An abstract for this publication is not available. Un résumé pour cette publication n'est pas... more An abstract for this publication is not available. Un résumé pour cette publication n'est pas disponible.
Harold Innis was one of the most profound thinkers that Canada ever produced. Such was his influe... more Harold Innis was one of the most profound thinkers that Canada ever produced. Such was his influence on the field of communication that Marshall McLuhan once declared his own work was a mere footnote to Innis. But over the past sixty years scholars have had a hard time explaining his brilliance, in large measure because Innis's dense, elliptical writing style has hindered easy explication and interpretation. But behind the dense verbiage lies a profound philosophy of history. In Emergence and Empire, John Bonnett offers a fresh take on Innis's work by demonstrating that his purpose was to understand the impact of self-organizing, emergent change on economies and societies. Innis's interest in emergent change induced him to craft an original and bold philosophy of history informed by concepts as diverse as information, Kantian idealism, and business cycle theory. Bonnett provides a close reading of Innis's oeuvre that connects works of communication and economic histo...
Innovations in computing are presenting historians with access to new forms of expression with th... more Innovations in computing are presenting historians with access to new forms of expression with the potential to enhance scholars' capacities and to support novel methods for analysis, expression, and teaching. Computer-generated form can change the way we generate, appropriate, and disseminate content. I f these benefits are to be realized, however, the discipline must make room for a new domain of practice-based research. The practices we have for knowledge generation were devised in association with print technology, and historians must now acquire and develop practices that can inform our use of digital forms of representation, as well as the platforms that sustain them. Les innovations informatiques donnent aux historiens I'acces a de nouvelles forms d'expression et offrent la possibility d ’accroitre les capacites des universitaires et de favoriser I'emergence de nouvelles methodes d'analyse, d'expression e td ’enseignement. L'ordinateur peut changer...
Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, 2014
One of the most significant attributes of digital computation is that it has disrupted extant wor... more One of the most significant attributes of digital computation is that it has disrupted extant work practices in multiple disciplines, including history. In this contribution, I argue that far from being a trend that should be resisted, it in fact should be encouraged. Computation is presenting historians with novel opportunities to express, analyze, and teach the past, but that potential will only be realized if scholars assume a new research mandate, that of design. For many historians, such a research agenda is likely to seem strange, if not beyond the pale. There are tasks that fall properly within the domain of the Historian’s Craft and the design of workflows for digital platforms and expressive forms for digital narratives are not among them. In Section One, via the writings of Harold Innis, I make the case that a preoccupation with design is in fact very much part of Canada’s historiographic tradition. In Section Two, I present an environmental scan of emerging technologies, and suggest that now is an opportune time to revive Innis’ preoccupation with design. In the following two sections, I present the StructureMorph Project, a case study showing how historians can leverage the properties of digital form to realize their expressive, narrative, and attestive needs in the digital, virtual worlds that will become increasingly important platforms for representing, disseminating, and interpreting the past.
Each and every time a new contribution devoted to the com-munication writings of Harold Innis eme... more Each and every time a new contribution devoted to the com-munication writings of Harold Innis emerges, it faces a cen-tral question: is it telling us something new? More to the point, is it telling us something of the "hidden Innis"? It is a truism in the literature that Innis, a political economist at the University of Toronto from 1920 to 1952, was an awful writer. It is also a truism, however, that Innis' writings on media and communi-cation technology contain more than they apparently let on. In Empire and Communications (1950) and The Bias of Communication (1951), Innis forwarded three important propositions about media: that their material properties engender a bias in cultures either toward the dimension of space or toward time; that communication technologies, over time, will lock communicants into one bias or another, a state that Innis referred to as the Monopoly of Knowledge; and that cultures, through default or design, can thwart the debilitating effects o...
It is a truism in the digital humanities, a constant one, and a good one, that it is always in a ... more It is a truism in the digital humanities, a constant one, and a good one, that it is always in a state of transition. Such an observation is not surprising since the instrument upon which it relies -- the computer -- is itself in a state of flux. For the moment, its computational power remains ...
CFI has just announced its financial support for the creation of a national High Performance Comp... more CFI has just announced its financial support for the creation of a national High Performance Computing (HPC) platform, and the formation of a new organization to govern it: Compute Canada. When realized, the platform will afford Canadian scholars with more computational power than they have ever enjoyed before. HPC presents rich research possibilities for Canada's social scientists and humanities (SSH) researchers. Our respective research communities, however, are not yet prepared to exploit them. This report outlines two possibilities that HPC presents for SSH research, centering on serious computer games and Massive Multi-User Persistent Worlds. It also contains recommended steps for SSHRC and the SSH research community to take in order to exploit them.
Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, 2015
Researchers use a mathematical model to perform a counterfactual study of the 1854 Charge of the ... more Researchers use a mathematical model to perform a counterfactual study of the 1854 Charge of the Light Brigade. They first calibrate the model with historical data so that it reproduces the actual charge’s outcome. They then adjust the model to see how that outcome might have changed if the Heavy Brigade had joined the charge and/or if the charge had targeted the Russian forces on the heights instead of those in the valley. The results suggest that all the counterfactual attacks would have led to heavier British casualties. However, a charge by both brigades along the valley might plausibly have yielded a British victory.
CFI has just announced its financial support for the creation of a national High Performance Comp... more CFI has just announced its financial support for the creation of a national High Performance Computing (HPC) platform, and the formation of a new organization to govern it: Compute Canada. When realized, the platform will afford Canadian scholars with more computational power than they have ever enjoyed before. HPC presents rich research possibilities for Canada's social scientists and humanities (SSH)
I can think of few disciplines better suited for developing a sense of humility than humanities a... more I can think of few disciplines better suited for developing a sense of humility than humanities and computing. As scholars, we possess an intimate familiarity with a very old technology, namely text. And more to the point, we use it mindfully. We bring an explicit awareness of the rules – past and present – that govern its use. We are aware that we are part of an intellectual project that extends to ancient times. We respect its conventions. We celebrate its innovations. And we teach others to do the same. At the same time, however, we are also proponents of a new technology: the computer. As with text, we proceed on the basis that the computer is a mind technology, or cognitive tool. Its purpose is to free us from lower-level cognitive skills such as memorization, and to support the development and exercise of higher-order skills such as analysis and interpretation. And since its properties as a medium are different from paper, we also proceed on the assumption that the computer is...
An abstract for this publication is not available. Un résumé pour cette publication n'est pas... more An abstract for this publication is not available. Un résumé pour cette publication n'est pas disponible.
Harold Innis was one of the most profound thinkers that Canada ever produced. Such was his influe... more Harold Innis was one of the most profound thinkers that Canada ever produced. Such was his influence on the field of communication that Marshall McLuhan once declared his own work was a mere footnote to Innis. But over the past sixty years scholars have had a hard time explaining his brilliance, in large measure because Innis's dense, elliptical writing style has hindered easy explication and interpretation. But behind the dense verbiage lies a profound philosophy of history. In Emergence and Empire, John Bonnett offers a fresh take on Innis's work by demonstrating that his purpose was to understand the impact of self-organizing, emergent change on economies and societies. Innis's interest in emergent change induced him to craft an original and bold philosophy of history informed by concepts as diverse as information, Kantian idealism, and business cycle theory. Bonnett provides a close reading of Innis's oeuvre that connects works of communication and economic histo...
Innovations in computing are presenting historians with access to new forms of expression with th... more Innovations in computing are presenting historians with access to new forms of expression with the potential to enhance scholars' capacities and to support novel methods for analysis, expression, and teaching. Computer-generated form can change the way we generate, appropriate, and disseminate content. I f these benefits are to be realized, however, the discipline must make room for a new domain of practice-based research. The practices we have for knowledge generation were devised in association with print technology, and historians must now acquire and develop practices that can inform our use of digital forms of representation, as well as the platforms that sustain them. Les innovations informatiques donnent aux historiens I'acces a de nouvelles forms d'expression et offrent la possibility d ’accroitre les capacites des universitaires et de favoriser I'emergence de nouvelles methodes d'analyse, d'expression e td ’enseignement. L'ordinateur peut changer...
Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, 2014
One of the most significant attributes of digital computation is that it has disrupted extant wor... more One of the most significant attributes of digital computation is that it has disrupted extant work practices in multiple disciplines, including history. In this contribution, I argue that far from being a trend that should be resisted, it in fact should be encouraged. Computation is presenting historians with novel opportunities to express, analyze, and teach the past, but that potential will only be realized if scholars assume a new research mandate, that of design. For many historians, such a research agenda is likely to seem strange, if not beyond the pale. There are tasks that fall properly within the domain of the Historian’s Craft and the design of workflows for digital platforms and expressive forms for digital narratives are not among them. In Section One, via the writings of Harold Innis, I make the case that a preoccupation with design is in fact very much part of Canada’s historiographic tradition. In Section Two, I present an environmental scan of emerging technologies, and suggest that now is an opportune time to revive Innis’ preoccupation with design. In the following two sections, I present the StructureMorph Project, a case study showing how historians can leverage the properties of digital form to realize their expressive, narrative, and attestive needs in the digital, virtual worlds that will become increasingly important platforms for representing, disseminating, and interpreting the past.
Each and every time a new contribution devoted to the com-munication writings of Harold Innis eme... more Each and every time a new contribution devoted to the com-munication writings of Harold Innis emerges, it faces a cen-tral question: is it telling us something new? More to the point, is it telling us something of the "hidden Innis"? It is a truism in the literature that Innis, a political economist at the University of Toronto from 1920 to 1952, was an awful writer. It is also a truism, however, that Innis' writings on media and communi-cation technology contain more than they apparently let on. In Empire and Communications (1950) and The Bias of Communication (1951), Innis forwarded three important propositions about media: that their material properties engender a bias in cultures either toward the dimension of space or toward time; that communication technologies, over time, will lock communicants into one bias or another, a state that Innis referred to as the Monopoly of Knowledge; and that cultures, through default or design, can thwart the debilitating effects o...
It is a truism in the digital humanities, a constant one, and a good one, that it is always in a ... more It is a truism in the digital humanities, a constant one, and a good one, that it is always in a state of transition. Such an observation is not surprising since the instrument upon which it relies -- the computer -- is itself in a state of flux. For the moment, its computational power remains ...
CFI has just announced its financial support for the creation of a national High Performance Comp... more CFI has just announced its financial support for the creation of a national High Performance Computing (HPC) platform, and the formation of a new organization to govern it: Compute Canada. When realized, the platform will afford Canadian scholars with more computational power than they have ever enjoyed before. HPC presents rich research possibilities for Canada's social scientists and humanities (SSH) researchers. Our respective research communities, however, are not yet prepared to exploit them. This report outlines two possibilities that HPC presents for SSH research, centering on serious computer games and Massive Multi-User Persistent Worlds. It also contains recommended steps for SSHRC and the SSH research community to take in order to exploit them.
Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, 2015
Researchers use a mathematical model to perform a counterfactual study of the 1854 Charge of the ... more Researchers use a mathematical model to perform a counterfactual study of the 1854 Charge of the Light Brigade. They first calibrate the model with historical data so that it reproduces the actual charge’s outcome. They then adjust the model to see how that outcome might have changed if the Heavy Brigade had joined the charge and/or if the charge had targeted the Russian forces on the heights instead of those in the valley. The results suggest that all the counterfactual attacks would have led to heavier British casualties. However, a charge by both brigades along the valley might plausibly have yielded a British victory.
CFI has just announced its financial support for the creation of a national High Performance Comp... more CFI has just announced its financial support for the creation of a national High Performance Computing (HPC) platform, and the formation of a new organization to govern it: Compute Canada. When realized, the platform will afford Canadian scholars with more computational power than they have ever enjoyed before. HPC presents rich research possibilities for Canada's social scientists and humanities (SSH)
I can think of few disciplines better suited for developing a sense of humility than humanities a... more I can think of few disciplines better suited for developing a sense of humility than humanities and computing. As scholars, we possess an intimate familiarity with a very old technology, namely text. And more to the point, we use it mindfully. We bring an explicit awareness of the rules – past and present – that govern its use. We are aware that we are part of an intellectual project that extends to ancient times. We respect its conventions. We celebrate its innovations. And we teach others to do the same. At the same time, however, we are also proponents of a new technology: the computer. As with text, we proceed on the basis that the computer is a mind technology, or cognitive tool. Its purpose is to free us from lower-level cognitive skills such as memorization, and to support the development and exercise of higher-order skills such as analysis and interpretation. And since its properties as a medium are different from paper, we also proceed on the assumption that the computer is...
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