Supporting communication and knowledge creation in digitally networked communities in the humanities

Abstract

Scholarly communication in the humanities heavily depends on the discursive nature of knowledge creation and the media that is in use. This communication has changed over the centuries due to the evolution of media, altering not only the communicational culture of scholars regarding their archives and text production strategies but also the communication situation in society, leading to scientific, artistic, and societal revolutions. The change from scroll to book in the edition of the Babylonian Talmud is a good example of such a medium revolution. The interdisciplinary collaborative research center "Media and cultural communication"1 was founded in 1999 to research the nature and impact of media on the discourses in cultural communication. Historically, and by creating new interdisciplinary workplaces for scientists in the 21st century, our subproject analyzes the impact of networked information systems on cooperation and knowledge organization in scientific communities and public debates.