This paper is based upon discussions, especially with Manfred Thaller, at the 2014 Schloss Dagstuhl Seminar on Computational Humanities.

Abstract: Increasingly powerful computational methods are important for humanists not simply because they make it possible to ask new research questions but especially because computation makes it both possible — and arguably essential — to transform the relationship between humanities research and society, opening up a range of possibilities for student contributions and citizen science. To illustrate this point, this paper looks at the transformative work conducted by the Homer Multitext Project (see in particular its blog).

The full text is available here.

Gregory Crane
Augustusplatz
Universität Leipzig
September 29, 2014