The concept of my website is to describe sites around the world that had gain citizenship of independence from both the government and people. The website has five pages. The home page, about page and the three sites around the world that are independent (two in New Zealand and one in America).

The reason I used the program Wix to create my website is because it was recommended to me by my sister. She had previously created a website for a debating tournament that she was organising and offered me advice on what to do. Wix is also free to use which was another added bonus. For Wix you start with a huge number of templates to choose from and then work your way up from that while adding in the photos you want to use and adding the information. The template I chose for this website is one that was designed for showcasing a singer or bands profile. This meant that it had lots of room for photos as well as room to write a summary of information. I decided to rely heavily on visuals for the websites pages due to the lack of a lot of information of the sites. A lot of sources for the places such as the tree that owns itself are blog posts by people who have actually been to the place. Since I cannot travel to Georgia or New Zealand I am only able to use information that are facts rather than describing the place fully and blogging about my experience there. There are multiple blogs on the internet that describe the different sites I have mentioned in my website.

My only challenge with WIX was that while I could type directly into the text box it was not very convenient. It was hard to go back on and change mistakes and wasn’t easy to direct. I instead would type the information into Word and then copy and paste it over. I am not sure if this is something that is normal with any website design program but it was the only compromise I had to do outside of the program.  Another annoyance was that the program would not save as I went so I had to constantly re save in case something happened to my computer. Once again I am not sure if that is usual with most website design programs.

I had originally intended that I would put a map on the website showing where the sites are all over the world but in the end decided against it. Since there are only three sites in the world that maintain an independence status it would have looked like a pretty pathetic map in my opinion. It is something that could definitely be added on in years when there might be more sites like this found in the world but for now it is not something necessary. It seems likely that the only forthcoming sites that will gain citizenship will be in New Zealand as they are the only country with two sites with citizenship covered under the one Act with the potential to cover more.

I had also originally intended for the website to be a bit more humerous and play more on the idea of the sites being independent sites that need no man. However, the idea to be obnoxiously pink with love hearts everywhere like you might see in an over exaggeration of a dating site gave way to having a nice aesthetic. I think this mainly changed after I read the Te Urewera Act (2014) and it listed all the reasons as to why these lands were important to the Maori people that I felt making too much fun of these sites wasn’t going to work. It would be harder to convey the importance of the sites to the people that had loved them if it seemed like I was making fun of them.

I am not completely happy with the photos that I used as I wished they were a bit higher resolution. I changed a few of the photos via filters but I am only half happy with the results. I have quite a few photos on each of the pages because I thought that good images rather than text might fully be able to portray the beauty of the independent sites.

The home page picture is of ‘The Tree that Owns Itself” It is meant to be a bit abstract and not give a full idea of what the tree looks like. I basically just wanted something that would look pretty and add to the feeling of how these independent sites are of an almost spiritual importance to people. This reasoning is also behind why I chose that particular photo for the about page. It represented to me the connectivity that people have with the Whanganui River even in modern times. Even though the river was mainly granted citizenship because of its relationship with the Maori people it does not mean that people all over New Zealand and people all over the world cannot have a spiritual connection with the river while walking among the trees or floating along the water. To some they might have the same spiritual experience when they walk into a church as they do when they spend time by this river. This same idea also relates to The Tree that Owns Itself after a single man decided that he wanted the tree that he loved to always because be protected because of his connection that he had to it in his life.

This whole assignment right from the beginning was a real challenge for me. From coming up with an idea on what to do the assignment on to being completely taken out of my comfort zone by designing a website. I had no experience at all when it came to this type of as assignment. On reflection, I wish I had chosen a topic that would have used more of the tools that were taught to me in class. I did not use many at all but for me just doing this quite basic website was quite a challenge and need a lot of patience and time from me. I cannot think of how I could have integrated more of the things we learnt in class more into the website. If I had more time I would like to have added more information. However, there are a lot of blogs that talk about the sites and their experiences there but there isn’t one that combines together all the independent sites in the world. Despite all of my criticism I am still happy with the result. I never thought in my life I would have to design a website so it has been nice to learn that I can.

 

 

Hey everyone,

I put my project website into Voyant Tools just out of curiosity and my results were:

Exploring the Election Speeches was interesting too. I always search my own name on everything, just out of curiosity. I am truly disappointed to find out that my name has not been used in any election speeches. The word nor has though, so I guess that is close enough!

What I enjoyed most about exploring the election speeches was being able to look at speeches (or summaries of speeches) that were made a long time ago, compared to recent speeches from the past 10 years and how they can still be really similar in some aspects.

Thanks Tim!

Nour

Project delivery and outcomes for “MY DIGITAL MUSEUM”

INTRODUCTION

One analog man in a digital paradise, taken out of the relative comfort of managing large operational facilities and thrust into the digital world of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Having absolutely Zero experience in the extent this digital world has to offer no one would have ever thought of this analog man being capable of Website design and delivery…until this Semester.

Project DELIVERY – Summary and Aims

This project was to provide a vision for a future online Australian Federal Police (AFP) Museum website to immediately support the relocation of the existing permanent display and supplement the new displays as they are brought back online.

The entire collection on the current AFP Museum is made up of images, photographs, objects, stories and gathered information all relating to the history of the Australian Federal Police. The current location of the museum is no longer available to the AFP at the end of its lease forcing the museum to relocate to a new home, constructing a digital online museum is one way of maintaining public access to the collection.

The actual museum contained objects and artifacts collected or donated from a variety of sources and curated by the Australian Federal Police Museum team given the potential vastness of the display it was an obvious choice to limit the initial presentation for this project to a reflection of the first 30 years of the Australian Federal Police.

Project DELIVERY – lessons learned

Throughout the course of this project I was introduced to many new and interesting ways to search for information and present the information found, some weeks there was just too many new things to try and even though attempts were made at all the tasks presented in the class notes and lectures many of these I could not incorporate into the final project.

Creating the website I found to be very interesting and my project is looking quite good for a first attempt, adding links and undertaking secondary research for supplement the primary museum object on display went well. The main difficulties remained in the incorporation of the tools presented to us into the website, for this I believe that more could have been done and over the next couple weeks I’ll continue to work on improving the site just to prove to myself that it can be done.

Permission to use the images has been granted by the AFP Museum team with limitations that the website does not contain certain keywords which may identify it as an official AFP site. (AFP Museum Team, 2016),  I underestimated just how long it would take to get the permissions needed to undertake this project using the medium chosen.

Project DELIVERY – assessment against project plan goals

The outcome of this project is to display some of the current collection and the associated history to a website designed to serve as a temporary space until a new, more permanent facility is realized. This project differed because the museum contains tangible and intangible records of the triumphs and tragedies that Australian Federal Police members have faced historically through actions locally and internationally, it is something that rarely has general public visibility.

Throughout this project, the plan was to achieve the following;

• To identify a need to provide access to the AFP Museum collection for the General Public
• Develop a site for the short term, interim requirement with the ability to be drawn on for use when planning a bigger website for the long term.
• Use the knowledge gained in class to expand the collection by adding links each of the 30 online displays presented as part of this project.

Against the goals, I believe each of the outcomes were met, though further improvement could still be made.

 

Project DELIVERY – Extensions to original plan

The project is planned to be used by the AFP Museum team as a platform for the future museum displays and events. The specific needs focus on keeping the museum accessible to AFP staff for training and members of the public to enhance the knowledge and understanding of what role the Australian Federal Police play and how they have contributed to events on a local, national and international platform. Focus on this project has initially commenced with the presentation of the first 30 years of Australian Federal Police history linked through local, regional and international online resources to support the story presented with each artifact.

With a near endless opportunity to expand the existing site, the biggest constraint was time followed closely by experience, both I plan to expand on even after this semester’s assignment period is complete. I had a plan to include a virtual tour of the existing museum space before it was dismantled for storage, unfortunately, time was against me and the museum space was already partially dismantled as a requirement for the relocation. My second thought was to include displays that are currently on loan to other agencies or AFP buildings and this can still be incorporated though not in this time period.

The initial site with basic template commenced during the planning phase as http://liesegangr.wixsite.com/digital-museum , this evolved through project delivery to a better site that was easier to present and locate via Google search.

This new site is now called http://www.mydigitalmuseum.com/.

Project DELIVERY – conclusion

Overall I believe this project was a success, having achieved a website that is visible on several platforms that presented artifacts of a heritage and historic nature that is flexible enough to expand as more items are included in the collection.

The site has a good positive feel with links to displays made easy to use for the majority of the intended visitors.

The aim of my project was to create a platform where stories about cultural heritage conservation can be shared to the wider public. I wanted to incorporate all aspects of conservation such as the documentation, storage, object background and the repair process. Mostly I want to aim this at family heirlooms but also other experiences that I come across as a conservation student. I want people to think about the culture around them, in their local community, town, their family and to appreciate what they have. With the ultimate aim being that individual heritage is respected between people and groups.

We often tear each other down for our differences, this happens on an individual level but also on a national level as displayed through racism. I feel that if we could understand each other’s stories we would realize we are not that different and help to build each other up. Museums are a great place to go to learn about the past however as a platform they don’t reach everyone. Digital media such as websites and social media, I feel has a much larger outreach potential to those people who do frequent museums and galleries as well as those that do not.

By creating a website with a blog linked to the social media platform Instagram I would be able to communicate short snippets of cultural information as well as longer in depth blog pieces about cultural heritage and conservation. Types of blogs I think would work well are the conservation of different family heirlooms and then reincorporating that into the home so that inherited items are no longer put in a cupboard but brought out as part of the everyday. While some people proudly display inherited items, others don’t know what to do with them. They don’t know their history, how to care for an object or its significance other then in belonged to Grandma X and therefore must stay in the family.

 

Overall my project has gone pretty well, it is an on going project that will build momentum through more engagement and content. I found it difficult to create daily content for Instagram but I am sure its something I have to get use to and that will come easier with practice. My overall aim was communicating through Instgram better then my website as I was able to put up many images about different aspects of heritage where as the website so far only introduces cultural heritage conservation.

I also have never built a website before so that was something I had to learn from scratch. From finding a server and host, to making the website look professional. It was a lot more time consuming then I originally intended. One thing I would like to do that I did not is to combine the landing page and home page article making that the new home and landing page however I am not sure how to do that.

I download Insta-track and Jetpack so I can monitor engagement, followers, visitors user interaction on both Instagram and the website. I think this will be more useful as time goes on and I will be able to see what content works and what doe not work. I certainly think I executed my plan and produced a good project in the end so I am happy with the overall result. My first blog is a little dry however with the sound of a typical university assignment and not so much a casual blog. I need to work on finding my voice as a blogger and communicating my content in a more casual and friendly manner.

 

One of the comments I received back on my project proposal was the development of my idea, which had not been communicated effectively. I definitely struggled with honing in on what my specific idea was as I had so many ideas that I wanted to incorporate altogether. I think this is more of a morphing project that is going to evolve, as I get deeper into creating content, seeing what works and how to communicate with my audience. Often ideas start out as one thing and as you work on them they become another. I think this is how I will find my specific niche by just trialling different ideas and coming to a natural rhythm in the content I put out.

Originally I aimed to post content on Instagram everyday. The Instagram audience thrives on regular posts to build an audience and to keep that audience engaged. I managed to post half the time of what I intended. My first post was delayed as I wanted my website to be up and running however that took much longer then I anticipated so in the end I has just had to start posting. Secondly I found posting everyday rather exhausting, finding a photo, thinking of a caption, appropriate hashtags and then engaging with an audience – writing comments, liking posts etc. This will come easier and a little more natural with time and the more experience I gain. Ultimately sitting down, pre-planning images with written captions and hasthtags will also make this process easier. I planned all my images but often found I didn’t have time to research and write a meaningful caption so the images I planned were left un-posted.

I also aimed to upload two blog posts to my website which again I achieved 50% of. Writing the blog was not too difficult but I couldn’t launch my first blog with out a fully functioning website and this took time as I do not have any previous website building experience. Going forward the website is up and running so posting a monthly blog should be well within reach. I think after I build momentum creating a monthly post I can then look into creating two posts a month and so on depending where the project goes in the future.

 

The website, blog and Instagram interaction can be extended indefinitely with content and engagement being put out on a regular basis. I have a number of blog ideas that I still want to put out including the conservation of some ambrotype photographs and how they have been reframed for a modern home.

I would also like to connect with some local museums and create some behind the scenes content. Or create a virtual gallery on my website that users can explore. Plus once an audience picks up suggestions on specific concerns someone may have to an inherited item and how they could incorporate that inherited item into their modern home or how to care for it.

I look forward to evolving my website and finding my voice on this platform. You can check out my website at www.elucidatingconservation.com and follow me on Instagram @elucidatingconservation. (You will need an Instagram account to view the IG posts)

 

 

My Ghost Data project is able to be accessed through the blog australianghostdata.blogspot.com.au. It contains an interactive narrative that incorporates historical newspapers and provides a link to the original source, a Google Maps interactive map, that shows the location of the recorded site of ghost and other cryptic encounters across Australia and the world published in Australia, and a few charts made with the data gathered. My Project is aimed at allowing people to stumble upon tales they may not otherwise find. Another aim is as an area often overlooked by social historians and as such it would be good to bring some of these old tales to light as I feel they do have potential to be informative.

I had no difficulty finding articles on the Trove website, however, due to the broad range of content I was searching for, and the specific nature of requirements, I had to sift through many articles and duplicate stories until I could find enough that would work with my project plan. The use of Google Maps was amazing, I feel that it really has helped my project visualise data in a way that it wouldn’t have done otherwise. It even allowed me to then download a data sheet of the points I had listed and with the use of a quick conversion tool provided me with a CSV file. The kind of data I wanted was a bit precise which made it a very manual undertaking and this did cause things to slow down. I really wanted to include graphs in my Twine game but I was so impressed with Google Maps and the fact that it allowed people to stumble upon things as per my original aim that I decided I would not include graphs in the twine document as I feel that although they present information that do not portray it as well as I would have liked. During the project I sought feedback from fellow students, family members and teachers which I feel really went well and aided in the development of the project.

Looking back at my original aims I feel my project has generally been successful and meets my original aims as outlined in my project plan;

“My online project aims to show the history of ghosts in Australia through published articles on ghost sightings and other paranormal sightings. I want the data on the subject to be useful in what it reveals, but also to have an interactive element that makes it enjoyable to use. I realise it may be difficult to achieve all of this so somewhere in the development I may have to further refine and prioritize what I hope it to accomplish. I am aiming to include all relevant Australian newspaper stories referring to ghosts, spirits, bunyips and Min Min lights that then speak of them in a factual or questioning news style and not as a short fictional story.”

I feel that the project does help to portray the history of ghosts and other cryptids in a context of published newspaper articles and that I was able to limit my intake of stories to those that spoke of the encounters in a factual or questioning news style. However I did have to limit my intake of stories to a sample size due to time constraints as such I was unable to comprehensively include every recorded encounter. I feel that the sample I took was a good representative sample and that it still raises interesting questions.

My original aims have been assisted by the addition of an interactive map as per suggestion. The map can be used by people to look at what ghost stories are nearby to them or place they are interested in then with a click they are taken to the article that directly relates to that place. The spread of locations clearly visible on the map draws interest as there are clear patterns such as the large prevalence for ghost stories from the U.K and Western Europe published by Australian newspapers as well as the clear areas bunyips were said to lurk. It really has accomplished my aims in a way that would not have been met by my original Project plan alone.

To extend the project I would have liked to have used a larger data set, it was unfortunate I was not able to do this. I would have also liked to have made the story a little more cohesive perhaps with an aim so as to make it more like a game. Unfortunately it is something that would take a decent amount of time to fit together and in doing so may subtract from the purpose. However, it is still something that I feel would have been beneficial to pursue. Through the creation of the project I built up a comprehensive CSV document and it would be good to use this to further assist the aims of the project as the data in it could be very interesting to those who want to explore the topic. However, I feel that although it does provide information I again would prefer it be extended so that it contained data that presented a more accurate and complete picture of ghosts in Australia.

The project has been most enjoyable and has really brought together personal skills and interests. It has been a learning experience particularly when going through all the possibilities for tools and programs to use and which suit my aims the best. I have really taken away an increased appreciation and interest in digital heritage and would like to learn more and further pursue this field of study.

Hi everyone,

My project started off as an idea to make some kind of database/forum for conservation students to share resources, projects and anything of the sort. I was originally interested in this idea because I wanted to do something that would reflect my interest (conservation) and potentially help future students; as most of you would know we currently use the Facebook page to share everything but that becomes difficult when you take into account that not everyone has Facebook, and that it is really hard to search through a Facebook page. You don’t have the option of being able to add categories or tags to make searching a bit easier.

Ideally I wanted my project to be something future students could use, something that had pretty much everything they needed in the one location, something that was from students to students and helped give guidance.

With the guidance of Tim I started my project on Omeka.net, a website that lets you create and share collections. Omeka felt appropriate because I would essentially be sharing collections of academic resources.

I initially had a bit of difficulty understanding how to use Omeka. I used Tim’s blog on Omeka and a few other guidelines to help me understand it and I will honestly say that it took me weeks to really know what I was doing with it. But once it clicked I became really excited about the project.

This was a really helpful link I used to help me understand the Dublin Core, which is the set that Omeka.net goes by.

I started by creating the main collection categories:

• Objects
• Paintings
• Paper
• Textiles
• Codes and ethics

I asked students to send me their previous conservation project reports so that I could include them as PDF’s within the appropriate categories. The idea was that a future student could hop onto Conservapedia, click the category that their object falls into, so for example a student working on a painting would hop on and click painting, they would then be able to see the work that previous students have done to paintings, they could see the methodology and resources used and hopefully it would guide them in the right direction for their own project.

While I was putting everything together I started to question the ethics behind this. I had permission from students to use their work and was very open about what it was for but I wasn’t actually sure if publishing assignments was against some kind of policy, if it would somehow feed into plagiarism issues. I asked my classmates and everyone thought it wouldn’t matter and that it should be fine. I think it should be okay, but in retrospect I should have checked with an actual academic at the University to make sure I’m not breaking any rules.

Another issue I had was that I was using the free services on Omeka.net. So basically what that means is that I didn’t have access to all the themes and plugins, and I only had 500mg to work with. Unfortunately I couldn’t afford to buy any of the plans, even the $49 one. My Conservapedia looks a little different to what I had imagined because I only had four themes to choose from, but I am happy with the way it looks.

I was really happy with how helpful people were being; a lot of people wanted to send me their assignments to be included in the project, which was awesome. In my project proposal I said that I would measure the success of this by how many students are interested and participate in this; I don’t think I really met the goal of how many students I wanted to be involved, but I am still happy with the interest that was shown and the number of people who wanted to help and participate.

In my project proposal I said that I wanted students to be able to share things as well as search; this was a bit difficult because you’re only able to view the pages unless you’re signed in. This wasn’t something I really thought about when creating the account and page. In retrospect the username should have been something more communal than “Nour”. Perhaps “CulturalHeritageCollective”.

Initially I wanted a hybrid between a database and a forum but I don’t think Conservapedia is much of a forum. Omeka.net isn’t really the place to host forums, but I decided to stick with it because I think it is really great for most of what I wanted.

Apart from that, I think my project met almost everything I wanted it to.

It is an easy to navigate database for students to share and view resources that could be helpful to their projects.

It is broken down into categories so that you can easily find what you want.

 

Results:

You can search by key words:

Or tags:

I downloaded a few plugins as well:

Simple pages allows me to add extra pages to my website, so I’ve included a section where I talk about the vision behind Conservapedia, and a contact page so visitors can leave feedback.

I also added a plugin that allows me to have social bookmarks on each individual collection or item page!

My favourite addition was this plugin that imbeds PDF files onto the page.

Originally you would have had to click the PDF icon and it would have opened up the PDF in a new tab, so this plugin allows users to scroll through the document on the original page.

Ironically I was just elected as the social media representative for the UC Cultural Heritage Collective so I think there are so many ways Conservapedia can be extended now that I have this new position within the collective. I honestly think this project relies heavily on public participation and interest, so if other students are interested in this becoming a “thing” then there are ways that I could incorporate it within the collective, and ultimately we could get funding from the collective to buy one of the package deals! In terms of how it can be extended, I think it could naturally grow into something big-ish if enough students are interested in it. It might be an idea to have teacher involvement as well so that our teachers can share important resources with students. The 5 categories that I currently have are all basic categories and I imagine as Conservapedia naturally grows more categories will be appropriate.

I’d like Conservapedia to be something that can be useful for any Heritage, Museums, and Conservation student, in any year level. For example, I’m in my third year, and recently within one of my units we had an assignment where we had to create a poster and present a lightning talk on various topics; a lot of students were lost when it came to creating a poster and we had little examples of what previous years have done. So imagine students from this year all published their posters onto Conservapedia within a Poster category, next years students could easily have access to examples and it would be beyond helpful for them.

In the future I would like students to be able to include 3D images of their objects on Conservapedia.

I think that this could be something cool and I wish I had a more time this semester to work on it but if it is something that I choose to continue with within my new position as social media representative then I think it might be worthwhile. I think if this project were something worth continuing with it would be important to see what other students really want to gain from it so I could cater to those needs.

If anyone is interested in checking out my Conservapedia let me know and I will share the link 🙂

Thanks everyone!

Nour

I think the coolest part about this unit was all the real world examples we gained from Tim’s personal research. The next greatest thing was all the visual aids.

A Visual History of Which Countries Have Dominated the Summer Olympics is one such visual aid. At first I couldn’t quite figure out how this was relevant and then eventually I didn’t care because it was so fun to explore. The best part was discovering that China literally dominates in Table Tennis. Although there are some not so obvious problems with the way this information is displayed. For instance it doesn’t tell you how many people competed or what the ‘other countries in Europe’ are. Also the wavy lines are a little misleading at times.

The main part about this week was learning how to use Plot.ly. The reason for this is because for quite a while I fully intended to use this tool to help me get my data into neat tables to put into my website. I soon discovered that this was entirely pointless as the data I intended to use was already in table form. Doh. I did get to use Import.io to extract data from Wikipedia though, so not a complete fail.

This week was all about data visualisation, I get that now. It helped prep me for the following weeks when I learned how to use Carto and Google Maps which is another way of visualising data and which I used in my project.

 

This was the week we looked at voyant tools and election speeches and Same diff. I learned a lot this week but I am not going to go through everything because then I might as well copy and paste the tutorial notes. This was the week the whole point of the unit started coming into focus as I began to really develop my project. I think the point of the tutorial was to look at how we can analyse text as data but at the time the whole thing just confused me and it’s only with hind sight that I can see the point.

However, despite my confusion, the tools we learned about this week made me think about my project objective more. I knew at this point that I wanted to do something with public art in Australia. I actually really wanted to use the QueryPic tool to bring together news articles about public art in different states. I ended up going in a different direction after realising it wasn’t quite what I wanted to achieve for my final project. But it did help get me thinking which was more than what I was doing up till that point.

Better late then never I guess. But I do remember week 9, mostly because of the redaction art. I’ve said this before but I really think redaction art is a clever way of making a boring job interesting. I currently volunteer at the National Museum and whilst the work is interesting, too much of the same thing can be tedious at times.

Then we did the finding faces thing. The fact that humans see faces in everything is something I was already aware of. For ages I’ve been that person who will look at a photo or tree or scene and see a face in it. I think it is totally cool that there are tools that can find those faces for you and with quite a bit of accuracy. It’s scary though because what if the wrong kind of person was using that technology to find you everywhere you went. According to CSI and NCIS that’s a thing.

The Anne Boleyn medal was the most interesting thing beside the redaction art for me. I agree that the whole thing seems a little fishy. But at the same time it is a really cool demonstration of how such technologies can be used. I remember thinking that I can’t wait to get into the museums and art gallery field and research similar situations just like this.