As I continue to develop the theoretical and conceptual framework for my project in the digital humanities, it is imperative that I consider in more detail the sorts of tools that might aid me in: 1) actually doing my project; and 2) presenting data or information to users. My particular project involves carving out unique spaces in which to represent and tenuously define the intersection between identity politics and Cuban digital practices, so it has particular linguistic and cultural demands that must be attended to before making a resource available to a larger audience. In searching for tools on the DIRT Directory Web site for digital research tools to help facilitate what I am attempting to accomplish in my project, I targeted tools that could be used in multiple platforms; supported multilingual users; had minimal system requirements; contained little (or no) overhead costs; and offered dedicated spaces in which users and project developers might collaborate to help develop and edit content included in the project. In this blog entry, I will focus on two digital research tools that I feel might push my project forward in ways I have yet to consider up to this point: Wink and FromThePage.
Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software with a rather simple and user-friendly interface and design structure. In keeping end-users in and around Cuban populations within and outside of Cuba at the forefront of my considerations, I feel that Wink will serve as a useful tool for my project in its capacity to help project developers create and maintain tutorials that will allow users to understand and navigate the platform that will host the content of the project as well as the content itself. In terms of its limitations, I feel that it would be even more useful if I could find a single tool that caters to individuals with severe physical and/or sensory impairments. I will also have to consider how I might organize and where I might locate these tutorials within the project so as not to obscure the content itself. Language, literacy, and culture serve as integral lenses through which to develop, evaluate, and deliver content to users. The prospect of integrating this tool into my project might go a rather long way in constructing the terms and resources for all users--regardless of their relative languages, literacies, and cultural capital--to understand and engage with the content included in my project.
FromThePage is a piece of software that allows users to transcribe handwritten documents online. It allows users to collaborate in discussing difficult writing or obscure words within the document itself. With issues of design and accessibility at stake for prospective users, I feel that FromThePage might go a long way in helping project developers as well as users across various linguistic, geographic, and cultural divides to collaborate with one another in transcribing and transliterating documents, artifacts, and conversations to speak more directly to their own particular contexts and perspectives. Using the software itself requires that those using the software are multilingual, though I wouldn't say that this is a considerable drawback. I would, however, like to find a more inclusive software that also provides options for visual and oral media. The goal of my project is to offer spaces in which to further discuss and define Cuban digital practices, so I see a lot of value in this sort of crowdsourcing within the context of project development as well as user interactivity.
Hi Mark!
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I really like that you've asked similar questions to me before even navigating the tools (I'd argue you actually asked more questions, thoughtful one's too). Whereas I was thinking mainly about access issues as they pertain to conducting the research personally (whether or not the tool is compatible with a Mac, etc), you seemed to focus on your end-user and how the presentation of your project might pose limitations for them depending on the resources you use. Which for you project is incredibly important to consider.
The only thing I was a little hazy about was the doing portion. Fromthepage is not a tool I looked at all. However, from the way you described it, will your users be participating in the "doing" or the collection of your information? If we think about end-users, who are your end-users? Cubans? Cuban Americans? I'm thinking back to your awesome presentation and I'm visually looking at the hacktivism slide in my mind. From what I can remember it was both populations, so perhaps considering how the use of the tool may be different for each of those populations of end-users. I read your comment on my post and I think that Viewshare would be a great tool for you to check out moving forward as well, especially since you noted the lack of visual display of information in the tools you consulted. Awesome thorough discussion of each tool. I'll have to look at these!
Mark
Mark,
ReplyDeleteExcellent as always! My questions/comments somewhat revolve around the cultural considerations we discussed a couple weeks ago. You mentioned that very little is known about Cuba's information access restrictions, and I'm curious how the software you describe would interact with those possible pending restrictions. Would they put any users at risk for giving them more accessibility and technological capability than the government has deemed appropriate? Also,is this software capable of adapting as the cultural understandings of technology shift? I say this because I assume the growing with the growing presence of North Americans and members other Western cultures begin to interact with those in Cuba, they may introduce a freer way of perceiving information, especially sharing the notion of limited government influence on the information disseminated to the public. Could you possibly draw from the "Generation Y" article we read last semester for additional understanding? All food for thought, of course! Thanks for sharing!
Lacy
Good choice of tools Mark-- keep pushing to see how you can embed them in multiple fronts in terms of all angles in your project--remember to ask the material questions too, not just of the data but of the tools.
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