Dr. Venus Jones Mural Project Contract

Dr. Venus Jones Mural Project Contract
Jamie, Jenna, Kelly, Logan, Timbila

Mission Statement

The purpose of this project is to create a complementary site to the new mural in Jepson Hall celebrating Dr. Venus Jones. The website will feature biographical information about Dr. Jones’ life, catered toward an audience of UMW college students as well as other members of the  community. Visitors will access the website through a QR code featured on the mural or via the UMW website. The mural reveal will be a key component of “advertising” for the website, but we will reach out to the University ahead of the reveal and request to share information about the website on bulletin boards and on social media. Robust platforms and programs will be utilized in order to ensure the longevity of the site, and accessibility features will allow for more users to interact with the site as well. All videos will be transcribed, and pictures will be captioned. 

 

Tools 

  • WordPress
  • QR Code (as point-of-access from the mural)
  • TimelineJS (to map Dr. Jones’s life on the website in a way that complements the mural)
  • WAVE accessibility software
  • Flickr or Imgur- for uploading images(?)

 

Project URL 

For now, the plan is to house the website at a umw.edu domain. We plan to include the mural title in the website’s URL (umw.edu/ourtitle). We have reached out to Black student groups to workshop title ideas. Those meeting dates have not been determined, but the title will be decided by March 7.

 

Timeline & Division of Labor 

February: Written Content

2/11: DKC Meeting to discuss website platforming – Kelly

-asking about image uploading, making decision about platform 

2/15: Present WP and Omeka homepage samples, decide on a platform – Kelly

2/16: DKC website management meeting

2/25: Written Content for the Website Complete; ​​submit all writing to Jamie for editing

Website content will be longer and more detailed than the text that will appear on the mural. There will be approximately a paragraph per main section on the mural (childhood, education, accomplishments) and one or two sentences for each of the trailblazers. After website content is written, it will be condensed for the mural. Mural written content will be complete and ready for review when we return from Spring Break on March 7.  Content throughout the website will be cited with footnotes. There will be a unique page which will include text and images from the mural itself, which will also be cited with footnotes. This will allow visitors to see sources for what they read on the mural. 

2/28: Submit all written content to Professor McClurken and Professor Devlin for fact-checking

Roles

  • Childhood, Jamie, with Logan as support
  • Education, Logan
  • Accomplishments, Jenna
  • Trailblazers, Timbila
  • Editing/Cohesiveness, Jamie
  • Titles, Timbila
  • Interview with Albert Jones, Jamie, Logan, Jenna
  • Platforming the website, Kelly
  • Marketing, Timbila

 

Group Meeting In Class on 2/22

  • Divvy up website construction (rough plan: metadata, transcribing, aesthetics)
  • Video transcription done by March 4th, lead by Jamie, support by Logan
  • We plan to meet with the DKC the week before Spring Break to discuss website building and project management

 

March: Build the Website

3/4: Have the video transcription finished

3/8: Homepage complete

3/11: Send Professor Garmon finalized writing content for the mural

3/15 – 3/22: Venus timeline page, trailblazers page, interviews page

3/22 – 3/29: Scrapbook page

3/29: Website wrap up (acknowledgements page, methodology page complete, final checks on metadata, functionality, aesthetics, mural citations page)

3/29 – end of semester: marketing 

 

Roles

  • Homepage (design the homepage, decide what content will go there, includes designing site navigation) – Kelly
  • Venus Timeline (independent page, expanded content from the mural)
  • Trailblazers (independent page, expanded content from mural)-Timbila 
  • Interviews (independent page, embed videos, cut and edit as desired, include transcriptions and/or context) – Jamie, Logan, Jenna 
    • Initial Watch: Jamie & Logan & quick notes on content
    • Finding what we want to pull for text
    • Transcribing (utilizing Special Collections transcription guide) – Jamie, Logan, Jenna
      • Lillie Cannon Williams video: Jamie 
      • Carmencita Stewart video: Jenna
      • Albert Jones part 1: Jamie 
      • Albert Jones part 2: Kelly
      • Chip Cartwright: Logan 
    • Make calls on what clips to pull 
  • Scrapbook (independent page, embed images, annotate, include descriptions and/or context) – Jamie, support by Logan 
  • Acknowledgements (independent page, list all contributors, also includes making sure citations are correct throughout website) – Logan
  • Methodology/About (independent page, describe how the website was put together and why, how to use it)- Jenna
    • Podcast? –Timbila 
    • Should be done as we go, have weekly check-ins
  • Metadata (appropriately tag all material in accordance with Dublin Core) – done as a group, Kelly will check before rollout
  • Functionality (make sure links work, embedded images work, mobile loads correctly, etc) 
  • Sustainability (make sure all images and videos are in a repository where they are unlikely to be lost, check on update protection, make sure we use a theme that is unlikely to break over time) – Kelly
  • Aesthetics/cohesion (make sure all fonts and colors match, pages flow together, website looks professional) –Timbila 
  • Marketing (get in touch with groups on campus as well as other communities that might be interested, ask to be included in appropriate newsletters, seek out reciprocity from similar sites, enter website contests as applicable) –Timbila 
    • SAE email
    • Contacting Garmon 
    • UMW Instagram weekly roundup 
    • Weekly Ringer article…? 
    • Higher up advertising contact 

Final Project Due Date: April 7th