Data Visualization and DIY Technologies

Hello, everyone!  Looking forward to this weekend!  My name’s Jentery, and I’m a PhD candidate in English at the University of Washington.

For the purposes of organization and aggregation, I’ll keep things broad.  I’m generally interested in chatting about:

• data visualization tools for literary and cultural history, and
• the use of DIY technologies in courses/projects that collaboratively create and/or contribute to authoring platforms for public knowledge.

I will echo Larry and Julie and say that I, too, am curious about questions and inquiries such as these:

• I want to teach a course on the history of one-room schoolhouses. I want my student to gather oral histories, collect documents and photographs, survey the current condition of the sites, and create little web projects for each school. How do we present that information to the public?
• Or, I could discuss a tool that I am creating, which is designed to involve students in the investigation of literary genres through folksonomy.

While both of those examples stress pedagogy, I’d also like to hear from others on what data visualization tools (e.g., ManyEyes and SIMILE) they are using in their research and to what effects.

I’m happy to speak, or I can facilitate a conversation.  Just let me know what you need!

(On a different register, I can also speak to my recent involvement in HASTAC’s forum on “Democratizing Knowledge.” )

Again, looking forward!