tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post1632596755206919138..comments2011-04-25T10:30:06.350-04:00Comments on Wynken de Worde: the most influential book history tools of the decadeSarah Wernerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06941029918210770136noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post-62911654323878688932010-01-04T12:06:51.431-05:002010-01-04T12:06:51.431-05:00These are some great suggestions--thanks, all! I h...These are some great suggestions--thanks, all! I hadn't considered how mashups have forced us (and copyright law) to rethink authorship. And that ties, as does Wordle, to Bavardess's point about the importance of the rise in connectivity. I'd say that not only has increased broadband access shifted the possibilities for research, so has the wider amazing increase in computing power over the last decade. Without powerful computers we wouldn't be able to run programs that allow for text and image and sound editing and analysis in the ways that create the sort of output that all of you are pointing to. And those tools can be used for analysis and creation--or, as in the best mashups and word clouds, both at the same time.<br /><br />More for me to think about--an excellent way to start the new year!Wynken de Wordehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05927648315219316978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post-39885481577478952842010-01-04T04:43:33.457-05:002010-01-04T04:43:33.457-05:00Word clouds. Using computers to count word frequen...Word clouds. Using computers to count word frequencies has been around for a while, and allows us to make empirical claims about the information content of a text without having to deal with the slipperiness of meaning so much. But we still have to find meaning in those statistics, and a table of figures can be quite uninspiring. A word cloud presents the data in a way that inspires new interpretations and gives us a completely different way of reading a text. Making one used to require some computer programming skills, but <a href="http://wordle.net/" rel="nofollow">Wordle</a> has made it easy and fun.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post-73847883094131761122010-01-01T19:24:27.640-05:002010-01-01T19:24:27.640-05:00Thanks for the shout-out. I pretty much agree with...Thanks for the shout-out. I pretty much agree with your top picks. The proliferation of original sources online in facsimile form through sites like EEBO has definitely made a major difference for me, as it makes it possible to do research in major UK/US/European manuscript/text collections from a distance. I still expect to have to invest in travel to consult originals at some point, but it certainly allows me to do a lot of leg work first. For my own work, I consider Gallica (the online digital archive of the Bibliotheque Nationale in France) a key development, especially since many older French language sources are not readily available through my local library system. <br /><br />A related development that makes it all possible is, of course, the availability of cheap and easily accessible broadband connectivity and portable devices. I'm looking forward to seeing how much good e-readers will change scholars' practices, too. I wonder if new formats and functionality will make it possible to, for example, annotate a journal article and then disseminate it in new forms via electronic channels (kind of like the mash-ups Peter Friedman refers to above). It seems that the availability of articles in standard formats like PDF is already beginning to subvert the security systems that have until now kept a lot of material from academic journals locked behind pay walls. On a similar note, I'm noticing more academic books are starting to appear on BitTorrent-type file sharing sites. <br /><br />Jeffrey - I'd forgotten that great line about the cactus! Thanks for the laugh.Bavardesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10737120234578385755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post-82216887858826580392009-12-23T16:20:49.206-05:002009-12-23T16:20:49.206-05:00The link I meant to leave on my own posts regardin...The link I meant to leave on my own posts regarding changing notions of authorship is http://tiny.cc/uWpD1Peter Friedmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12367214098614734119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post-42114914500373258542009-12-23T16:19:14.405-05:002009-12-23T16:19:14.405-05:00I'm sure it's not strictly a 2009 phenomen...I'm sure it's not strictly a 2009 phenomenon, but it's one that's in line (or even part of) your category regarding book history and bibliography: specifically, the increasing scholarship on the very notion of authorship. No doubt this interest is provoked in part by the expansion of technology that breaks down assumptions regarding intellectual property rights that have existed for the last 150 years or so. But it also is provoked by the wondrous tools we now have to create in new ways (collectively, and crudely, categorized under the rubric of the "mashup"). I've blogged myself on a few of these issues, though people like Martha Woodmansee and Peter Jaszi are the go to scholars in the area. See <a href="http://tiny.cc/uWpD1" rel="nofollow"></a>Peter Friedmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12367214098614734119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post-68131514335572271052009-12-23T12:05:05.279-05:002009-12-23T12:05:05.279-05:00My favorite line from the One Fish Two Fish book t...My favorite line from the One Fish Two Fish book that you are quoting is "Pat sat on a cat," well illustrating what Freud called the anal phase of child development. Then comes Pat about to place his derriere on a cactus with the interjection, "No Pat no! Don't sit on that!" Yes I have read this book more than one million times.<br /><br />I have had a similar experience of watching language in action through my kids learning Hebrew and (now in one case) French ... and piano. Their ability to translate black circles on lines into finger movements into music has been breathtaking to behold. I'm in awe because they have a language that I don't. The pleasure it gives them is also extraordinary.<br /><br />That doesn't answer your query about books and book history, but it is an appreciation of this post, and this blog. Happy 2010!Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.com