The role of markup in the digital humanities

The digital humanities are growing rapidly in response to a rise in Internet use. What humanists mostly work on, and which forms much of the contents of our growing repositories, are digital surrogates of originally analog artefacts. But is the data model upon which many of those surrogates are based – embedded markup – adequate for the task? Or does it in fact inhibit reusability and flexibility? To enhance interoperability of resources and tools, some changes to the standard markup model are needed. Markup could be removed from the text and stored in standoff form. The versions of which many cultural heritage texts are composed could also be represented externally, and computed automatically. These changes would not disrupt existing data representations, which could be imported without significant data loss. They would also enhance automation and ease the increasing burden on the modern digital humanist.

Communications materials on methods of development of revenue and cost estimates to non-technical audiences

This CDROM includes PDFs of presentations on the following topics: "TXDOT Revenue and Expenditure Trends;" "Examine Highway Fund Diversions, & Benchmark Texas Vehicle Registration Fees;" "Evaluation of the JACK Model;" "Future highway construction cost trends;" "Fuel Efficiency Trends and Revenue Impact"

Measuring the apparent size of the Moon with a digital camera

The Moon appears to be much larger closer to the horizon than when higher in the sky. This is called the ‘Moon Illusion’ since the observed size of the Moon is not actually larger when the Moon is just above the horizon. This article describes a technique for verifying that the observed size of the Moon in not larger on the horizon. The technique can be easily performed in a high school teaching environment. Moreover, the technique demonstrates the surprising fact that the observed size of the Moon is actually smaller on the horizon due to atmospheric refraction. For the purposes of this paper, several images of the moon were taken with the Moon close to the horizon and close to the zenith. Images were processed using a free program called ImageJ. The Moon was found to be 5.73 ±0.04% smaller in area on the horizon then at the zenith.

The social car : new interactive vehicular applications derived from social media and urban informatics

Digital information that is place- and time-specific, is increasingly becoming available on all aspects of the urban landscape. People (cf. the Social Web), places (cf. the Geo Web), and physical objects (cf. ubiquitous computing, the Internet of Things) are increasingly infused with sensors, actuators, and tagged with a wealth of digital information. Urban informatics research explores these emerging digital layers of the city at the intersection of people, place and technology. However, little is known about the challenges and new opportunities that these digital layers may offer to road users driving through today’s mega cities. We argue that this aspect is worth exploring in particular with regards to Auto-UI’s overarching goal of making cars both safer and more enjoyable. This paper presents the findings of a pilot study, which included 14 urban informatics research experts participating in a guided ideation (idea creation) workshop within a simulated environment. They were immersed into different driving scenarios to imagine novel urban informatics type of applications specific to the driving context.

The Creative Industries, Culture and Policy

The rise of creative industries requires new thinking in communication, media and cultural studies, media and cultural policy, and the arts and information sectors. The Creative Industries, Culture and Policy sets the agenda for these debates, providing a richer understanding of the dynamics of cultural markets, creative labor, finance and risk, and how culture is distributed, marketed and creatively reused through new media technologies. This book: develops a global perspective on the creative industries and creative economy draws insights from media and cultural studies, innovation economics, cultural policy studies, and economic and cultural geography explores what it means for policy-makers when culture and creativity move from the margins to the center of economic dynamics makes extensive use of case studies in ways that are relevant not only to researchers and policy-makers, but also to the generation of students who will increasingly be establishing a ‘portfolio career’ in the creative industries. International in coverage, The Creative Industries traces the historical and contemporary ideas that make the cultural economy more relevant that it has ever been. It is essential reading for students and academics in media, communication and cultural studies. Table of Contents - Introduction - Origins of Creative Industries Policy - International Models of Creative Industries Policy - From Culture Industries to Cultural Economy - Products, Services, Production and Creative Work - Consumption, Markets, Technology and Cultural Trade - Globalization, Cities and Creative Spaces - Creative Industries and Public Policy - Conclusion

The future shape of digital cars

Background. Digital information is increasingly becoming available on all aspects of the urban landscape, anywhere and any time. Physical objects (c.f. the Internet of Things) and people (c.f. the Social Web) are increasingly infused with actuators, sensors and tagged with a wealth of digital information. Urban Informatics explores these emerging digital layers of the city. However, very little is known about the challenges and new opportunities that these developments may offer to road users. As we gradually spend more time using our mobile devices as well as our car, the tension between appeasing our craving for connectedness and road safety requirements grow farther apart. Objective. The aims of this paper are to identify (a) new opportunities that Urban Informatics research can offer to our future cars and (b) potential benefits to road safety. Methods. 14 Urban Informatics research experts were grouped into seven teams of two to participate in a guided ideation (idea creation) workshop in a driving simulator. They were immersed into different driving scenarios to brainstorm innovative Urban Informatics applications in different driving contexts. This qualitative study was then evaluated in the context of road safety. Outcomes. There is a lack of articulation between Urban Informatics and Road Safety research. Several Urban Informatics applications (e.g., to enhance social interaction between people in urban environments) may provide benefits, rather than threats, towards road safety, provided they are implemented ergonomically and safely. Conclusions. This research initiates a much-needed dialogue between Urban Informatics and Road Safety disciplines, in the context of Intelligent Transport Systems, before the fast approaching digital wave invades our cars. The dialogue will help to avoid driver distraction issues similar to mobile phones use in cars. As such, it provides valuable information for future regulators and policy makers in charge of shaping our future road transport landscape.

A token to the future : a digital ‘archive’ of early Australian children’s literature

This essay considers a specific digital ‘archive’ of early Australian children’s literature, known as the Children’s Literature Digital Resources (CLDR), which is located in AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource ( http://www.austlit.edu.au ). We examine what the CLDR collection can tell us about Australia’s history. To narrow the scope, we focus on how Australia was constructing itself as a nation with its own character, or national identity, in texts written for children from the latter part of the nineteenth century up until the end of World War II. Our approach is to consider how early Australian children’s literature included in the CLDR collection rhetorically constructs nation and place, and in so doing constructs an Australian identity for its implied readers.

Managing distraction in 21st century learning environments

First year students attend face-to-face classes armed with an arsenal of internet enabled digital devices. The conundrum is that while these devices offer scope for enhancing opportunities for engagement in face-to-face learning, they may simultaneously distract students away from learning and compound isolation issues. This paper considers how to best to use these devices for maximum engagement in first year face-to-face learning so as to assist students in connecting with other learners and instructors within the learning environment

The digital storyteller's stage: queer everyday activists negotiating privacy and publicness

This article explores how queer digital storytellers understand and mobilize concepts of privacy and publicness as they engage in everyday activism through creating and sharing personal stories designed to contribute to cultural and political debates. Through the pre-production, production, and distribution phases of digital storytelling workshops and participation in a related online community, these storytellers actively negotiate the tensions and continuua among visibility and hiddenness; secrecy and pride; finite and fluid renditions of self; and individual and collective constructions of identity. We argue that the social change they aspire to is at least partially achieved through “networked identity work” on and offline with both intimate and imagined publics.

The Convergent Media Policy Moment

This paper will consider some of the wider contextual and policy questions arising out of four major public inquiries that took place in Australia over 2011–2012: the Convergence Review, the National Classification Scheme Review, the Independent Media Inquiry (Finkelstein Review) and the National Cultural Policy. This paper considers whether we are now witnessing a ‘convergent media policy moment’ akin to the ‘cultural policy moment’ theorized by Australian cultural researchers in the early 1990s, and the limitations of various approaches to understanding policy – including critiques of neoliberalism – in understanding such shifts. It notes the rise of ‘soft law’ as a means of addressing the challenges of regulatory design in an era of rapid media change, with consideration of two cases: the approach to media influence taken in the Convergence Review, and the concept of ‘deeming’ developed in the National Classification Scheme Review.

Please take out your phones : on the spot solicitation of student feedback in class

The use of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets in classrooms has been met with mixed sentiments. Some instructors and teachers see them as a distraction and regularly ban their usage. Others who see their potential to enhance learning have started to explore ways to integrate them into their teaching in an attempt to improve student engagement. In this paper we report on a pilot study that forms part of a university-wide project reconceptualising its approach to the student evaluation of learning and teaching. In a progressive decision to embrace mobile technology, the university decided to trial a smart phone app designed for students to check-in to class and leave feedback on the spot. Our preliminary findings from trialling the app indicate that the application establishes a more immediate feedback loop between students and teachers. However, the app’s impact depends on how feedback is shared with students and how the teaching team responds.

Digital technologies and musical participation for people with intellectual disabilities

Research on the aspirations of people with intellectual disabilities documents the importance of alternative zones of inclusion where they can assert their own definitions of ability and normality. This stands in contrast to assumptions concerning technology and disability that position technology as ‘normalising’ the disabled body. This paper reports on the role of a digital music jamming tool in providing access to creative practice by people with intellectual disabilities. The tool contributed to the development of a spatio-temporal zone to enable aesthetic agency within and beyond the contexts of deinstitutionalised care. The research identifies the interactions among tools, individuals and groups that facilitated participants’ agency in shaping the form of musical practice. Further, we document the properties of emergent interaction - supported by a tool oriented to enabling music improvisation - as potentially resisting assumptions regarding normalisation.

The digital transformation of 21st century news journalism

This presentation will deal with the transformations that have occurred in news journalism worldwide in the early 21st century. I will argue that they have been the most significant changes to the profession for 100 years, and the challenges facing the news media industry in responding to them are substantial, as are those facing journalism education. It will develop this argument in relation to the crisis of the newspaper business model, and why social media, blogging and citizen journalism have not filled the gap left by the withdrawal of resources from traditional journalism. It will also draw upon Wikileaks as a case study in debates about computational and data-driven journalism, and whether large-scale "leaks" of electronic documents may be the future of investigative journalism.

User participation in the categorisation of the State Library of Queensland digital image collections: characteristics, motivations and experiences

In 2010, the State Library of Queensland (SLQ) donated their out-of-copyright Queensland images to Wikimedia Commons. One direct effect of publishing the collections at Wikimedia Commons is the ability of general audiences to participate and help the library in processing the images in the collection. This paper will discuss a project that explored user participation in the categorisation of the State Library of Queensland digital image collections. The outcomes of this project can be used to gain a better understanding of user participation that lead to improving access to library digital collections. Two techniques for data collection were used: documents analysis and interview. Document analysis was performed on the Wikimedia Commons monthly reports. Meanwhile, interview was used as the main data collection technique in this research. The data collected from document analysis was used to help the researchers to devise appropriate questions for interviews. The interviews were undertaken with participants who were divided into two groups: SLQ staff members and Wikimedians (users who participate in Wikimedia). The two sets of data collected from participants were analysed independently and compared. This method was useful for the researchers to understand the differences between the experiences of categorisation from both the librarians’ and the users’ perspectives. This paper will provide a discussion on the preliminary findings that have emerged from each group participant. This research provides preliminary information about the extent of user participation in the categorisation of SLQ collections in Wikimedia Commons that can be used by SLQ and other interested libraries in describing their digital content by their categorisations to improve user access to the collection in the future.