Keep on keepin’ on

Wow, what a fun Day of DH 2013! I’m really looking forward to hunting through the archives and seeing what everyone else is up to. If anyone is interested, I’m starting up a blog over at alyssaarbuckle.com [ http://www.alyssaarbuckle.com/blog-2/ ] and I tweet at @arbuckle_alyssa.

Best of luck with all of your endeavours.

CrowdVoice

CrowdVoice is pretty impressive. The people behind CrowdVoice, Mideast Youth, have created a platform for individuals to share images, video, links, and other information about protests as they happen. Users can also add metadata, folksonomy tags, and geotags.

Their tagline is “Tracking Voices of Protest,” but I can’t help but think that CrowdVoice is doing more than merely tracking. To me, by enabling this space, CrowdVoice has undoubtedly changed the shape of contemporary social movements by becoming a central media source for the Arab Spring and the current wave of social change–a media source that develops from the ground up instead of the media conglomerate (cough, I mean “top”) down. From a social knowledge creation perspective, this web service is exemplary.

I am shamefully unversed in the critical theoretical nuances surrounding Arab Spring media (and protest narratives in general, in fact), and I’m sure there has been tons of interesting short and long form writing on the subject (feel free to pass it along!). For the time being, I feel confident in considering CrowdVoice in a positive light. Not just as an outlet for outsiders to “track” protests, but as an impetus for individuals to document, share, and archive their individual roles in historical social change.

Cheers, CrowdVoice.

Switching gears: social knowledge creation

In order to keep my brain working, I like to divide my days up. This afternoon I’ve switched gears from thinking about INKE prototypes to developing a social knowledge creation tool list that we have been generating here in the lab. Primarily Shaun’s baby, GRA Nina and I are taking it up and expanding his already comprehensive list.

What is a social knowledge creation tool, you ask? Well, to quote Shaun,

In our conception of the term, a Social Knowledge Creation Tool is a usable technology that encourages the collaborative work of multiple individuals in a networked, digital environment. Furthermore, a social knowledge creation tool supports the active generation of work, information, or knowledge in an ethos of sharing, contact, and openness.

Today, I’m thinking about social knowledge creation tools that are primarily geared toward user-derived content. On the menu for exploration this afternoon are tools and services BuddyPress, CKAN, CrowdVoice, and Omeka. I’ll expand further on these later in the day. For now, if you’re interested, I’ll share my Zotero library that includes a growing list of social knowledge creation resources and tools:

https://www.zotero.org/alyssaa/items/


Mid-day check-in

Alright, halfway into the work day and what, exactly, have I accomplished? Good question.

I spent the morning finishing up a document I’ve been working on that details all of the current INKE projects and prototypes. Although I have a fairly solid knowledge of INKE prototypes, this doc is the direct output of a few days of research and email conversations with various INKE members. After disseminating this document to interested parties and stakeholders, I headed over to inke.ca to update our prototypes page there. Interested in just what, exactly, INKE gets up to these days? Check it all out here:

http://inke.ca/projects/tools-and-prototypes/

 

 

First, we drink coffee.

So, what does an average day in the ETCL look like, hmm?

First we start with coffee (duh.)

This morning we excitedly welcome Matthew Hiebert to the ETCL, our newest addition to the lab. Matt’s just finishing up his PhD at UBC, and it’s great to have a new brain come join us. We’re desk mates, so I’m especially hoping to capitalize off of his knowledge. The morning so far has been filled with meetings, emails, and drafting documents. So far, so good.

 

Hello, fellow digital humanities enthusiasts!

I live and work in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, in Victoria, BC. Presently, I am a Metadata Architect in the Electronics Textual Cultures Lab at the University of Victoria. I hold a BA Honours in English from the University of British Columbia and a MA in English from the University of Victoria. My studies have centred around digital humanities, new media, and contemporary American literature. I am especially interested in creating digital editions and thinking about how text lives online.

I tweet at @arbuckle_alyssa. Looking forward to reading about everybody’s Day of DH!