MMILL Team Planning

For the MMILL Project, I am in the Oral Histories group, alongside Kait and Jordan. Due to the dataset being a collection of 15 oral stories to organize, all three of us decided to select 5 oral histories to focus on each to make it even. Our project consists of converting compact disc files and cassette tapes (which are our materials) into MP3 files to be uploaded to the digital database, transcript proofreading, creating a searchable set of terms for each history, and writing a short summary of what each oral history is about. As a group, our primary upcoming goal would be to solidify a naming system for the files, which will likely be organized by the speaker's last name and date that the story was captured. The overall primary goal of our project would be to begin creating a more searchable, digestible database for museum-goers and those who want to learn more about the history of those in Maine to utilize.



Due to our project being primarily involved with creating a database, our project directly ties to Chapter 5 of the Digital Humanities Coursebook. Since one of the primary goals of the project is audio file conversion, this is crucial in order for the audio files to be read by the machine they are run on (in most cases, through desktops, laptops, tablets and cell phones). As described by Johanna Drucker in the textbook, "The contents and functions of databases are all computational; data are and must be machine readable at the basic level where they are stored" (Drucker 74). The primary audience would be the general public, with the redesign of the online website and database being primarily to attract all ages to utilize the service. Due to the materials already being accessible for the group, the next step of processing would be to convert all audio files to MP3 files, in order to be uploaded to the database and listened to by people who don't have access to the raw files.