Assignment #4

Using Public Data to Provide Analysis – INRIX Traffic

INRIX is a downloadable smartphone application that collects data from users to contribute to the traffic analysis output. A precise mapping system highlights roads by colour according to the traffic conditions – green is a good drive, yellow is slow, red is stopped traffic, etc. It updates approximately once a minute to keep the information moving in real time with traffic. Users of the application can contribute by reporting inaccuracies or accidents as they happen. Everyone who uses the app is a contributor via crowd-sourcing – by having the application open on your smartphone you are anonymously sending speed datapoints to the INRIX server, which combines data from all users to produce the most accurate traffic report possible. The more people using the application, the more precise the data. INRIX is available in 20 countries, on all types of smartphones.

Here is the website’s page with information on crowd-sourcing: http://www.inrixtraffic.com/blog/2012/magic-how-inrix-traffic-crowd-sourcing-really-works/ 

Assignment #3

Satellite Archaeology

Digital technology is helping archaeologists take discovery to a whole new level. Satellites perched approximately 400 miles above earth are being used to collect images of possible archaeological sites that are hidden underneath the surface layer of earth. With the correct combination and processing of images, archaeologists can detect inconsistencies on the surface that are caused by the remains of structures, roads, and rivers covered by a foot or less of earth cover. They are then able to map out ancient cities, etc. with amazing precision prior to excavating the area.

Here is the National Geographic article from which I am sourcing this information: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/explore/satellite-archaeology

A university of Alabama archaeologist Sarah Parcak has been using the technology to scan the landscape of Egypt. In 2011 alone, along with her team Parcak uncovered as many as 17 possibly buried pyramids, about 3000 settlements, and close to 1000 tombs across the country. Discovery at that scale would have taken years, probably even centuries, longer without this technology. The ways in which this is useful to the humanities are countless. It is literally a method of glimpsing directly into the past of a place – saving us the wait of being on the ground excavating in order to map out a city.

Having it all laid out virtually, at your finger tips, makes it possible to understand a civilization further than ever before. It will save scholars time and money on lengthy searches for sites, and instead they can skip right to the excavation process – allowing us to uncover more about the past at a faster rate. As a student, such technology will make the information accessible to me. Rather than going to the site and exploring, which is clearly not always possible, there is a digital version available for exploration. Students in classes around the world can view the maps of ancient cities and gain the best understanding of the process of archaeological discovery and exploration.

Assignment #2

My Experience with ORLANDO

My first impression is that this is a very useful research tool. I like the idea of having a wide variety of authors over a vast time period all accessible through one search, while remaining within the topic. Being able to go from a general search with multiple pages of results to a more specific search with a single page of results is a definite asset – and having the case studies as example of how to do this was helpful. I would use ORLANDO in the preliminary stages of my research as it would be beneficial to gathering examples of instances supporting my topic. By this I mean if I was conducting research on the way women used literature to gain an income in the early 1900s, ORLANDO would supply me with an array of women into whom I could search further to form my body of research, using other sources that perhaps do not make the search so easy to turn up narrow results. A database using keyword searching such as ORLANDO is an invaluable tool for researchers in the humanities.

 

Brian Sandberg: Historical Perspectives

The academies of Renaissance Italy are being compared with internet social networks, such as Facebook. A major collaborative research project on The Italian Academies 1525-1700:The First Intellectual Networks of Early Modern Europe, is producing new findings on the complex world of academies in Renaissance Italy. The researchers have launched a website on Italian Academies to present their findings on social interactions among academy members during the Renaissance.

The team has also created an online Database of Italian Academies at the British Library with information on Renaissance academies and their members. The website for the database claims that: “The British Library holds some of the finest collections outside Italy of publications produced by Italian Academies and their members. Much of this material is catalogued in ways which have not permitted easy access by scholars working on a particular Academy or on Academies in general. The creation of a Themed Collection of…

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Assignment #1

“How have my studies at Guelph been affected by digital tools and  approaches, and what future possibilities do I see?” 

When we were asked to think about this question in our first class the majority of us arrived at very similar (if not the same) answers. More and more components of our education occur online. It is no longer possible to be successful in your studies at University of Guelph without regular access to a computer and the internet. Every course has a website where updates, assignments, and grades are posted. Online discussion groups are encouraged, and even a marked component of many courses. Conducting research is crucial to completing assignments – and today research mainly consists of keyword searches in an online database that bring us to relevant sources on our topic. Even searching our library for books on our topic is done by a search on a computer that tells us whether the titles are available or not and their location within the library. If they are not available at our library we have the option of an inter-library loan, where a request is put in digitally to Wilfred Laurier or Waterloo and the hard copy is brought right to our Guelph circulation desk for your use.

Upon thinking deeper into this question, however, I have realized that I let these most obvious ways consume my conclusions, meanwhile overshadowing what are perhaps some of the most important ways my university career has been affected by digital tools. As a student of International Development, digital technology has changed my learning experience in countless ways. Keeping up to date with world news is very important to me, and with online news sources this is easier to do than ever. Access to news from all parts of the world is literally at my fingertips thanks to a portable laptop and wireless internet. I can follow the work of NGOs and other development organizations with the click of a button. This modern reality has enhanced my learning experience in the development discipline more than I ever realized before. I cannot imagine the task of collecting hard copies of newspapers from around the world in order to keep up to date on what is happening within the discipline. Therefore, the answer to the question “how have my studies at Guelph been affected by digital tools and  approaches” is a simple one. They have made it a heck of a lot easier!

As for the possible futures I see… This has a more complex answer. I am still amazed everyday at the technological capacities our generation is developing and I can only imagine what is to come in the future. The world has become so remarkably interconnected thanks to digital technologies, and as a true student of International Development I have high hopes that this is promising for the future of human kind. Greater access to the lives and ideas of others can and should, in my eyes, lead to our greater understanding and acceptance of others and in turn compassion and respect. It is easier than ever to work together, despite distance, and I believe this should result in technological breakthroughs the likes of which we can only speculate.