National Poetry Day 2015

…

But what strange art, what magic can dispose

The troubled mind to change its native woes?

Or lead us willing from ourselves, to see

Others more wretched, more undone than we?

This BOOKS can do;--nor this alone; they give

New views to life, and teach us how to live;

They soothe the grieved, the stubborn they 

chastise,

Fools they admonish, and confirm the wise:

Their aid they yield to all: they never shun

The man of sorrow, nor the wretch undone:

Unlike the hard, the selfish, and the proud,

They fly not sullen from the suppliant crowd;

Nor tell to various people various things,

But show to subjects what they show to kings.

…

  

#NationalPoetryDay

The making of a digital language?

To be a digital, online language we might expect that various support tools are required, foundations if you like.

Languages need computer support, digital tools and from these a range of advances become possible. Without these tools and foundations then might languages struggle in an online world?

This is only a starting point, but we might well ask:

• what is a digital language; and 
• what might be necessary or sufficient to support a digital language?

The Winograd Schema Challenge

An alternative to the Turing Test, an annual challenge with its first submission in October 2015.

See Nuance's website for more information.

Digital Exhaustion

I was just reading an informative piece, as always, by the 1709 blog which summarises the state around digital exhaustion. Not the tiredness of computers, but the way in which digital artefacts can be resold or passed on:

Whether EU law allows digital exhaustion arguably remains however an unresolved issue, with diverging interpretations being provided at the level of national courts. Yet, despite the legal and economic relevance of allowing markets for second-hand digital works, current EU copyright reform plans seem regrettably not to include any consideration of issues facing general digital exhaustion, or its lack thereof.

Which led me onto wondering whether Wales, Welsh Government &c. have any opinion on these matters?

The always interesting 1709 blog can be found here: http://the1709blog.blogspot.co.uk

DevDH: Development for the Digital Humanities

http://devdh.org

About: http://devdh.org/about/ 

"No matter how digital humanities is defined, the development of research agendas encompasses the planning, organizing, motivating, and use of finite resources to achieve a greater understanding of the humanities and the human condition. DevDH.org provides the intellectual and strategic scaffolding to aid researchers in successfully completing their research endeavors. Responding to the increasing number of first-time digital humanists who are initiating projects, as well as the growing mandate from Universities and Colleges to undertake digital humanities-based research and teaching, DevDH introduces a series of resources to aid those who might be seeking assistance.
DevDH.org is the brainchild of Simon Appleford and Jennifer Guiliano, who collectively have over a decade working in digital humanities project development, management, and grant writing. DevDH (or develop DH) was built to respond to the growing demand for digital humanities training in that area but also as an online repository of training materials, lectures, exemplars, and links that offer best practices to beginner, intermediate, and advanced digital humanists. As a visitor to the site, you’ll have access to a number of presentations, guides, and examples that we’ve created or selected for their contribution to digital humanities as a discipline."

Digital Scholarship and Digital Studies: The State of the Discipline by Matthew Kirschenbaum, Sarah Werner

Book History

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/book_history/v017/17.kirschenbaum.html

Abstract: 

While popular imagination has “the digital” opposed to “the book,” the two are now inextricably linked. This review essay looks at the range of digital tools available for conducting book history; the importance of software studies, platform studies, critical code studies, and media archaeology for book historians; and the intertwined connections between print and digital in the production and dissemination of today’s books. The authors argue for understanding the necessities of understanding the myriad relationships between page and screen, and the abiding materiality of the digital form.