In this article we consider technical development and its role in digital humanities research efforts. We critique the concept that ‘novel’ development is crucial for innovation and tie this thinking to the corporatization of higher education. We suggest instead that sustainable technical development practices require a combination of need, creativity and reuse of existing technical infrastructure. First, we present our theory of ‘slow’ development based on this need-driven approach, then demonstrate how this theory can be applied to digital humanities research efforts using the Davy Notebooks Project as a case study. By tracing the history of this multi-phase, public crowdsourcing project and exposing the decision-making process behind its technical development, we demonstrate the promise and possibility of the ‘slow’ method proposed. When read in conjunction with the other essays in this special issue, we hope that this article will demonstrate how digital humanities methods and technical infrastructure can support and sustain traditional modes of scholarship, and the importance of applying the same careful approach to technical development that is applied to research methods more broadly.

在本文中，我们考虑技术发展及其在数字人文研究工作中的作用。我们批评“新颖”发展对于创新至关重要的概念，并将这种思想与高等教育的公司化联系起来。相反，我们建议可持续的技术开发实践需要将现有技术基础设施的需求、创造力和重用结合起来。首先，我们提出基于这种需求驱动方法的“缓慢”发展理论，然后使用戴维笔记本项目作为案例研究，展示如何将该理论应用于数字人文研究工作。通过追溯这个多阶段、公共众包项目的历史并揭示其技术开发背​​后的决策过程，我们展示了所提出的“慢”方法的前景和可能性。当与本期特刊中的其他文章结合起来阅读时，我们希望本文能够展示数字人文方法和技术基础设施如何支持和维持传统的学术模式，以及将同样谨慎的方法应用于技术开发的重要性更广泛地应用于研究方法。