Programming things: Giving up… (or at least getting bitten by semver and Golang’s unforgiving nature, and wanting to!)
There are good days, and there are bad days when coding, and you never stop learning. Today was not a…
Category: Digital Literacy (page 3)
Information Maintainers talk: Something something twenty years open source…
It was back in May, yes, way back when, that Jordan Hale of the Information Maintainers group put the following to me:
I write today to ask if you’d be interested in being our special guest on the next Information Maintainers call … we thought your perspective on working within and maintaining decentralized, small-group systems and development infrastructures would be really rad to hear about. What do you think?
I am a big fan of the Information Maintainers and so I was pretty stoked to be asked. Of course, I jumped at the chance and wrote about “Something something twenty years open source…”
Digital preservation at the coalface: or how I learned that glamping doesn’t always involve the vast wilderness
The last Friday of March this year, I was invited by Elizabeth Kata at the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to give a presentation at the Vienna Institute for Historical Research (Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung). I don’t have a transcript for that day or a complete set of notes that I followed, but here is the essence of the talk. In it, Reflecting on community and self-development in digital preservation; I touch upon, among other things, community, recognizing privilege, and finding value and meaning in digital records.
I began and ended the talk by singing two Waiata, an important part of my previous role at Archives New Zealand.
Te Manaaki taonga
Te Manaaki taonga
E whakarauika ana I te tini e
E ranga ana I te tira
Hei huruhuru moo te manu ka rere
Hei Poutuumaaro mo te kainga
Tuituinga koorero tuituinga tangata
Manaaki taaonga manaaki tangata
(Tane chant: Tuituinga koorero tuituinga tangata.
Manaaki taaonga manaki tangata – Hi!)
(Last time Wahine join chant: manaaki tangata – Hi!)
The value/prestige in protecting treasures
They gather/connect the people like the gathering of fish
They weave the party/masses
To be like feathers of a bird that takes flight
To be a strong pillar for our home
The sewing of stories, the sewing of people
The protection of treasures the protection of people
Digital Preservation as a Thought Experiment
Back in 2017, I had an abstract accepted for a chapter in the ALCTS Monograph: Digital Preservation in Libraries: Preparing for a Sustainable Future. With my author’s copy now available, I take a look at the background and its genesis below. The complete monograph is a fascinating read with some great contributors. You can find it online at the ALA Store.
Published: Archives and Manuscripts, Binary Trees
This week (beginning 7 August 2017) marks my second solo published peer-reviewed paper. Binary trees? Automatically identifying the links between born-digital records. I invite everyone to have a read and let me know what you think.
The paper won the Sigrid McCausland Emerging Writers Award late in 2018.
Read the paper and additional thoughts below.
The Painter Goblin: Part 4, Putting it all together…
Following the previous posts, bringing this all together meant three different applications.
paintergoblin.py– creates the images, can be run standalonewikigoblin.py– retrieves data to tweet from the Wikidata SPARQL servicestwittergoblin.py– tweets for us! Either a random Wikidata image or from am existing Wikidata link
We create Tweetable information using the wikigoblin. We perform the Tweet using twittergoblin. In between the paintergoblin has to create his art!
We’ve seen examples of the images from the original zine.
How do we turn this concept into something real, and automated?
The Painter Goblin: Part 2, Twitter Pieces
Continuing the story of the Painter Goblin and following part one, the idea of a Twitter bot started to form earlier this year.
In part 2 I take a very brief look at what is needed to write a bot and get it publishing.
Learn more below.
Brainscape Flashcards: For Digital Preservation
Digital preservation is massively multi-disciplinary and it can take time to be able to grasp the skills and concepts cross-discipline, wherever you began your own training.
How do we develop the skills of new folk entering the field today?
How do we re-skill those who have worked in GLAM a long time in disciplines other than digital preservation?
These are questions I think about a lot. I dig into some of those thoughts below and take a look at one approach I worked on for students and very early-career professionals with flashcards using Brainscape.