Found History's new imagery

I suspect most of you read this blog in syndication via its RSS feed, but those of you who visit the website will have noticed that I changed Found History‘s header imagery last week. As before, and in keeping with Found History‘s origins as a tribute to popular historymaking, the images are taken from a Flickr search on “found + history” for images licensed under Creative Commons licenses.

Here they are (at half size):

main.jpg

Original photo by phill.d

pages.jpg

Original photo by Ozyman

search_results.jpg

Original photo by coyotejack

archive.jpg

Original photo by Niznoz

Missouri Journalism Launches Pictures of the Year Archive with Omeka

The Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism launched the Pictures of the Year International Archive over the weekend using CHNM’s Omeka web publishing software. The Archive, which contains nearly 40,000 historic photographs arranged by collection, chronicles more than fifty years of journalism history, including striking images of the fall of the Berlin Wall and Jack Ruby’s shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. In future the Archive will feature thematic, museum-style exhibits using Omeka’s exhibit builder functionality. The POYi Archive features an elegant original Omeka theme and offers a good example of the kind of customizations and display choices Omeka enables. It also provides another example of the range of collections-based research being published with Omeka. Check it out!

Omeka 0.10 alpha now available

Congratulations to the Omeka dev team (especially Jeremy Boggs, Kris Kelly, Dave Lester, and Jim Safley), which today announced the release of version 0.10 alpha, the first major release of Omeka since February’s 0.9.0. For those of you who don’t know about Omeka, it is CHNM‘s next generation web publishing platform for collections-based research, one that puts serious web publishing within reach of all scholars and cultural heritage professionals.

The alpha version includes a major reworking of Omeka’s data model to support unqualified Dublin Core and a complete overhaul of Omeka’s theme and plugin APIs. Omeka 0.10 alpha allows us to start work on a set of interoperability and data migration tools for CONTENTdm and other widely used repository and collections management software and stabilizes Omeka’s APIs to make it easier for community developers to build new plugins and themes. A gorgeous new admin theme will make using Omeka even easier for site administrators.

Omeka 0.10 alpha is available through the Omeka dev list for testing purposes only. We strongly discourage using version 0.10 alpha on a production site. We’re aiming for a stable public release of Omeka in late October. Stay tuned!

New Opportunities at CHNM

It’s hiring time again at CHNM. This time we’re looking for people with web programming and multimedia experience. As reported earlier, we’re also hiring a tenure-track digital historian. We’ll be announcing additional openings in the next several weeks, so stay tuned.

Web Developers

The Center for History and New Media is seeking one or more entry-level web developers to work on award winning digital humanities projects such as Zotero, the National History Education Clearinghouse, and Omeka. These are contract-funded, one- to two-year positions that are particularly appropriate for people with a combined interest in technology and the humanities. Knowledge of some combination of the following would be particularly helpful: PHP, MySQL, Drupal, WordPress, JavaScript, CSS, XML, and object-oriented programming. Ability to work in a team is very important.

Apply online for position 10411z at http://jobs.gmu.edu/; then e-mail a resume, salary requirements, and a cover letter describing relevant programming projects and experience to chnm@gmu.edu with subject line “Web Developer.” We will begin considering applications on September 2, 2008, and continue until the position is filled. Applications without a cover letter will not be considered.

Multimedia Developer

The Center for History and New Media is hiring a Multimedia Developer to work on a variety of innovative, Web-based history projects. This grant-funded position is particularly appropriate for someone with a combined interest in technology and history. The successful candidate will be an energetic, well-organized person who takes initiative; works well in a team; and learns new skills quickly. Experience with audio editing, video editing, Final Cut Pro and/or Flash preferred.

Please apply online at http://jobs.gmu.edu for position 10412z, then e-mail a cover letter, resume and links to any prior Web-based multimedia work to chnm@gmu.edu with the subject line “Multimedia Developer.” We will begin considering applications on September 2, 2008, and continue until the position is filled.

About CHNM and GMU

The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, which is known for innovative work in digital history, is located in Fairfax, Virginia, 15 miles from Washington, D.C., and is accessible by public transportation. George Mason University is an innovative, entrepreneurial institution with national distinction in a range of academic fields. Enrollment is 30,000, with students studying in over 150 degree programs at campuses in Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and the United Arab Emirates. GMU was recently named the #1 “Up-and-Coming” university by U.S. News & World Report.

Digital Dialogues at MITH

Our friends at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) continue to do great things. This fall’s series of lunch-time “digital dialogues” with leaders in the field looks like a winner … and not simply because I’m on the program 😉

Here’s the schedule:

  • 9/9 Doug Reside (MITH and Theatre), “The MITHological AXE: Multimedia Metadata Encoding with the Ajax XML
    Encoder”
  • 9/16 Stanley N. Katz (Princeton University), “Digital Humanities 3.0: Where We Have Come From and Where We Are
    Now?”
  • 9/23 Joyce Ray (Institute of Museum and Library Services), “Digital Humanities and the Future of Libraries”
  • 9/30 Tom Scheinfeldt and Dave Lester (George Mason University), “Omeka: Easy Web Publishing for Scholarship and
    Cultural Heritage”
  • 10/7 Brent Seales (University of Kentucky), “EDUCE: Enhanced Digital Unwrapping for Conservation and Exploration”
  • 10/14 Zachary Whalen (University of Mary Washington), “The Videogame Text”
  • 10/21 Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Pomona College), “Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the
    Academy”
  • 10/28 “War (and) Games” (a discussion in conjunction with the ARHU semester on War and Representations of War,
    facilitated by Matthew Kirschenbaum [English and MITH])
  • 11/4 Bethany Nowviskie (University of Virginia), “New World Ordering: Shaping Geospatial Information for Scholarly
    Use”
  • 11/11 Merle Collins (English), Saraka and Nation (film screening and discussion)
  • 11/18 Ann Weeks (iSchool and HCIL), “The International Children’s Digital Library: An Introduction for Scholars”
  • 11/25 Clifford Lynch (Coalition for Networked Information), title TBA
  • 12/2 Elizabeth Bearden (English), “Renaissance Moving Pictures: From Sidney’s Funeral materials to Collaborative,
    Multimedia Nachleben”
  • 12/9 Katie King (Women’s Studies), “Flexible Knowledges, Reenactments, New Media”

Dialogues are held Tuesdays at 12:30-1:45 in MITH’s conference room (B0135 McKeldin Library) on the main University of Maryland campus in College Park. All talks are free and open to the public.