Abstract
This contribution reflects critically on Digital Himalaya, a project that set out to explore new methods for collecting, protecting and connecting historical multimedia collections relating to the Himalayan region. The project team digitized older sets of ethnographic data held in European collections to share them back with originating communities in the Himalayan region and with others online. In this reflection, I explore three questions. First, what does it means for a Digital Humanities project to be thought of as ‘mature’? How can this be measured and gauged, and what are the implications of maturity in the digital commons? Second, how can those of us engaged in such partnerships guard against obsolescence, digital decay and decline by future-proofing the assets which we have the privilege of curating and managing? In short, what steps can we take to mitigate risks associated with digital technologies and to maximize the change of success and endurance. Finally, what does it mean to end a Digital Humanities project? How do we bring a project to a close, whether through completion, passing the reins to others or through ethical repatriation? This paper makes the case for rethinking the very essence of what constitutes success in digital humanities.
https://ror.org/03rmrcq20 
