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ContextWe, professionals or observers of the digital humanities (humanités  numériques) came together in Paris for THATCamp on May 18th and  19th, 2010.Over the course of these two days, we  discussed, exchanged,  and  collectively reflected upon what the digital humanities are, and  tried  to imagine and invent what they could become.At the close of the camp – which represents but a first step –   we propose to the research communities, and to all those involved in   the creation, publication, valorization or preservation of knowledge, a   manifesto for the digital humanities.I. Definition1. Society’s digital turn changes and calls into question the  conditions of knowledge production and distribution.2. For us, the digital humanities concern the totality of the  social sciences and humanities. The digital humanities are not tabula  rasa. On the contrary, they rely on all the paradigms, savoir-faire and knowledge specific to these disciplines, while mobilizing the tools  and unique perspectives enabled by digital technology.3. The digital humanities designate a “transdiscipline”,  embodying  all the methods, systems and heuristic perspectives linked to  the  digital within the fields of humanities and the social sciences.II. Situation4. We observe:- that experiments in the digital domain of the social sciences  and  humanities have multiplied in the last half century. What have  emerged  most recently are centers for digital humanities – which at the  moment  are themselves only protoypes or areas of application specific to  the  approach of digital humanities;- that computational and digital approaches have greater  technical,  and therefore economic, research constraints; that these  constraints  provide an opportunity to foster collaborative work;- that while a certain number of proven methods exist, they are  not equally known or shared;- that there are many communities deriving from shared interests  in  practices, tools, and various interdisciplinary goals – encoding   textual sources, geographic information systems, lexicometry,   digitization of cultural, scientific and technical heritage, web   cartography, datamining, 3D, oral archives, digital arts and hypermedia   literatures, etc. – and that these communities are converging to form   the field of digital humanities.III. Declaration5. We, professionals of the digital humanities, are building a   community of practice that is solidary, open, welcoming and freely   accessible.6. We are a community without borders. We are a multilingual and  multidisciplinary community.7. Our objectives are the advancement of knowledge, the  improvement  of research quality in our disciplines, the enrichment of  knowledge and  of collective patrimony, in the academic sphere and beyond  it.8. We call for the integration of digital culture in the  definition of the general culture of the twenty-first century.IV. Guidelines9. We call for open access to data and metadata, which must be  documented and interoperable, both technically and conceptually.10. We support the dissemination, exchange and free modification  of methods, code, formats and research findings.11. We call for the integration of digital humanities education   within social science and humanities curricula. We also wish to see the   creation of diplomas specific to the digital humanities, and the   development of dedicated professional education. Finally, we want such   expertise to be considered in recruitment and career development.12. We commit to building a collective expertise based upon a  common  vocabulary, a collective expertise proceeding from the work of  all the  actors involved. This collective expertise is to become a common  good.  It is a scientific opportunity, but also an opportunity for   professional insertion in all sectors.13. We want to help define and propagate best practices,   corresponding to needs identified within or across disciplines, which   should derive and evolve from debate and consensus within the   communities concerned. The fundamental openness of the digital   humanities nevertheless assures a pragmatic approach to protocols and   visions, which maintains the right to coexistence of different and   competing methods, to the benefit of both thought and practice.14. We call for the creation of scalable digital infrastructures   responding to real needs. These digital infrastructures will be built   iteratively, based upon methods and approaches that prove successful in   research communities.Join us!- Sign the Manifesto by adding your name on the Wiki (create an account).- Read translated versions of the Manifesto on the THATCamp Paris blog and suggest new translations- Download the poster (high resolution PDF file)