Spring 2017 Wednesdays, 4:10pm-6pm, Studio @ Butler Some Friday Labs, 2-4pm, Studio @ Butler Some shared sessions with the Experimental Methods Group (Fridays 3-5pm) and Professor Dennis Tenen’s class GU4903: Critical Computing in the Humanities INSTRUCTORS: Terry Catapano (CU Libraries) and Pamela Smith (History), with guest lectures by Steven Feiner (Computer Science)
History GR8975
What is a Book in the 21st Century?
Working with Historical Texts in a Digital Environment
Spring 2017
Wednesdays, 4:10pm-6pm, Studio @ Butler
Some Friday Labs, 2-4pm, Studio @ Butler
Some shared sessions with the Experimental Methods Group (Fridays 3-5pm)
and Professor Dennis Tenen
INSTRUCTORS: Terry Catapano (CU Libraries) and Pamela Smith (History), with guest lectures by **Steven Feiner **(Computer Science)
Course Instructors
Prof. Pamela Smith
Office: Fayerweather 605
Email: ps2270@columbia.edu Telephone: 212-854-7662
Office Hours: Thursdays, 1-3pm, and by appointment
Prof. Terry Catapano
Special Collections Analyst, Columbia Libraries (DLIST)
Digital Lead, Making and Knowing Project
Email: thc4@columbia.edu
Project Manager
Naomi Rosenkranz
Email: njr2128@columbia.edu Telephone : (626) 374-9467
Course Assistants
Atif Ahmed: atif.ahmed@columbia.edu
Mehul Kumar: mk3916@columbia.edu
Varsha Maragi: vgm2115@columbia.edu
Jeffrey Wayno: jmw2202@columbia.edu
This course will introduce graduate students to techniques of working in digital environments. The course is intended mainly for humanities and social science students who are novices with little or no experience in using digital platforms, but we also welcome students from all disciplines, as well as those who might be familiar with constructing websites or blogs, or even with creating minimal editions. Through hands-on assignments (with plenty of assistance), you will master a variety of skills that constitute literacy in digital humanities, and, by the end of the semester, you will be able to take your newfound digital literacy with you as you pursue your own study, research, and future work.
Throughout the course, your skills will be built by implementing them to collectively create a small scale digital edition, which will be festively launched at the end of the semester. This digital edition will draw on collaboration with and research done by the Making and Knowing Project (http://www.makingandknowing.org/) on an anonymous sixteenth-century French compilation of artistic and technical recipes (BnF Ms. Fr. 640). The Project’s existing English translation of this manuscript will constitute the “data” with which students in this course will work to create their small scale edition.
This rare French manuscript resulted from the compilation of craft knowledge over time, followed by its subsequent “disassembly” in a late sixteenth-century workshop by an author-compiler-practitioner who experimented on techniques contained in the manuscript’s “recipes.” While the course will focus on this intriguing manuscript and the research that has been carried out on it, the skills you will learn over the course of the semester are widely applicable to other types of Digital Humanities projects, and, indeed, in many fields outside of traditional academic study.
The Making and Knowing Project, directed by Professor Smith, has produced the transcription and English translation of this manuscript, “disassembling” Ms. Fr. 640 through research seminars and workshops, involving multidisciplinary teams of students and scholars. The Project is now engaged in creating a complete critical digital edition, which represents a reassembly of this manuscript in a 21st-century form. In this course, you will be an active participant in the Project’s exploration of the technologies that allow not just a reading of the text but an interaction with the content itself. This is in direct resonance with the ways that this sixteenth-century recipe collection can only be transformed from text to knowledge when the techniques contained within it are practiced, whether in the sixteenth century or in the Making and Knowing Laboratory reconstructions today. Through this exploration, the course aims to foster reflection on the constraints of the codex as a framework and vehicle for the production of knowledge, and to re-think the technology of the book and what it means to read a text. To this end, the course also includes collaboration with Professor Steven Feiner’s Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Lab (CGUI, http://graphics.cs.columbia.edu/home/home/).
This course is one component of the History in Action Initiativ*e* of the Columbia Department of History. The American Historical Association (AHA) and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation are collaborating to re-think career education for history PhD candidates at four selected universities (Columbia, Chicago, New Mexico, and UCLA) and to continue, expand, and enhance the AHA’s “Career Diversity and the History Ph*D” initiative. The long-term goal is to establish a new norm: that doctoral graduates in history** and** the humanities will be equipped with the skills to pursue a wide spectrum of career opportunities and communicate their research to a broad audience.*
ASSESSMENT:
Participation, initiative, effort: 10%
Weekly assignments and field notes: 30%
Final edition project: 60%
SCHEDULE:
Please note: You will encounter many unfamiliar and possibly intimidating terms in the following syllabus, but FEAR NOT! Learning a new craft involves not just “how to do” it, but also “how to talk” about it. Hands-on techniques are in general difficult to put into words, so this practitioners’ jargon is often necessary.
Please see **here** for a short and easy to read version of the class schedule and syllabus that includes the digital skills introduced in each class.
Be sure to bring your computer (not tablet) to every class.
Week 1: Jan **18 - Introduction**
Get to know your many collaborators in this class!
To prepare in advance of the class on Jan 18:
To do:
If you do not already have one, please create a GitHub account.
To join: https://github.com/join
For more information and help with creating an account - https://help.github.com/articles/signing-up-for-a-new-github-account
Please send your GitHub profile name to Naomi Rosenkranz (njr2128@columbia.edu) before the start of class.
Please fill out this form to be granted access to the Project’s Google Drive which serves as the Project’s collaborative workspace for transcription, translation, and annotation of the manuscript, BnF Ms Fr 640.
You will need a Gmail account explicitly ending in “@gmail.com,” so if you do not have one already, please create one. PLEASE DO NOT ACCESS THE GOOGLE DRIVE WITH YOUR LIONMAIL ACCOUNT.
Please consult the following introductory document with more information about Google Drive, and which explains in brief how our files are organized within the folder, and provides further instructions and details about access.
Read and **Explore:**
The Making and Knowing Project Flickr account, the Project’s photo repository from lab reconstructions
Making and Knowing Wikischolars site, to which you will be granted access by your instructors. (As in the Making and Knowing Laboratory, students will keep field notes in a course wiki each week, recording their assignments, experiments, and learning each week.)
Making and Knowing Google Drive (once you have been granted access by your instructors)
Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Lab (CGUI) website
Digital competencies (and the larger site: http://allaboardhe.org/)
In class on Jan 18:
Introduction
Aims and overview of the course (Smith and Catapano)
The Making and Knowing Project and BnF. Ms. Fr. 640 (Smith)
Digital literacy - resources and digital competencies (Jessica Brodsky)
Overview of and Digital Editions and Editing (Catapano)
Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Lab (Feiner)
Homework assignment Jan 18:
Reading (for lab on Jan 20):
Assignment 1 (due Jan 25):
Begin to familiarize yourself with your assigned folios from the course GitHub and read through them. (You can also read in the pdfs we sent on Wednesday, but also find them on the GitHub repository.)
Complete Digital Competencies Evaluation #1 and permission and contribution forms, and bring them to class.
Reading (for Jan 25):
“User Story” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_story
G. Thomas Tanselle. A Rationale of Textual Criticism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992). Available at Book Culture.
Lab 1: Jan 20 - workshop with Dennis Tenen
Introduction to Command Line, and help with GitHub
Be sure to have read Milligan and Baker: Introduction to the Bash Command Line
For Reference: Cunix/unix tutorial
Practical help with GitHub [WILL HAPPEN IN NEXT LAB]
Week 2: Jan 25 - **General introduction to text editing and scholarship**
What is a “book”? How does it organize text and content? What aims does it achieve? Who does it reach? What is Scholarly Editing and Textual Criticism? What are the rationale, purposes, scope, and features of scholarly editions?
In class on Jan 25:
Discussion: What *is a *book? Digital Humanities projects, scholarly editions, user stories
Introduction of the Casebooks Project by director, Prof. Lauren Kassell, Cambridge University
Homework assignment Jan 25:
Assignment 2 (due Feb 1):
Read about User Stories: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_story
From class on January 25, think about the Casebooks Project and the Making and Knowing Project, derive 3-5 user stories related to our proposed online edition of BnF Ms. Fr. 640, based on your reading of your folios. In class, we will discuss the user stories and create a document that we will collaboratively add to GitHub.
Create your profile in Wikischolars. If you have questions about how to do this, and can come to Monday’s lab class, please feel free to attend 10:10-2 for the whole class, OR, from 11:30-12:15, we’ll cover field notes, and from 12:30-2, we’ll cover an intro to using WikiScholars, and troubleshooting for GD and WikiScholars.
If you can’t come to Monday’s class, there will be office hours for troubleshooting help announced later this week.
Reading (for Feb 1):
* Identify and read the annotations relevant to your folios.
Lab 2: Jan 27 - Wiki, GD, and GitHub workshop**
Dennis Tenen, Introduction to GitHub
Wiki Scholars introduction and setup
M&K Google Drive troubleshooting,GitHub troubleshooting
Photos of today’s lecture notes from Dennis Tenen
Week 3: Feb **1 - **Data and Project Management
How do we think about the social, intellectual, and physical infrastructure of producing a “book” or a “digital project”? What is distinctive about digital projects? What is the range of concerns for a digital editing project?
In class on Feb 1:
Class discussion and exercise:
User stories
The whole class will:
Discuss and refine user stories and collaboratively contribute to a shared document on the class Github repository
From user stories create “feature requests” in the issue tracker
Lecture and discussion:
Project Management
“Agile” development and management
Collaboration and Communication
Release Management
Technical Debt and Digital Obsolescence
Data Management
Identifiers
Metadata
Tracking
Preservation and Sustainability
Licensing: Creative Commons and open access
Optimising for Re-use
Homework assignment Feb 1:
In Wikischolars, create your profile. Begin taking rudimentary field notes that record the process of doing your homework. Transfer your field notes into Wikischolars field note pages.
Metadata: For 5 of your folios (r and v), create a metadata table, based on the schema/template we came up with in class.
See this sample based on one of Tianna’s folios
Remember, please read and use the folios in GitHub. At the same time, have a look at the manuscript pages in Google Drive, including looking at the HD images of your folios.
If you come up with additional metadata fields, please create a new issue in GitHub. Also use the issue tracker tracker if you come across problems while filling in the table.
Remember to do the reading also:
Reading (for Feb 8):
* Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative "[Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials](http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/FADGI_Still_Image_Tech_Guidelines_2015-09-02_v4.pdf)"
Lab 3: Feb 3 - Metadata
What are the categories by which we organize our “content,” our “materials,” our “digital assets”?
We will start this assignment in the lab, and students will finish at home:
Create master table of metadata elements collaboratively, to be filled in for homework: What are the considerations we may need to have for creating a digital edition? What should our metadata be?
Here is the Schema/template we came up with in class:
Us the template to create table of metadata for your assigned folios and add to GitHub.
Week **4**: Feb **8 - Digital Image Fundamentals**
Representing a representation: How are images represented digitally? How are they viewed, processed, and referenced? What are their advantages and limitations?
In class on Feb 8:
Discussion:
Lecture and discussion:
Tool:
Homework assignment Feb 8:
Assignment 4 (to be started during Lab 4 and due Feb 15):
Prepare a Viewshare “view” with images presenting metadata from previous week
Add photos from related annotations’ reconstruction experiments
Update your field notes
Reading (for Feb 15):
Lab 4: Feb 10 - Using metadata in Viewshare
Review metadata table
Create presentation metadata in Viewshare
Start Assignment 4 (if needed, finish for homework)
Week 5: Feb 15 - Text Fundamentals
What is digital text? What can it do that printed type on paper cannot? How may digital or “electronic” text be “processed”? What sorts of study and inquiry does text “processing” facilitate? How does the way digital text is “prepared” affect its possible uses?
In class on Feb 15:
Lecture and discussion:
Text fundamentals, representation, and encoding
What can you do with digital text?
Regular expression exercises: see: http://dh.obdurodon.org/#regex
Tool:
Homework assignment Feb 15:
Assignment 5 (due Feb 22):
TBD
Update your field notes
Reading (for Feb 22)
Lab 5: Feb 17 - GitHub lab
Week 6: Feb 22 - Version Control
The mess of digital reproduction: how to maintain control of content, issue, edition, “release”? How can digital tools accommodate textual “instability”?
In class on Feb 22:
Lecture and discussion
Exercise:
Homework assignment Feb 22:
Assignment 6 (due Mar 1):
TBD
Digital Competencies Evaluation #2
Update your field notes
Reading (for Mar 1):
Week 7: March 1 - Text Markup: Introduction and Overview
Digital text: How it works in practice, part 1. Approaches for preparing textual data to represent implicit “formal” or “structural” features
In class on Mar 1:
Introduction to structured text, basic markup technologies
Markdown
HTML/XHTML/HTML5
Homework assignment Mar 1:
Assignment 7 (due Mar 8):
Practice markdown of your folios, and use it to present your folios
Commit to repository in GitHub
Consider the affordances and limitations of markdown and bring your ideas to the next class about what more you want from markup of your folios
Update your field notes
Reading (for Mar 8):
DeRose SJ, Durand DG, Mylonas E, Renear AH. “What is text, really?” SIGDOC Asterisk J. Comput. Doc. 1997 Aug; 21(3):1-24. doi: 10.1145/264842.264843
“What is XML and why should humanists care? An even gentler introduction to XML” http://dh.obdurodon.org/what-is-xml.xhtml
Week 8: Mar 8 - Text Markup Continued: Semantic Markup
Digital Text: How it works in practice, part 2. “Text Encoding” or “Markup” for preparing textual data to represent both “formal” and “semantic” textual features.
In class on Mar 8:
Lecture and discussion:
Introduction to XML
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) and customized markup
Exercise:
Tool:
Homework assignment Mar 8:
Assignment 8:
Due Monday March 20: Fully develop a markup element set and apply to your folios within GitHub
Due Wednesday March 22: Compare and review partner tag set and, using the issue tracker, comment on partner tag set. Be prepared to present to the rest of the class on Mar 22 during class.
Update your field notes
Reading:
Lab 6: Mar 10 - Markup
Spring Break: Mar 15 - NO CLASS
Week 9: Mar 22 - Text Markup Continued: Establishing Consensus
Digital Text: How it works in practice in collaborative projects (part 3). How to decide what to tag and what not to tag. The role of the “schema” in formally defining (i.e., for a computer) a “document type” or “tag set”
In class on Mar 22:
Present your comparison and review of your own and partner group’s tag set. Discussion of different markup
Establish the final, consensus markup
Formalize this consensus markup in a schema
Begin applying the consensus markup - troubleshooting, understanding, reporting, diagnosing, and fixing errors
Homework assignment Mar 22:
Assignment 9 (due Mar 29):
Apply consensus markup to your folios
Review partner group’s markup (through issue tracker)
Bugs
Commentary
Reading (for Mar 29):
David Birnbaum: Digital humanities course XSLT materials
Week 10: **March 29 - Transformations, Representations, and Interfaces to Digital Resources Part 1**
Digital text: How it really works.
In** class on March 29:**
Review and troubleshooting of your marked-up folios
Lecture and discussion:
Homework assignment Mar 29:
Assignment 10 (due Apr 5):
Complete folio markup
Update your field notes
Reading (for Apr 5):
Birnbaum DH course XSLT materials
“Losing the Thread,” Aeon, 2016: https://aeon.co/essays/how-textiles-repeatedly-revolutionised-human-technology
NOTE: In lieu of a lab this week, TA Office Hours for troubleshooting
Week 11: **Apri**l 5** - Transformations, Representations, and Interfaces to Digital Resources Part 2**
Moving from preparation of digital textual data to “processing” and “application”, particularly “transformation” or “conversion” into appropriate formats for publishing in an online edition.
In class on Apr 5:
Transformation of XML - XSLT
Publishing platform via Jekyll using Ed
Homework assignment Apr 5:
Assignment 11 (due Apr 12):
Transform marked-up pages to Jekyll markdown
Revisit feature requests from Week 3 and evaluate status of requests
Update your field notes
Lab 7: Apr 7 - XSLT workshop
NOTE: Additional TA Office Hours will be scheduled
Week 12: April 12 - Transformations, Representations, and Interfaces to Digital Resources Part 3
In class on Apr 12:
Week 13: Apr **19**
Lab 8: Apr 21 - Computer Graphics and User Interface Lab
Week 14: Apr 26 - Review and Conclusion
The Future of Digital Text (yikes!): preservation, sustainability, archiving
In class on Apr 26:
Preservation, sustainability, archiving
Complete Digital Competencies Evaluation #3
Week 15: Launch of Edition
May 23-25: Working Group Meeting with invited scholars. Attendance required, if at all possible.
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