Week 2/ Day A

Assignment 1

Pick one of the following to examine:

  1. https://baltimoreuprising2015.org/

  2. http://www.sixdegreesoffrancisbacon.com/?ids=10000473&min_confidence=60&type=network

  3. https://plateauportal.libraries.wsu.edu/digital-heritage/root-gathering-bag-3/ https://plateauportal.libraries.wsu.edu/

Form a small group with folks who picked the same site as you.

Assignment 2

  1. Find a dataset from the New York State data site: https://data.ny.gov/

  2. Click on any category that interests you. 

  3. Click on one dataset that interests you.

  4. You can view the data by

    1. Scrolling to the bottom of the page and viewing it in tabular format OR

    2. Clicking view source data, Click “Export” and then export it as a “CSV for Excel.” CSV= Comma Separated Value. If you want to know what a CSV looks like, click the CSV download button.

Once you’ve opened the document, examine it for the following

  1. Identify its data types.

  2. What constitutes a record in this dataset?

  3. How do we organize and categorize objects that come from other knowledge systems? What kind of power do we wield when we name and categorize things?

  4. Who will find this data most useful and illuminating?

  5. What can this dataset tell you about the phenomenon it claims to describe?

  6. What gets left out?

  7. Imagine you’re starting over with data-collection and describe it from a  completely different point of view

Week 2/ Day B