e-Humanities - an Emerging Infrastructure for the Digital Arts and Humanities

Digital technologies increasingly permeate research and education in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Their digital environment expands continuously, and the next evolutionary step is imminent as the field embraces the opportunities of modern network technologies and social software. Accessibility of primary data; embedded in a web of supplementary material; availability of generic tools for analysis and supporting the scientific process; collaboration between scholars across disciplines - all these features are part and parcel of the emerging, e-Humanities". Virtual research environments are composed of three layers: research, research infrastructure, and the basic infrastructure. This article aims to specify these layers and define potential roles and responsibilities within them, with a special view at a research infrastructure for the e-Humanities.