Month: June 2017

I have really enjoyed using the different Knight Labs tools— TimelineJS, StorymapJS, JuxtaposeJS and SoundciteJS. I like the fact that they are relatively user friendly, have a good user experience and can handle a lot of content. I also like that they are open source! I think the future should look more like Knight Lab opposed to Microsoft or Apple. I understand that money plays an important role in accessibility, but I think people should be able to have access to web based tools regardless of the economic status. My only frustration with these tools is that you need a Google log-in to access them.

I really enjoyed seeing and talking about the DH community! I think it is extremely powerful and helps others to create amazing projects and give others support that they might not have. At Gettysburg the 2016 cohort, the 2017 cohort, the working group and other members of the college are all there for me as I am completing my project. These recourses and people are easy to seek out. I think it is a bit more difficult, but my no means impossible to have a bigger community of practice. This can be credited to conferences like PaLA, the Slack Page and Twitter.

Now that I am a digital fellow I feel as though I am part of a larger community that is much bigger than Gettysburg. I think this is evident by that fact that we are able to ask questions on twitter and follow other important people in the digital world. At the conference I did not get the chance to talk with many people. Lauren and I both spoke to Laurie Allen and asked her a few questions. Other than that, I did not speak to many people face to face. I did on the other hand follow several people on twitter. This was made possible because of #dssf17 and #crdpala2017. I am now able to follow people that are active in the community, learn from them on twitter and ask them questions through the web if needed. I think having a hashtag is really helpful when trying to build a community.

I have been very active on twitter since our twitter session. I followed all the people that RC suggested to follow. I have also used #dssf17 and #dh a lot. I also try to tweet to the creators of the digital platforms that we are using. I think maintaining a community of practice takes work, but once that community is established, the people are there to help. I am going to try to be more active on Slack the next few weeks, I think Slack is very helpful if I wanted a quick detailed response.

I think it was very evident at PaLA that people are there to help each other. The conversations we had and the questions that were asked made this very clear. For example, some people wanted to learn how to make a digital fellowship so they listened closely to RC and Sarah speech. I think this community has to be present because people face many difficulties in the DH world. We need to be there to help each other succeed.

In building my digital project, I have to put a lot of faith in the tools I use to get things done. The tools are definitely a benefit- they save me time in building something myself and look far more professional than anything that could be made from scratch in ten weeks. However, they are not without their challenges. Learning a tool takes time, but it is a necessary step to better understand what is being done. Some require more work or time, but users can learn how to implement them with the input. Problems arise when they fail to work. Maybe a tool is getting older, maybe something is running slow, maybe the browser is acting up- there are endless possibilities. I, unfortunately, cannot diagnose all these problems, and some causes are entirely out of my control. Still, these tools were made for a purpose, and they will do their best to fulfill it. I simply need to trust that they will work, bugs and all. No product is perfect, but that does not mean they aren’t worthwhile.

This week, we learned about digital tools to make our projects better. Hooray! Of course, one thing about learning a tool is thinking critically about said tool, and that means you have to see both the negatives and the positives about it. One thing we consistently hit was that most of these tools were very Western-centric, right down to the code itself. We kept asking- how would someone else in a non-English speaking country use this? It requires English, and that means you obviously have to learn some of that to use it. That sucks if you don’t have access to a decent education system, and it basically continues to make access to digital scholarship a lot harder than it should be for poorer countries. Once again, we need to reflect on our privilege as Americans that we can afford to be taught the coding and have it be in our native language, and then walk upstairs and pick up a decent paycheck for learning that.

We also discussed how even maps tend to have an agenda. I pointed out that there’s no perfect way to draw a real map since you can’t flatten a globe without distorting it- it’s geometrically impossible. Really, each map has its own purpose, and it depends on what you need to use it for. There’s no such thing as an unbiased source, no matter how hard you try to be one or look for it. However, you can think and admit that the source has drawbacks, and try to compensate for it with a source that builds on those drawbacks to balance it out. It takes time and additional research, but I’m in a cohort of six strong, intelligent women. I think we can do it.

-Britt

As with any technology, the internet has its downfalls. It is both good and bad. However, the accessibility and openness it creates, arguably its defining feature, can be used to do a lot of good. Through it, people can connect, collaborate, and create more readily than ever before. Entire communities live and grow online, made possible by the lack of geographic restrictions. For people in Digital Humanities, this is especially important. Through the use of social media platforms, Digital Humanists can connect, share ideas, and grow their community. By fully immersing itself in the digital, DH can reach and inspire more people than ever before.

Part of this fellowship requires the cohort to become part of the DH community. There is no one set platform for DH communication, and parts of this community can be found on social media sites and other platforms. The two we most invested out time in as a cohort for a lab were Slack and Twitter. The community of Digital Humanities was surprisingly welcoming. Considering the fact that becoming part of the Slack channel for DH required an invitation, the community was more open than expected. Once the cohort was logged on, we introduced ourselves in the general chat. Some others in the chat were responsive, replying to us right away. The limitation on joining the channel did not make its way into how we could use the channel. We could make subsets on the channel dedicated to other subjects within DH. We could directly communicate with people to learn more about this community. We found a community of people ready and willing to collaborate and share their knowledge. Twitter functioned much in the same way, although it was far more accessible and open to community input (good or bad) due to its more public nature. A simple search for common DH hashtags or advertised events can introduced anyone t the wide world of DH. Live tweeting can also bring people together in real time. I am not yet a pro at using either of these tools. By becoming more immersed in the community, I can discover more about this community of practice and the tools it uses.

To cultivate a community of practice and engage with DH in my own life, I will first need to become better versed in the methods of communication. I need to be open to talking to others, coming to them with my problems, and trusting that this community will help me. The community may be digital, but it is not impersonal. The people I have met so far have been enthusiastic and willing to discuss DH with me despite the fact that I am a novice in the field. That’s because they want to cultivate newcomers and teach all they can about DH. The community is open, and that defines it. In DH, the community of practice differentiates it from other fields of study. It is more open and accessible, something that DH should be proud of. The community is still changing and growing, but this is a positive. It has the opportunity to grow with its platforms, and look toward the future to build its community.

By Emma Lewis

Project Name: Title to be determined

Project Owner: Emma Lewis

Project Summary: My goal in this project is to create a choose-your-own adventure audio tour of the streets of Gettysburg. The tour will not follow one linear path, nor will it need to be listened to in order. The tour will be comprised of different aspects that users can navigate the streets by. The aspects will frame the history of Gettysburg in different ways in an attempt to connect personally to listeners. There will also be a Children’s section to frame history in a way that will engage children with the stories of Gettysburg. I want to make this accessible for all, from history buffs to passersby. In order to do this, each aspect will have a different level of information to accommodate different levels of background knowledge. My goal is to connect with listeners on their terms.  

For the summer, I will focus on a single street in Gettysburg. This will give me a more manageable goal to work towards in the time frame I have. I have chosen Baltimore Street as the first street I will work on. I have previous research on this street, and plan to use it to augment this tour. At the end of the summer, my goal is to build a website to house an interactive map to navigate this tour by. The map will be able to locate users’ positions if they want to and point them to interesting sites. I will embed audio files in this map to take the tour by. This is the plan, and I will investigate digital tools to figure out how I can make this a reality. 

Deliverables:

• Previous Research
• FYS Audio Tour Project
• Research- Special Collections, ACHS
• Digital Tools- Mapping, Audio embedding
• Audio equipment

Timeline: 

Week 1:

• Get Situated
• Start working with digital tools

Week 2:

• Investigate site formats
• Contact possible interviewees
• Research

Week 3:

• Research
• Possibility-schedule interviews

Week 4:

• Research
• Start mapping site

Week 5:

• Research

Week 6:

• Write up current research
• Done with interviews- if possible

Week 7:

• Research
• Workshop stories

Week 8:

• Work on site
• Done with writing
• Record Audio

Week 9:

• Revise Research
• Work on site

Week 10:

• Final Tweaking

Future Plans: I hope to continue to expand on this in the future. I do not want it to be a closed, private platform that only I have access to. Digital Humanities flourish on collaboration. I hope to take it as far as I can, researching and using public outreach to compile more stories.

 

song title reference

One of the themes we’ve consistently been discussing is the idea of a Community of Practice when it comes to digital humanities and scholarship. I guess one thing about moving scholarship to the internet means that there is definitely room for more people to come in and engage with us and our projects.  That can be both a good thing and a bad thing- we open ourselves up for internet trolls and criticism, feedback we may not agree with, and more- but it also means that we can ask other digital scholars about problems we may encounter and discuss our experiences so people can learn from them.

Where do I see myself in this? Well, fun fact, I like to give hot takes about issues I have with things. Complaining is part of my modus operandi, but when you give me a chance to sit and lay out my thoughts via text (much like a blog post!), I can make it sound pretty. Also, I believe that criticizing things when you’re still learning about it advocates for fixing problems that held you back when you were still climbing the learning curve. I also find that new eyes who see a problem often can see a solution, while people who are in the middle of it are too jaded to see the solution. Don’t underestimate amateurs- they often see things you don’t. Julia commented at the PALa that even the pros learn along with us. If we break something, everyone learns how to fix it together. That’s what makes it fun!

I don’t know if I made any connections outside of Gettysburg or really in Gettysburg either. We’ll find out as things go on, mainly because I’m fully aware I’m super unobservant. I did get some Twitter followers though, but how much they care about my politics and shitposts- which might warrant an unfollow (and honestly I can’t blame them)? Good question.

R.C. mentioned during the workshop that we need to be comfortable with our online persona, but the people who follow an undergrad’s account know by now what they’re getting into. I’m comfortable with my online persona- I like my snark and memes, and I feel much more confident in that online persona like most people hiding behind a screen do. While it does reflect my internal monologue sometimes, I like to think I make some decent points once in a while. I like discussion about this as well, and discussion does head down the path of generic internet discourse complete with insult hurling. Look at political scientist Ian Bremmer’s twitter. He has this tweet pinned:

If you're not following some people you dislike, you're doing it wrong.

I'm happy to help.

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) November 24, 2016

I’ve read his book and I don’t necessarily agree with all points he makes, but I think discussion and debate can reach conclusions about problems (digital scholarship falls under that point) even though we’ve never met. I followed people on Twitter (and got followers back) from the PALa workshop, and I didn’t interact with them at all. I haven’t engaged in any discussion yet, but I’m sure I’ll find some reason to do that.

Side note: I also have a super diverse audience who came looking for different things- some want politics, others want memes, a few want indie music commentary, many are just my friends and internet friends. That’s okay, but that kinda explains why I jump around a lot. That may not be for everyone, but it’s easier than jumping on four different accounts. As if I don’t do that enough:

Now that that tangent is over, back to the criticism part I mentioned earlier- I met with Professor Egan (someone who’s helped me greatly with the art part of my project) and she commented on how a previous digital project from last year regarding art and art history was met with criticism despite her hard work to make it accurate. I responded to that comment by saying that criticism isn’t from ill intentions or designed to make you feel bad- the best you can do is learn from it, fix it if it’s merited, or engage in discussions to see if you can meet at least a compromise. I think this is mainly because different people have different learning experiences, and again, digital scholarship provides a platform to reach those compromises a lot faster than they used to be.

Good lord I went overboard on this post.  Sorry for the rambling.

-Britt

Title: Civil War Sheet Music Analysis (This will change. I need to come up with a more creative title)

Project Owner: Christina Noto

Summary:

I plan to analyze, contextualize, interpret, and compare two pieces of Civil War sheet music. I want to gain a better understanding of the use of music during the war. I will research the backgrounds of the composers, lyricist, artists and publishers. I will also research the lithographs on the cover of the sheet music. My guiding questions are why are these pieces significant and how did they impact the war effort? After the research phase of my project I plan to make a website possibly using WordPress and StoryMap JS or Omeka and Neatline. I will annotate the image and lyrics.

Bulleted list of deliverables:
• Primary Sources- Sheet music
• Secondary Sources- I have a few recommendations; I need to find more.
• Scanned copies of the sheet music.
• Understanding of Sites, WordPress, Scalar, Omeka, TimelineJS, StoryMap, Neatline, Zotero, Trillo
• Project Schedule
• Research Questions
• Mentors
• Research

Timeline for completion:

Week 3
Continue Research
Understand Music Terms
Answer research questions about the image
Look at more digital tools to potentially use

Week 4
Continue Research
Finish analyzing the image
Start analyzing the lyrics
Continue looking at potential tools, look more deeply into potential tools.

Week 5
Continue research
Finish analyzing the lyrics
Start writing
Get audio for project

Week 6
Continue writing
Start wire framing

Week 7
Finish writing
Start putting content on the website

Week 8
Wrap up all research and writing
Continue putting content on the web. Upload audio

Week 9
Work on website

Week 10
Finalize everything

End of life issues:

Ideally I would like to maintain the website, but after I graduate I think it will be difficult. I will make sure everything is a saved and I have access to make changes. If my project is extremely successful and valuable hopefully someone else will be able to maintained it after I leave. The sheet music collection has a lot of research potential- maybe a class will continue research. I really want people to continue learning from my work.

Project Name: Enjoyment of Life: A Look at Culture through Les Maîtres de l’Affiche

(title taken from “joie de vivre”)

Project Owner: Brittany Russell

Project Summary:

            My project will be an interactive analysis of twelve lithographs from Les Maîtres des l’Affiche poster collection using the collection we have in special collections. Each lithograph’s page will have a brief description of the poster and what it was for, a translation of it (if necessary) into English, any history or relevant information to the poster like influences and reference images, and notes about the artist. I would also like to put where the lithographs came from on a map and maybe put some of the information described above on a map instead. My audience will be art historians and people interested in the Belle Époque, but I want it to be more approachable and interesting to the general public as well. If it’s out there on the internet where anyone can access it, it is better to have it be easily understandable.

Deliverables:

• Twelve lithographs from Special Collections
• Secondary sources
• StoryMapJS
• WordPress or Scalar

Timeline:

• Week 2:
  • Visit lithographs in special collections
    • Note questions
    • Note observations about the pieces
  • Gather sources
• Week 3:
  • Research- Gres Emile Muller poster
    • Try to at least finish one lithograph
    • Finish meaning
      • Notations- culture, color, translations, meaning etc.
      • History
      • Artist bio
    • Week 4:
      • Research- Barcelona poster
    • Week 5:
      • Research- Gigolette poster
        • Try to have completed three lithographs by now
      • Week 6:
        • Research- Incandescenza
          • Can you sneak in another lithograph here? We’ll find out!
        • Week 7:
          • Cut research
          • Site building
        • Week 8:
          • Cleanup/editing
          • Site building
        • Week 9:
          • Cleanup/editing
          • Site building
        • Week 10:
          • Touch ups
          • Final Presentation

End of Life/Future Plans:

I would like to possibly continue this project and finish the lithograph collection at the very least. These are incredibly beautiful pieces, and from what I’ve read they’re little researched and not very talked about. Some of the sources about posters I’ve grabbed have only offhandedly mentioned Les Maitres de l’Affiche and did not actually provide any elaboration on them. Once the collection is finished I might expand it to other pieces, but since they’re their own collection I might just cut it there and tweak it in the future