Through a Digital Lense

For the future of project sites are endless.  These sites are very interactive and very interesting.  I really liked the ideas of these projects.  They all contain something that can keep people engaged and join in on the fun of the project.  I have decided to write down a few thoughts on each project down below: The Genographic Project: A project one can join in to find out the past of one's life They are giving us the chance to go back in time Also beneficial to their project since they are trying to find out the origin of man World Memory Project: Interactive project about the Holocaust Perserving the lives of Holocaust victims Memories shared with the world on each person (good memories) Field Expedition Mongolia: Gives someone the chance to join in on the fun to find the tomb of Genghis Khan Get to explore and are engaged There are plenty of projects out there and one can always create one as well.  The ideas are endless and they are always growing.

Status Update: I am having a hard time trying to get my excel spreadsheet to work with making sure the year is showing correctly, especially when I transfer the workbook to public.tableau.com.  It shows the year, for an example, 1790 is 1,790.  Also when trying to create the year in my workbook, it defaults to 1904.  If anyone has any suggestions please let me know on how I can fix it.  I have some population information but being able to fix the year for the workbook(s) it would help. As Professor Evans mentioned in his note for Unit 13: Data Visualization, it is hard to show numbers or any form of data through visuals.  We can depict it as best as we could, but not how we envision it.  As time goes on, more and more applications will be developed to help improve the way we show online data.  We can show numbers and percentages, but maybe later on someone will develop an app that shows more than just that.  For an example, when someone wants to present population growth of a town

Wilson Center Digital Archive: International History Declassified http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/ What I have found about this digital archive that is really interesting is that it is about international history.  And it's not just on a specific nation, but a mix of all nations.  When I first loaded the site, my first impression was this is a bit clustered.  However, I'm able to see everything clearly with the writing and the different categories, such as "Recently Added Documents," "Featured Collections," and other miscellaneous notes added by the author.  Another cool feature I might add is that it gives you the option to look at collections from the specific year and event and browse through different themes.  I really appreciated the author of this cite to show the number of documents, when clicking on the collection at the top, of the specific event.  It also shows the list of documents and a little summary of what the document is about.  Wh

The digital world is full of reality and fantasy.  It can be hard to determine what is fact and what is perception.  For the two sites Digital Karnak and Persepolis: a virtual reconstuction , one might be able to determine what is reality and what is fantasy.  As I took a look at the Digital Karnak I would determine this is reality because it is basing it on a location, whereas Persepolis: a virtual reconstruction , although a previous location, isn't something one can experience.  So it would be considered kind of a fantasy to people by giving them the perception of what the location was like.  However, Persepolis is based on facts from history that authors have researched so it would be a little tricky to determine if it is either reality or fantasy.  I'm sure other sites in the digital world it is very distinctive to determine what is reality and what is fantasy.  Fantasy is more of ideas and perception of one's mind on something, whereas reality is based on facts/evid

For my final project, I decided to do a data visualization of the population of Alexandria, Virginia from as early as 1700s to present day.  I would want to show visualizations of how the population in general differed each year and break down the different races during that time.  The data would give an idea to people how the Alexandria differed from years ago to now.  So far I have 3 online resources, but I could always use resources from the local library.  I have also been suggested to contact a colleague of my professor to get any information.  This is going to be an interesting project because using HTML coding will be difficult.  But I am up for the challenge!

(1)  Consider the technology involved in digitizing the map of St. Petersburg Zoomify is the name of the company that the St. Petersburg map was digitized.  It states on their website that they "make high-quality images of any size zoom-and-pan for fast, interactive viewing on the web."  After zooming in to test it out, I noticed that it would take some time to focus on the image, but the quality was not bad.  The wording was legible and I was able to zoom in and out as much as I want of the map.  I was also able to slide over the map to look at different parts without having it zoomed out.  They also had a thumbnail version, which I was able to zoom in and out but not move the map over.    (2)  Think about the sources for digital materials--they can be commercial (Ebay, YouTube), social (Flickr, Tumblr, Wikipedia), or do you have to digitize your own personal materials or items that you have located in archives In regards to Tumblr, the technology being used is

(1)  Explain your understanding of some of the major points of copyright considerations when it comes to digital projects Copyright protections is a major issue in the digital world.  Not everyone understands that when material is taken from someone and it is not cited for the owner than people can lose lots of money.  People out there tend to take other people's work and pass it off as theirs.  Copyright protection is a serious issue and can put the person in trouble as well.  It's sometimes hard since some websites tell people that it is ok to print or copy for certain uses, like classroom use, but what about copyright protection for videos.  YouTube is probably one of the ones that a lot of people will post videos from others.  However, in most cases (from what I've seen) the videos are taken down since YouTube is one of the sites that protect copyright laws.  As long, in my opinion, things are cited like they should to give credit to the owner then nothing can go wron

(1)  Consider the unit 4 websites with an eye to design considerations All of the sites from the previous unit were very easy to navigate and appealing to the eye.  One that was very interesting in design, which I didn't catch the first time, was  The Valley of the Shadow .  After you click Enter the Valley Archive , the first thing that caught my eye was the design of the page.  It is broken up to 3 sections (displayed down below) and each section has a link to click on to bring up the information needed.  The 3 sections look like tombs which is a very cool feature.       (2) Think about some web creation tool options, from complicated to simple Some sites that would be great for designing websites would be any Google sites, Wix, Squarespace, and Bluefish.  Squarespace would probably be the easiest to use.  I've never used it myself, but I've seen commercials regarding the usage of Squarespace and how easily it assists with creating your own website.  If I have to

(1) Put these projects in chronological order: 1.  Oyez (1955) 2.  In Our Path (1983) 3.  American Memory (1990) 4.  Lascaux (1992) 5.  The Valley of the Shadow (1993) 6.  Dickinson Electronic Archive (1994) 7.  Amiens Cathedral Project (1996) 8.  Romantic Circles (1996) 9.  Life Outtacontext (2001) 10.  Hawthorne in Salem (2002) 11.  Persepolis: A Virtual Reconstruction (2003) 12.  Eye Level (2005) 13.  Hurricane Digital Memory Bank (2005) 14.  Digital Karnak (2008) 15.  The Avalon Project (2008) 16.  The April 16 Archive (2011) (2) Using these sites and any others that you are aware of, comment on how the level of sophistication and the forms of digital projects have changed in the last fifteen years Over the years a few of the sites have adapted to the change in how the world would like to see sites and how they would navigate through the site.  For an example, Oyez  (created in 1955) has adapted to the changes.  The site was very pleasing to the eye with it'

(1)  Find some examples of blogs that are used in different ways for the study of history I found that the Virtual Architectural Archaeology (Recreating Washington DC's Lost Built Environment) was a interesting blog/website.  I'm always fascinated by old buildings and how things were structured years back.  What is interesting is the old buildings mentioned in the blog/website are all converted into something different as the years went by, but still represent something. Another interesting blog is Boundary Stones: WETA's Washington DC History Blog.   Not only it has posts about history years back, but posts that are relative to today.  It also has posts about Virginia and Maryland as well.   History is all around us.  It is accessible in many ways, including the Internet.  Although, books are out there to teach us about history, but it's the blogs and websites that really give us an idea about other's opinions and different perspectives.   (2)  Fol

(1)  What you found most interesting of the Rosenzweig reading? As I was reading Rosenzweig's reading I've came across something that really stood out to me probably more than anything else in this particular reading.  The excerpt:  "More than a decade into the promised "digital revolution," the cyber-enthusiasts and the techno-skeptics have both turned out to be poor prophets of the future.  Universities and libraries still stand.  Culture has not crumbled.  Paradise has not arrived.  But to device that neither utopia nor dystopia beckons should not lead to the comfortable conclusion that nothing has changed or will change.  Driven by the rapid emergence and dissemination of computers, global computer networks, and new digital media, change-though not revolution-surrounds us.  Our daily habits of finding the news and weather, buying books, and communicating with colleagues and loved ones have permanently changed." As time goes on, technology grows.