time and online participants participate in the meetings of the sections. And it can be noted that hybrid conferences have become a way of life for modern humanitarians. Of course, personal communication is invaluable, but the pragmatics of communication requires full online participation (including for economic reasons, for example, in light of the price of transatlantic flights).

Preparations for the congress usually begin ahead of time: in the autumn, on the eve of the year, an information letter is published with the topic and key areas of discussion. After that, on the platform ConfTool.pro The collection of applications begins. The deadline for submitting applications is set for about the middle of December in order to have time to collect materials before the new year. When the applications are collected, expert reviewers from around the world are invited to evaluate each application according to a list of criteria: is the submitted work an innovative contribution to the subject area of digital humanities? is the current state of current research in this field (including bibliography) sufficiently presented? is the research methodology fully described and adequately reflected? does the submitted work meet all the formal criteria and is it clearly written? Reviewers set quantitative estimates and write meaningful reviews for the authors and the program committee in January-February of the year of the congress, and in March the program committee announces the results of the selection, and the authors begin to prepare their materials for publication in the collection of materials of the congress.

The main program of this year's congress included 96 reports, 119 messages, 120 posters and 27 expert discussions ^[9]. The program turned out to be very intense: 8 parallels met in each time interval (the key words of the speeches can be considered the most frequent: digital, data, humanities, historical, analysis; see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Distribution of the most frequent words in the titles of speeches at the congress “Digital Humanities -2024”

^{Source: table of the Congress program (program fields: session title, authors, titles of speeches, annotations) [10]. (The drawing was obtained using the Voyant Tools online service.)}

Of course, you can't tell about everything in such an extensive program, so I'll focus on a few generally interesting discussions.

Traditionally, on the eve of the Digital Humanities Congress, numerous workshops (workshops) are held for two days. In addition to special interest groups "Audio-visual materials", "Libraries and Digital Humanities", "Multilingual DH", "Digital Literary Stylistics" (DLS), master classes on software products (for example, Constellation, Geovistory, FlexiConc, LEAF Commons, Manifold, Ugarit), a seminar on responsible data reuse #DHRIFT, the FAIR API specification group for publishing digital text collections, or even a meeting of craft lovers #DHMakes (for more information, see Appendix 1). A special DHTech interest group ^[11] is holding a mini-conference "DH Inside Out", where various technical problems and nuances of implementing software solutions in DH projects are discussed, which can be applied simply and conveniently, which requires additional software solutions, and which does not "take off" at all. There are workshops organized by local institutions, for example, about the DH at the Library of Congress or about using the databases and archives of the Alexandria National Cemetery for educational purposes. Workshops dedicated to machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence technologies are a sign of the times. Much attention was paid to the analysis of texts and methods of transition from sources to data and models. The workshops were also presented by periodicals: “Journal of Digital History” ^[12] and the yearbook “Scholarly Editing" ^[13].

At the Journal of Digital History (JDH) workshop, the magazine's publishing platform was presented as a new DH publishing experience. As an international, academic, peer-reviewed and publicly available journal, JDH develops, tests and implements new standards in publishing historical articles based on data and implementing the principle of multi-layered articles. Four rules for authors have been formulated for this purpose: 1) Present a digital method, 2) Show the data, 3) Tell the story, 4) And do not give up scientific rigor. The workshop reviewed in detail the instructions for working with the magazine ^[14]. To create a multi-layered article, you will need to create a digital environment, which, in particular, includes services such as Docker, Github, JupiterLab, Zotero. The authors choose a data presentation template (there is an option for Python and an option for R). After connecting online services, the author writes the text of the article, prepares data and program code, and selects media. Thus, in addition to the actual text of the article, a special notebook is created for transmitting and running code, which, along with access to the source code on the Github repository, is submitted for review. The article goes through a rigorous evaluation process, including technical, expert, and finally design reviews. Such stages improve the content, increase its technical reliability and hone its visual presentation. If the review is positive, the author prepares the code necessary to work with the data from the article in the form of a notebook for the BinderHub cloud service, and additionally prepares an abstract of the study for distribution on the publication's social networks. An acute problem in the process of online publication of historical research is the issue of accounting for updates (first of all, we are talking about adding new data and clarifying the results of their analysis), for this reason, the editors of JDH F.Clavert and A. Fickers call our days the "era of updaitism" ^[15]. As a result, the article in JDH becomes a real digital multimedia product, saturated with data, and the magazine provides the reader with complex interfaces for both non-linear reading and exploratory analysis of published datasets.

Kenyan data journalist and fact checker Linda Ngari presented a plenary report at the opening of the congress on the topic "Combating disinformation: unity of integrity of online platforms and data journalism" ^[16]. Ngari reflected on the relationship between data journalism and digital humanities research, focusing on the issues of content moderation and transparency of modern platforms to combat disinformation. Drawing on his extensive experience in covering elections in African countries, Ngari explores the use of data analysis techniques to highlight ideas and trends that define content moderation strategies. The researcher questioned the transparency of platforms that are primarily focused on maintaining their own integrity. Ngari showed how important data journalism is for digital literacy and the fight against disinformation, focusing on how interdisciplinary efforts can shape the information ecosystem.

An interesting expert discussion took place at the DH-2024 Congress on the topic "Text analysis: tools and infrastructure in 2024 and beyond". The following tools were presented:
· Voyant Tools ^[17] (developers invite text researchers to the Voyant Consortium ^[18]),
· LEAF-Writer semantic text editor ^[19],
· Dynamic Table of Contexts ^[20],
· Lexos ^[21],
· WordCruncher ^[22]
· and Infrastructure – DARIAH's app Store – Social Sciences & Humanities Open Marketplace ^[23].

After the presentations of these projects, a heated discussion took place: how will the introduction of machine learning affect text analysis? How do I use web applications if there are gigabytes of data? When should I switch from outdated tools to new ones? And the main question is: is a text analysis tool a special interface for interacting with data, or an independent set of methods, or maybe just a black box? As the discussion showed, the answers to these questions vary depending on the research experience of each of the project managers, the data they work with, and the results that their software tool allows them to obtain.

A curious feature of the DH-2024 congress was the competition of the usual reports and reports in sections with expert panel discussions. Discussions often benefit from both face-to-face and online audience attendance. The reason for one of these discussions was the theme "Rethinking and responsibility in the era of artificial intelligence", which rhymes with the title theme of the congress.

Reasoning about artificial intelligence (AI) requires, as the main experts of the panel agreed, the ability to analytically relate to the real possibilities of AI, it is important to distinguish what we thought was possible with AI, what is really already possible with AI, and what only seems possible, but it is not accurate (Venn diagram in the image).

Fig. 2. Screenshot of the online broadcast of the expert discussion "Rethinking and responsibility in the era of artificial intelligence" at the congress "Digital Humanities -2024"

^{Source: online broadcast of the congress “Digital Humanities -2024” in the application Whova.com using Zoom technology.}

It can be argued that AI has already shown its advantages (and sometimes even gained a foothold as a regular tool) in such matters as searching in large datasets, identifying similarities and differences in datasets, accelerating big data processing, text recognition, and with them creating an inexplicable sense of new possibilities (in the discussion, this is an acute experience called "vibe").

The main obstacles to using AI were called the infinite tree of technological solutions for machine learning (ML), "decision paralysis", when there are too many possibilities of different AI models, and there are no clear criteria for selecting suitable options yet. They also talked about the unavailability of infrastructure and platforms for data processing, which can be very expensive, and sometimes only tech giants can afford. They also did not ignore such an obstacle that is spreading among scientists as "magical thinking", which assumes the omnipotence (if not now, then definitely tomorrow) of even weak AI.

What are the humanities clearly lacking today? Sensible guides and clear concrete examples, tips and instructions focused on the current tasks of the DH community, support for colleagues and emotional peace of mind regarding their own capabilities, professional qualities and academic status in the era of AI.

To simplify, today there are two main "usages" of AI in digital humanities research: normalization/pre-preparation (up to recognition) of data and heuristic conversation (with chat models) as with a colleague or reviewer. The AIforHumanists resource proposed by colleagues ^[24] can serve as one of the assistants in solving the problems of interaction between humanities and AI: where you can find a description of modern models, their differences and brief tips on their use on specific examples of text recognition, data parsing, classification tasks, definition of named entities, stylometry, corpus visualization.

The DH Congress traditionally ends with a plenary report on a topic relevant to the community. This year, the participants of the congress were presented with the report "Socio-technical assemblages in troubled times" (the term assemblage is taken from the theory of art, which describes a technique related to collage, in DH this concept is often used to define the assembly of technological solutions necessary for digital projects and works). In her speech, Shannon Mattern, Professor of Media Studies and Art History at the University of Pennsylvania, noted: contrary to our hopes that common experiences during the pandemic would contribute to the formation of long-term networks of solidarity and investment in civil infrastructure, the last few years have instead provoked regression. From right-wing attacks on higher education and government institutions to the impulsive introduction of technologies that can cause enormous political, economic and epistemological chaos. Obviously, we will have to not only reinvent, but also strengthen common (or productively uncoordinated?) values and organizational connections. In her opinion, the main task today is to learn/understand how we can interact with technical and creative teams with their ethical values, radical media makers and supporters of freedom of information, existing in a wide variety of geographical and historical contexts.

The speaker's ideas were richly illustrated with examples: Samizdat publications, partisan television studios and pirate radio stations, anarchist hacker spaces and "wandering" libraries. How have these communities anticipated the values and practices characteristic of the digital humanities, and how can they inspire us to rethink and strengthen the solidarity of communities in which technology must obey ethical principles? Ethics is becoming the central subject of many discussions in modern digital humanities research: from data collection to the use of artificial intelligence algorithms. Ethics is directly related to the responsible use of data, and the dissemination of information necessitates the identification of misinformation, and as a result, questions arise about bias or unrepresentation of phenomena and cultures in modern datasets and large models.

It makes sense to pay attention to the speaker's books, in particular, "Code and clay, data and dirt" ^[25] and "The city is not a computer: other urban intelligences" ^[26], which describe the complex interactions of digital technologies and the physical environment in cities. According to Mattern, for many years experts have been trumpeting the amazing changes that big data and smart grids will soon bring to our cities. But what if cities have been built on the basis of intellectual approaches for a long time (maybe even for millennia)? Professor Mattern makes a provocative argument that our urban spaces have been "smart" and "connected" for centuries. She convincingly shows how cities embrace the myriad ways of thinking of indigenous people and the ways in which the intellectual environment of local communities and knowledge institutions exists, arguing that these resources are a vital complement and corrective factor for increasingly common algorithmic models.

Fig. 3. Zine-sketch of the plenary closing of the congress “Digital Humanities -2024" (Zh.Carlin)

^{Source: zin-a sketch by an employee of the University Library of New York J.Carlin, published on a social network [27].(Zine is a popular sketching format like a wall newspaper or a homemade booklet, often used as a way to take notes of an event, the main purpose of zine is to express the thoughts and observations of the authors on an exciting topic.)}

In 2025, the congress will be held in Lisbon (Portugal) on July 15-18, the stated theme is "Ensuring accessibility, open science for all citizens." The information letter will be published in the autumn ^[28], and applications will be accepted in late autumn ^[29]. There is time to prepare interesting studies for presentation at the next congress.

Concluding the brief notes on the Digital Humanities 2024 congress, it is impossible to ignore the solemn announcement of the organizer of the conference, which will take place in two years. Representatives of the Alliance of Digital Humanitarian Organizations (ADHO) are trying to keep this news a secret until the closing ceremony, at which the solemn announcement takes place. In 2026, the Digital Humanities Congress will be held in Daejeon (Republic of Korea), from July 27 to August 1. The congress will be organized by the Korean Association of Digital Humanities (KADH) ^[30], which became a member of ADHO just this summer. The Korean Journal of Digital Humanities (KJDH) began publishing under the auspices of the Korean Association ^[31].

The theme of the congress in 2026 is "Engagement", which is divided into three key aspects: 1) Cultural studies: translingualism in the age of AI (translingual words or constructions that are relevant for different languages can be translingual, as a result, the question of language independence arises when, for example, some realities do not depend on language, which becomes especially important in light of the success of large model languages), 2) Critical data studies: for beyond templates is the interpretation of small data, 3) Heritage Studies: Digital Humanities and the memory of the world.

It can be noted, following the metaphor of Archilochus about the fox and the hedgehog ^[32], that in recent years Western DH specialists have developed a lot of infrastructures that generate datasets and large models (such infrastructures work directly with the keepers of the humanitarian heritage – libraries, archives, museums). Eastern DH specialists think more about what can be collected in a dataset from what no one else will collect, for this reason, the problem of small data is declared one of the key ones for Daejeon. Foxes scour the wealth of data, looking for something to profit from, and hedgehogs collect their own data sets. The visible difference between “data” and “capta” ^[33].

The Digital Humanities Congress is marching across continents: North America in 2024, Europe in 2025, Asia in 2026, and hybrid meetings have already become the lifestyle of digital humanities. It is good that ADHO congresses provide a choice: to participate in the life of the DH community face-to-face or online. Dum loquimur, fugerit invida aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

Appendix 1. List of workshops (workshops) held on the eve of the congress “Digital Humanities -2024”

1. An introduction to XML publishing with a static website and advanced technologies. A practical study of the publishing tools of the Scholarly Editing Journal (scholarlyediting.org )
2. Align, verify and enrich datasets about ancient written heritage: discover and practice the OpenRefine web reconciliation service from Biblissima
3. Geovistory, a LOD research infrastructure for the historical sciences
4. Making a DH at the Library of Congress
5. #DHMakes: a meeting of needlework lovers
6. DH Inside Out — mini-conference at DH2024 (DHTech): discussion of technical problems of implementing software solutions in DH projects
7. We study audiovisual materials in a special interest group DH
8. LEAF Commons: Using Data Binding Tools for Digital Editorial Production (leaf-vre.org )
9. National Cemeteries as a digital classroom: Veterans' stories become accessible to all
10. New experience in publishing DH: "Journal of Digital History" (JDH, journalofdigitalhistory.org )
11. Machine learning education in the field of digital Humanities
12. From sources to data and models: tools for interpreting the evolution of knowledge systems
13. Parallel text processing and translation alignment using Ugarit (ugarit.ialigner.com )
14. Rethinking Learning through Games: An Introduction to Prototyping Interactive Art Games for Learning
15. Visit our DHRIFT: DH Workshops on Responsible Data Reuse
16. Publishing with Manifest (manifoldapp.org )
17. Distributed Text Services: FAIR API Specification for Publishing digital Text Collections
18. A role-playing game in the digital humanities
19. Special Interest Group "Audio-visual materials"
20. Special Interest Group "Libraries and Digital Humanities" (adholibdh.github.io )
21. Special Interest Group "Multilingual DH"
22. Special Interest Group "Digital Literary Stylistics" (DLS)
23. Reading with FlexiConc
24. What can I do with Constellation? Practical approaches to teaching text analysis and artificial intelligence (constellate.org )

Appendix 2. Topics of expert discussions held within the framework of the congress “Digital Humanities -2024”

1. Asian Perspectives: Cultural Identity and Religious Aura in new DH projects from China, India and Indonesia
2. Text analysis: Tools and infrastructure in 2024 and beyond
3. Archiving Puerto Rico: Digitally Overcoming Access and Representation constraints
4. Tiktokature African Project: DH Practice without Coding
5. Humanitarian infrastructures for teaching, research, publishing and community building
6. Beyond Open Access: Collaborative methods, tools, and workflows of academic publications led by scientists
7. Exploring the three communities of data editing and recovery
8. Exploring digital justice as a way to recover from disasters
9. Neogranadina Historical Foundation (Colombia): A new invention of historical archives using open tools and collaboration
10. International correspondents: multi-level cooperation in the field of digital humanities research
11. Are the missions completed? The Future of mission-oriented Digital scientific journals in DH
12. Substantiating the Truth: Critical and data-based approaches to Travel history
13. Learning to code text in the classroom and beyond
14. Responsible datasets in context: learning from data and emphasizing the value of historical context
15. Rethinking and responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence
16. Rethinking the Readership: an alternative readership of literary magazines, fanfiction and cookbooks
17. Prospects and problems of development of centers and laboratories of digital humanities
18. Supporting research and Teaching of Cultural Analytics: The future of working with code and data in DH
19. Podcasting the Humanities: Transforming Academia through Digital Storytelling
20. Legal aspects of generative artificial intelligence and their impact on digital humanities research
21. Dealing with Uncertainty in Digital History Research: Reflections on the process of Processing Research data
22. Raskvashism: Chicane Digital Humanistic Practice
23. Uncovering patterns in Historical sources: Studying the history of China through network data analysis
24. Building an educational set of digital history tools: Omeka S, Tropy and ChatGPT in the Bachelor's degree
25. Sustainability of digital publishing platforms
26. Digital Platforms and Public History: ideas of the r/AskHistorians project
27. Ethical responsibility: archive, cultural heritage and community