1. DARIAH conference
Public Humanities Workshop 23rd and 24th of May 2017, Trinity Long Room Hub, Arts and Humanities Research Institute
Dr. Jennifer Edmond, Director of Strategic Projects, Trinity Long Room Hub

2. Partners in Project
Trinity Long Room Hub, Arts and Humanities Research Institute and Digital Humanities Centre, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland
The Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
Ghent Centre for Digital Humanities, University of Ghent, Belgium
Glasnevin Trust, Dublin, Ireland

3. Background to Project
A multitude of digitally based projects taking place across Europe which have prompted a renewed public interest in genealogy and local history
The public have assumed a much more proactive role in the production and curation of cultural outputs
The directors of Public History and Digital Humanities programmes in the partner countries have observed a real demand by local community groups to explore and document their cultural heritage using digital tools and methodologies.

4. Format of Event -23rd and 24th of May 2017
a basic introduction to some of the theoretical and conceptual issues underpinning the fields of digital humanities and public history
the presentation of case studies from representatives of existing public history and digital humanities projects in Ireland, Poland and Belgium
-PL-New Panorama of Polish Literature
-IE-Dublin City Library & Archives, Friends of the Derry Walls, St. Andrews Records Project
-BE Belgian Refugees  
36 attendees across the 2 days (representing 22 public organisations, 2 individual, 3 academics and 9 students). An IBM representative was also in attendance

5. Format of Event
sessions to help empower participants in the areas of digital humanities and Public History
‘What to think about when digitising’-Digital Resources & Imaging Service, TCD
‘How to make your cultural heritage content available on-line’-Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center 
Practical Considerations when embarking on Public History projects’- Quarto Collective (consultancy working in the area of cultural heritage & public engagement)
Site visit to Glasnevin Cemetery -one of Dublin’s most resonant heritage sites with an expanding public outreach arm

6. Themes arising
Difference between “shared authority” and “a shared authority” in regards to public history
Sharing authority is about collaboration and equal partnership between parties such as two historians.
A shared authority refers to the historian and public working together to jointly interpret and create meaning.
DH projects are often very impactful for a short period of time, but there is a challenge with sustainability and ongoing maintenance and audience engagement
The importance of metadata in DH projects-digitising content is almost useless if it cannot be found through metadata (standardised)

7. Themes arising
Successful public history projects are audience focused and have a bottom-up rather than top-down view of public history creation-examine what the public want rather than assume what they want
“technology cannot solve everything” - the system is only as smart as the program and in many places it can’t be used to replace human semantic reasoning that historians or other humanists can bring to a project
DH projects usually involve engaging researchers from both disciplines one of them usually being ICT or computer science. Different researchers have different ‘vocabularies’, which can cause difficulties in communication especially at the start of a project
Material from event including videos can be found here: