Stan pointed me to a nice essay that uses the definitions of humanities computing we gathered as part of the Day of DH project. Frederick Gibbs analyzed the short definitions in his blog essay, digital humanities definitions by type. He boils the definitions down to the following (the number is his count as to how many definitions fit that category):
55 – variation on “the application of technology to humanities work”
22 – working with digital media or a digital environment
15 – minimize the difference between DH and humanities
12 – umbrella or blanket nature of DH label; issues that humanists now face
12 – using digital AND studying digital
12 – refusals to define the term
10 – methods AND community
9 – digitization / archives
9 – studying the digital
I think he more or less has it right. I’m not sure where he put mine, but I’m of the “using digital AND studying digital”. I believe the reflectivity or doubling of using and studying what you use is what makes this a humanities discipline.