Richard Zijdeman discusses several reasons for doing digital history: 1) Digitization allows historians to move past biased source selection and consider multiple overlapping sources. 2) It enables the appreciation of historical variation beyond averages by combining different sources. 3) Digital history permits the incorporation of historical contexts into studies through linking sources. 4) Visualization and new digital tools can help summarize information and provide new insights and questions for historians. 5) Digitization supports and complements traditional historical research methods.