Learning About Omeka at GC

As I prepare to begin my digital capstone project, I am forced to consider how I want to manage my content.  I have familiarity with wordpress through the work I am doing on my Social Justice Blog (Humanities Heart), but I feel compelled to explore other ways of managing my digital content.  Last semester I started to hear about this software called, “Omeka,” in my Digital Humanities course. When I found out that an Omeka workshop was going to be held in the library on March 14, 2018, I had to go see if Omeka could possibly be the best way to present and preserve my data for my digital capstone project.

Steven Klein was our instructor for the workshop.  Although we only had a few in the room, the discussions were very insightful.  Everyone in the workshop had a different approach and understanding of the digital trends that have now become necessary to our growth as scholars in the 21st century.  Klein took us through the importance of metadata in Omeka, and what text and code editors should be used when working on MAC or PC’s. He also explained how Omeka is designed by fields and topics, in oppose to WordPress which operates in more of a free form.

The workshop was very helpful as I prepare for the next stage of my project.  I haven’t made my final decision yet, but I’m leaning toward wordpress because I can already invision how I want to present my data.  I guess the toughest part of this project will be, achieving the balance I need to have, as I present my data. I want to play it safe somewhat because I would like to dedicate the majority of my time to research and hands on experience.  The other side of me knows that experimentation is very important, when developing new ways of presenting data for visualization. Oh well, I’ll keep you posted on the decision that I make, as I continue to write and produce my digital capstone project.