Interesting Image Search Engine

I just read about a recently launched image search site, Pixolu. Although the site does not work perfectly just yet (a comment from the site creator indicates that their server is having trouble with all the traffic), the idea behind it is pretty interesting; you enter a search term and it scans several image searches for matches, you can then select several images that are close to what you have in mind and it will use these to refine your search.

I was not able to find any information of how exactly the site refines the search (metadata, color, etc) but i think it will be interesting to play around with. I did a quick search for “okinawa glass” and was able to quickly refine the results down to a picture similar to that in my blog header.

Mock-up Version 2

Here is a second version of my site mock-up, thanks for all of th great comments on the earlier attempt. Several people mentioned that the background was washing out the text, that was actually a result of saving the image in the wrong format before converting it to a .GIF, the present version is closer to the look that I am hoping for. Also, I eliminated the small pic in the header and rearranged the text a bit. I may make a few more changes later, but for not I am pretty happy with how it is looking.

As the the other comments, I will be writing another post that will address these along with audience, technology, interactivity, etc. Thanks!

Comparison of Google Books and Open Content Alliance

I read a lot of stuff online, but I have never really taken the time to really look at Google Books or the online books published by the Open Content Alliance. The majority of the time I prefer a regular, bound, paper book – preferrably one that is old and dusty and dry enough to suck the moisture out of my finder tips as I turn the pages. My only experience reading an e-book was several years ago when I downloaded a pdf version of a fitness book onto my Palm Z22. At the time Palm had a PDF reader plug-in, which was pretty clunky (it may be imploved now) and forced me to scroll back and forth as I read across each page. Recently I have begun reading blog posts from my cell phone, the screen is surprisingly bright and easy to read despite the screen being so small and I have found it to be very comfortable to hold the phone as a would a regular book. For me the real downside to reading an e-book, especially one in PDF format, is the scrolling. The fact that blog posts are in an HTML format means that they can be reformatted and optomized for a small screened reader or cell phone very easily.

In reviewing the text section of Archives.org and Google Books I wanted to first look at the search interface of each repository; how easy is it to search, what information is produced by search resuly, how robust is advanced search, is the visoal layout of the site inviting or intimidating, does the site “just make sense”, and can search results be captured by Zotero or Endnote. There are other things that I noticed, but I suppose they will come up as I type.

The first thing that I noticed upon looking at each site (really two things) is that Google Books is a much better looking site and is much easier to get to. Conceptually, typing in Google.com/books or clicking on the “books” link on the google homepage makes much more sense than selecting the “text” link on Archives.org. Additionally, I search of “free books on google” or “free books on open content alliance” takes me to the homepage of each. The Google Books homepage is fairly inviting; breaking books into several categories, and offering suggestions of popular titles. The homepage for the OCA, though it has a much greater amount of information, is quite intimidating to look at. Neither offered particularly satisfying results when I used their search function to too look for full texts of the keyword “puppies”. The OCA search brought me a single hit, Naughty Puppies a nice book of childrens poetry, while the Google search delivered books of a more technical nature, with the first hit being a trade magazine which mentions canine gynecology.

The e-book that I decided to look up on OCA and Google Books is the 1921 edition of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, published by the Macmillan Company. Each site uses the scan of the document generated by Google, so it is interesting to see how each presents the document. Following my search, I selected the book on each site; on the google site I am taken to the a liveview of the book, on the OCA site I go to an about page and have to click further to get to the actual text. Each site offers (in addition to the liveview) the option of downloading the document or viewing it in an all text format like HTML. Google Books allows users to download the document in PDF format, while OCA allows visitors to download in DjVu and PDF (DjVu is a free document format similar to PDF). I could not figure out, on either site, how to download documents in HTML or plain text. The liveview on each site wass very similar, though the OCA version removes much of the navigational functionality while in this view, allowing the user to interact with the document, but forcing visitors to page back to get to the book’s about page.

In features are where the two sites really diverged. Google Books presents the text on the left side of the page with a navigational panel on the right. The navigational panel allows the user to full text search the document, jump to any section or page, write and read reviews, purchase the book, flag it as unreadable, add to “library”, go to the “about” page for the book, or look-up the book on Worldcat.org. The OCA site gives fewer options, but does provide one that is very interesting; you can purchase a printed and bound copy of the e-book.

The Google Book site also has a very nice about page; here the site lists the most cited passages in the book, and gives a diagram of the geographic locations mentioned in the book (this is an even more impressive feature when you look at a book such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne). This page also lists keyword and metadata associated with the text. 

I could go on for a long time talking about the various features of each site, search functions, quirky interface problems, etc . . but I will cut to the chase, I prefer Google Reader over Archives.org. Let me quickly explain why;

When looking up information for books I most often go to Worldcat, or Amazon (I know). Worldcat, especially, has a wonderful easy to use interface; I can quickly find exactly what I am looking for, cite it in Zotero, and figure out where I can obtain a copy of the text. There are too many features on the Archives.org website, too many links, and too much information that I am simply not going to use and all of it clutters up the screen. If I am going to look for a book I am going to look for it on a purpose built site, a site that does citations and does them well. If I want to check to see if a digital copy of a book is available I want to do so as quickly as possible, either browsing a collection or using a seach function. OCA has some nice features, but the ease of use of Google Books is a clear winner. I am also drawn to some of the interesting features that I mentioned above; the geographic information and the listing of “most popular” passages.

Google offers some surprisingly powerful feaqtures that are very well integrated so as not to intimidate users, additionally Google does not try to half-heartedly integrate academic features which are better realized in a site like worldcat.

The purpose of copyright

The main issues that I have grasped onto during this weeks readings really involved the purpose of copyright in general and the use of copyright by publishers and content providers. Willinsky suggests (and I think that the constitution makes this pretty clear) that the purpose of copyright is to encourage progress and creativity; viewing this as the central aim, all other claims become periphery. The question then should be; do current practices support this aim? I think that Willinsky makes a point that is reflected by Holly and others in the class, the complicated legalese and regulation that increasingly confuses copyright law unquestionably defeats the original intent of copyright. It makes no sense that someone should have to be held back by fear of lawsuit or other repercussions. Changes to copyright law are increasingly placing the onus on users; they are the ones that must navigate the complicated legal landscape and they are the ones that must contact copyright holders for permissions (despite the age of the copyright). This is a spirit not reflected in early copyright law; copyright was not automatically enabled, nor was it automatically renewed. This meant that creators had to determine whether it was worth their time to copyright a material, then whether it was worth their time to renew a copyright. This also meant that if a creator decided that an idea was not worthwhile to develop or that it was not economically reasonable to reprint a book others could do so.

Several years ago I purchased a book from a publisher that specializes in small runs and special orders of books available in the public domain. The book was fairly expensive and was only a step above a trade paperback, certainly not something that a general audience would purchase by the thousands (or even tens). I suppose my point is that the last time the book had been published by a large publisher had been prior to 1900 and the book was entirely unavailable in anything but a special order. The book was not of economic benefit to the original publisher because of the low demand, but reproduction was profitable by a smaller publisher. Would it have made sense for the original copyright holder to retain control of the copyright but at the same time be unwilling (or unable) to do anything with the property?

I am certainly not saying that there should be no copyright law or enforcement (if people were able to take the work of others without reservation then there would be little incentive for innovation), I am simply agreeing that the intent of copyright was innitially to provide protections to the rights of creators to the extent that they promoted progress and creativity. 

I will be writing a continuation to this, but right now I need to grab lunch!

Draft Mock-up

Bataan History mockup

Final Project Abstract and Overview

For the final project I will be creating an interactive website that discusses the experience of American servicemen during the Bataan Death March and subsequent POW incarceration. The site will use the oral interview of one march survivor and POW to enhance the experience of visitors as they explore a linked hypertext analysis of the events following the invasion of the Philippine Islands until the liberation of Allied POWs in the Raid at Cabanatuan. The analysis of the Philippine occupation will primarily be a historiographic look at secondary sources, but will also incorporate primary sources, official documentation, and photographs. Excerpts of the oral interview will be used at the beginning of each section to add context and will be relevant to the material discussed in the section (ie. An excerpt of the interview discussing prison conditions and malnutrition will accompany a section discussing the conditions in POW camps). The site will also have a digital archive with collections of primary material; photographs, narratives, newspaper articles, and other primary documentation. Among the features of the site is will be the ability for visitors to add comments to anything material listed; items from the archive, interview excerpts, or the historiographic information generated by the site administrator. Additionally the site will give users the ability to perform complex searches, all site contents (administrator added and user added) will be tagged so that they are full text, tag, and keyword searchable, this will mean that a user typing in the search term “Hell Ship” would get back the applicable portion of the interview and analysis, as well as visitor generated comments, photographs, and source documents. They would then be able to refine their searched by date or even location.

In the course of work and personal interactions I have learned quite a bit about the importance of reunion to veterans and veteran groups. Reunions provide veterans with comradely and friendship; a place that they can discuss shared experiences and recount life defining and life changing events. Despite the positive effects that reunions can have for veterans and their families there are several difficulties that they almost universally have; lack of access to primary source material, geographic fixity, and intended or unintended exclusion. Many reunion events and web based veteran resources have photographs provided by veterans and their families, sometimes scanned copies of mementos, or service records, but to a great extent veterans and veteran groups do not have easy access to the primary documents (after action reports, ships logs, official photographs, yearbooks) that discuss their particular experience. Records can be obtained from places such as the National Archives, but are often difficult to locate, or confusing to search through. Often veterans simply do not know where to start or what is available. These types of records give veterans “proof” of their experiences, dates and names to attach to their memories.

Another difficulty faced by veterans is geography. A reunion event is held at a single location that might be inaccessible; either due to monetary or physical restrictions. Some veterans may also find it emotionally difficult or painful to recall traumatic events, or they may wish to recall events and experiences but not desire interaction with former comrades.

A web based format, though certainly not universally accessible, would allow a far greater number of veterans or interested visitors the opportunity to participate in the reunion experience, to share ideas and recall events and experiences. Because of the nature of the internet a website would also allow visitors to customize their level of interaction to suit their comfort level; if they wished only to read and view source material, or browse the comments of other user they would be able to do so, but at the same time they would be able to interact with other visitors in a well organized and information rich environment. Though there are many military history, veteran, nostalgia, and memorial sites on the internet there are few that encourage the same level of user commentary and allow users access to the same depth source material. Many sites take a ‘message board’ format that is ideal for topical discussion, but does not directly link discussion to relevant primary source material, or other applicable commentary.

The site will be comprised of 5 areas, which will be reachable from a common navigational bar; Home, Narrative, Resources, About, and Links. Visitors will be able to comment on any site object; from narrative entries to photographs and source documents. Visitors would also have the ability to perform complex searches that would incorporate material from the narrative, commentary, and archive. Additionally they would be able to move freely through all parts of the site, browsing the archive, comments, or links. Visually the site will seek to be simplistic, attractive, and easy to navigate. Emphasis will be on enabling the user to easily read the site and comment on its contents.

The homepage of the site will provide an easy place to reach the other parts of the site, and give a brief statement about the mission of the project, site capabilities, and the material covered. The narrative portion of the site will combine well researched historiography with the narrative interview of a march survivor. Entries will be relatively compact and will seek to examine some facet of participant experience of Philippine occupational history, excerpts of the interview will provide commentary from the perspective of an individual that witnessed the even firsthand. The narrative would be fully linked and arranged chronologically so that it could be read in a linear manner, or explored at independently by a visitor.

The archive of source material would contain both documentary and multimedia material. Items would be fully searchable using metadata tags, keywords, or text search. Also, visitors would have the opportunity to add their own material in addition to their comments. Material added by users would need to be tagged and enhanced with keywords. Locational information would also be provided in case visitors to the site wished to perform their own research with the original documents or media.

The About portion of the site would (as suspected) provide more in depth information about the project; its inspiration and history, and further information of my great uncle, Grover Gilbert, whose oral interview is used in the narrative portion of the site. The site will also provide numerous links to other related military and veterans history websites as well as an evolving list of academic and scholarly resources.