Week Seven: Omeka

This week we explored Omeka, a free content management system for online digital collections. Omeka is available in two formats, web based (omeka.net) and downloadable (omeka.org). There are various benefits to the web based version, such as the ability to create and collaborate on websites by displaying various collections, building exhibits, create simple web pages, share data through various feeds, and share collections with others. Also, the web based version of Omeka is extremely easy to use and requires very little technical knowledge.

Omeka is commonly used by libraries, museums, and other historical societies. Some of the more notable libraries that use Omeka are the New York Public Library and the Newbery library in Chicago. For a complete list of sites that use Omeka, click here.

While investigating Omeka I stumbled across 1886, a digital library of the University of Bordeaux in in France that uses the software to manage their vast collection of books and pictures. The first thing I noticed upon visiting the site is that it’s laid out in such a way that it’s very easy to use. You can really see the benefit to using software such as Omeka. The site is broken up into different collections including a map library and a section on archaeology and art history. The library chose the year 1886 as its name because 1886 signifies a very important time in France’s history. It was a year that France was undergoing a lot of change. Many things were happening, new technologies and ideas were flourishing.

So, as a student, you may be wondering why you would want to use Omeka. Well, I was wondering the same thing, and apparently it has many uses such as publishing essays or digital dissertations, sharing primary sources with other students, and collaborating with others all of which can be done using easy to use websites and themes provided by Omeka. In addition, there are a wide range of plugins that work with Omeka such as dropbox, geolocation, and Docs Viewer.

For a general overview of the features and use of Omeka, I encourage you to watch the video below.

Reading Week Post: Google Earth

Google Earth is a unique tool developed by Google that allows anyone to travel the world by way of a virtual globe. Using Google Earth one can view satellite imagery, various maps, 3D buildings, and terrain. Not only does Google Earth allow us to explore our own planet including the depths of the oceans, but it also provides a look into our solar system, moon, and even Mars. Google Earth has transformed drastically since its initial release in 2001 and is widely available on many platforms including PC, Android, iOS, Mac, and Linux. Not only is Google Earth an interesting way to kill some time, but it has some significant benefits in terms of research and education. In week 5 of our Digital Humanities course, we were shown some of the ways in which Google Earth has educational benefits. For example, Google Earth allows users to zoom in and essentially view a specific location from a street view angle, however, from different historical periods. In class, this was demonstrated by viewing Earth from a biblical time period. Google Earth also allows users to view specific locations from a 360 degree view, providing the best view without physically being at the location.

 There is also a Pro version of Google Earth, which was once a paid service, but is now free. Google Earth Pro allows people to be more productive by offering distance, area, and 3D measurements. Also, while there is no difference in on screen resolution between the two products, the Pro version offers extremely high resolution print images. The Pro version also includes the ability to make premium quality movies, map multiple points at once, a map making tool, and batch geocoding addresses. All of these features are not necessarily something that the casual Google Earth user may need, but they are definitely beneficial to those that are conducting research.

One of my favourite features in Google Earth was released in the newest version, Google Earth 5.0. Google Earth version 5.0 introduced the ability to view the planet Mars. Not only can you view images of the planet, but you can also explore 3D renderings of the Martian terrain. Some notable features on Mars that one may want to explore are Valles Marineris, the largest known canyon in the solar system, or the ever popular face on Mars. The video below does a great job of highlighting all of the features of Mars within Google Earth 5.0

           As we can see, Google Earth is one of the most innovating GIS tools available online. It has value for scholars in a number of fields, as well as a value to individuals just interested in our planet and its surroundings.

Week Five: Codecademy

Recently I had a chance to try my hand at programming with the help of Codecademy. Codecademy is an interactive website that allows users to participate in free coding classes using a variety of programming languages including Python, PHPO, jQuery, and Ruby. Codecademy offers millions of exercises and encourages learning by awarding users badges that allow them to show off their skills and track their progress.

                Seeing as this was my first attempt at writing any type of code, I found the process to be a little frustrating, yet rewarding. Following the on screen instructions (and with a few hints) I was able to complete the first exercise with a little effort. What’s great about Codecademy is that it provides beginning programmers a starting point. Not only does it provide a starting point for newcomers, but it allows those that are interested in programming to gain some exposure to it before choosing it as a career path, which is a good thing because programming isn’t for everyone.

                The first exercise that I completed on Codecademy was a very simple one that animated my name when the user moves their mouse over it. At first I didn’t find the process very intuitive, probably because the concept of programming is very foreign to me. I was, however, able to complete the process with a little time and patience. This exercise introduced me to the Javascript and jQuery programming languages. Also, it introduced me to programming features such as variables, functions, and Boolean operators.

                I think one of the most difficult aspects of programming for me was the formatting and the use of semicolons. I did not find the instructions for this to be very intuitive and struggled to understand why and when a semicolon was used. I also found there to be a lack of instructions explaining the formatting. Overall, I enjoyed using Codecademy and would recommend it to anybody interested in learning about coding.

Week Four: The Google Books Ngram Viewer

For historians and researchers, language-analysis tools such as the Google Books Ngram Viewer, provide a great deal of insight into the usage and trends of any word or small sentence throughout literature during a specific period of time.  The Google Ngram Viewer supports literature dating back as far as the 1800s in many languages including English, German, French, Russian, and Spanish. The Ngram Viewer project is made possible due to Google's partnership with numerous different libraries, which allows them to digitize historical texts that are otherwise inaccessible to the general public. The data is displayed using n-grams, which is a sequence of n items from any given amount of text or speech. The data often consists of syllables, letters, and words. To fully understand what the Google Ngram Viewer is and how it works, consider the following example:

Let’s say you’re researching World War II and you’re interested to see how many times the word “Germany” appears in texts between the years 1939 and 1945. Using the Google Ngram Viewer, you’re able to easily track its frequency.

Not only can you track the frequency of a word or phrase for a specific period of time, but you can track numerous at once, which allows for comparison and extrapolation. This example is obviously very simplistic for the purposes of explanation, but one can clearly see just how powerful this tool can be, especially in the fields of research and history.  At first glance, it may seem like the Google Ngram Viewer is simply just a new way to access and view data, but it’s actually much more than that. It introduces new ways to interpret data and encourages historians to ask additional questions based on their findings.

While the Google Ngram Viewer is already quite impressive, Google is constantly making improvements to the quality of data generated by removing faulty metadata. In addition to these ongoing improvements, Google has also introduced various mathematical operators allowing the user to add, subtract, multiply, and divide ngram counts.

The Google Ngram Viewer is valuable to scholars, linguists, and historians as it allows one to analyze the history of language through the numerous historical texts that Google has digitized over the past few years. This is another example of how technology is changing the way we gather research and look at history. Gathering this type of data a decade ago would have been impossible.