Where is the live Humanities Showcase site on the Web?

• The Humanities Showcase is online at http://humanitiesshowcase.wix.com/4humanities-showcase

What is the technology behind the Humanities Showcase site on the Web?

• Currently, the Humanities Showcase is a Wix site.  Wix is a third-party service that allows users to create high visual impact sites with themes, HTML5 animation, and other features, all edited through a GUI what-you-see-is-what-you-get visual programming interface.
• 4Humanities has a paid subscription to Wix to take advantage of features in addition to the free service.
• The Wix site requires manual editing and adding.  It is not a "content management system" for exhibitions like Omeka that allows curators to keep exhibitions and metadata in a database and then flow the content automatically to a front-end theme.  (Omeka would be an idea solution; but currently the available thenes on the hosted Omeka.net site are not high-visual-impact enough for the purposes of a public showcase site.  Hosting an Omeka installation locally would be prohibitive due to support issues and the need to custom design a high visual impact theme.

Planning Notes

Resources and Analogous Projects:

• Example of a STEM science showcase project: Los Alamos Labs "Our Science, Your Future" site
• Example of a "high-concept" poster series for University of California science research created by Conrad Rudolf, History of Art (UCR): "We Gave You . . ." slides (example: UC-We-Gave-You-set-2.ppt)
• Alan Liu: "UC Humanities and Social Science Showcase Examples"
• Original results from Alan's solicitation of examples from through UC for the UC Commission on the Future's "Research Strategies" working group (special login required
• AcademicJoy

Plan of Action: (last updated after meetings of project group on April 25 and May 2, 2012) 

1. Research suitable examples of humanities research (and teaching)
   
1. Alan to contact research projects included in his "UC Humanities and Social Science Showcase Examples" mock-up to seek any necessary permissions to feature their work and images in our showcase.
2. Pax Hehmeyer to create an example for the showcase from the EBBA (English Broad Ballads Archive) Project
3. Our project group to research other examples from other locations nationally and internationally
1. Research examples through online means
2. Contact people in our personal networks and ask for examples
3. Lindsay Thomas, Pax Hehmeyer, and Dana Solomon to collect examples at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute, June 8-12 (e.g., by creating a flyer and sign-up sheet at DHSI)
4. Jennifer Hammerschmidt to act as international talent scout, gathering and recruiting examples from other nations.
2. Gather and store examples
1. Collect examples in the format of an image plus blurb on this PBWorks site (now upgraded to $99/year Classroom plan)
2. In the first stage, we can aim only for a relatively small pilot group of examples.
3. Vet examples
1. Ask the rest of 4Humanities@RFG to rate the collection of examples
2. Ask focus groups of the "public" to rate the collection of examples
3. Use polling / voting plugin (possible tools) (perhaps use PollEverywhere or Polldaddy)
4. Create presentation products for the examples, including:
   
1. An online exhibition site built in OMEKA.net (paid plan)

1. Omeka for exhibition sites (installed locally on an English Dept. virtual server)

   (For a good intro and case study in how to set up an Omeka site, see Jason Kucsma, et al., "Using Omeka to Build Digital Collections: The METRO Case Study" (D-Lib 16.3-4 (2010)
2. Create standard format of image and blurb, but add links in the blurb to "more" and "related" that will lead the public to added dimensions of the example
2. A poster series
3. Possibly create follow-up videos
1. Interviews with researchers or students involved in the examples
2. Video site visits or demos of research projects
5. Publicize the above presentation products
1. Newsletters?
2. RSS feeds
3. "mememify" the products (through Twitter and Facebook)
6. Create public engagement and feedback mechanisms
1. As a general principle, effective presentation of humanities research examples should include a means of soliciting and presenting public feedback
2. Mount an event in 2012-13 that would be like a humanities research slam with invited members of the community to give feedback.  Show the products of the humanities research examples there.

Next Steps:

1. Alan to contact the rest of the project team who couldn't make the first two team meetings
2. Alan to create page on PBWorks site to gather examples
3. Group to begin research and gather examples
4. Alan to purchase licenses for PBWorks classroom plan and OMEKA paid plan
5. Need permission form for using examples (non-exclusive, world media right to use their image)