(This is a brief essay related to the Scholars’ Lab’s Praxis Program, which has been cross-posted from nowviskie.org.) Here’s a modest proposal for reforming higher education in the humanities and creating a generation of knowledge workers prepared not only to teach, research, and communicate in 21st-century modes, but to govern 21st-century institutions. First, kill all…. More.
Prism, Images and Binaries
Several of us were recently asked to come up with sample texts to use for a simulated Prism experiment. As the token art historian of our group, I volunteered to find an example that included images as well as text. My initial efforts were spent imagining how I would use Prism as a teaching tool…. More.
Wayne Graham: Leader of Lemmings
Last week from 2-4pm we jumped into a new field with the assistance of Wayne Graham. The same Wayne that has designed many of our exercises was stuffed into a corduroy jacket with leather elbow-patches and asked to do something very difficult: teach the Praxis group how to implement Rails. I want to take this…. More.
Ada Lovelace Day 2011
On this Ada Lovelace Day, I’m looking forward and back. Here’s my full post in honor of humanities computing pioneer Susan Hockey (where you can also find links to past years’ posts on Johanna Drucker, Bess Sadler, and Leah Buechley). But I’m also spending today feeling appreciative of the a fantastic group of young women…. More.
Richmond, Virginia’s Place in GIS and Racial Discrimination History
Richmond, Virginia, is a city steeped in history. It is the home of the first commercially viable electric street car system; the world’s only triple train crossing; the first woman-owned and African American-owned bank; and some great Americans including Bojangles Robinson and Arthur Ashe. Not exactly the history you were thinking about, correct? There is much more hidden history…. More.
Prism is looking for John Connor
It seems the text mining issue has struck a chord with our group, so I will jump in as well. Specifically, I want to refer to Sarah’s thought that the potential danger lies with the scholar interpreting the data prism could potentially collect, not with “the machine.” This allows us to do what comes natural…. More.
Crowdsourcing Interpretation / Praxis and Prism
Our goal in the Scholars’ Lab Praxis Program is to address methodological training in the humanities not just through workshops and courses, but by involving graduate students in digital projects from the ground up. This means learning by creating something — together — with all that entails: paying attention both to vision and detail; building…. More.
Live and in public!
To prepare for our meeting last week, all Praxis Program participants read the following pieces: Bethany Nowviskie, “Where Credit is Due.” Stan Ruecker and Milena Radzikowska, “The Iterative Design of a Project Charter for Interdisciplinary Research.” Siemens, et. al. “INKE Administrative Structure, Omnibus Document.” These links are also available here, but so that you, my…. More.
Charlottesville’s Street Car System in GIS
Background Did you know that Charlottesville once had streetcars? Since moving to town, I’ve heard tales of the once-thriving transportation system that connected Fry’s Springs, UVa and downtown. It wasn’t until an inquiry came in from a student looking for GIS data for the system that I investigated it. I first found the following 1890 map which…. More.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Mappiness
Mr. Jefferson ended his best-known sentence with “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The only thing missing was maps. In the Scholars’ Lab, we’re all about the spatial goodness. Inspired by Kansas State University’s Seven Deadly Sins maps, we set about converting the qualities of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness into…. More.