Working on the Chain Gang

Meet the latest acronym in the world of digital humanities: Chain, the Coalition of Humanities and Arts Infrastructures and Networks. Born at a meeting at King’s College, London, in late October, Chain brings together eight digital-technology undertakings, several based in Europe (e.g., Dariah, or Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities) and a few stateside (e.g., Project Bamboo).The idea behind Chain, the organizers said, is to overcome “the current fragmented environment where researchers operate in separate areas with often mutually incompatible technologies.”

No more “working on the highways and byways and wearing, wearing a frown,” as Sam Cooke would say. Chain’s goal is to “create a shared environment where technology services can inter-operate and be sustained, thus enabling new forms of research in the humanities.”