Gemeaux

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Understanding Metadata

Today we talk about “Metadata”. Some may ask what metadata is. According to today’s reading “Understanding Metadata” by the NISO Press, Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource. In simpler terms it is information about information.

 Metadata is used on a regular basis, for example the form in which pages are ordered to form chapters is a type of metadata called structural metadata in which the reading tells us it is how compound objects are put together. This is just one of the three types of metadata; there’s also descriptive and administrative.

 A very interesting point made in there reading which says, and I quote, “Metadata is key to ensuring that resources will survive and continue to be accessible into the future.” In my opinion, this basically says that metadata is protecting and saving important sources which people will have no problem accessing is years to come.

 I can simply state that metadata is a very important element in today’s world. It helps with resource discovery, organizing electronic resources, interoperability, archive presentation and also digital identification. It serves the same functions in resource discovery as good cataloguing does by allowing resources to be found by relevant criteria; bringing similar sources together, etc. Metadata can be stored independently or can be embedded in a digital object which is most time HTML. Dublin Core is one of the metadata elements which was created in Dublin, Ohio, and it was created to make life easier for authors so that they could describe their own web resources without any problem. The Dublin Core is basically used for cataloging resources or for collecting data from the internet. This element was created with such simplicity it is used by museum curators, researchers and music collectors.

 So it is safe to say that Metadata plays a key role in today’s digital world and without it, obtaining resources would be one of the most difficult aspects to getting information about information. If anyone would like to read up more on Understanding Metadata they could follow this link. http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetad

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BECOMING DIGITAL

In today’s blog post we are looking at another reading from the Digital History Guide: Becoming Digital. See link : http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/digitizing/4.php This article tells us about the pros and cons of digitization, the different ways that text can be digitized, the benefits and cost of marking up text, to mark up, or not to mark-up text etc. Just to name a few.

 Let’s talk about the cost and benefits of digitizing the past. This chapter coincides with a previous reading entitled “Going Digital.” In going digital it makes comparison of telling time in digital and analog format as it does here as well. Basically stating that on analog clock one is able to read the minutes and second of the time whereas on a digital clock you are only able to read the time as the clock outputs it. So it says digitization leaves out some information which has meaning in analog forms.

 From my understanding this entire article tells us that digitization before cost more because it took longer to gather and transmit more complete information and more to store, but in this digital era that is no longer the case because the cost of digital storage has dropped and the speed of computer networks have increased stunningly. Moving a document from analog to digital is as easy as scanning the original onto one’s computer and there’s not much effort in doing so.

 In my opinion digitization of past historical works is much better than strictly being in analog format. It gives a wider access to information across the world, information can be researched and shared within a short space of time. Historians are able to put out more of their work rather than writing out only main events which may have ocurred during a particular time. Digitizing allows for the entire story to be told rather than summarizing it.

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From Print to Digital: Reconfiguring Postcolonial Knowledge

Hello fellow bloggers,

In today’s blog we review an uncategorized reading by Adeline Koh, entitled: From Print to Digital: Reconfiguring Postcolonial Knowledge. This piece speaks about moving the colonial library (which has existed in print form for centuries) to digital publication. As defined by V.Y. Mudimbe in The Invention of Africa, a colonial library is a fixed set of texts and representations that have been used to defined colonized people around the world.  It has been stated that publishing the colonial library in digital is much easier than print, distribution cost is low and much more of the work can be published instead of being highly filtered out. I completely agree with this point because we currently live in a digital era and if the colonial library was to be digital it would be widely available to anyone who needs to use it and can be easily accessed via the internet. Another reason being that if something was to happen to the printed copies, let’s say fire or water damage, these prints may not be able to be restored. So I think that there should be both print and digital publications. Having more than one copies of a document is always a plus.

Social media is very prevalent in today’s society and had made doing research very simple and easy. Majority of the world’s population has a smartphone or a computer and if one would like to look into the colonial library it’s as simple as typing it in Google, Twitter or any other app out there and finding some piece of information on it if it was to be made digital. Moving from print to digital means less paper is being used and that way less trees are being cut down. So that’s one way to help in saving the environment.

Adeline also tells us that the internet represents the worst possible changes to the state of knowledge to some extent. She continues on by saying how it breaks our attention and spells the end of reflective, long-form thought and the naysayers see the internet as being an unedited mishmash of rumour, gossip and lies. I would like to think that everyone would know that not everything they read online is factual and true. One should able to distinguish between useful and useless information found on the internet. As my digital humanities lecturer stated in a previous class, the World Wide Web (www) is where one can upload credible looking information and links just to get the most hits, so we must be very careful when doing online research.

I have only mentioned a few points from this article. There’s a lot more interesting reasons that Adeline Koh speaks about as to why the colonial library should be moved from print to digital publication.

See link: http://www.adelinekoh.org/blog/2013/12/05/from-print-to-digital-reconfiguring-postcolonial-knowledge/

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[gold]

IM DYING

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This is singlehandedly the best thing I’ve ever seen on this website

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Exploring the History Web

From my perspective this article basically gives us an idea of how the internet developed over the years and how Historians made good use of it by using it to publish their historical work and creating websites and archives devoted to History.

History became web based because Latin American Historian, Donald Mabry at the Mississippi State University spoke about the difficulty of circulating large documents via email so in other to make life a bit more easier he began to make available primary sources and other materials of interest to historians via “anonymous file transfer protocol” (FTP) that allows anyone with an internet connection to download the files to his or her computer as stated in the “When the Web was Young section of Exploring History Web. Though this was a good idea It is of my opinion that this method became somewhat bothersome to have to download a file to one’s computer every time they needed to do some History research. One would need a good amount of space on their computer to be able to store so many files especially if they were doing a big project.

Mapping the History Web states that Yahoo only catalogues 218 of more than 1,200 history department web pages and only 888 Civil War websites whereas the United States Civil War Centre has 8,000 links in its directory. I think Yahoo is doing this because most of the information on all those sites and links could be similar and instead of having thousands of links and sites publishing the same information they decided to narrow it down to those that have the most important. However, I could be wrong. One would have to do a bit more research as to why Yahoo only make some of these sites available and that’s another topic on its own.

This entire article tells us how history went from the library books to the internet. And by that happening it made doing research less cumbersome because it takes more time going through pages of a book rather getting direct links from different search engines for example, Google and deeper Web just to name a few. This takes me back to a previous reading entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Many libraries have made their collections online as I read more into Exploring the History Web because in digital age it give easier access of historical work to Schools and other learning institutions and in my opinion sitting in front your computer and doing research is of less hassle than being in a library.

To read up more on Exploring the History Web and learning how the development of History archives, online libraries and discussions, etc. were developed one can visit this link: http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/exploring/6.php

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Everything that exists in the world has it's own power

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Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age

The article states that in this new digital era Massive Online Open Courseware (MOOC) is very relevant. Anyone from anywhere is able to get an education and not be hindered by financial status because it is free. From my understanding, everyone is entitled to an education no matter their age, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Online learning can create meaningful and massive learning opportunities. To me, having a good education is key in today’s society because it will play a determining role in how your life may turn out. You may get that job that you want, be able to help other people, and also live the life that you desire. I think the Bill of Rights will encourage everyone to make good use of MOOCs because the material is available and accessible to use whenever they are ready and can be used at anytime, anywhere on any device, which is a plus especially for working individuals. Questions raised in my mind are: 1. Will everyone take advantage of it? 2. How many persons may feel like they are actually attending school if they don’t get a degree after completing a particular course? The Bill of Rights also states that everyone should have the right to access. This means everyone should have the right to learn and it should be affordable and available anywhere in the world. It is a widely held belief that currently education is too expensive, especially higher education and one’s learning process should not be hindered by unaffordability of education. I know of some countries which offer free education, some up to secondary and tertiary-level education, but it is not sometimes accessible to everyone, because of different inequalities, include language, location, technology, etc. MOOCs can help to decrease the barriers to accessing education at those levels. Further reading can be done through this research article by John Immerwahr who conducted a public survey on the “Affordability of Higher Education” in the United States: http://www.highereducation.org/reports/affordability_pa/MIS11819.pdf One of the many principles listed in “A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age” article is Persistence which says “Learning is emergent, a lifelong pursuit, not relegated to the brick walls of an institution or to a narrow window of time during life; it has no specific end point. The artificial division of work, play and education cease to be relevant in the 21st century. Learning begins on a playground and continues perpetually in other playgrounds, individual and shared workspaces, communities and more.” I am in total agreement with this principle. Learning is a process which goes on throughout life and not only in school. Some things cannot be taught in school and the human mind may need to learn certain things on its own to be fully developed. We learn things from life experiences and from different environments etc. There is no limit on learning and one should not limit themselves when comes to learning. Read more on “The Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age” here: http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/journal/bill-rights-principles-learning-digital-age/

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Question of the Month: September

What is the habit you’re proudest of breaking or want to break?

[captainunicornsrainbows-blog]

Want to break the habit of being too attached to my electronic devices and my constant use of social media.

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HIS 114

Currently enrolled in the Digital Humanities class at the Dominica State College. Very interesting subject first time hearing of it and doing it

#HIS114 #tech #digitalbeing

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Walls

If walls could talk, they would spill our secrets all over these streets If walls could talk, they would reveal our deepest darkest lies and truths If walls could talk., nothing we do would never be sacred If walls could talk, when you sit in a room all alone and shed tears, they would say don't cry my dear for I am here If walls could talk, there would be no need for a P. I. Hahaha! If walls could talk, when we feel alone they would be there waiting to be our friend For the walls absorb our pain, our hurt, our laughter and our tears of joy and sorrow The walls are everywhere we go Even if you break it down, the walls will forever know what they know

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Weep not for roads untraveled Weep not for paths left alone 'Cause beyond every bend Is a long blinding end It's the worst kind of pain I've known Give up your heart left broken And let that mistake pass on 'Cause the love that you lost Wasn't worth what it cost And in time you'll be glad it's gone Weep not for roads untraveled Weep not for sights unseen May your love never end And if you need a friend There's a seat here alongside me

Linkin Park-Roads Untraveled

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Nope we will definitely use you as material

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Up in Smoke

By: Naiomi George Inhale... Close your eyes, Let the cloud wrap around your mind, Grab tight of all the negative thoughts Everything is becoming a faint memory. Feel it reaching down to your toes And then back up to your nose As you get ready to release. Exhale... The cloud is thicker than it went in Because of all the bad things it holds within Send it on its merry way For in your mind it was not meant to stay Everything is clear for now Only you know how. Don't choke When everything goes up in smoke