http://www.dancohen.org Covering the intersection of digital technology and research, teaching, and learning in the humanities, including search, data mining, website development and design, and programming. Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:12:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://www.dancohen.org/publications/comment-page-1/#comment-4602 Dan Cohen’s Digital Humanities Blog » Blog Archive » The Social Contract of Scholarly Publishing Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:39:56 +0000 http://www.dancohen.org/?page_id=3#comment-4602 [...] Roy Rosenzweig and I finished writing a full draft of our book Digital History, we sat down at a table at looked at the stack of [...] [...] Roy Rosenzweig and I finished writing a full draft of our book Digital History, we sat down at a table at looked at the stack of [...]

]]> http://www.dancohen.org/publications/comment-page-1/#comment-1047 Dan Cohen’s Digital Humanities Blog » Blog Archive » The Strange Dynamics of Technology Adoption and Promotion in Academia Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:25:28 +0000 http://www.dancohen.org/?page_id=3#comment-1047 [...] Roy Rosenzweig and I noted in Digital History, the exorbitant yearly licensing fee for Blackboard or WebCT (loathed by every professor I know) [...] [...] Roy Rosenzweig and I noted in Digital History, the exorbitant yearly licensing fee for Blackboard or WebCT (loathed by every professor I know) [...]

]]> http://www.dancohen.org/publications/comment-page-1/#comment-492 Dan Cohen’s Digital Humanities Blog » Blog Archive » Why Google Books Should Have an API Tue, 04 Sep 2007 19:23:07 +0000 http://www.dancohen.org/?page_id=3#comment-492 [...] and then to operate on the full texts of that ad hoc corpus. An example from my own research: in my last book I argued that mathematics was “secularized” in the nineteenth century, and part of my [...] [...] and then to operate on the full texts of that ad hoc corpus. An example from my own research: in my last book I argued that mathematics was “secularized” in the nineteenth century, and part of my [...]

]]> http://www.dancohen.org/publications/comment-page-1/#comment-132 Dan Cohen’s Digital Humanities Blog » Blog Archive » Creating a Blog from Scratch, Part 5: What is XHTML, and Why Should I Care? Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:40:46 +0000 http://www.dancohen.org/?page_id=3#comment-132 [...] third, more secretive reason that I’ll mention first: Roy Rosenzweig and I argue in our book Digital History that XHTML will likely be critical for digital humanists to adhere to in the [...] [...] third, more secretive reason that I’ll mention first: Roy Rosenzweig and I argue in our book Digital History that XHTML will likely be critical for digital humanists to adhere to in the [...]

]]> http://www.dancohen.org/publications/comment-page-1/#comment-99 Dan Cohen’s Digital Humanities Blog » Blog Archive » 10 Most Popular History Syllabi Sat, 18 Aug 2007 01:10:31 +0000 http://www.dancohen.org/?page_id=3#comment-99 [...] Whatever its faults, the study does provide a good sense of the most visible and viewed syllabi on the web (high Google rankings help these syllabi get into a lot of Syllabus Finder search results), and I hope it provides a sense of the kinds of syllabi people frequently want to consult (or crib)—mostly introductory courses in American history. The variety of institutions represented is also notable (and holds true beyond the top ten; no domination by, e.g., Ivy League schools). I’ll probably do some more sophisticated analyses when I have the time; if there’s interest from this blog’s audience I’ll calculate the most popular history syllabi from 2005 courses, or the top ten for other topics. If you would like to read a far more elaborate (and scientific) data-mining study I did using the Syllabus Finder, please take a look at “By the Book: Assessing the Place of Textbooks in U.S. Survey Courses.” [...] [...] Whatever its faults, the study does provide a good sense of the most visible and viewed syllabi on the web (high Google rankings help these syllabi get into a lot of Syllabus Finder search results), and I hope it provides a sense of the kinds of syllabi people frequently want to consult (or crib)—mostly introductory courses in American history. The variety of institutions represented is also notable (and holds true beyond the top ten; no domination by, e.g., Ivy League schools). I’ll probably do some more sophisticated analyses when I have the time; if there’s interest from this blog’s audience I’ll calculate the most popular history syllabi from 2005 courses, or the top ten for other topics. If you would like to read a far more elaborate (and scientific) data-mining study I did using the Syllabus Finder, please take a look at “By the Book: Assessing the Place of Textbooks in U.S. Survey Courses.” [...]

]]> http://www.dancohen.org/publications/comment-page-1/#comment-95 Dan Cohen’s Digital Humanities Blog » Blog Archive » Google Adds Topic Clusters to Search Results Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:28:00 +0000 http://www.dancohen.org/?page_id=3#comment-95 [...] list has brushed off these upstarts. So it surprised me when I was doing some fact checking on a book I’m finishing to see the following search results [...] [...] list has brushed off these upstarts. So it surprised me when I was doing some fact checking on a book I’m finishing to see the following search results [...]

]]> http://www.dancohen.org/publications/comment-page-1/#comment-93 Dan Cohen’s Digital Humanities Blog » Blog Archive » The Perfect and the Good Enough: Books and Wikis Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:53:55 +0000 http://www.dancohen.org/?page_id=3#comment-93 [...] for an entire month. I have a good excuse: I just finished the final edits on my forthcoming book, Equations from God: Pure Mathematics and Victorian Faith, due out early next year. (I realized too late that I could have capitalized on Da Vinci Code fever [...] [...] for an entire month. I have a good excuse: I just finished the final edits on my forthcoming book, Equations from God: Pure Mathematics and Victorian Faith, due out early next year. (I realized too late that I could have capitalized on Da Vinci Code fever [...]

]]> http://www.dancohen.org/publications/comment-page-1/#comment-92 Dan Cohen’s Digital Humanities Blog » Blog Archive » Professors, Start Your Blogs Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:33:57 +0000 http://www.dancohen.org/?page_id=3#comment-92 [...] narcissistic act in this column (not to mention the “shameless plug” for my book, Digital History, in the right column of my home [...] [...] narcissistic act in this column (not to mention the “shameless plug” for my book, Digital History, in the right column of my home [...]

]]> http://www.dancohen.org/publications/comment-page-1/#comment-90 Dan Cohen’s Digital Humanities Blog » Blog Archive » Creating a Blog from Scratch, Part 7: Tags, What Are They Good For? Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:33:31 +0000 http://www.dancohen.org/?page_id=3#comment-90 [...] I have to admit that when I started this blog I had a visceral dislike of tags, probably because I was approaching them from the perspective of an academic who liked the precision and professionalism of the card catalog and encyclopedia. Tags seemed fatally flawed as putative successors to Library of Congress subject headings or the indexes in the back of books. I still believe the much-ballyhooed “tag clouds,” or set of tags of various sizes arranged in a pattern to show the contents of a blog or book or site, are poor substitutes for a good index of a work—not only because indexes are usually done by professionals who know what to highlight and how to summarize those topics, but also because indexes tell little stories through their levels, modifiers, and page numbers. For instance, here’s a section of the index the talented Jim O’Brien did for my book Equations from God: [...] [...] I have to admit that when I started this blog I had a visceral dislike of tags, probably because I was approaching them from the perspective of an academic who liked the precision and professionalism of the card catalog and encyclopedia. Tags seemed fatally flawed as putative successors to Library of Congress subject headings or the indexes in the back of books. I still believe the much-ballyhooed “tag clouds,” or set of tags of various sizes arranged in a pattern to show the contents of a blog or book or site, are poor substitutes for a good index of a work—not only because indexes are usually done by professionals who know what to highlight and how to summarize those topics, but also because indexes tell little stories through their levels, modifiers, and page numbers. For instance, here’s a section of the index the talented Jim O’Brien did for my book Equations from God: [...]

]]> http://www.dancohen.org/publications/comment-page-1/#comment-54 Dan Cohen’s Digital Humanities Blog » Blog Archive » The Artistic and the Digital Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:51:24 +0000 http://www.dancohen.org/?page_id=3#comment-54 [...] Rosenzweig and I begin our book Digital History with a list of the advantages and disadvantages of digital media and technology for the practice of [...] [...] Rosenzweig and I begin our book Digital History with a list of the advantages and disadvantages of digital media and technology for the practice of [...]

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