Author: watrall
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The Current State of Louisiana Digital History
The end of March found me escaping the snow-draped landscapes of my East Lansing, Michigan home to attend the 2014 Louisiana Historical Association (LHA) Conference in Hammond where I was to accept the Hugh. F. Rankin Prize. At the conference, I had the opportunity to survey the footprint of digital history within the LHA community,…
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An Imbiza Update
As the May 2nd launch date approaches, I find myself surprised at how much this project has changed (and changed again, then changed again) since the original idea emerged in an October 2013 Session of the Football Scholars Forum. Originally, I planned on a project that focused solely on the stadiums and fan parks, but…
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May 2: Cultural Heritage Informatics Grad Fellowship Information Session
Join Dr. Ethan Watrall (Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative) On May 2 from 10-11am in Natural Sciences 407 (MATRIX conference room) for a casual information session about the Cultural Heritage Informatics (CHI) Grad Fellowship Program. Attendees interested in applying for the 2014-2015 fellowship year will get an introduction…
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ieldran comes alive with the dead (despite issues)
Over the past few weeks of working on my Bootleaf based project, ieldran, there have been a number of interesting problems and developments that I’d like the share. Being a good linked open access site: Last summer I was accepted into the Linked Ancient World Data Institute, an NEH ODH sponsored two day workshop/discussion on how…
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Making progress and future projects
In the last few weeks I have been talking with community members about my project with the CHI Fellowship and getting some input on its potential. Some really exciting things came up in our conversations that I want to share as well as some of the things I have uncovered as part of my research…
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Creating complexity with simplicity
It almost never fails that, when attempting to simplify, complexity always follows. As I mentioned in my most recent blog post, the project that I am undertaking as a CHI Fellow this year is to compose a “best practices” guide, of sorts, for what is to be a relatively simplified means of 3D data capture…
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important lessons learned by a novice in digital heritage preservation
For the novice computer programmer or coder, the digital preservation process can be very educational. Yet, it can also be very frustrating. The most difficult part for me was actually getting started building the platform to present the cultural heritage being preserved. I had downloaded the files for the platforms I want to work and…
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Project Intro: Bones in 3D
Studying ancient skeletal populations can present numerous challenges, particularly when bioarchaeologists work with material that is not kept in museums or well-maintained repositories. Preservation issues, access, long-term storage, and general data capture all contribute to the difficulty in studying ancient skeletal material in the field. While methods do exist for extending the use-life of ancient…
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Television and Celebritization: A Louisiana Story from 1960
Television has been turning everyday people into celebrities since it became a fixture in American households. Although reality television did not begin until 1973 with An American Family, television news reporters were putting everyday people in the spotlight long before that. Throughout the later 1950s and 1960s, we can see television news coverage turning local…
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Mapping the Ancestors: Project Update
As stated in my previous post, a problem within archaeology is that there are thousands of sites that have been excavated, and information about these sites and their collections can be difficult to find. Cemeteries from Early Anglo-Saxon England have been excavated, studied, and curated since the 17th century. There are hundreds of collections found…