Author Archives: johnl

Mapping Petersburg

Posted on April 7, 2011 by johnl

After months of work, Mapping Petersburg is now live! Built in collaboration with Dr Sarah J. Young, it is a pilot for a much larger project taking in two centuries of the Petersburg text. The aim is not only to … Continue reading →

Posted in digital humanities, My Projects | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Digital Humanities GIS projects

Posted on March 16, 2011 by johnl

Being involved in a number of projects with a spatial dimension, I’ve been teaching myself digital cartography for over a year. The code, however, is only half the story. Maps are not transparent depictions of reality, there are many problems, … Continue reading →

Posted in digital humanities | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Luddite Bicentenary and Luddite Song

Posted on March 11, 2011 by johnl

Alerted today that this year – and the next two – is the bicentenary of the great Luddite movement. Still much maligned as backwards-looking, anti-progressive, and if I may be permitted an anarchronism, ‘technophobic’, it is important to remember these … Continue reading →

Posted in history, politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Victorian Books: The Frequency of Revolution

Posted on February 1, 2011 by johnl

Opened to the public late last year was the long awaited Victorian Books, ‘a Distant Reading of Victorian Publications.’ Working with data from Google Books,  Dan Cohen and Fred Gibbs are text mining every book published in Britain in the … Continue reading →

Posted in digital history, digital humanities | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Google Ngram Games

Posted on December 17, 2010 by johnl

Google have just opened up their text mining project, a vast and ambitious project to allow searching their digital library for the frequency of words and phrases. It’s an astonishing resource, not only for its research potential but also for … Continue reading →

Posted in digital humanities | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Return of History Workshop

Posted on December 3, 2010 by johnl

For some time I’ve been considering writing a post entitled “Whatever Happened to History Workshop?” Once it was the flag-bearer of radical history, a product of the struggles of the 60s and 70s, as much a movement as a publication. … Continue reading →

Posted in digital history, history | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Simon Schama’s pick of the historical pops

Posted on November 9, 2010 by johnl

Simon Schama, advisor to the government, has outlined his vision of history in schools. Despite the bizarre claim that Hong Kong runs the world and some purple prose, it’s not as facetious as one might fear; certainly, in his choice … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged | Leave a comment

What I learned from Wu Ming

Posted on October 12, 2010 by johnl

Last night, Wu Ming 1 and Wu Ming 4 visited Dalston. The salient points: 1: Wu Ming is a band. If musicians can group together, why not writers? 2: Wu Ming 6 is the waste paper basket, and a most … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Visualizing the Gnu GPL

Posted on August 18, 2010 by johnl

My suggestion for the Decoding Digital Humanities meeting has been accepted, by both the London and Melbourne groups, for next Tuesday (24th August) here in the Great Wen, and next Thursday (26th August) down under. I’m feeling the warm glow … Continue reading →

Posted in digital humanities | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

DH 2010, day four

Posted on July 12, 2010 by johnl

For me, the final day was the important one, with both the geography and history sessions taking place. The former saw three excellent presentations, from the University of North Carolina, Ian Gregory and the Hestia project. But the big news … Continue reading →

Posted in digital history, digital humanities | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment