Tag Archives: Georgina Gluzman

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Day 6 / homework?

El problema es el idioma. Pero no se trata de que quiero tener la ayuda de una herramienta determinada en mi idioma. Eso no me parece importante ni posible.

Sitios como Opecalais.com o Voyant me devuelven a una pregunta crucial para quienes realizamos tareas de investigaciones enfocadas en áreas no centrales (no es un eufemismo, es sólo que décadas de corrección política han hecho mella en mí). Las fuentes, los personajes, los lugares, los eventos sobre los que quiero saber más… están simplemente en otro idioma y en otro universo cultural. Es así de simple.

No postulo que sean absolutamente inútiles (aunque tampoco asevero lo contrario). Sigo pensando en el tema. Sí puedo asegurar que para el viernes no tendré una respuesta.

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Day 6 / homework (for real)

Today we started to work on data mining. Data. That is a very big word. You will see… there is something you must know about me. I have a secret to confess, a reality to share, a burden to be lifted with help. This is how my doctoral research files looked like just a few years ago:

380160_255465214505757_646165245_nMy folders, not so long ago.

They do not look that different now, truth be told. Those are the files I have on paper. There is another disturbing reality: the folders in my computer.

Screen Shot 2014-07-14 at 9.26.48 PMOh, yeah. Some of my folders.

These two images reflect the two complexities of my research. I have to deal with (1) a huge amount of data that (2) I have collected in research carried in libraries and private archives. I have not found relevant materials in digitised collections. Period. This makes the whole data mining process… elusive, to say the least.

However, this does not mean I would not have found relevant data on digital collections. I may have. But I do not know, since most digital repositories are not free: university projects require suscriptions that are beyond the reach of my university and the oldest primary sources from Google Books cannot be read from Argentina (yes, it is true).

And those are the challenges I face as a Latin American based scholar. So far, data mining seems like a distant dream.

Source: Day 6 / homework (for real)

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Day 3 / homework

master_2048x1536

My ideal self

So, today I worked with Omeka, which seemed more attractive than the other content management systems. It is to put it in a way I can understand a platform designed to help people create collections, whatever that means. It seems the perfect tool for my project, since what I want to create is basically a collection of artists’ biographies.

With the very kind help of the instructors, I was able to create a collection and even an item type. This allowed me to have the fields in Spanish, which is clearly important for my project. I had considered the possibility of making the project bilingual, but that is clearly both difficult and useless (whoever wants to search the database I hope to create, understands Spanish).

What I am disappointed about is my inability to act freely and carelessly. I kept thinking: “I will break Omeka”. I wonder if this fear will dissolve into a more assertive attitude in the future.

After having heard the “Drupal” participants, I feel I should try to use it. It looks a little more difficult (I do not need that, to be honest). But I will try it now.

Source: Day 3 / homework