If someone asked me to list the best books I've read this week, "Maps, Graphs and Trees" would be at the top of the list. Primarily because its the only book I read this week. As one who is not typically thrilled with the topic of literature, there wasn't a ton that truly captured my attention about this book. I do really enjoy Maps, Graphs and Trees but I did not anticipate that discussion of maps, graphs and trees. Still I found it somewhat interesting to look at novels in such a manner. I also enjoyed looking at the historical analysis of the novels genres popularity and the seeming "death" of genres in British novel sales. I wonder if that is still occurring today and that data would compare if you looked at a similar country such as France. My guess is it'd be pretty similar until the countries had major events that totally shifted life in those countries. The author did get at that when he mentioned the impact of the French Revolution and other major events throughout the first section of the book. Although he liked to point out that we often look at one major event or person in history. I personally feel like you have to do that because that major event or person creates a major impact on the "average/ normal everyday activities" that were alluded too. Certainly the French Revolution or the Rise of someone like Hitler or Stalin impacted the everyday lives of the people in France, Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. Certainly the events are related. The major changes in those countries certainly impacted the novels being written. That is both in terms of censorship and overall experience of the writer whether it is consciously or subconsciously impacts their writing. I think that ultimately leads to the trends we saw from Genres dying. As country's events shift, so does the persona and experience of writers and readers. On an unrelated side note, I think this data would be a bit more interested today as we have much higher literacy rates. If were truly looking for meaningful data about everyday people pre 1900, I don't believe the topic/ sales of novels is the best choice and many folks either couldn't read or did not have the luxury of reading available to them. Nevertheless, I guess this book did spark some type of reaction from me. One of the other tid bits I thought was pretty interesting was the analysis of a village and the literary map. As one who loves a good map, I appreciated the thought out leaving the village, then coming home to create the circular map. I think maps and mapping is something that is often too overlooked or forgotten about in 2017. The Idea of a literary map never came to my mind as I'm not floored by much literature but I thought this was a unique way to view the story and in some respects similar to what we'd discussed in previous classes about how a DH project asks how can I present this information in a way that is MORE beneficial to the viewer? How can I enhance the viewers experience and I certainly think those maps are one way to do just that.
T-Minus 24 hours till more Digital Humanities, Adam
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Well as a Linganore graduate it is hard to believe that Mr. Crum is still teaching at the school! But also kind of cool as he's one of the last teachers that have been there for generations of students. Although I never had him I still thought it was neat to have come full circle.
Now coming into this class I knew very little about computer programing. Leaving the class, I may have taken my first step up an Everest like hike of beginning to understand computer programming. Needless to say I am grateful for the ease of use of many of our current operating systems. The phrase ignorance is bliss is vastly over used but I think it is very appropriate here. As far as being tech savvy, I am fairly confident in my skills. However, understanding the inner workings of programing is something that I have absolutely no background in whatsoever. Aside from several of my friends changing careers to pursue a boot camp like programming program, I had little to no knowledge of how these programs actually ran walking into class. It certainly was not possible to walk away with much of an understanding of such a vast and growing field in a matter of minutes. Yet I did walk away very curious. It was nice to finally see/ control what the program was actually searching for. There were certainly times throughout the class that I thought of potential ideas of what could happen. Not specifically related to my future project or really anything within my skill set, but nevertheless I could certainly ponder what could be done. I can't begin to imagine the amount of work that went into creating the programming that I am currently enjoying. Still I thought it was quite useful- at least to be exposed to. I likened the experience to operating a car. Just about everyone has the ability to drive a car, even if they are terrible drivers. The same can be said for operating a computer. Just about everyone has that ability- minus my dad and grandma who are fiercely staying glued to their 1980's view of technology and the world. However, not everybody has the ability to work on a car and truly understand how it runs. Certainly I can identify a few key parts and even identify when some of the parts are not functioning correctly. But to truly understand the workings of the combustion engine you need to find someone else. I felt like it was that same way with the workings of a computer program. I can sure use one, just like I can sure drive a car. But when it comes to fixing said computer program or car, I'm going to need to phone a friend. Still it is very useful to know a little bit about the engine of your car, just as it is to understand a bit about programming. If nothing else it forces one to walk away appreciating everything that our current programs can do. If I were to have to attempt to create the program that would make my Vietnam Timeline project I don't think I'd earn a very respectable mark in this class-or have a functioning timeline. Lucky for me everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and for that I'll rely on others strengths of having built these programs, so I can apply my strengths to create something that is somewhat useful. Spark notes version: programming = quite intimidating, a little cool and a whole new world that I will probably never truly understand. Adam Since our blog topic was quite open ended this week I thought it would be helpful to just put some of my thoughts about my potential project on paper. Goals, difficulties, process and all that good stuff that way I have a concrete direction.
Goals: I was hoping to create a quite unique experience of the Vietnam War. I feel like books, slide shows, videos all do a good job of showing aspects of the war. But I kept coming back to the idea of how can DH make that information most effective and used in a different manner for the viewer. I believe that using a map with layered years and various pin points of events give the viewer a unique way to analyze the war itself. It'd be super cool if I had enough information in it to make it searchable, and add various amount of resources such as soldiers letters, interviews and more. In my head I'm envisioning on version geared toward my high schoolers then another one that really dives into the capabilities of the project itself. Certainly that will take a considerable amount of time, probably past the length of this class, but hey nothing worth having was ever easy to get. I do agree that many of my students would benefit from reading primary accounts of the events as they are typically the most moving and bring out the human element of the event. Just as a side note, its always discouraging teaching about history and saying something like "the Battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest battle in world history with over a million soviet deaths" and having the vastness of that violence go right over my students heads. We've become so desensitized that I feel like the human element is one of the only ways to truly bring the reality of those types of events back. Vision: So I was thinking that I would have a map with the various pins, then some sort of timeline function/ slider on the right hand side or maybe bottom that would be able to move from the various years of the battle. I know this would be somewhat difficult but I don't just want it to move from like a map of 1954 then 1955 and so on. That seems to simple and like something that could be achieved with a PPT. I would like it to be more fluid and interactive to truly get the viewer experiencing the material. As far as the actual content involved, I think I would like a basic overview of the event as your first select the pin that your looking as. For example perhaps a view paragraphs about the Tet Offensive. However once that was complete I'd really like to just give as many options as possible about what content to use. Since the war was covered so well, it would be neat to include of news coverage, interviews, letters, really whatever type of information I could find on the event to further the viewers understanding. I certainly don't want to limit myself and say that I only want to use this type of material or this type. I think with a project like this the more the merrier as well as the more diverse the merrier. I'd like to select the best pieces available rather than try to fit some sort of mold for the project. Difficulties: I think some of the difficulties I may encounter will involve getting that exact fluidity that I had mentioned previously. Also I think it will be somewhat difficult finding the exact type of pieces I want in the time frame because I don't just want to put pieces of information up there that are at the quality that I prefer. But I think realistically I need to understand that its something I can come back and edit, change and manipulate how I see fit. Rome wasn't built in a day so why should my Intro to Digital Humanities Project be? Nevertheless the more I ramble about my ideas that more excited I am about what this could become so I should probably start managing my time a bit more wisely so I can compile the amount of material I need for this. Time to get to Work, Adam To start off, I found Burdick’s and Hockey’s pieces particularly interesting this go round. I have to admit; I wasn’t the fondest of reading about how the computer worked or the older editions of how humanities computing came to be. It was insightful to truly examine the inner workings of the computer, but it definitely wasn’t something that got my circuits firing by any means. What did however was the introduction of Open-Source Knowledge Economies. It forced me to question the purpose of knowledge and scholarship. Previously I’d always just thought of knowledge; writing a book, journal article or anything of the sort as more of a rite of passion- something that had to be done to achieve or keep your status in the world of academia. However, the comparison of economies to publication really got me thinking. When Burdick mentioned how the trade secretes were feverishly guarded during the Industrialization it made me question why would scholarship want to stick to such a model. It is counterproductive to what they actually want to accomplish, I think. Burdick presented the idea of intellectual property and how it is strictly guarded and even at times battled over. Yet with all we’ve been discussing I don’t understand why. The premise of scholarship, which I’m just coming to realize, is not to be more intelligent than everyone around you, although I'm sure thats a pretty cool feeling. Instead it is to help spread that knowledge to as many people as possible, thus the reason why I am supportive of open sourcing now. Why not be able to publish something quickly, have your peers give you instant feedback and then edit it. Everyone benefits. Well expect the publication companies, but thats okay in my book. More information is shared, you produce a better product quicker and that knowledge is truly being used, rather than sitting on a shelf like many old books (although those are usually the best ones). If we continue to relate to the model of the economy, every successful business owner in the world would like to see a model where they produce better products quicker and are able to sell them to more people. Ah selling. Therein lies the problem and the debate here. Also the reason why this differs from an economic debate. If this were truly about making money, the open sourcing idea may not be the best. But ideally, scholarship should not be about that. It should be able to spreading of usual, quality knowledge to educate anyone who is interested. Although this challenges the established model, I can only think it will ultimately lead to better scholarship down the road. It is also more efficient. After all, Bush dreamt of a situation where millions of volumes of encyclopedias could fit on the end of a desk. That reality is finally here. Open sourcing and digital humanities projects have only made the reality that much more inviting and welcoming for all. Some may be hesitant about the change, but I believe it’s a necessary one. As someone who values knowledge growth of any subject matter, the university as an institution should not be the totalitarian state holding back the spread of knowledge. It should not be the gate keeper to knowledge. By limiting who can see, publish, edit and contribute to scholarship, in many ways they are certainly acting in that manner. It’s time to fully embrace the twenty-first century, jump into the internet and see what is possible. After all, what would Digital Humanities or even the modern college experience be without access to the internet? We have become so dependent on it for both academic and personal experiences that it truly has become a part of us. Yikes, that’s scary.
I’d just like to conclude that is was very nice to read something good about Wikipedia. I’d often thought that it was a wonderful model for spreading basic knowledge. It is often ripped for not being 100% accurate all the time, but it does a pretty good job of providing A LOT of information. (Granted I don't remember much from the early dark days of Wikipedia) Sure It is not all going to be incredibly scholarly, but it does a good job of meeting its intended purpose in my opinion. Plus, most articles now have gone through a pretty intense review process and most of the citations are from fairly respectable sources. I think Wikipedia is a nice baby step into research, so it was pleasant to see that recognized from someone else as well. Go Wikipedia. Till next time, Adam |
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September 2017
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