Xie Blog Post 1 – Introduction

Hi, I am Kira Xie, a first-year computational media MA. I am from Guangzhou, China, a city in southern China. I’ve lived in Guangzhou for most of my life, but I had lived in Shanghai and Ottawa for a while too. I like driving around to explore new places every time I move to a new place. I love travelling to different places and experience local culture.

I first learned about Digital Durham from Wired! Lab opening day and I got interested in the class after the presentation. I never heard of Durham before coming to Duke, and everything in Durham is so new to me – the southern culture, the tobacco campus, local brewing factories, etc. I actually haven’t explored Durham though I already spent almost 6 months here. I really want to know more about Durham’s history and culture through this course. This course seems to be a good combination of history, visual studies and multimedia storytelling. I want to explore more about Durham’s past and present through engaging with the materials that this course provides and hopefully I could also get some inspiration about my final thesis.

January 16, 2018

Hendrix Blog Post 1 – Introduction

Hello! I’m Sarah Hendrix, and I am a senior from Concord, North Carolina (a 15 minute drive from Charlotte, NC) majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Statistics and Russian. After I took several courses in the Information Sciences and Studies Department and enjoyed each of them, the department became my go-to when searching for interesting, small classes. During my sophomore year, I took a course where we explored Parrish Street and the Museum of Durham History to learn about the history of race and economics in Durham. The museum contained more than I could absorb in one visit, and it prompted me to start spending more time in Durham and to consider the relationship between Durham and Duke. It is easy to become comfortable in the “Duke bubble” and forget about the city surrounding this university, so as someone in her last semester here, I want to learn all I can about this historic city and create something that can teach others about it.

Outside of the classroom, I am very involved in the Duke marching and pep band, which allows me to combine my interests in playing the trumpet, supporting Duke, spending time with a fantastic group of people, and watching football and basketball! I am a tour guide and enjoy discussing my time at Duke and in Durham with prospective students and families. I used to be an application developer on campus and now work as a computer science UTA, but as an avid hiker I also like to venture off campus to the Eno River State Park to explore the trails and take in the views.

January 15, 2018

Xiao Blog Post 1 – Introduction

Hi everyone!

My name’s Claire Xiao, and I’m a sophomore majoring in statistics and history. I’m from a suburb right outside of Philadelphia, and I have one older brother. I first learned about Digital Durham through Bass Connections. And I was immediately intrigued. Digital Durham is a cross-disciplinary class that combines so many fields–history, visual media studies, education, etc. It seemed like such an applicable class for me to merge my different interests. I also really wanted to learn more about Durham. I’ve lived in Philadelphia for most of my life and don’t know much about Durham or the South. Digital Durham would allow me to interact directly with primary sources and the city.

Last summer, I participated in Story+ and had the chance to visit archives at UNC, NCSU, and (of course) Duke. It was fascinating and thrilling to be touching documents from decades ago. I’m looking forward to interacting with more archival resources this year!

On campus, I am involved with Club Table Tennis, Duke History Union, and The Chronicle. I played table tennis competitively for nine years, and I really enjoy being on a team at Duke since table tennis is primarily an individual sport. I also enjoy hanging out with my friends and reading.

January 15, 2018

Polson Blog Post 1 – Introduction

Hi, everyone! My name is Sophie Polson, and I am a senior from Overland Park, KS (a suburb of Kansas City). I am studying Computer Science with a certificate in Information Science and Studies. I was fortunate enough to take NC Jukebox with Professor Abel and Professor Szabo last spring, so I have returned for another semester! That being said, this course also sounded like a perfect way to finish my last semester at Duke. I’ve lived in Durham for the past four years, but I’m not very familiar with much of its history. This course seems to be the perfect combination of learning the history of the city alongside technological tools to aid in the increased access to and perpetuation of Durham’s historical records that may otherwise remain hidden.

On campus, I am heavily involved in the marching and pep band. I love being a part of a musical group that is able to travel and support other teams on campus! I have been a UTA for an assortment of Computer Science classes over the past three and a half years. I have also held a student developer job with the web department at the Social Science Research Institute in Gross Hall for the past three years. I enjoy going to the gym and experimenting with P.E. classes offered here at Duke – the course I’m attempting this semester is Stand Up Paddleboard Fitness! I am excited to be here and to get to know all of you throughout this semester!

January 15, 2018

Goldberger Blog Post 1- Introduction

Hello, everyone! My name is Tyler Goldberger, and I am a junior from Raleigh, North Carolina majoring in History and Spanish while also pursuing the Jewish Studies Certificate. Because of all of these interests, I thought this course would allow me to explore a topic that I am yet to investigate in a way that would encourage touching and researching with primary documents. I have always loved the opportunity of using resources in the Rubenstein Library, and I believe that this course will give me the tools to learn more about effective research and interpretation of primary resources. On top of this, I think displaying this historical information digitally is a fascinating avenue to share what we learn as a class to a larger audience. Being from so close but never really having looked too deeply into the history of Durham, I hope to expand my knowledge of an area I consider home. There are many names deeply rooted into the Durham community – the Blackwells, the Dukes, Pauli Murray – and I want to delve into this history to learn what they contributed to this city to ensure that their names and memories would live long past their lives. I am really looking forward to what this collaborative space will bring throughout the next semester.

Outside of the classroom, I really enjoy running and reading! My goal this semester is to complete my second marathon in Virginia! I am currently living in the newest dorm on East Campus which has me playing too many car racing games. I also have discovered that I have a little travel bug in me, as I spent this past summer in Jerusalem, Israel and this last semester in Madrid, Spain! These experiences have allowed me to explore my interests in history and how history is remembered. I am really passionate about bringing awareness to mass atrocities committed in Spanish-speaking countries, and I think taking this class will introduce new ways to present and share information through a number of technological mediums.

December 7, 2017

Welcome!

Welcome to the Digital Durham course! We look forward to working with all of you this semester!

October 17, 2017

Spring 2018 Course

The Spring 2018 Digital Durham course will be taught on WF 10:05-11:20 in Rubenstein Library 350, unless otherwise noted. It will combine historical readings and discussion with hands-on, project-based work with Digital Durham collection materials. The course is listed as:

ISS 356S
VMS 358S
EDUC 356S
HISTORY 382S

It carries ALP and STS, and is associated with the Bass Connections: Information, Society, and Culture theme. It is not necessary to be a member of the existing Bass Connections Digital Durham team, and new team members may join up in Spring without taking the course , if desired. The course fulfill the ISS electives requirements, as well as VMS in-department major elective requirements.

Graduate students may also take the course with graduate level project expectations) as:

ISS 758S
HISTORY 758S
CMAC 758S
EDUC 758S

October 17, 2017October 20, 2017

Meeting Recap – To Dos for 10/17/2017

Tax List Transcription:

(JPG files in Box) – we need to transcript 109 on (odd numbers), first several rows as indicate in the spreadsheet

V: 109, 111,113
Claire: 115, 117
Leanora: 119
Hannah: 121, 123

Georectification Plans: (V and Helen)

Water maps from 1950s and 60s
Fire Insurance maps (1884, 1888) and research what is in UNC collections
Gray Map 1881 – to be coupled with census data and tax list as a research cluster

Water Photos:

scanning (Courtney)
review of Rencher collection maps online and in oversized folder to see what we need (Courtney)

Geoserver Convo: V, T, H talk to Joel and Brian about plans for Geonode and Drumeka, digital storytelling apps

September 5, 2017October 23, 2017

Infrastructure Plans for D2P3

Digital Durham Migration Plan:

Drumeka for the content, ported over from the original DD website
Geonode or other Geoserver for the Maps (to be georectified)
New Content:
- Workflows for adding additional content? Links to existing Durham resources?
- Additional Blog Site as a portal for Durham-related projects?

Course Site/Project Development:

WordPress for student-generated content in Spring 2018
Omeka/Neatline site for student exhibitions in Spring 2018
Google Sheets for initial data transcriptions from tax records
Duke Box for file storage and sharing
ZapAR for marker-based AR; Duke-sponsored online tour software for location-based applications
Possible physical mini-exhibition in Smith Warehouse (?) in Spring 2018

Other Partnerships:

Bull City 150?
Data+/Story+ for Summer 2018?
MA Student thesis options

September/October To Do:

Work with Brian and Joel to finalize plans for DD migration and schedule
Begin georectifying maps
Individual project work on tax record transcription, image scanning etc.
Finalize syllabus for Spring 2018
Advertising poster for Spring 2018 course (Bookbags open October 23)

September 2, 2017September 2, 2017

1875 Orange County Tax Records digitized!

The 1875 Orange County tax records collection we will be using for this project has been digitized and is available on the Internet Archive! One of our first tasks will be to think through how we can transcribe this information effectively for transfer into a database for subsequent analysis. We will also want to begin collecting relevant contextual information around the year 1875.