T&H 2003 English 415/516 Fall 2003 Technology and the Humanities

T&H 2003 RTH StaffRTH Staff Eric Rabkin - English Angell Hall TWTh 3:10-4:00 & by appt Victor Rosenberg - School of Information C West Hall W 3:10-4:00 & by appt

Overview Weeks 1 - 5: Technologies and Their Human Implications Tuesdays: demo/discussions of technologies Thursdays: discussions of implications Weeks 6 - 9: Study Cases Weeks : Group Presentations

Assumptions Our Experiences With Computing –The Frustrations of Computing –The Open Workshop Environment –The Diversity of Participants Developing Humanities Computing –Practical Impediments to Humanities Computing –Theoretical Modeling of the Human World onto a Machine

Goals for Weeks Technologies and Their Human Implications Ideal and Real Possibilities Example: PowerPoint –Multimedia slide show –B & W Photocopied Overheads –Distracting clip art Example: Xerox Copiers –Samizdat –Chain mail –Atrophied ability to summarize

Goals for Weeks Study Cases Exploring the implications of technology in...  Conveying complex information  Mechanizing humanity  Designing our environment  Living with unintended consequences

Goals for Weeks Group Presentations Ideal and Real Possibilities Example: Advertising Agency –Apple’s 1984 ad introducing Macintosh –One-page press release –Warning labels on cigarette ads Example: Encyclopedia –Encarta –U-M Fantasy and Science Fiction Home Page –Shoeboxes full of snapshots

Topics for Weeks Technologies and Their Human Implications Acquiring information Collaborating Manipulating information Presenting information Creating compound documents

Topics for Weeks Study Cases Data Graphics (Tufte) Science Fiction (Piercy) Design (Norman) Unintended consequences (Joy; Dooling) Class-selected option?

Topics for Weeks Group Presentations Group work: ? Group 1: ? Group 2: ? Group 3: ? Group 4: ? Group 5: ?

T&H 2003 Week 1: Acquiring Information Internet Explorer/Netscape (World Wide Web) –Internet & U-M IFS –Bookmarks and Bookmark files Distant databases (OED, HTI, etc.) E-lists and News groups (see Library catalogs (e.g., MIRLYN, LOC, ILL, etc.) Personal notes (Advanced Find) CD-ROMs & DVDs Graphic scanning & OCR (DeskScan & OmniPage) Video & audio capture

T&H 2003 Evidence Absent from the Web MOST OF WEB IS BEYOND SCOPE OF SEARCH SITES A … study from the scientific journal Nature reports that the Internet's rapid growth is outpacing the capabilities of most search engines. The most sophisticated search engines list no more than 16 percent of all Web sites on the Internet, according to the report, and the majority of engines cover less than 10 percent each. Northern Light got top ranks in the report with 16 percent coverage, while Lycos, a much more popular and well-known engine, covers just 2.5 percent. Combined, all of the major engines cover just 42 percent of the Web. The remainder of sites are lost to users unless they know the exact address of a Web site. The search engine companies do not dispute the report's findings, and analysts say the situation may give rise to a backwards leap in the distribution of information as more data is lost to easy public view than is made available. (Los Angeles Times 07/08/99 in EduPage 07/09/99)

T&H 2003 Week 2: Collaborating (including editing and attaching files) Locating addresses Mail Groups (via web and dua) IFS file exchange (Chooser v. ftp [Fetch for Mac, WS_FTP for Wintel]) –Apple v IBM-compatible –Binary v ASCII Annotation and editing in MS Word Outlining in MS Word Quality Evaluator

T&H 2003 Week 3: Manipulating Information General & Specialized database software (e.g., FileMaker/Access & ProCite/Silver Platter) Comparing alphanumeric data manipulation options: Spreadsheets, Databases, & Statistical packages Text manipulation (WordCruncher, SGML, HTML, etc.) Advanced image manipulation (Photoshop v. MS Office) Video editing

T&H 2003 Week 4: Presenting Information Streaming media Inserting “objects” in MS Word Drawing v. painting Embedding v. linking PowerPoint presentation software Web sites Authoring packages Comparing presentation options: Word, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer/Netscape, Director/Authorware, FileMaker/Access

T&H 2003 Week 5: Creating Compound Web Documents Exploring model pages and sites Design issues Copyright issues Scholarly character of e-publication HTML authoring (Working With Networked Resources) –Microsoft Office applications –Dreamweaver, shareware Flash animation & navigation

T&H 2003 Home Pages Are For... Publication of Compound Documents Building resources through linking Adding value Commentaries Live presentations

Computer Tools Inventory ACMPACMP Anonymous FTP**GraphicsConverter/Lview* Authorware/Director*Internet Explorer/ Netscape *** Conferencing software***MS Excel*** CD-ROMs, DVDs, etc.**MS Powerpoint*** Chooser/FileManager***MS Word*** Dreamweaver/Homepage*OmniPage/Deskscan** E-lists, News groups***Photoshop* Fetch/RapidFiler/WS_FTP***ProCite**** FileMaker/Access****WordCruncher** FinalCut Pro***X.500 Mail Groups*** A = Information Acquisition; C = Collaboration; M = Information Manipulation; P = Information Presentation

T&H 2003 Any Questions ???

See directions on Notes for this slide Exercise 1a: Exploring Sources of Information and Software

See directions on Notes for this slide Exercise 1b: Acquiring Specific Information and Software

See directions on Notes for this slide Exercise 2a: Collaborating

See directions on Notes for Quality Evaluator slide Exercise 2b: Using Quality Evaluator

T&H 2003 Set Up: Leader generates QE packets (worksheets with a] up to four questions for each item, b] 3- or 5-part semantic differential, and c] comments/differentia area) and distributes them to each member Inspection, Comment, Discrimination: Members individually consider all materials, comment on them, and distribute them as intrinsically middling, better, or worse Tally, Discrimination, Report: Leader tallies incoming data and prepares feedback reports to the group and to individuals Consider, Interpret, Confer: Group members review their reports and confer with each other and/or the leader in deciding how to improve quality Created as a Macintosh application by John Huntley, Univ of Iowa Quality Evaluator

See directions on Notes for this slide Exercise 3a: Building a Personal Database

See directions on Notes for this slide Exercise 3b: Working with Graphics

See directions on Notes for this slide Exercise 4: Creating a PowerPoint Presentation

See directions on Notes for this slide Exercise 5a: Creating a Personal Home Page

See directions on Notes for this slide Exercise 5b: Creating a Single- Machine Web Presentation

See directions on Notes for this slide Exercise 5c: Working with Flash

T&H 2003 When Is a Book Out of Print? Wall Street Journal, August 16, 1999 A New High-Tech Battleground: Publishing Out-of-Print Books By MATTHEW ROSE Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL NEW YORK -- New technology that allows books to be stored in computer databases and printed on demand has created a publishing conundrum: When is a book actually out of print? The issue is of far more than philosophical interest to authors and their publishers, who now are clashing over what has been a relatively straightforward matter. When all copies of a book have been sold and no more are to be printed, standard book contracts call for publishers to give rights to the work back to the author after six months. Now, with on- demand printing, by which publishers can create printed copies of any stored work, books might never technically go out of print....