1. Technology and the Humanities
English 415/516
Fall 2003

2. RTH 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. Goals for Weeks 1 - 5 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

6. Goals for Weeks 6 - 9 Study Cases
Exploring the implications of technology in...
Conveying complex information
Mechanizing humanity
Designing our environment
Living with unintended consequences

7. Goals for Weeks 10 - 13 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

8. Topics for Weeks 1 - 5 Technologies and Their Human Implications
Acquiring information
Collaborating
Manipulating information
Presenting information
Creating compound documents

9. Topics for Weeks 6 - 9 Study Cases
Data Graphics (Tufte)
Science Fiction (Piercy)
Design (Norman)
Unintended consequences (Joy; Dooling)
Class-selected option?

10. Topics for Weeks 10 - 13 Group Presentations
Group work: ?
Group 1: ?
Group 2: ?
Group 3: ?
Group 4: ?
Group 5: ?

11. 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

12. 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)

13. Week 2: Collaborating Email (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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. Home Pages Are For ... Publication of Compound Documents
Building resources through linking
Adding value
Commentaries
Live presentations

18. Computer Tools InventoryA C M P
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

19. Any Questions ???

20. Exercise 1a: Exploring Sources of Information and Software
Consult the slide labeled “Acquiring Information.” Locate and use at least four of the tools listed there and check them off on a printed copy of this instruction page:
Internet Explorer/Netscape (N.b.: For this, try downloading and then importing into your copy of a web browser the bookmark file called Bookmarks.html from the ~esrabkin/Public/html folder at login.itd.umich.edu OR follow the instructions for acquiring bookmarks on Eric Rabkin’s homepage,
MIRLYN
Distant databases
E-lists
News groups
CD-ROMs
Graphic Scanning
OCR
Edit your browser bookmark file:
Open your browser’s Bookmark/Favorites window
Add a new folder for your interests
Find URLs specific for your field and add them to your new folder
Delete bookmarks of no interest to you
Save your bookmark file and upload it to your IFS space for later retrieval and use.
See directions on Notes for this slide

21. Exercise 1b: Acquiring Specific Information and Software
1. Acquiring graphics
Use Windows Explorer or My Computer to create a folder within the C:\Temp directory called PixESR (substituting your initials for ESR).
Pick a subject that interests you.
Open your web browser, search in your chosen subject, find an appealing graphic, right-click that graphic, and save the graphic to your Pix folder.
Repeat search and save at least five times.
2. Acquiring software
Use Tucows (or any other online archive of free software) to acquire Irfan View (or any other light-weight image and slide show viewer).
Install the downloaded slide show viewer in your C: drive
Use slide viewer for a slide show of the graphics in your Pix folder.
3. Acquiring and labeling graphics
Open MS Word; start a New Document; save that document (in your C:\temp folder or your H: drive) with a filename reflecting your chosen subject.
Open your web browser; search in your chosen subject; find another appealing graphic in your subject; right-click to save the graphic to your computer clipboard; then right-click to paste the graphic into your Word document.
Repeat until your document has at least five graphics.
Insert | Picture | From file … the graphics from your Pix folder into your Word document.
Add a caption (Insert | Reference | Caption) to each graphic (which now should be at least ten) in your Word document so the graphics can be retrieved by using a text-based search.
Save and close the document.
Use Word’s Open | Tools | Search to retrieve a graphic.
4. Manipulating graphics
4A. Using Word...
Make a working copy of your Word file.
Select each graphic and use the Picture tool bar (View | Toolbars | Picture) to crop it and/or adjust the color to make it serve better the purpose of illustrating your subject.
4B. Using a graphics editor…
Make another working copy of your Word.
Select each graphic and use Ifran View, Photoshop, or any other graphics-centric program to crop and/or adjust the colors of copies of the graphics in your Word file.
In the second working copy of your Word document, replace the graphics with their manipulated versions.
4C. In your working copies, explore the possibilities for restoring the manipulated graphics to their originals without recourse to the original graphics files.
5. Optional…
Open PowerPoint. (If you have never used PPT before, do one of the following: [a] ask for help; [b] use PPT’s Help under Getting Started; [c] use PPT’s Office Assistant; [d] use Google to locate a PowerPoint Tutorial. Note: for Exercise 1b, you need know only the most basic facts about using PPT.)
Transfer your graphics from your Word document to your PPT presentation, one graphic per PPT slide.
Add notes in the Notes pane to at least two of the slides.
What are the advantages of PPT as a graphics archive?
See directions on Notes for this slide

22. Exercise 2a: Collaborating
Join into small teams. Use MS Word’s outline feature to create the skeleton for a document that will include some material found by each team member and some material written by each team member.
Use the web-based interface to the U-M directory ( or ud on login.itd.umich.edu to set up a mailgroup for your team.
Each member of the team should use the tools for Acquiring Information to find some materials for the outlined document.
Copy the material into Word, add your own material, and save the document using the Protect Document tool.
If one does not already exist, create a Shared folder in your individual IFS account.
N.b.: If you are having trouble accessing a shared folder, either ask for help or try to set access privileges. To learn more about setting access privileges, search ITD On-Line Documentation ( under “acl” (which stands for Access Control List). The learn about creating so called protection groups that can be used easily in conjunction with access control lists, search ITD On-Line Documentation under “pts.”
Upload your Word document to your Shared folder.
Use group to tell your teammates when you have made a document available.
Everyone should review each teammate’s e-text and either edit or annotate depending on the Protection in place.
Team members should put copies (with slightly changed filenames [e.g., add your initials just before the dot] into shared filespace and alert the originating or group as appropriate. Working together at a single machine, the team members should download and review (merge in most cases) the documents and then use them and the outline to build a single document.
Send the document as an attachment to everyone in your lab section.
N.B.: for a review of some collaboration tools, see the Collaboration415.ppt available through the course online syllabus under Supplementary Materials.
See directions on Notes for this slide

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

24. Quality Evaluator
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
Exercise 2b: Deciding What Makes a Short Poem Good
(in the opinion of your group)
1. Form into groups of at least six persons with at least two having some significant degree of comfort with most of the acquisition and collaboration tools discussed so far.
2. Select a group leader.
3. Decide together on how to run QE in the group (what will be exchanged on paper, what will be exchanged via IFS, who will do any necessary photocopying, how parts of this total exercise [including steps 4-9 below] will be timed and checked, etc.).
4. Each member (not the leader) choose two poems of no more than thirty lines for contribution, each poem to be copied, with complete bibliographic data, on a single 1.5-spaced paper or word processing page.
5. Run QE as indicated in slide above and using tools and schedule decided on in step 3. This may be done using the QE program (available for course use only as ~lsarth/Public/QE) but probably should be done completely on paper.
6. Produce a report of words on what makes a poem good in the opinion of the group.
7. Produce a report of words on what this exercise suggested about the problems and possibilities of collaboration.
8. Have both reports available for reading aloud and discussion by the class as a whole in large discussion class in Week 3.
9. Bring to class instructions for finding electronic copies of the two reports.
Created as a Macintosh application by John Huntley, Univ of Iowa

25. Exercise 3a: Building a Personal Database
Using any appropriate acquisition tools (e.g., the web, CD-ROMs if available locally or on a CD-ROM LAN) begin to build a personal database using an appropriate program such as Word, Excel, ProCite, FileMaker, or Access.
Advice: Make sure that you have fields that make possible searching the database for content of the sorts you are likely to use for (a) documentation, (b) investigation, (c) manipulation, and (d) presentation. For example, under (a), you probably will want such fields as author’s last name; publisher; and, for online resources, date of access. Under (b), you probably will want such fields as keywords or demographic codes for respondents. Under (c), you probably will want fields of appropriate data types, such as date or number, and you will want to pick a program in which to construct the database that offers the ability to do the manipulations you anticipate, such as subtracting dates or averaging numbers. Under (d), you will want fields that hold and display information in a form (text, date, number, graphic, audio, video, and so on) that you will find useful for presentation (assuming you give users direct or even indirect access to the database) and you will want to pick a program in which to construct the database that offers the ability to present data the way you intend (for example, by scripting buttons in display forms or by serving the data over the web).
See directions on Notes for this slide

26. Exercise 3b: Working with Graphics
Find, crop, annotate, and save (as PowerPoint or Word files) graphics to augment your database. For detailed instructions, see Exercise 1b. Where appropriate (e.g., in FileMaker), consider adding graphics directly to your personal database.
Use Photoshop to build a composite image, including text tool labeling, also for inclusion in your database with its own annotations.
See directions on Notes for this slide

27. Exercise 4: Creating a PowerPoint Presentation
For ideas about what you can do with PowerPoint and how to do it, download and explore a copy of ~lsarth/Public/II2PPT.ppt (Windows) or ~lsarth/Public/II2PPT4.ppt (Mac). (Note: since some of the linked resources are unavailable, not every feature will function.)
Drawing on your database and other sources, including materials acquired from the World Wide Web, use PowerPoint to prepare a presentation for sharing in lab.
See directions on Notes for this slide

28. Exercise 5a: Creating a Personal Home Page
Either create or improve your own home page.
If you don’t already have your own home page, you should begin one. As you do, consider what features you like of existing home pages. You can adapt any home page you like by copying its code and selectively changing its contents.
To learn more about creating home pages in general, including how to code them and get more help with both simple and advanced features, consult Working With Networked Resources ( which includes WebLaunch ( and/or consult the “Writing for the Web” section of ESR’s Bookmarks (
See directions on Notes for this slide

29. Exercise 5b: Creating a Single-Machine Web Presentation
The object of this exercise is to create a desktop website to organize your own multimedia information for research or teaching, say in class or at a professional conference.
Learn how to create your own home page by following the directions in Exercise 5a, but do not upload your web page to a public server. Create a single folder on your desktop machine to hold this home page.
Add more web pages to your desktop site so that your home page can serve as a starting point for a a presentation. For creating a website with several pages, such as this, you will probably want to use an HTML editor (for example, Claris Home Page or Dreamweaver). If you wish, you can later move your website to shared file space for wider access.
See directions on Notes for this slide

30. Exercise 5c: Working with Flash
Begin and complete a project in Flash, either (a) an animated scene with some user interaction or (b) a splash page (or frame) for your home page with navigation.
A simple example of Flash with navigation is available at
Instructions for working with Flash are built in to the Flash online Help system. However, many people will find it easier to use tutorials available through the “Flash Sites” link under Supplementary Materials in the online syllabus. The tutorials links are listed from easiest to hardest as you go down the “Flash Sites” pages.
See directions on Notes for this slide

31. 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.
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Whole article is OutOfPrint doc