"Programming Historian": Available as PDF
Thanks to Wilko Graf von Hardenberg, an environmental historian post-doc at Università degli Studi di Trento in Italy, the Programming Historian (1st ed.) is now available for download as a PDF. This should make it easier to follow along with for those who prefer a hard copy, or to dedicate their browser window to their programming endeavours.
Download the full e-book: The Programming Historian, 1st ed.
Thanks again Wilko!
API Workshop
On 16-17 October 2009, the NiCHE Digital Infrastructure will be hosting a SSHRC-funded workshop on Application Programming Interfaces for the Digital Humanities. Historians and other humanists now have access to digital primary and secondary sources on an unprecedented scale, but almost all of these resources are delivered through web browsers with the assumption that a person will be plodding through them one at at time. What we need now are ways to make these sources readily available to computer programs: intelligent agents, machine learners, adaptive filters, data mining packages, you name it. We need to be able to recombine information from multiple sources in a way that supports the discovery of new information. And we need to provide tools that allow networked collectives to work together and leverage the power and diversity of the individuals that comprise the group. We've invited researchers and programmers from some of the key projects in Canada, the US and the UK to join us to discuss these issues.
To learn more, keep an eye on our API Workshop page, which will be updated over the coming weeks.
If you're excited by the potential of APIs for the digital humanities and would like to participate in some way, send me email at william.j.turkel@gmail.com
Behind the scenes of the NiCHE website move
Thirty-six straight days of full-time work for Adam Crymble and I, but we've finally gone live with the new NiCHE site. Now we'll continue to improve it into the fall, correcting bugs, improving the layout and adding plenty of new features. Some of the changes are obvious on the surface. We have a new permanent URL (http://niche-canada.org), one which better reflects the geographically-dispersed nature of our knowledge cluster. We have a new member directory, which will make it easier to find like-minded colleagues and fellow travellers as our membership grows. Adam has done a lot of work improving the navigation, the look and feel of the site, and clarifying the information architecture.
Most of the work that we've done is not obvious to the casual observer, however. We've moved the site from servers at UWO to an external VPS host, changed the server software from Windows to Linux (reflecting our commitment to open source), and updated the software stack that runs our site: Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Drupal. Our Drupal installation, in particular, was long in need of upgrading and maintenance. We are now in a much better position to keep the site running smoothly, and to upgrade to future versions of all of our software. We will also be able to add new tools and features: look for those beginning this fall.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me at william.j.turkel@gmail.com.
New Member Directory
We now have a directory of NiCHE members that allows you to search by name, by research interest or by participation in NiCHE activities. Want to find other people with an interest in eighteenth-century Arctic and Subarctic climate? Want to track down the fellow you met at the Toronto summer school who was named "Mac-something"? You have to sign in to the NiCHE website to use the directory, but don't worry: if you're not already a member, registration is free and easy.
"Programming Historian" Spanish Translation
¿Hablas español?
Me neither, but if you did and you wanted to learn how to incorporate computer programming into your research, now you can. Sections of the Programming Historian have been translated into Spanish - at least I think it's Spanish - and posted on 'Tapera', a Spanish language digital humanities blog. The examples have been converted from the Canadian Dictionary of Biography into something more culturally relevant to a Spanish speaking audience, but the ideas are still there.
This user-generated translation is made so much easier by the online format of the monograph, and by the open access license granted by the authors.
Looking for a wider audience for your work? Check out Sean Kheraj's "Notes on Knowledge Mobilization".