I’m sure you’re aware that Baruch is closed on Monday. We still plan on allowing you to use Wednesday’s class time to meet with your groups. Prior to this, however, we’d like each group to post an updated research strategy to the the blog by 8 am on Wednesday. We will comment on these posts in detail, and each member of the group is responsible for offering substantive discussion of our responses in the comment section of that original post. Doing so will be part of your project grade.
Your blog post should offer the following in as much detail as possible:
- a statement of the historical question you seek to answer
- a review of how your group divides labor
- an overview of the data, archives, and other primary sources that you plan to use at this stage
- be sure that spatial history, data mining and analysis, textual analysis, and visual and aural culture are represented in this overview.
- an understanding of the chronological scope of your project. Ask yourself if the data will be broad enough to address your question, but also manageable within our timeframe for producing these projects.
Your meetings towards the end of the week should incorporate our responses, and then next week’s class sessions will be split between discussing readings — make sure you do them, there may be a quiz! — and establishing a structure and a set of tools for you to begin production of your project in earnest.
As always, let us know if you have any questions. Stay safe in the storm.
Luke and Tom
Reading:
- Joshua Brown, “History and the Web, From the Illustrated Newspaper to Cyberspace: Visual Technologies and Interaction in the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries,” Rethinking History, Vol. 8, No. 2 (June 2004).
- Philip J. Ethington, “Los Angeles and the Problem of Urban Historical Knowledge: A Multimedia Essay to Accompany the December Issue of The American Historical Review.”
- Explore Joshua Brown, Ithaca, A Graphic Novel in Several Parts.
Group:
- Your group should be prepared to present a “research strategy” to the class on Monday.
- This strategy should include the following:
- a statement of the historical question you seek to answer
- a review of how your group divides labor
- an overview of the data, archives, and other primary sources that you plan to use at the this stage
- be sure that spatial history, data mining and analysis, textual analysis, and visual and aural culture are represented in this overview.
- be sure you have a sense of the chronological scope of the data. Ask yourself if the data will be broad enough to address your question, but also manageable within our timeframe for producing these projects.
- This strategy should include the following:
Model Graphical Representations of Data
- Student post reviews
- Other examples
Reading
- Frederick W. Gibbs and Trevor J. Owens, “The Hermeneutics of Data and Historical Writing,” in Writing History in the Digital Age, 2012.
- What does “hermeneutics” mean?
- New methods of interacting with data demand new transparency from historical presentation
- Process important (methodology)
- Why?
- What is potential cost to narrative history?
- What are data?
- Evidence for historical argument
- More than evidence: creation of data, interaction with data, interpretation of data
- Combining different kinds of datasets enables “new way to triangulate historical knowledge.” Is this new?
- “Historians must treat data as text….”
- Visualizing data
- “Aesthetic provocation”; dynamic process
- The “value of screwing around”: quantitative data more than just math and statistics: discovering, framing, identifying trends
- Failure
Group Work
[entry-title]
“The second presidential debate in graphs,” Ezra Klein’s Wonkblog, Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/10/17/the-second-presidential-debate-in-graphs/
This graph represents the effects of a smoker who decides to quit smoking. It lays out exactly what your body does and how it heals as you’ve had your last cigarette. This graph is very powerful because it is very easy to read and it sends a very strong message. The image on the top righthand corner is also an attention grabber and can be used as motivation for someone to quit smoking.
[entry-title]
www.270towin.com
This screenshot of a map comes from the political forecast website 270 to Win.
While the map that I’ve included strongly presents the proposed electoral votes for each candidate in the upcoming Presidential election, the most powerful tool within the website is its option to filter through past years election, as well as a host of other interesting map options. The website provides a comprehensive look at the elections now, and past, by utilizing simple graphics which display a world of multi-dimensional data.
This is picture above shows how much money different countries are spending on their military. Although it is in 2011 you can get a good idea who is on the top of the list(United States) and which countries follow.
For reasons why I think this is a powerful graphical representation is simple… Look at the numbers and the country that corresponds with it!
http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/stats-on-human-rights/statistics-on-war-conflict/statistics-on-military-spending/
[entry-title]
“The Cost of the 2012 U.S Elections” By Sam Burgoon on Creditseason.com
October 19, 2012
This data represent the cost of the 2012 President election.
This is a powerful graphical representation of data due to the following reasons.
- It put it in perspective with previous election costs.
- It show where the funds are coming from and how its being spent.
- Its unbiased in the sense that it show both the Democrat and Republican spending.
- Its also go into general detail on where those funds are coming, like which state, industrials and sector contribute the most funds; Show top contributor
- It presented the data in a colorful and yet simple ways, without going over the top with complex design.
Source: CreditSeason.com
[entry-title]
In this graphic by ThinkProgress.org, the issue of paid maternity leave in the United States is called into question as it is compared to that of other nations.
Geniusly, the number of weeks of paid maternity leave are designed in a circle, from most to least, with corresponding colors of the rainbow, making it bright, colorful and easy to read.
Though the numbers may be staggering (if I were to have a baby, I’d really like to have one in Canada!) the way the data is presented is very appealing.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szNLMtgI7hU&w=560&h=315]
With the addition of sound and biased statistics, we could make our audience feel a certain way on the topic. When an idea is presented through text alone, we leave the audience to develop their own opinion on the subject regardless of how biased the writing might be. With these additions to the information on the company, the sound and specific numbers generate a sense of fear in the audience. This is also without any preconceived knowledge on the company, we are left feeling this way. I don’t think the producer of the video would have been as successful with providing a dramatic story if this was presented strictly in text.
.
[entry-title]
This is Ryan Giggs, one of the greatest soccer players that has ever lived, and perhaps the greatest that has ever played in the English Premier League. His greatness is clearly shown though his accolades that are displayed as banners on top of the poster. 909 club appearances – most by a Manchester United player. 163 club goals. 64 national team appearances and 12 goals. Numerous amount of titles and cups, including 12 English Premier League titles – most by any player. His greatness is also forever recognized by his manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, with words, “whether dribbling or sprinting, Ryan can leave the best defenders with twisted blood.” The quote is located under the image of Giggs himself, his number “11” and his signature. The whole poster conveys the feeling of greatness that Ryan emulates.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quI_LkMj4HI]
“Giggs will tear you apart” was coined after that goal.
[entry-title]
This shows the broadband subscriptions in comparison with the “major” 4 countries in the world. It is a powerful way of presenting data because it looks cool, by looks cool i mean that it is in 3D and it keeps moving and showing different angles of the graph. Also it is colored in colors that grab your attention and focus on the differences between graphs. But just like most powerful things, if you look at it for too long it might make you sick.
Although a map of Ocean Currents is extremely simple and straightforward, it has major impacts and influences throughout history as well as our international economy today.
In the past merchants and explorers were keen on ocean currents and trade winds in order to travel safe and efficiently. Understanding and utilizing ocean currents have allowed us to map almost every corner of the earth. Today ninety-percent of international trade is conducted through sea. Ignoring the logistical advantage of ocean currents would decrease global trade revenue across the board.
http://visualizingeconomics.com/2007/08/11/united-states-poverty-map/
The above link is a map displaying areas of poverty and the severity of poverty throughout the country. It allows users to notice trends and areas of more wealth. We can make conclusions such as how the north tends to have less poverty than the southern parts of the country. I recommend visiting the site at which i found this because it has many representations of economic data. site
9 Biggest Banks’ Derivative Exposure – $228.72 Trillion
These days we hear about billions spent here and trillions in debt there. But few people can actually visualize the magnitude of these figures and how do they fit in the big picture. I found that infographics, when done right, can present complex and boring info in simple and interesting way.
With this particular infographic you don’t need to have finance diploma in order to understand how extremely serious the world derivative situation has become. There is no government in the world that has this kind of money. This is roughly 3 times the entire world economy. The unregulated market presents a massive financial risk. The corruption and immorality of the banks pushes the world economy ever closer to the financial cliff.
Click here to see the entire eye-opening infographic from Demonocracy.info
Reading
- Frederick W. Gibbs and Trevor J. Owens, “The Hermeneutics of Data and Historical Writing,” in Writing History in the Digital Age, 2012.
Blog Post
- Post to blog by 8am on Wednesday 10/24 a link to an example of a powerful graphical representation of data. Say what data is being represented, and why you think it’s done in a powerful way.
Since i have a lot of family that does not live in new york, every time someone comes over to visit my family and i give them a crash course of the buildings (with the exception of the wall st bull) in the city. So these are the must see buildings around the city.
[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=206612609781441001855.0004ccac4acbff98fffee&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=40.72947,-73.994452&spn=0.047928,0.038135&t=m&output=embed&w=425&h=350]
Maps
- Review what you’ve produced
- Theorize additional possibilities
Reading
- Edward Tufte, “PowerPoint is Evil,” Wired, September 2003.
- What is Tufte’s argument?
- The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation, by Peter Norvig
- Examples of well-presented data:
Within this map shows the data for the leading Countries in respect to the amount of television sets that their people own. A tool such as this is invaluable to what our group, Instigators, needs to display the data we will utilize to tell the impact of the debates on swing state voters.
Being able to visualize exactly the impact of the debates will add depth to the information, and in return give the audience a more nuanced expression of what we are presenting. This tool will play an extremely vital role in our process as we now have the ability to present multi-dimensional data to tell our story.
This was quite an interesting experience for me. Frankly, I was unaware that I was able to create my own personal maps on Google Maps and I had quite a lot of fun learning in the ins and outs of it. Personally, even though the professors showed us a couple of tutorials on how to create our own maps, I did not bother to look at them. I have always been like this, especially when I start using something new or start a new game, I never bother to look at the instructions or the tutorials — I find it a lot more satisfying when I take the time to go through everything, learn all the different functions that were available to me through trial and error. I think that I did just fine considering.
The reason why I decided to do poll sites in Kings County, was to get myself to try to look at a lot of data and try to combine it together. For some reason, the poll location list given by NYC listed almost all of their locations several times, and thus I had to keep track of which locations I had already inputed into my map, and which were new. This would be a valuable skill for me when I am working on my group project, as it ties in with data mining, in the sense that there will be a lot of material out there for my group to research, and we have to keep track of what information we already have, what information is new, and what information will ultimately be useful for our final work.
I also learned that being a historian, or someone who inputs data constantly, has quite a tedious job. There are 20 assembly districts in the Kings County, but I decided not to input them all for this assignment (the whole point of the assignment was to try a new tool, right?). In my map, I inputted the voting polls for the 41st, 42nd, 47th Assembly District and then the 48th Assembly District as I am registered to vote within that district.
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