So, When does the Humanities Computing Revolution Start? Those who have been involved in humanities computing for a number of years will remember how it was back in the "old days," when colleagues (usually senior colleagues) would look at you with an expression of amazement, tinged with melancholy, as it became increasingly evident that you were serious about this business of trying to exploit computer technology in doing humanities research. You, on the other hand, knew that you were taking a chance professionally, were convinced that your decision to emphasize technology was a good one, and that, in time, when humanities computing took its rightful place in the general field of humanities, your colleagues would come to see the wisdom and courage of the decision. Soon, you felt, they would even be grateful to have you around as someone on the "cutting edge" of this extremely sexy, new approach to doing humanities research --not Jungian post-readerresponse anti-deconstructionism, maybe, but still right in there.
Well, after years of honest effort, the change in attitude that you have been looking for in your colleagues shows no sign of coming to pass. What seems to be the problem? Schools of literary theory have been undergoing revolution after revolution right along, so it cannot be just that such things take time. Nevertheless, here we still are, looked at as somehow slightly suspect, slightly irrelevant to the core activity of humanities research. Why? Why aren't our brethren catching on?