##Response to Borgman, Chapter 7

This chapter brings up several issues key to the ethics of conducting digital humanities (and other forms of) research. Namely, we must consider where our data artifacts originate, who owned them (and who owns them now), how they are represented visually in online forms, who has access to them (and who should have access to them), and how these artifacts–which may be culturally sensitive in ways we do not anticipate–are represented and re-created in digital form. I mentioned most of my key responses in class, but to summarize: there are too many variables present in the reflection and representation of original cultural artifacts to simply publish them in new forms. We must take care to work with the very cultures where these artifacts originated, for both legal and ethical reasons. We must also take care to diligently reflect upon these artifacts, and their larger relationships with others, through both close and distant “readings,” where possible. In documenting them, we should also take care to make their components easily identifiable and interpretable to a wide range of audiences, if indeed their cultural confounds would allow them to be shared broadly. For example, some artifacts were never meant to be seen by those outside of a particular cultural setting, and the provenance of their originators or owners must be acknowledged and respected appropriately.