The role of the Digital Humanities is currently discussed controversially with a view of both the present and the future. It seems a truism that we need to incorporate the past, if we are to conduct a fruitful discussion of the future. The basis for the present and future role of the field are the key ideas and concepts from which it has evolved. A reappraisal of the history of ideas not only shows the essence of the field, but also highlights the potential it has to offer for the humanities and other, related fields. The interaction of computational concepts with ideas from the breadth of humanities-disciplines has the potential to generate more than the sum of the parts. Since the inception of the field formerly known as humanities computing, new methods were developed and new insights gained. Frequently, interdisciplinary border crossings constitute key moments in which new ideas and concepts emerge. The compilation of a history of ideas of the Digital Humanities is possible, and it is necessary. With the conference at which we hereby invite your participation, we aim to chart the history of the digital humanities by focusing on a discussion of the key ideas and concepts and the associated key-moments in the development of the field.
Whether early pioneering achievements such as the cooperation between Father Roberto Busa and IBM since the late 1940s; Vannevar Bush's essay "As We May Think" describing the landmark idea and design for the Memex; younger milestones such as the establishment of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), or the conception of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) – examples of key ideas of the DH abound.

The event is going to be centred around experts from different fields of Digital Humanities, each presenting a paper on a key idea or a moment in their research area. The conference will help to identify the most important achievements of the field and discuss their origins and position, their impact and development or possibilities for development.