Data and Digitization
While I did have some background knowledge on data and the vastness that it is, chapter 2 of The Digital Humanities Coursebook by Johanna Drucker just further expanded on what I thought I already knew about data and the digitization of materials for digital projects.
One passage of the textbook that gave me some new insight data was on the first page of the chapter, where the difference between unstructured and structured data was elaborated upon. Drucker wrote, “A distinction is made in digital work between structured or unstructured data. Structured data is composed of entities that are explicit, discrete, and unambiguous—like numbers or true/false statements. Unstructured data, like natural language, is sometimes ambiguous and unclear—like a picture of a mother holding a child which can be described in many ways” (Drucker 19.) While a newcomer into data may assume that data is strictly numerical digits or embedded digital codes, data can take numerous forms and sizes, which adds to how broad the field of digital humanities is.
In the digitization chapter of the textbook, HTML was looked at in greater detail, and Drucker had a wonderful and digestible way of explaining it, saying, “HTML is a descriptive language that identifies the structural elements of a document. All HTML documents are structured with tags—standard terms inserted between angle brackets that are actually instructions. The basic tags, <html></html>, have to be placed at the beginning and end of any such document. This tag tells a browser to read the document according to a set of rules or protocols” (Drucker 35.) HTML is one of the most common programming languages and having even the most general of knowledges of it is crucial for success in any digital field. Upon looking at my Visual Earth project’s source, it was written in HTML, and having a grasp of it will help me when looking at this project in greater detail. Additionally, towards the end of the chapter, there was a checklist for digitization, which I found incredibly useful for dissecting what digitization entails.
Since data and digitization are such crucial portions of digital humanities, these reading excerpts further contribute to my personal definition and understanding of what digital humanities really is, and of the components that make it what it is.
One passage of the textbook that gave me some new insight data was on the first page of the chapter, where the difference between unstructured and structured data was elaborated upon. Drucker wrote, “A distinction is made in digital work between structured or unstructured data. Structured data is composed of entities that are explicit, discrete, and unambiguous—like numbers or true/false statements. Unstructured data, like natural language, is sometimes ambiguous and unclear—like a picture of a mother holding a child which can be described in many ways” (Drucker 19.) While a newcomer into data may assume that data is strictly numerical digits or embedded digital codes, data can take numerous forms and sizes, which adds to how broad the field of digital humanities is.
In the digitization chapter of the textbook, HTML was looked at in greater detail, and Drucker had a wonderful and digestible way of explaining it, saying, “HTML is a descriptive language that identifies the structural elements of a document. All HTML documents are structured with tags—standard terms inserted between angle brackets that are actually instructions. The basic tags, <html></html>, have to be placed at the beginning and end of any such document. This tag tells a browser to read the document according to a set of rules or protocols” (Drucker 35.) HTML is one of the most common programming languages and having even the most general of knowledges of it is crucial for success in any digital field. Upon looking at my Visual Earth project’s source, it was written in HTML, and having a grasp of it will help me when looking at this project in greater detail. Additionally, towards the end of the chapter, there was a checklist for digitization, which I found incredibly useful for dissecting what digitization entails.
Since data and digitization are such crucial portions of digital humanities, these reading excerpts further contribute to my personal definition and understanding of what digital humanities really is, and of the components that make it what it is.
Just altered the code on yours, for some reason the text was black in here. :) Love to see the murky blackhole of DH definitions continue to broaden but also take on a more solid shape in these ways! Glad it was helpful for your own project, Cam.
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