This week has been a mix of housekeeping and keeping the ball rolling. With two team meetings and two 1-1 meetings, a lot of important work was realized.

A Little Team Reflection

After a fruitful team workshop (we learned more about our working styles and what we value and can offer in a team environment) and project retro (we discussed what is working well and not so well) we feel even more aligned as a team. It was good to hear people talk about their needs and styles in their own words, some being new insights while others we may have noticed in practice already. The retro helped us figure out that none of us have really been using our project management software because it just felt like yet another app to adjust to and navigate. Many team members had devised tracking systems in places they are more familiar, and as a team we decided to move to an overall checklist to help us mark major milestones, rather than tracking each minute step as a team. We’ll review it fully with the team on Wednesday, but Elizabeth and I were pleased to see that we have pretty much hit our goals give or take a few days. Some processes have changed since the plan was formulated, pushing certain things out a little, but the crux of the work is on track. 

Keeping the Ball Rolling

In the last week I was able to enter several events and new activists, getting me closer to finishing up with my research goals by the end of this week. There’s still quite a bit to write up, but I feel good about having a finite list of things to check off. It’s definitely doable, and it will definitely require a real push. 

Meeting with Estefany to discus social was very helpful. We were able to discuss content themes for posting and figure out what kinds of templates would suit our needs. She will be pulling language from the project proposal and our outreach plan to create some key messaging that we can apply to our communications. I’ll be pulling some inspo and helping brainstorm specific posts that fit under our themes. This is fully in my wheelhouse, so I feel confident that I can fit this in with the research I need to do. 

I also had a good check in with Elizabeth who took on a major chunk of research in the last weeks. She was so fully invested in the conversation and it was exciting to hear her perspective on what happened in Mashpee in 1833. We helped each other realign our approach to documenting our research, making sure to center our Wampanoag audience, keeping everything accessible and easy to knit together. 

The front end design is coming together nicely, and when Estefany shared her latest updates, I think we all felt the project moving that much closer to being realized. 

We’re all working toward our pivotal midpoint (pre-spring break) meeting next week. The goal of the midpoint meeting is to set the direction for the final phase of the project’s development. What exactly these goals are will depend on the preliminary findings of our text analysis. Based on the analyisis results, we will then make final decisions on the structure of the website and its relevant content.  

So, the main goal for next week is to have preliminary text analysis findings. To achieve this, we have to finalize the corpora and then run analysis on Voyant. More complicated analysis (sentiment analysis, e.g.) can possibly wait until after next week’s meeting. Teddy’s Season 12 corpus is ready for analysis, and they will focus on mining the corpus for insights this coming week. Season 2 is still in the midst of cleaning, but the goal is for Maria to finish the final cleaning in time for the initial analysis.

Meanwhile, the development of the website and the game/s is progressing apace. RC is discovering more about the limits of housing a website on the Commons. Plug-ins that might be important for our project, i.e., a Bingo game plug-in, are not allowed/functioning on a CUNY-integrated site. This discovery has led us to reconsider the hosting infrastructure. We’ve decided to adjust the budget, use funds initially earmarked for advertising to buy a hosting service, and see if the game plug-ins can be integrated this way. Nuraly continues to investigate coding for games and existing game plug-in alternatives, and he will coordinate with RC to keep testing the functionality of the project’s games on the site. 

Everyone in our group has had to deal with extracurricular snags this past week. Whether it be illnesses, apartment emergencies, or other unstoppable life emergencies, the reverberations of these aspects of human existence might influence our timeline a bit. We’ll see where we’re at next Wednesday and adjust accordingly.

This week I was sick but I have managed to get some of the stuff done. Meanwhile I am working on a game Bingo for our final project as a side project in order to see If I can make the game in Python with all of its user interface ready to compete with the plugin already done and created for word press. The experience has taught me well the value of teamwork because some things can not be done by yourself and especially when it concerns the project as ambitious as these group projects, and each of them unique and with unique challenges. The importance of diversity of thought and unconventional solutions matter when this kind of projects are thrown into the fold. The importance of open communication and understanding of each other weaknesses and strength are also an important aspect when building a group and deciding on the challenges to take each week. Hopefully everything will turn out just fine in the end and we are satisfied with the end product.

Along the way to finding the solution of search engines that incorporate XML, I discovered many gems. To clarify, the amount of solutions within scope is not abundant, and on top of that, it is constrained by the financial backing allocated for the project and also its future viability. Furthermore, the time for implementation is so limited!

I want to build something that remains functional for years to come, no matter who maintains the project or not!

I am thinking outside the box right now. Try to come up with something that is unique. The idea is rather simple and seamless. The design concept is so Apple: as long as it gets the job done, why build something novel? More coming in the next week!

This week has all about fine tuning and information gathering. Putting my head down and diving into the research, I was able to get more entries prepped and into the database. I’ve discovered that, although it makes sense to write up our activists first, this can lead to the unearthing of a number of new events to consider. Given the time we have, I am doing my best to track these events without feeling the need to account for them in this first expression of this project. 

Although I am aware of quite a bit of Mashpee history, a lot of the history I am learning that originates in other Wampanoag communities  is very much new to me. It’s been interesting getting a bird’s-eye view of how the communities interacted— that Wampanoags as far as the Pocasset in Fall River moved to Martha’s Vineyard and joined Aquinnah and Chappaquidick families, for example. I had always known of the Aquinnah and Mashpee connection, my own family has ancestors from both.  I’ve also learned so much about the interaction of  outsiders, including the Massachusetts anti-slavery community out of Boston,  with the Wampanoag. I’ve added that entire topic to the “for later” list…which has admittedly gotten a bit long. 

Elizabeth took on the research and write-up of one of the key events for our database. I intentionally stepped away from that event, The Mashpee “Revolt”, because I had some awareness of the events—although I’ve learned so much more working on this project. I also met with Estefany to collaborate on the visual identity which we are aiming to lock in this week. Again, coming from a design background, I intentionally stepped away from fully owning that process in an effort to push outside of my comfort zone, and to  practice true collaboration. In the end, this project is impacting me on multiple levels—giving me new historical perspective, helping me better understand the development of a DH project, and helping me stretch my wings into new areas of expertise. I expect to be reaping the benefits of this process for a long time to come. 

The concept for the site and the would be general look of website is done as discussed with our team. I have been researching and finding the best methods and games to incorporate in our website. There is a choice of creating the games from scratch using Python and its vast options of supporting Visual tools in creating those needed games, (later we can embed them in our website) or we can use the already tested and created games for wordpress. There are many and the choices and the preferences will be discussed with the group and we will choose the best plugins and/or use combination of Python coding in creating those games to better fit our agenda. We are definitely going to be creating a Bingo game, and I have already communicated the tools and the relevant resources with the wider group and  optionally we also want to create a trivia game, and it will in my opinion add to the fuller experience regarding our final product. There are many options going forwards and we will discuss that with our team.

On the side I am familiar with Python and I will try to create some alternatives for our games but so far we are gravitating towards proven products that already exist and are already tested. I will work  on my Python games to see if they hold up and/or can add to the experience of our website. There are many resources that will help us with that project and everything I do find I put it in our shared google document.

This week has been interesting—ups and downs and all arounds. I was able to dig into the research more and started to uncover some idiosyncrasies in the types of events that can be captured. Some of the petitions signed by Wampanoag activists, for example, were part of larger campaigns that spanned the state and sometimes country (Ex. Against the annexation of Florida and Texas). In these instances more than one Wampanoag community may have participated and so that needed to be reflected on the map. That has implications for the structure of the database, data entry, and formatting. We were able to diagram out a few scenarios and determined potential solutions to help streamline the research, notations, and data structure. It’s been interesting watching the shape of things evolve and needing to make adjustments as we go along—learning is fully activated.

On the “up” side I was able to uncover evidence of Wampanoag ancestry of an important historic figure who I had strongly suspected of being of our community. After hunting through genealogy archives, petitions, and various New England historic society documents I had a major breakthrough. I am now 99% sure that Mary J. “Polly” Johnson, a prominent member of New Bedford society, active member in the anti-slavery movement, participant in the Underground Railroad and host to Frederick Douglass when he first arrived to freedom is in fact Wampanoag likely on both sides of her parentage. Due to various spellings of her parents names (Isaac vs. Isaiah Anna vs. Hannah) her connection to her parents and siblings is somewhat obscured in the records. Her brothers went on to marry into the Wampanoag community in Aquinnah (Martha’s Vineyard) and one even went into business with another prominent Wampanoag family (the Cuffes). So that just knocked my socks off…and made me incredibly angry. I, again, had to face just how pervasive the erasure of our presence has been and see so much work laid out before me to contribute to our reinstatement in public history.

It only reinforces the importance of this work, and I continue to be incredible thankful for the resourceful brilliant team helping to get this project off the ground.

A lot has happened over the last few week. I lost home and found a new home in DirectHERS!! I will take this opportunity to show my gratitude towards Miaoling, Maria, Gemma and JP for including me in the process.

So what is my role? I hold a floating role in the group which is just perfect for me. This will provide me the opportunity to involve in every process where contribution is required.

So what have I done so far? I attended a media and outreach plan rehearsal presentation of Maria. Provided my feedback on the plan and contribute with some written on technical aspect. Wrote a twitter scrapper. Also, I found a way to scrape linkedin in case the group requires.

So what the future holds? I am in the process of designing a workshop for the group which I will briefly present on Wednesday focusing on how to scrape twitter for mentions and hashtags. I will meet Gemma Tuesday to figure out about the searching of xml. Also, I have already worked on a resource what Filipa has forwarded for us to publish xml in the web. I have a demo for that as well, would present if necessary. Last but not the least, I will write a Instagram scrapper whenever I can.

In a nutshell, I am here to help the group in every way possible. I got their backs!! In the process, it is a great opportunity for me to see the whole project unfolding and gathering expertise that I do not usually excel.

Below are a few things about the beginnings of our website. RC is designing and developing the site. 

Two Considerations that determined the preliminary design:

Words first: Since this is a project about language, we’ve decided to work with a text-focused approach (as opposed to showing delicious cakes). We purposely wanted to strip the site of any visual opulence.

Color Inspiration: The color scheme is influenced by one of the images prevalent in the GBBS opening sequences. 

Here is a look at the (top of the) landing page:

We want to lead with (an) interactive game/s. Bingo and/or perhaps trivia. For now, while Nuraly investigates the game designed possibility, you’ll see a placeholder that shows PBS’s GBBS Bingo card — an existing card RC found (!) that is much, um, greener and has a much broader focus than our game, which will solely feature judging language. 

Preliminary tabs at the bottom of the landing page include those featured below.. These might change depending on where our research findings lead us. We might have a collection of corpus visualizations that we’d like to share, additional games, or related digressions. So, tbd.

We’ve posted a link to the site in progress in the class google doc. The tabs are already functional and populated with relevant preliminary content.