Presented at Linux Users of Victoria, 2 March 2010.

1. Humanities computing
Claudine Chionh
University of Melbourne
2 March 2010 / LUV meeting
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2. Overview
The Founders and Survivors project
Humanities computing
Why FOSS?
Challenges
Drupal in action: Data migration
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3. Founders and Survivors
The Claudine
Woolwich 24/aug/1821 to Hobart 15/dec/1821 – 113 days at sea
160 male convicts boarded, 159 survived/landed (not a bad record)
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4. Founders and Survivors
Journal
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5. Founders and Survivors
Conduct registers
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6. Founders and Survivors
Archives of Tasmania convict index
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7. Founders and Survivors
Founders and Survivors
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8. Founders and Survivors
Van Diemen’s Land
Transportation period, 1803-1853
∼ 1 million rows of data
Quantifiable data: conduct registers, BDM. . .
Text: journals, newspaper reports
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9. Founders and Survivors
Genealogists
What happened to convicts after they were freed?
Links with genealogists for lives of convicts and their families.
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10. Founders and Survivors
The ‘factory plan’
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11. Humanities computing
Old questions, new tools?
Digitisation
Analyse large[r] amounts of material
Public access and collaboration
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12. Humanities computing
The Valley of the Shadow
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13. Humanities computing
The Valley of the Shadow
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14. Humanities computing
Old Bailey Online
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15. Humanities computing
Perseus Digital Library
Virgil’s Aeneid
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16. Humanities computing
‘Libraries’: Literary and linguistic applications
Index Thomisticus (1946)
Perseus
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17. Humanities computing
‘Archives’: Historical applications
Digitisation
Data analysis
Collaboration
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18. Humanities computing
Digitisation
Documents
Images
Linked/cross-referenced presentation of sources
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19. Humanities computing
Tasmanian Police Gazette, 1861-1933
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20. Humanities computing
Surgeon’s journals
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21. Humanities computing
Conduct registers
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22. Humanities computing
Data analysis
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23. Humanities computing
GIS
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24. Humanities computing
Collaboration
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25. Why FOSS?
Why FOSS?
Community of developers
Access
Values
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26. Why FOSS?
Community of developers
Mutual support
Don’t reinvent the wheel
Using and adapting tools
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27. Why FOSS?
Access
Make archival sources and research results accessible to general public
Sharing data with other researchers
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28. Why FOSS?
Values
Public interest
Free access, free expression
Dialogue
Public participation
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29. Challenges
The Two Cultures
The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution
CP Snow, Rede Lecture, 1959
Literature/humanities vs science/tech
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30. Challenges
Many cultures?
Translating between academics, IT professionals, diverse public audience
Different priorities, research questions
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31. Challenges
Geeks and non-geeks
Non-geeks may not understand the values behind FOSS
Technology as magic
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32. Challenges
Where do developers belong?
Identity crisis
‘Digital humanities professional’ ?
Background – IT or academic?
Autonomy
Career progression
Where do humanities computing projects belong?
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33. Data migration
Screenshot: Index record
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34. Data migration
Why Drupal?
Modular
Define our own content types and views
Define user roles
Workflow
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35. Data migration
Index data
Access –> Excel –> CSV –> Drupal
Database on the web
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36. Data migration
Content Construction Kit
http://drupal.org/project/cck
Define your own data structures in Drupal
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37. Data migration
Rules
http://drupal.org/project/rules
More powerful than core Trigger and Action modules
Generate a title for each node
{index number} | {convict name} ({ship name})
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38. Data migration
Views
http://drupal.org/project/views
Define your own views of content
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39. Data migration
Table Wizard
http://drupal.org/project/tw
Expose a MySQL table or CSV file to Views
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40. Data migration
Table analysis
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41. Data migration
Migrate
http://drupal.org/project/migrate
Map structure of external table to a Drupal data structure
Migrate Extras http://drupal.org/project/migrate_extras to
migrate to CCK fields
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42. Data migration
Content set
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43. Data migration
Migrate dashboard
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44. Data migration
Drush
Web-based dashboard good for testing on small samples
Drush: the Drupal Shell http://drupal.org/project/drush
(out of memory issues)
Run drush migrate-import {content set} from cron
Approx. one week to migrate ∼ 80,000 records
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45. Where to from here?
Next stage of project
(manually) linking official index with public submissions
later life stories
WWI links
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46. Where to from here?
Links
The Valley of the Shadow http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/
Old Bailey Online http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
Perseus Digital Library http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
Index Thomisticus http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/it/
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47. Where to from here?
Links
Founders and Survivors http://www.foundersandsurvivors.org/
Mapping Our Anzacs http://mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au/
Australian Newspapers (National Library)
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/
Essays in Humanities Computing
http://www.digitalhumanities.org/Essays/
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48. Where to from here?
Questions/advice?
http://claudine.github.com/2010/02/17/
drupal-table-wizard-migrate.html
http://www.slideshare.net/claudinec
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