This week's readings were about how to put together a web site and the pros and cons of digitising text and other data. The digitising of data and textual artifacts is an important step in preservation but also has its limitations, which are mainly in cost and skill level.
The first text read were two chapters from Daniel Cohen's textbook Digital History. Cohen gives a helpful account of how to digitise manuscripts, documents and other data as well as starting a web site and the pitfalls involved with trying to have it done professionally. He describes one as having to buy numerous computers and have them connected continuously. Then, the caretaker of these machines ''wakes from sleep worrying about power failures, hackers and computer failures'' (Cohen). Cohen makes one think about undertaking these tasks and urges one not to take them on at the advanced level as a novice, no matter how much skill one happens to possess. To build a website and then to digitise information and place it on said site would be a boon to those who wish to access the information one has accumulated. An example of this would be the British Library's digital copy of an original Beowulf manuscript from the last days of Anglo-Saxon England. Cohen states that the original is too fragile to view in real life, but many can see it on the Library's website, as well as letters in the margins, as if the monk copying the manuscript doodled slightly when on a break from copying the manuscript. This technology could be used to not only display objects where everyone can see them, but restore their digital copies to their former glory so one could see what it looked like many years before. This lends some helpful hands to research, especially for those wishing to see intricate details in the image or object that had not existed in many years. Websites are a useful tool for anyone wishing to communicate information to the rest of the world, and this can lend some validity to a professional wishing to be taken seriously in the academic world through being a jack of all trades. The writing of books and articles and the writing of websites and blogs increases the number of readers of the professional's work. Websites, despite their cost are a useful tool.
The second work read was a blog on a website known as ProfHacker by a guest named Miriam Posner. The subject of this blog was the creation of an online presence for academics. It is a useful tool for the absolute novice with no knowledge of building a website as Ms. Posner goes through the process slowly, step by step, and gives good examples that everyone has heard of. Examples of this are when Ms. Posner mentions Google Profile, and how to make one, Twitter and LinkedIn. She even mentions Academia.edu, a ''social networking site for academics.'' What Ms. Posner does is give a starting point in making an online presence and getting your foot in the door, digitally speaking. This is a clever idea in that by doing this, one can hope to network when trying to find a new position, a patron for a new work, or just someone to take the professional seriously. This can lead to one building their own website when the notoriety comes or when the professional wishes to advance their work to the next level. Ms. Posner's work was free from vexing jargon and was simple to follow. It contained some surprising facts, such as Twitter being used in the academic world. She states that it allows one to ''follow'' another's work and receive updates on future work. A surprisingly helpful article.
The third work read was an article by Jeffrey Zeldman on ''Understanding Web Design.'' This article thoroughly got on my nerves. Mr. Zeldman wrote this under the impression that his readers already had some knowledge of web design. Jargon floats around like an evil spirit and the article is rigid and unhelpful until the last part, titled ''She Walks In Beauty.'' This part is helpful to a degree and even then it's only through similes such as ''Great web designs are like great buildings. All office buildings, however distinctive, have lobbies and bathrooms and staircases.'' The article is pretentious babble. What I could get from the site is the message of ''Make your design unique.'' This helps when trying to get others to study your work. When one visits a site, they do not wish to see something that they have seen a thousand times before; they wish to see something new. This ''something new'' helps to entice people onto the site and into your work. A unique site is a must for an academic professional.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Thursday, September 12, 2013
reaction to reading for 18 September, 2013
The two readings that I undertook to read were two documents that sought to explain the upside and downside of geographical data. This was, to me, a bare bones compare and contrast session with HGIS emerging as the victor, but not totally.
The first reading I was charged with was an interesting and entertaining piece called ''How Maps Lie'' by Ms. Leah Fleckenstein. This passage explained the shortcomings of traditional maps, especially in the United States. From personal experience, European maps are better and more detailed, but, as Ms. Fleckenstein stated, ''their countries are smaller'' (Fleckenstein 37). These shortcomings are truly expressed, such as the cartographers tendency to distort maps in favour of their own lands or to show a certain situation, such as the Jewish map of Israel in the Middle East surrounded by black, ''hostile'' Arab nations. Maps are only as good as you make them and only if you are willing to make them for a purpose, be it exploration or the acquisition of money. This reading was entertaining and straight-forward in its writing, yet was still informative.
The second reading undertaken was Jordi Marti-Henneberg's ''Georaphical Information Systems and the Study of History. This reading was academic and very informative on how HGIS can be used effectively in the world of historical scholarship. One of the best examples of this was the mentioned website, Vision of Britain. This website is quite a useful tool for comparing the older and newer maps of Britain. I went on and found myself looking at an 1805 map of Britain, showing the ridings of Yorkshire and defunct counties such as Westmoreland, Rutland and Flintshire in Wales. This kind of HGIS site is better for resource gathering for use in a site of one's own. The reading goes on to state that the melding of history and geography began with the philosopher Emmanuel Kant and his data separation scheme and how the two disciplines were divided until more recently when computerised maps began to become available. The passage then goes on to give examples of countries compiling their own HGIS maps of the railways and their effect on the density of the population of different cities. This is the most useful part of HGIS in that it shows how an area was settled and over so many years without having to go through cumbersome tomes of information on when the railways were first built and then going through censuses. HGIS data mapping is the way towards telling the history of whole nations as well as the smallest towns through visual representation, something that everyone can grasp.
Reaction to Reading 9/12/2013 apologies for tardiness
The readings I was charged with completing this week were about the usage of maps and mapping technology in the expression of history. This technology is frightfully useful in the expression of an historical argument or point of view and, combined with historical facts and/or a summary, could explain what a book would take 400 pages to explain.
The first reading was a blog post from Tim Hitchcock. Apart from the blog being a rather irritating and vexing read due to the changing of context, but that is just from my perspective. Mr. Hitchcock does a decent job of explaining each tool that could come of use to any historian or amateur, such as Ngram viewer and the ''Locating London's Past'' webpage to name a couple of examples. The latter is one that I tried and played with for a moment and found it quite useful. It shows the 1746 map of London and when one enters street view, as on Google Maps, one finds oneself in modern London, and how much the city has changed. They must have one for the industrial centre of the north, Manchester and how the city exploded in 250 years. These kinds of tools can be used to locate, with some accuracy, ancient historic sites, such as Iron Age villages or Roman ruins within the boundaries of the city without digging and excavation and the possibility of damaging the ruins with construction. This technology could not only tell a story in a different light but could also save bits of the past.
The second reading done was Richard White's ''What is Spatial History?'' on the Stanford University website. Mr. White launches an interesting study of spatial history beginning with William Cronon's map of the US and the travel time zones, first from New York and later from Chicago as the railways grew from Chicago. I read the book that this map was first printed in and this is a good way of showing the growth of not only the railways in America but also the growth of Chicago's prominence over New York. This is important but with a drawback: one must have the pertinent information to accompany the map, or the map itself will be seen as completely useless or difficult to understand. Other technologies that Mr. White writes about in his interesting and easy-to-read article are a flight path map by a Mr. Aaron Koblin, which is quite useful and interesting and the common county land survey map. These examples, like the interactive maps and programmes elaborated on by Mr. Hitchcock, are also useful for telling a story of how history affected space, quite a pertinent bit of information when studying how each state got their boundaries or even how countries got their boundaries or how much the landscape was altered by farming an westward expansion. These tools could, soon, have an interactive map of America showing its lands' different stages over time as humans changed it, from the Indians to the modern day man.
The third and final reading of this week was Mr. Todd Presner's article on HyperCities. The article as a whole sounded as if he were a salesman peddling a type of wonder tonic off the back of a wagon. It read, simply, as a sales pitch. Aside from this one fact, the article is detailed on what HyperCities are and how they are used. HyperCities is a computer programme that allows the user to explore a city or another urban area in ''layers'' or, levels of the city over time. This is similar to the tool that the Smithsonian has to view modern maps with a glass that allows one to see an older map and to see the difference time produces. I visited the HyperCities website and read a bit about the programme and this seems as if it would be useful more for finding old sites and ruins than the previous technology mentioned above. To peel away, or add, layers to a city means to find the city's past and present and to, along with historical fact, paint a picture of how the city formed and decayed over the years. A useful bit of kit.
The first reading was a blog post from Tim Hitchcock. Apart from the blog being a rather irritating and vexing read due to the changing of context, but that is just from my perspective. Mr. Hitchcock does a decent job of explaining each tool that could come of use to any historian or amateur, such as Ngram viewer and the ''Locating London's Past'' webpage to name a couple of examples. The latter is one that I tried and played with for a moment and found it quite useful. It shows the 1746 map of London and when one enters street view, as on Google Maps, one finds oneself in modern London, and how much the city has changed. They must have one for the industrial centre of the north, Manchester and how the city exploded in 250 years. These kinds of tools can be used to locate, with some accuracy, ancient historic sites, such as Iron Age villages or Roman ruins within the boundaries of the city without digging and excavation and the possibility of damaging the ruins with construction. This technology could not only tell a story in a different light but could also save bits of the past.
The second reading done was Richard White's ''What is Spatial History?'' on the Stanford University website. Mr. White launches an interesting study of spatial history beginning with William Cronon's map of the US and the travel time zones, first from New York and later from Chicago as the railways grew from Chicago. I read the book that this map was first printed in and this is a good way of showing the growth of not only the railways in America but also the growth of Chicago's prominence over New York. This is important but with a drawback: one must have the pertinent information to accompany the map, or the map itself will be seen as completely useless or difficult to understand. Other technologies that Mr. White writes about in his interesting and easy-to-read article are a flight path map by a Mr. Aaron Koblin, which is quite useful and interesting and the common county land survey map. These examples, like the interactive maps and programmes elaborated on by Mr. Hitchcock, are also useful for telling a story of how history affected space, quite a pertinent bit of information when studying how each state got their boundaries or even how countries got their boundaries or how much the landscape was altered by farming an westward expansion. These tools could, soon, have an interactive map of America showing its lands' different stages over time as humans changed it, from the Indians to the modern day man.
The third and final reading of this week was Mr. Todd Presner's article on HyperCities. The article as a whole sounded as if he were a salesman peddling a type of wonder tonic off the back of a wagon. It read, simply, as a sales pitch. Aside from this one fact, the article is detailed on what HyperCities are and how they are used. HyperCities is a computer programme that allows the user to explore a city or another urban area in ''layers'' or, levels of the city over time. This is similar to the tool that the Smithsonian has to view modern maps with a glass that allows one to see an older map and to see the difference time produces. I visited the HyperCities website and read a bit about the programme and this seems as if it would be useful more for finding old sites and ruins than the previous technology mentioned above. To peel away, or add, layers to a city means to find the city's past and present and to, along with historical fact, paint a picture of how the city formed and decayed over the years. A useful bit of kit.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Reaction to Reading 7 September-Digital History
The exciting, new world of data and text data mining was the subject of the three works I was charged with reading this time. Another topic was a visual representation of history, an important aspect in any sort of pedagogical tool, but more on that later.
The first text read was the venerable Daniel Cohen's article ''From Babel to Knowledge.'' The article begins with an allusion to a Borges short story about being stuck in a colossal, confusing library. Cohen gives well detailed examples, some of which I searched on my own computer to find that they either were shut down or that I hadn't the knowledge to work them. This brings me to the main gripe about Cohen's article; it is not user-friendly. The tools that he advertises, I suppose, are user-friendly yet the article selling them is not. Syllabus Finder seems to be an invaluable tool, according to Cohen, in that it sorts through the Web for relevant topics for syllabi. This tool could also come in handy when performing research on a certain, narrowed topic in that the search engine is really just doing the tedious library work for you. H-Bot was another mentioned and I actually tried this one and it gave me no results. In theory, it is supposed to be labour-saving, yet I am sceptical of this particular tool. Cohen overvalues the importance of H-Bot, I feel, especially when speaking of the version not available to the public that answers multiple choice questions. The rest of the article is a call for action on digital history being available in a smoother, sleeker form. His two most relevant points are that the information needs to be quality and that information that is free, even though not perfect, is still golden. When explaining his tools, Cohen uses jargon and 'techno-babble' and does not take into consideration those who are not technically savvy.
The second text read was a blog by Ted Underwood entitled ''Where to Start for Text Mining.'' The blog was set up in a simply put, outline of frequently asked questions and the author's personal experience and what he did in certain situations. It was also simply written so that most folk could understand it; compared to Cohen's article, it was a breath of fresh air. Underwood give many examples of tools to institute text mining such as Python and Ngram Viewer by Google. Ngram Viewer is also mentioned in the third work and that is when I gave it a trial run and found it to be immensely helpful. An example I used was 'George Washington.' I saw, that most writing about George Washington almost kept a constant high, but Thomas Jefferson spiked in the 1840s and then went down. He also begins at the beginning by stating the question ''How difficult is it to get started?'' Underwood gives an easy-to-understand walkthrough and even has links to the tools mentioned, such as the Data for Research API. He also describes what to do with the quantitative elements, which is useful for any novice. These methods could, as he stated, determine much more than ploughing through mounds of books for weeks on end and it is in a format that others can understand easily.
The third text read was John Theibault's article ''Visualizations and Historical Arguments.'' This article was where I first used Ngram Viewer ( a very reliable piece of software) and where I was introduced to other tools for visual data presentation, such as Mashimoto's Nuclear Test Map from 1945-2008. Theibault explains, in poor organisation and structure of the article, the importance of visual representations in history, beginning with heraldry and royal lineage charts and ending at histograms and box plots. The box plots are most easily understood, and the most basic form of visualisaton I would use in that it represents the illusion of time as humans understand it. The Cartogram and Choropleth are things to avoid and even Theibault himself speaks warily of them due to their tendency to distort data. Gapminder, the Swedish programme, is another I experimented with and found the per capita GDP, life expectancy and population all in one chart and found the other tab functions to be helpful as well. Theibault's faith is not misplaced in his tools.
The first text read was the venerable Daniel Cohen's article ''From Babel to Knowledge.'' The article begins with an allusion to a Borges short story about being stuck in a colossal, confusing library. Cohen gives well detailed examples, some of which I searched on my own computer to find that they either were shut down or that I hadn't the knowledge to work them. This brings me to the main gripe about Cohen's article; it is not user-friendly. The tools that he advertises, I suppose, are user-friendly yet the article selling them is not. Syllabus Finder seems to be an invaluable tool, according to Cohen, in that it sorts through the Web for relevant topics for syllabi. This tool could also come in handy when performing research on a certain, narrowed topic in that the search engine is really just doing the tedious library work for you. H-Bot was another mentioned and I actually tried this one and it gave me no results. In theory, it is supposed to be labour-saving, yet I am sceptical of this particular tool. Cohen overvalues the importance of H-Bot, I feel, especially when speaking of the version not available to the public that answers multiple choice questions. The rest of the article is a call for action on digital history being available in a smoother, sleeker form. His two most relevant points are that the information needs to be quality and that information that is free, even though not perfect, is still golden. When explaining his tools, Cohen uses jargon and 'techno-babble' and does not take into consideration those who are not technically savvy.
The second text read was a blog by Ted Underwood entitled ''Where to Start for Text Mining.'' The blog was set up in a simply put, outline of frequently asked questions and the author's personal experience and what he did in certain situations. It was also simply written so that most folk could understand it; compared to Cohen's article, it was a breath of fresh air. Underwood give many examples of tools to institute text mining such as Python and Ngram Viewer by Google. Ngram Viewer is also mentioned in the third work and that is when I gave it a trial run and found it to be immensely helpful. An example I used was 'George Washington.' I saw, that most writing about George Washington almost kept a constant high, but Thomas Jefferson spiked in the 1840s and then went down. He also begins at the beginning by stating the question ''How difficult is it to get started?'' Underwood gives an easy-to-understand walkthrough and even has links to the tools mentioned, such as the Data for Research API. He also describes what to do with the quantitative elements, which is useful for any novice. These methods could, as he stated, determine much more than ploughing through mounds of books for weeks on end and it is in a format that others can understand easily.
The third text read was John Theibault's article ''Visualizations and Historical Arguments.'' This article was where I first used Ngram Viewer ( a very reliable piece of software) and where I was introduced to other tools for visual data presentation, such as Mashimoto's Nuclear Test Map from 1945-2008. Theibault explains, in poor organisation and structure of the article, the importance of visual representations in history, beginning with heraldry and royal lineage charts and ending at histograms and box plots. The box plots are most easily understood, and the most basic form of visualisaton I would use in that it represents the illusion of time as humans understand it. The Cartogram and Choropleth are things to avoid and even Theibault himself speaks warily of them due to their tendency to distort data. Gapminder, the Swedish programme, is another I experimented with and found the per capita GDP, life expectancy and population all in one chart and found the other tab functions to be helpful as well. Theibault's faith is not misplaced in his tools.
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