Technologies of Text (S12)

One of my favorite presentations so far was the one about preserving the games our generation grew up playing. I particularly like Maria’s  comment when she said “its not called ‘Improving ___ ____ ___, (the actual title escapes me) its preserving”. That statement, as well as the group’s chosen project, really reveals alot about the copyrighting process of any sort of technology, be it books, music, or computer games. The project had difficulty getting the copyrights of some of the games, and for good reason. Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego or Orgeon Trail parents will most likely NOT want to just offer their work and make it available to everyone to use. But, as suggested in class, if there was a “library” of these games, in which the copy was rented or expired after a while, would that make it better? would that be like offering only the first chapter of a novel online, and then requiring the full text to be purchased?

When Maria also brought up “orphan games”, I wondered if the creators of said games just threw them out because they decided the games weren’t advanced enough, or they would soon be outdated. If they had known about the preserving project, would they have ‘orphaned’ them?

This project was my favorite of the bunch, partially because, as a designer, im all about walking the extrememly fine between being ‘inspired’ or flat-out stealing. I feel this preserving project is beginning to walk that very same line.

I came across a very interesting post from Miriam Posner this past week linking to a web design research project from UCLA. The website is essentially for an undergraduate research assistantship at UCLA in which the class will be building websites for something entitled, “Immersive Coordinates: Digital Anatolia.” After doing some research on exactly what this means I found that it is a project dealing with the development of a software program that uses archaeological data relating to digs in Turkey. The archaeological findings will then be presented focusing on the data management, curation and publication. The whole idea of this Digital Anatolia project is to make archaeological research easier to understand. However, as the website suggests, there is no website currently for this information to be placed. This is where the undergraduate digital humanists at UCLA come in! Together, as a class, they will be helping to build a website for the Digital Anatolia project.

As I looked deeper into this website as well as the Digital Anatolia project it got me thinking about how cool it would be if we, as undergraduate digital humanists at SNC, had the opportunity to do just this. AND then I thought about our final projects and basically realized that what we are doing for our final projects is essentially a modified version of the opportunity that the UCLA students have. They are creating an archive with archaeological data from digs in Turkey and we are creating an archive with other historical information. I found it ironic, too, that we will be skyping in David Shepherd tomorrow. Although I realize he is in the English department and perhaps not the digital humanities field, I thought it may be interesting to ask him about this project tomorrow when the class has a discussion with him. I would like to keep up with this project and track the progress the students are making! And perhaps we can even share some of our final projects with them!

“Because today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups…So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.” – Philip K. Dick. How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later.

This morning Google announced it’s official endeavor to create an augmented reality in Google glass.

This project is still in its infancy and they are now accepting suggestions for the most important personalized settings.  Google issued this statement.

“We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input. So we took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do.”

The link to this video will be posted at the bottom of this blog.  I definitely suggest you spare the 2:30 minutes and watch it.

In our March 2nd lecture, we discussed Clay Shirky and his talk about the difference between “Information Overload” and “Filter Failure”.  I have a very strong feeling that this latest Google project would lead to the culmination of both simultaneously.  Sure, without these glasses people have operated in roughly the same way just as the advancement of any technology.  As Hegel would suggest a Thesis (status quo), an Antithesis (a fundamental change in one or more aspects), and the Synthesis (the compromise which is the actual measure of change).  The advancement of the internet from 2002 to 2012 changed substantially, but in a very fairly manageable way.  This new technology would fundamentally change the way that information is shared, scholarly or non.

This video, which Google suggests could be the future of it’s new gadgetry, is quite simply information overload.  Dr. Cordell spoke about Twitter as a stream that one should occasionally dip into.  Somebody should really tell that to the person in this video who is wearing these glasses.  He shares almost all the information he is experiencing.  He “checks in” several places.  He shares a picture of a random bar he happens to be walking past.  He teaches himself ukelele and “screen shares” himself playing it on a random rooftop.  Does anybody really, truly, and honestly care about this guy?  Probably not.  We all know people who feel the need to share everything they do.  Think about it.  We all know the people who tweet what they’re eating for breakfast, or check in at every possible opportunity, or think it’s a great idea to show on Facebook every move they make on Words With Friends or songs on Spotify.

The very concept of augmented reality is a game changer. This partly transparent technology would fundamentally altar the way that information is shared and received.  In Shirky’s lecture entitled “Does The Internet Make us Smarter?” he brings up a very astute point:

“The past was not golden, nor is the present as tawdry, as the pessimists suggest, but the only thing really worth arguing about is the future.  “

Can any of us reading this blog really envision us reading books or scholarly journals through these cyber-glasses?  Although, to be fair to myself, it should be noted that none of us reading this blog is reading in actual book form.  I am sure we can all relate to Henry Adams and his room of dynamos.  There is something so mysterious about the future that I am excited, yet terrified to approach it.  This seems to be a common theme the more I attune myself with the forefront of technology.

 Click Here To Watch Project Glass.

For those of you following “Prof Hackers” on Twitter, I’m sure you’ve noticed the high tide filled with tweets about “Goodbye to Google Wave”

While possibly supporting this movement, I had to research what “Google Wave” was before I could grieve over its disappearance. In the link above, they have a video that provides a brief glance at the wave. Turns out I’m not sad to see this feature, that is currently only “read only,” disappear completely. I liked that they mentioned that it didn’t really even gain momentum because people may be  ” too wedded to existing forms of electronic communication.” Who needs the Wave when it’s way easier to get an email, text, or phone call? I guess it just goes to show that although there are efforts to improve our electronic communication, sometimes they don’t work out so well. Also connecting it to our digital project, it also goes to show that not everything that has been created online needs to be preserved.

After the discussion in class regarding the exhibition in Paris, I became interested in the development of Digital Humanities in France. We all know that Digital Humanities is developing rapidly  in the United Kingdom and the United States. THATCamp Paris was initiated by the U.S DH experts in 2010. THATCamp Paris helps U.S and Europe  collaborate together. They have already established the manifest- Manifest des Digital Humanities. I could not find a version in English, so I had to practice my French.

One of the most important things were listed in the Declaration. It focuses more on international collaboration:

Declaration.

5. We, representatives of the Digital Humanities, are forming an open, welcoming and accessible community for collaborative practice.

6. We have no boundaries. We are multilingual and multi-disciplinary team.

7. Our goals are  the progress of knowledge, improving the quality of research in our disciplines and enriching public knowledge and cultural heritage, including those that do not strictly belong to the academic sphere

8. We call for the inclusion of digital culture in the definition of a common culture of the XXI century.

Here is an original French version:

III. Déclaration

5. Nous, acteurs des digital humanities, nous nous constituons en communauté de pratique solidaire, ouverte, accueillante et libre d’accès.

6. Nous sommes une communauté sans frontières. Nous sommes une communauté multilingue et multidisciplinaire.

7. Nous avons pour objectifs le progrès de la connaissance, le renforcement de la qualité de la recherche dans nos disciplines, et l’enrichissement du savoir et du patrimoine collectif, au-delà de la seule sphère académique.

8. Nous appelons à l’intégration de la culture numérique dans la définition de la culture générale du XXIe siècle.

For me personally, probably the most important thing was listed in the Perspectives:

“11. We call for the inclusion of courses on Digital Humanities in the curriculum of the Humanities and Social Science degrees, Literature and Art. We also call for the creation of an independent specializations/degrees in Digital Humanities and the development of appropriate programs of professional training. Finally, we hope/wish that these skills (DH skills) will be  taken into consideration in hiring and promotion through the ranks.”

Original version:

11. Nous appelons à l’intégration de formations aux digital humanities au sein des cursus en Sciences humaines et sociales, en Arts et en Lettres. Nous souhaitons également la création de diplômes spécifiques aux digital humanities et le développement de formations professionnelles dédiées. Enfin, nous souhaitons que ces compétences soient prises en compte dans les recrutements et les évolutions de carrière.

I think it is nice that DH conferences will be held not only in the U.S or U.K, but also in Europe. The conference in Paris will be in English and French.

The presentation on Preserving Virtual Worlds and our class discussion got me thinking about what is being done about preserving video games as a form of media.  Not everyone may agree that video games are important media to be preserved, but nonetheless there are people out there saving video games. The video game industry is not a small industry either. The industry pulled in revenues in excess of $64 Billion in 2011, so someone should care, right?

I read a few articles on the matter and found that there is a large push in the video game world to appreciate video games as art.  For those that haven’t played some of the more high definition games like “Skyrim” the worlds could easily be seen as art. Last month the Smithsonian museum had an exhibit to display the changes in video game art from when 8-bit video games were the best thing available.

Here is a picture for those who might not believe video games can be art:

There are a few major problems for saving video games from becoming too outdated to function due to the rapid change in technology. The first problem is obvious, changing technology. Certain games from the original Nintendo system have been lost forever because copies were seen as outdated and useless with the new consoles. The change from cartridge to disc to downloadable content could mean that in a few years, video games are not purchased in a brick and mortar store, but purchased online and downloaded.

The technology could also advance so far that original source code of a video game might not be readable or able to be played on any device. This complication is also expressed in the fact that video games are very difficult to archive. If certain games can’t be archived, then entire video game consoles would need to be preserved in order to play that one game. This is much more costly than archiving a game onto a hard drive or server.

Another reason it is tough to save video games is that publishers do not want the content available on the internet. Earlier in the semester we talked about copyright and how murky of an issue it is in terms of putting content on the internet. The same goes for video games even though publishers make no money off of a game after 4 years.

Finally, the almost impossible task in preserving video games is preserving humans. Most games now come with some form of online multiplayer that has created a gaming culture. In a few years, when no one is playing Halo or Call of Duty, there will be no way to recreate that specific environment that has influenced generations. Losing a sub-culture of the world sounds like a bad thing to me.

Overall, there are two things video games need to be preserved, the source code and the experience.  Just think, future generations could grow up never knowing what it was like to play Super Mario Bros., Pac-man, or  even Tetris.

We have all sat through a PowerPoint presentation or two that is just so boring it cannot end soon enough. As we discussed in class there are many different things that can attribute to “death by PowePoint.”  I think the Pecha Kucha format of PowerPoint presentation really helps combat this.

The Pecha Kucha format makes it much easier to sit through no just a bad presentation but really any presentation that does not entirely capture your interest. With the twenty second slides you know that no matter how bad a presentation is you only have to sit through it for 3 minutes and 20 seconds.  The format makes it impossible to paste a bunch of text into the slide show and read off the slide. With the 5 word 1 picture maximum it puts more of the focus on the presenter rather than the slide.

The 20 seconds per slide can also make the Pecha Kucha format very challenging. On certain topics of the presentation it can be very hard to only talk about it for 20 seconds and for other topics it may seem nearly impossible to ramble on for 20 seconds.  Another thing that was challenging was the single image rule. A single picture cannot show a before and after of an area on a map and it is hard to take up multiple slides for one topic when you are only allowed 10 total.

Overall I thought the Pecha Kucha format was great for making the PowerPoint’s more exciting and it takes out some of the pain of watching multiple presentations in a row. It would be great to see more professors using the Pecha Kucha format in the future.

As my partners and I worked on our collaborative evaluation papers, it got me thinking about the amount of money DH scholars spend developing their projects.  A new tool that I found similar to crowdsourcing was crowdfunding. It enables individuals or organizations to reach out to people to raise money. IDEA.org recently posted an article detailing the new, evolving, platforms for crowdfunding. Often the platform must match the project. There were platforms for sports, photojournalism, to board game projects.

Sporty Funder is open to athletes and clubs to fund sports related projects. The themes that guided their specific platform include ease of use and wide availability. A platform named Takeshine is used to raise funds for college students who are “underprivileged students”. I went to check if this was actually raising money for students and appears to be a minimal scale. For instance, one student raised $545 out of his $5,000 needed. Another raised $601 of $5,000. In order to try and fully fund students, they limit the amount of students accepted. Emphasis.is is used for photojournalism projects. Its concept is that a journalist proposes a project and allows users to fund those they feel are worth donating to. Some of the projects include “Borderline: North Korea” and “Portraying the Arctic”. 8-Bit Funding is a platform for game developers to gain funding for specific projects. Some examples include Pixelry, raising $65 of $10,000 and Engsign-1, raising $161 of $500. My Witty Games is used for board game funding.

Crowdfunding can be used for many types of situations. It can be fit under the category of equity, donation, and debt. I believe the DH projects would fit best in the donation category. This category is typically used for artists, inventors, filmamkers, musicians, writers, and non-profits.

This can be a great aid for DH scholars reach out for funding. In the Interactive Nolli Map project, the creators spent months reaching out to potential donors. They also applied for various grants. Their project was still limited by the amount of money they had. They have had to continue seeking donations for the past 7 years. While crowdfunding doesn’t eliminate a need for that, it does open up new sources of funding for DH scholars.

What are some platforms that could be used for DH project?

http://www.kickstarter.com/

http://www.indiegogo.com/

http://www.rockethub.com/

Sources:

http://dailycrowdsource.com/crowdsourcing/company-reviews/1033-five-crowdfunding-platforms-for-niche-audiences

Children in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to books or e-books but now thanks to Worldreader Organization, 75, 000 e-books have been giving to children in  sub-Saharan Africa. Worldreader believes that by introducing books and reading to children through e-books will kindle their passion to read and turn them into book buyers.

Worldreader’s mission is to make digital books available to all in the developing world, enabling millions of people to improve their lives. Digital technology is sharply reducing the cost and complexity of delivering reading material everywhere. We are developing the systems and the partnerships to get e-readers – and the life-changing, power-creating ideas contained in e-books – into the hands and minds of people in the developing world.

As Elizabeth Wood, Director of Digital Publishing for Worldreader explains in this video, Worldreader has successfully created an app called biNu which allows people with feature phones or non smart phones to gain access to things such as facebook, twitter, Worldreader book app, etc. This is a great example of digital humanities at it’s best  because it widely increases the accessibility of books to a population that would not be able to access it (one of the priorities of Digital Humanities.) Not only does Worldreader make books accessible, but serves as some African publisher’s primary means of digitization. 

I think that this project has done a hands-down job of  making digital reading materials available to children in developing countries but I do not agree with the way people are choosing to help the sub-Saharan people. If an organization such as Worldreader has enough money to buy, ship and distribute 75,000 e-books to the sub-Saharan people, they should be focusing on more basic needs of the people; for example, food, shelter, and basic education. I believe that if you first tend to the more primordial needs of people, less pressing skills, such as using e-books will come in time, or in the case of sub-Saharan people will be given after their lives are more stable.

Though it took Maria and me a significant amount of time to dig into and understand the crux of the project, once we did, I found I really appreciated it. The site itself may have been unimpressive to say the least but the idea of the project is actually really cool: to create a standard for metadata that would allow for the preservation of older games, as well as using a schema for current and future games so they all can survive the technology ebbs and flows and serve other generations. Honestly, which one of us wouldn’t love to play Oregon Trail or Carmen San Diego again? I loved seeing everyone else’s presentations as well! I was prepared for a more monotonous presentation day but honestly, these kind of things are really interesting and I think the way in which they were presented kept everyone’s interest and I’m kind of curious so go explore some myself!