We’ve only had three class periods so far, but all of these different tools make me want to go all out on the semester long project. A site like WordPress that is known for blogging could be used for larger projects like hosting tutorials, web comics, podcasts, and other various forms of media. It can even be used for archiving historical artifacts like Omeka, but I’m sure the latter does a better job at it after having the Omeka workshop.
Omeka is rather interesting. I forgot that I already used it in one of my previous Digital Study courses to map out the origin of the parts used to create an iPod. It would be great to do something similar for the HCC/ITCC and show where each material came from, but that would require us to break up the building or just simply find records of the materials they used to track down their origin. Making a timeline showing the creation of a place like the HCC/ITCC or historical events would definitely be great alternative way to use Omeka.
I already knew you could do some pretty cool things with WordPress using HTML and now that I know that you can do the same for Omeka, the possibilities seem endless if you know enough HTML. For example, I could have a WordPress with all of the information and have it link to or merge with an Omeka timeline or map, so everything won’t be as cluttered as it could be.
After looking at the the sites listed on the syllabus, I really like most of them. A few did look a bit outdated, but I really love The Valley of the Shadow site. I can imagine our group creating something similiar, but making it more like a virtual tour to appeal to incoming students. You can have them click a room and bring up an image with and a description of the room and what it could be use. I would personally like our final product to be rather clean and appealing to our audience or just about anyone who comes across the site. The Digital Scholarship Lab site appears to have a nice balance between images and text on the homepage. The site also has soft colors that are easy on the viewer’s eyes as well, so it’s perfect and it’s what I strive for our project to be. Comparing that site to the French Revolution site, the latter looks a bit outdated and a site like Emile Davis Diaries kind of throws you into it immediately instead of slowly working you into the information. Others may find them suitable, but I personally don’t think they would work well for what we envision for our project.
