Reflections

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Timeline JS

The digital tool I will be focusing on in this reflection is Timeline JS. It is a free, comprehensive yet simple timeline-creation tool that allows you to easily incorporate a variety of forms of documentation (videos, images, audio, maps, etc) by simply pasting the link to your desired media and all other information into a straightforward spreadsheet. Aside from your own text, all images and videos have to be linked from other parts of the internet, so you will need to make sure that the source has given permission to use their material. Usable sources, according to the Timeline JS website, include “Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, Vimeo, Vine, Dailymotion, Google Maps, Wikipedia, Soundcloud, Document Cloud, and more!” While some of these—like Vine—no longer exist, the list is still a good indication of the variety of materials that can be incorporated into your timeline. The completed spreadsheet is then immediately converted into a timeline that you can embed into your website by simply copying and pasting a link.

After your timeline has been created, you can continue to alter it in the spreadsheet and all changes will be applied to your already-made timeline; you can update the spreadsheet then immediately see your changes by refreshing the Timeline’s page. You can assume that anyone using this tool is primarily looking to create an interactive timeline. While you can incorporate a map into the program, there are probably better tools out there if mapping is your focus. I also find it very easy to use, and made a first draft of a timeline for my own project right after learning about it that I was pretty pleased with.

Using Timeline JS, you end up with a visually appealing timeline that allows you to control everything from the background imagery to the appearance of text and size of desired media without being overwhelming. Similar programs that I looked at had superfluous add-ons and options that just didn’t interest me. I am definitely planning on incorporating this digital ­tool into my own project to give an interactive overview of the origin and history of visual novel games.

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Unity

Uinty

Hello Everyone,

Today I will introduce one of my digital tools that I will be using for my project. The digital tool I am using is called Unity. Unity is the real-time cross-platform development engine that creates 2D, 3D, VR, and AR contents. There are different AR engines, but I chose Unity for many reasons.

One of the main reasons is that I already have experience in developing programs in Unity. I have taken a class with Unity development in Gettysburg College and also I have worked with Unity last year to create a VR content during the DTSF Fellowship. Of course, some might ask why have not try to diversify my skills and try other tools. I have looked at other tools and I have checked that Unity has a very good support to create AR content, so that will help me to easier build my application. Also, because of time constraint of 8 weeks, I know I do not have a lot of time, so I can not waste time on just exploring tools without working on my main project.

Another important reason is that Unity is free for developers who are not earning money for building the Unity project for $100,000 per year. For my project, I am able to use the free version of Unity and still be able to use the full capability of Unity. Because Unity is free, then this tool is open and  accessible for anyone to use it, without excluding anyone. Unity is also sharing collaboration value, as you can share your project with other users and collaborate with them using the Unity Teams function under Unity Collaborate. However, the downside is that for the free version, only maximum of 3 users can collaborate with only 1GB cloud storage, you can increase the cloud storage to 25GB for $9 per month.

Furthermore, many software development kits (SDKs) for AR development are used in Unity. Unity is a platform that is hosting diverse tools that I can use to create AR content. So I am not limited to only what Unity is providing, but I can also implement different projects to Unity.

There is, however, a limitation to my tool as AR is still a new product, so there are not many tutorials out there for me to watch and learn. So I will have to learn on my own. Fortunately,  Unity has a big community that is willing to help and provide hints once I need any help. I can use the Unity Forum and one of the Unity experts can help me with a problem.

Another limitation is that if I would like to create my own scripts, I can only use 3 scripting languages: C#, JavaScript, or Boo. Unity is very up to date and is updating almost every month. However, there can also be problems when creating a project in different versions of Unity, because they might be not compatible, so then the projects might not load in different versions, so I have to be careful with that.

But as I said, I will use this digital tool for my project, because of many pros (and cons)  that I have provided. I hope after experimenting with Unity, I will be able to master some skills essential for my project.

Have a good weekend,

JHA

 

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Project Charter – Hoang Anh Just

Project Name

  • The Change of Gettysburg College Campus over Time

Project Owner

  • Hoang Anh Just

Project Summary

  • My project is a development of Augmented Reality mobile application with a content of Gettysburg College Campus. The application will recognize college buildings and will provide the specific information/facts about corresponding buildings and will show the changes of the buildings at a given time.

Research Question

  • How has the Gettysburg College campus has changed over time? What were significant changes for the campus that affected its members?

Scope of project

  • I intend to start very small. I will start with Pennsylvania Hall, and once I will be able to do it and be comfortable with my tools, I will increase the scope of my project to more buildings.

Audience

  • My main audience will be members of Gettysburg College (mostly students, staff, and faculty). For people who are interested in Gettysburg College campus and would like always to learn more about it in a fun way.

Deliverables

  • Photos/Videos of College Campus
  • Information/Facts about Gettysburg College Campus
  • AR application for IOS/Android
  • WordPress with TimeLineJS or StoryMapJS
  • StoryMapJS

Timeline

  • Week 1:  early research about GC campus and best AR app platform
  • Week 2: starting to learn AP platforms and starting to researching on one buildings
  • Week 3: finding more specific information and photos, make simple ar applications
  • Week 4: finish researching and understanding research, make more advanced ar apps, halftime re-checking goals
  • Week 5: starting application and adding historical content
  • Week 6: finishing up the application and work on design
  • Week 7: test your application and work on presentation
  • Week 8: presentation practice and done?

End of Life/Future Plans

  • As I know this project is very big to make on my own. So in future, I would like to improve the application to increase the scope of the project. I would like other members of our school also be involved and to contribute to the project so it will be even more complete. The project will not only focus on buildings but also on different aspects in our school.
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Name: Visual Novels as a form of digital literature/storytelling

Owner: Emmarie Toppan

Summary: Create a platform that presents and discuss visual novels and their place in digital humanities as a medium that combines video games and literature

  • How do visual novels immerse you in interactive stories and differ from other kinds of video games and storytelling mediums?
  • Talk about what a visual novel is, criticism of the genre, origins/past/present future, levels of interactive storytelling, educational uses for visual novels, top genres (like nakige and why it’s important), Japan and anime, are they actually video games?, do they actually qualify as literature?, Japanese influence in the West, VNs from around the world, lemmasoft forms and all the homemade VNs (programs like twine), Mobile VNs
  • Would like to create a website that presents all of this information in an interactive and organized way, including an interactive timeline and maybe an archive of less sketchy games
  • Audience: people who enjoy video games and/or literature and want to see how they can be successfully combined

Deliverables:

  • Primary sources (gaming platforms)
  • Articles and essays (resources/references)
  • Images/screencaps of games and gameplay
  • Timeline tool, maybe data analysis as well? (rise in popularity)
  • WordPress

 

Timeline:

 

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8
List of resources List of articles Create timeline Collect images Complete visualization Project draft Final project presentation
  Project charter Read all articles Start implementing wireframe        
    Wireframes completed          

 

End of Life/Future Plans: As the realm of Visual Novels develops and evolves with the video game industry I’d like to keep the website up to date. If I do end up making an archive I’ll have an option for people to submit titles that aren’t already included, so I would monitor that as well. I’d hope that website and its information would evolve along with the field it represents.
– something to show future employers (maybe)

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Project Charter – Erik Carneal

Project Name

  • “Political Media Bias articles and broadcasts before the 2016 Elections in Adams County.”

Project Owner

  • By: Erik Channing Carneal

Project Summary

  • This project will analyze news articles and news broadcasts related to the 2016 presidential elections, particlualry by Adams County news sources. With these articles, I will create a timeline of them leading up the 2016 election in Adams County. I will use text anylasis by use of Voyant to show what words were used most in the report. At the end of the timeline will be the 2016 Adams County election results, and an analysis on how these bias reports contributed to the these polls. This type bias reporting is a threat to democracy and threatens the idea of free political thinking. My audience is for any scholar looking to research political media and how political media can be good for or a threat to democracy. This is also for anyone looking to learn more about political journalism in general.

Deliverables

  1. I will need to use WordPress to layout the design of my website.
  2. I will need to use a text analysis software that I like, such as Amenity.
  3. I will need to find number of articles that exemplify bias media.
  4. I will use TimelineJs to timeline the articles
  5. I will use Voyant Tools to analyis the articles
  6. I will use STATA datasets to research election results.

Timeline

Week 2: Project Charter Due

  • Complete Project Charter.
  • Gather local news sources.
  • Complete an annotated bibliography by Friday.

Week 3: Wireframes due on Friday, June 21st.

  • Start and finish wireframes.
  • Find best video and text sources. Get rid of ones unused.
  • Start to develop a digital timeline.

Week 4: Text Analysis and Video Analysis due by Friday, June 28th.

  • Complete text analysis.
  • Complete video analysis.

Week 5: Category Visualization due by Friday, July 5th.

  • Finish wordpress layout and incorporate timeline into wordpress.
  • Finish “about” section.

Week 6: Project Draft due by Friday, July 12th

  • Finish project draft.
  • Clean up any final touches on wordpress.

Week 7: Final Project Link due by Friday, July 19th

  • Complete project.
  • Prepare for presentation.

Week 8:

  • Present project.

End of Life/Future Plans

    • The plan for the project after the fellowship. Will the project continue on in some form? Who will continue to work on it? How will it be preserved
    • After my project is complete, I plan to use this as a starting point in further research I would like to complete. I plan to use this project as a reference in future projects, even beyond graduation. I hope that this project can be preserved in the Library website.
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Project Charter

Project Name: Constructing the Past

Project By: Maci Mark

Project Summary: Constructing the Past is a study of 3 buildings on campus and the coming together of the people who lived in them, the college, the community and the intersection and influence of the architecture. Each building 227 Carlisle Street, 250 Carlisle Street, and Brua Hall have a unique history that also reflects the changes that took place in Gettysburg over time. These buildings are similar in many ways, but are also vastly different in their connection to the college, their original purpose, and how their purpose has changed over time. Buildings and their architecture reflect changes in a community and changes over time, this project will show that. This will culminate in a website that shows these buildings past and current uses, and draws together the community connections.

Deliverables: In order for this projected to be completed I will need access to 227 Carlisle Street, 250 Carlisle Street, and Brua Hall, primary sources from Special Collections and Adams County Historical Society, and digital tools such as scalar, TimelinesJS, and WordPress to create a website.

Project Timeline:

Week 1: I will begin contacting people about different resources

Week 2: Start doing research into the different buildings, make plans to go to County Recorder of Deeds and Adams County Historical Society, Project Charter Due

Week 3: Go to Adams County Historical Society and County Recorder of Deeds, Wireframes due

Week 4: Start narrowing down information

Week 5: Work on organizing information and building website

Week 6: Document 227 Carlisle Street, Project Draft Due

Week 7: Add recently acquired information, Final Project due

Week 8: Present

Future Plans: This project will be preserved in the state it is in at the end of the summer, but there is the potential for more to be added to it in the future.

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Project Charter -Emma Poff

Project Name: Populism and Human Rights Violations in Southeast Asia

Project Owner: Emma Poff

Project Summary: I would like to create an interactive website for a general somewhat educated audience to learn about Southeast Asian countries and how their citizens are affected by populist influence. Viewers will be able to read through brief histories of four countries (Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Thailand) and their different leaders. I hope to show a correlation between populism within these four countries’ governments and human rights violations against its citizens.

Research Questions:

To what extent has the spread of populism within Southeastern Asian countries caused more frequent and possibly larger-scaled human rights violations against targeted individuals or groups?

What are the different types of populism?

Why is Southeast Asian populism so different from Western world populism?

Deliverables: My project will have multiple pages with attached links as well as navigation controls that allow the viewer to click through different histories and sources. I would like to place an interactive map on my general page with links that take viewers to the four chosen countries, each with their own individual interactive timelines. My hope is to link past events to current problems with human rights scandals.

Timeline: 

Week 2:

Learn WordPress, learn mapping tools, learn timeline tools, complete project charter; read books on populism (find a definition), decide on which countries to start research

Week 3:

Learn Scalar, learn text analysis tools, form rough drafts of timelines for each country, wireframes due

Week 4:

Begin creating WordPress page (About and General Homepage), create a map, Go to PCLA

Week 5:

Find firsthand accounts, work on timelines, visualizations due

Week 6:

Add in media, firsthand accounts, pictures, social media page? Draft due

Week 7:

Finishing touches, check links, ensure flow for viewers, polish appearance, Projects due

Week 8:

Work on presentation, PRESENT

End of Life/Future Plans: I hope to leave my website open to collaboration from others with the hopes of getting the chance to occasionally update timelines for incoming events from the news and later world reports.

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Project Charter

Project Name:  Bridging the Gap: A History of College-Community Partnership

Project Owner: Michaela Crow

Project Summary: This project intends to explore the evolving community partnership between Gettysburg College and Adams County, primarily through the Center for Public Service and the Chapel program that preceded it. This will be achieved by highlighting the service programs which have bridged the divide between college and community.

Research question: How has the community partnership between Gettysburg College and the greater Adams County community evolved over time? What are the service projects between the two that have defined the last century and what has their impact been?

Project Scope: Over the eight-week period, I hope to create a timeline exploring the service projects led by the Chapel and Center for Public Service in Adams County with a potential additional page for service led by the Greek community. I intend to link the timeline to pages describing the service project in depth with supplemental photos and articles from the Gettysburgian. I would also like to provide a platform for community members to record their own experiences with the programs.

Audience: Gettysburg College students and Adams County community members that have been affected by this history of partnership or are researching the College’s history of community service

Deliverables:

Scalar – platform

TimelineJS

The description page of service projects – photos, history

Oral Histories: Vannorsdall, Mattson, Olinger, etc.

Article from Gettysburgian online archive

Special Collections – manuscripts, Junto, etc.

Images from CPS – digitize

Timeline:

Week 2: Project charter due Friday morning

Compile relevant dates from CPS timeline

Decide on service projects images needed from CPS

Research in Archives – 1 box done

Week 3: Wireframes due Friday morning

Select and digitize images from CPS

Create a timeline of public service

Week 4:

Connect Timeline to titled pages

Write descriptions and contextualize

Website homepage drafter

Week 5:

Have a timeline and images finalized

½ of connected pages done

Week 6: Project Draft Due Friday

Complete about/summary page

Have peer review work

Draft of the project finished

Week 7: Final Project due Friday

Final edits completed

Reexamine all pages for errors

Week 8: Presentation week

Prepare for presentation

Practice presenting to audience

End of Life/Future Plans

Due to the nature of the project, there is clear opportunity to continue updating the timeline with community programs which emerge over time. Additionally, the project will ideally carry on through crowd-sourced reflections and experiences related to service programs described. Following my graduation, the project could be continued by CPS or left in a final form updated till 2019. The project will continue to be preserved on the college’s website.

 

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What is my DH? -Emma Poff

Based off of our group discussion on DH, I think my digital humanities project will use digital tools like interactive timelines and maps on a website to teach and educate my particular audience on both current issues as well as the history of specific countries. Through using different tools within my website, I plan to not just try to educate viewers but, to also create a collaborative space for discussion and additional information. I want to interact with my viewers who may know information beyond my research or who would just like an open conversation using social media or blog posts to talk about current issues. My entire Digital Humanities project has the main goal to bring to light hidden problems within specific countries that the media does not always report. Because my own research will be condensed into seven weeks, I hope people will use my website to expand on ideas. By centering my project around collaboration, I think I am using the characteristics we discussed as a group when defining Digital Humanities.

Another characteristic from our discussion of Digital Humanities that I plan to exemplify in my project would be ensuring my website is viewable for anyone with access to the internet. With more and more websites requiring subscriptions to view certain pages or research engines with viewing only for academics, the average individual not within an institution has trouble deciphering good information from the bad. I want to use the resources Musselman Library offers to broadcast world problems to the people that need to know it the most. This open access supports the characteristic of openness within our understanding of Digital Humanities.

In addition to collaboration and openness, I would like to apply the DH characteristic of diversity in my project in hopes that people who learn differently will find my website helpful. For those who prefer timelines and lists of facts, I believe my interactive timeline will help them grasp a better understanding of human rights violations in the reported countries I examine. My map will be useful for those who prefer learning visually when locating where the issues occur. Some further goals I have for my website would be videos and audio reporting instances where citizens within a country experienced a loss of rights. This addition will help my auditory learners.

Digital Humanities is most important to me because of the way it offers an outlet for both academia and the average internet user to interact and have important conversations. Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed just how many humans are led by misinformation and a lack of research. When a majority of a particular population makes decisions and forms opinions without some general level of understanding of history and current events, human rights violations centered around discrimination of the minority occur. I hope to show the point of views that tend to be lost and unmentioned to try and attempt to do my own part to protect basic rights.

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My DH

When I first applied for the Digital Scholarship Summer Fellowship in the Spring, my perception of the Digital Humanities was fairly narrow. When friends and family asked about my summer plans, my explanation of the Digital Humanities went something like: “Oh, it’s humanities research, like history, but put on a website instead of just in paper form.” While this explanation wasn’t wrong, per se, it was certainly a surface level definition that failed to explain some of the key components of DH. Following our discussions of the Digital Humanities as well as Amanda Visconti’s article “A Digital Humanities What, Why, & How,”there has been a marked shift in my perception of DH.

In her article, Visconti stresses the importance of community and values in DH. These values include accessibility, public participation and collaboration, and critical thinking. I was personally struck by DH’s relationship with social justice. In better understanding these values shift, my view of DH has broadened. This was clear this past weekend, when I was celebrating my younger brother’s graduation with my extended family. Naturally, my family wanted to know more about my summer plans. In my explanations, I found that I had a new sense of confidence in explaining my own project as well as how it fit into the larger scheme of DH. With this in mind, I know that my understanding of DH will only continue to grow and evolve across the next 7 weeks, as the other fellows and I progress through our future projects and workshops.

To explain my own project briefly, I plan to create a timeline exploring the partnership of service between Gettysburg College and the greater Adams County community over time. While the specific details of the project will develop as I learn more tools and begin more extensive research, defining and thinking more deeply about DH has also had a great influence on the components I want to prioritize in my project. For one thing, there should be an opportunity for community collaboration in my site. This may be giving viewers the opportunity to submit their stories of how specific programs impacted them or something else entirely. Nevertheless, I think that the opportunity for wider participation and knowledge is important for such a project. Additionally, our discussions have led me to think more deeply about accessibility. Yes, by nature of being on the internet my site will be more accessible than any research paper I’ve written to date, however, this isn’t thinking far enough. Layout colors, language, and accessibility to mobiles and tablets can also influence who can view your project and are important to consider when designing my project. For example, there is a large Spanish speaking population in the Adams County community I would not want to exclude. Will google translate be enough to accurately convey my research findings?

Overall, I’m very excited to learn more about and become a part of a community with so much potential for information sharing and collaboration.

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