The article by Cathy Davidson discusses the evolution of cyberinfrastructure concerning the study of humanities since the 1990s. In early 1990s, it was realized that massive data could be digitized, searched, and combined with other databases for a quick research. This was called the first generation of digital humanities or Web 1.0. Second generation or Web 2.0 as dubbed by Tim O’Reilly was later developed which was a more developed version of Web 1.0. Students who tried to use the earlier version of cyberinfrastructure often faced difficulties in their research projects. Most of them never succeeded in finding an example to use in their projects even after going through all the available archives. Today, research has become easy and students can research on almost every aspect of human science from the internet (Davidson, p. 1). Cathy observed that, If I teach that course now, my students can go to searchable databases of early American imprints, eighteenth-century European imprints, of South American and (growing) African archives, and of archives in Asia as well. A contemporary student could, in far less time, not only use digitized and indexed archives to search U.S. databases but could make comparisons across and among popular political movements worldwide, and possibly make arguments about the spread of dissent along with commodities such as tea, sugar, or rice (Davidson, p. 1).
This article can be related to the study of interdisciplinary practice and human sciences in that, along with the upgrading in information management, the infrastructure entrenched in the internet development has made this study easy. The opportunities for science are likewise paralleled by those for our financial system, and background. The evolution of cyberinfrastructure has been facilitated by the doubling of capacity of computing, communication, and storage. Cyberinfrastructure is expected to advance in future which will result in converging sciences from being a single discipline. The aspects of cyberinfrastructure in human sciences and interdisciplinary practice are becoming relevant given today’s emphasis on using information technology (Davidson, p. 2).
Cyberinfrastructure technology has made human sciences research accessible and easy. The second-generation digital humanities can be used to solve problems that are entangled, complex, and interconnected. Scientists can use the massive data set that is accessed from the internet. The simplicity of access to the world’s data resources has changed the environment for conducting scientific investigations. Just like the society, science depends on cyberinfrastructure.
For research to progress without rational boundaries and take part in international modernizations it requires that the tempo of science be determined by creativeness and not limited by infrastructure. The base for carrying out the study of science and other activities surrounded by a society is initiated within an organization and structuring of resources such that individuals can generate required products depending on infrastructure (Davidson, p. 3).
We live in an exciting era when cyberinfrastructure and technology offer human scientists an opportunity to meet its challenges in ways that were not available in the history of humans. Massive data can be accessed over the internet from almost all nations of the world. Comparisons are made between different sets of data for concrete research. From the article, we find that cyberinfrastructure and technology facilitate almost every aspect of human sciences and interdisciplinary practice. Without it, the study would be very difficult forcing some students to seek abroad scholarships for their studies.
Works Cited
Davidson, Cathy N. “Data mining, collaboration, and institutional infrastructure for transforming research and teaching in the human sciences and beyond.” volume3 no. 2.” Duke University, 2007.