Course blog

Week 2 Blog – Security in Cyberspace

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Metadata’s core principles have been molded alongside the recent advancements in technology over the years. As Anne Gilliland states in “Setting the Stage”, the increase in the amount of information being shared and created digitally has drastically expanded the importance and widespread use of metadata. What used to be a term only mentioned and understood by cataloging professionals has transformed into a concept known and practiced by all. Metadata is crucial for individuals to effectively locate and access needed information as well as for companies and organizations to archive important information. Attention to detail with regards to the creation of metadata has also become vital in this day and age, tied to this expansion of digitally accessible information.

This digital adaptation that we have seen over the years has also caused controversy. The rights surrounding access to certain metadata have been heavily argued and in a specific case concerning Yahoo, government threats have been discovered (Link to Article). This article covers Yahoo bringing light to a battle between itself and the US government in 2008 regarding the constitutionality of the government’s request of Yahoo’s data. The government threatened Yahoo with heavy fines if they failed to comply with their “surveillance efforts”. Yahoo released the documents associated with their legal dispute to the general public in an attempt to show the extensive effort they went through to keep certain personal data safe that was tied with user information. Yahoo ultimately ended up losing the legal fight and was forced to cooperate with the National Security Agency, granting them access to their information.

This controversial incident expands upon Gilliland’s article as it brings security into the conversation regarding metadata’s increased role over the years. It questions how much regulation should be involved with certain metadata that may include personal information. This is a very delicate issue with technology expanding, as the amount of personal information that is stored and managed online is only going to expand. With the recent security breaches around the web, it is safe to say that no personal information put online is absolutely secure. With this in mind, Gilliland’s question of “how much [metadata] is too much” can be looked at from a different perspective. It raises both questions of how much regulation should be allowed as well as how much personal information should be stored online to begin with. Metadata has been great for the purpose of recording information and making it available to the general public. However, with the always-present possibility of personal information being digitally transferred between organizations as well as recent security breaches, it will be interesting to see if metadata is managed differently in the coming years.

 

Sources:

“Yahoo was threatened with heavy fines by US government over metadata”. Washington Post. September  11, 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/us-threatened-massive-fine-to-force-yahoo-to-release-data/2014/09/11/38a7f69e-39e8-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html

Anne Gilliland, “Setting the Stage,” from Murtha Baca, ed., Introduction to Metadata (Los Angeles: Getty, 2008): http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/intrometadata/setting.html

Image: http://www.ccmostwanted.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Cyber-Security.jpg

W2 – Classification and Typography

In “Classification and its Structures,” C. M. Sperberg-McQueen argues, “classification schemes are felt more useful if the classes are organized around properties relevant to the purpose of the classification.” This is true because any kind of organization system implies knowledge of the subject. Without this insight, the classification becomes arbitrary. For example, one might classify paintings by acidity for an analysis of Renaissance art & culture. What would be gained from this work? Acidity is irrelevant to the classification subject and project scope. Instead, scholars must first decide which information is relevant to the topic and then decide on a classification system that is relevant to the information. The implications of these decisions are numerous and important to the overall project.

Type Classification

One of the most interesting classification systems that I am familiar with is for typefaces. According to Ellen Lupton’s Thinking With Type, three main classes were introduced in the 19th century: humanist, transitional, and modern. These classes correspond roughly to the Renaissance, Baroque, and Enlightenment periods in art and literature. Although these letterforms may seem similar to the untrained eye, small changes in transitions, angles, and serifs represented huge shifts in print culture. In this case, the classification is useful because it serves both purposes outlined by M. Sperberg-McQueen: “by grouping together objects which share properties, it brings like objects together into a class… [and] by separating objects with unlike properties into separate classes, it distinguishes between things which are different in ways relevant to the purpose of the classification.” Historians and typography critics have since created more serif-based classifications (e.g. slab-serif, humanist sans-serif, and geometric sans-serif) and “proposed more finely grained schemes that attempt to better capture the diversity of letterforms” (Lupton).

Hierarchy

Finally, classification also reminded me of another aspect of typography: hierarchy. Just as a classification system exposes similarities and differences between objects, “a typographic hierarchy expresses the organization of content, emphasizing some elements and subordinating others” (Lupton). Hierarchies help readers navigate through text similar to how classifications make data analysis and visualizations easier for scholars. Although there are infinitely many ways to accomplish either task, their implications are much the same. Sometimes one difference is emphasized at the expense of another or some information is omitted from the system because it does not easily fall in to any of the groups. This cannot be avoided; instead, designers and scholars must optimize their organization systems based on the scope, data, and end user’s needs.

Week 2: What’s in your camera bag?

https://www.flickr.com/groups/camerabag/

This is a link to the “What’s in your camera bag?” group on Flickr. Members can join and add a photograph of their camera bag with its contents laid out around it: the cameras, lenses, and other photographic equipment they own, their favorite film types, their cellphone, laptop, tablet, notebooks, and assorted personal effects. It’s the photographer’s equivalent of “What’s in your bag/purse?”

Like members of other groups on Flickr, they are basically making their own collection of information objects. In addition to content, they create metadata in the form of titles, descriptions, and tags. Each person writes as much or as little metadata as they like, which can lead to difficulties in searching for specific information. For example, the group currently has 2,382 photographs, yet only 252 have the “camera+bag” tag attached to it. As a result of the inconsistency in tagging, searching for photos like this outside of the group’s photostream is completely ineffective. The titles that people write are also inconsistent because, for instance, some might prefer the title “What’s in MY camera bag” over “What’s in YOUR camera bag?” Obviously, there are problems with the quality of user-generated metadata on the Internet, i.e., folksonomies, because there are no standards and no controlled vocabularies.

In “Setting the Stage,” Anne Gilliand addresses the bewildering variety of metadata standards by categorizing them according to the functions of metadata. There is no one standard that works well for everybody, so Gilliand argues that by understanding the various types of standards, as well as the attributes and characteristics of metadata, and the phases of its life cycle, information professionals will be able to choose the most appropriate standard or combination of standards for the needs of their institutions, collections, and users. Creating and maintaining metadata is extremely labor intensive and costly, so information professionals have to choose which standard(s) will cover their needs both now and in the future. The example of inconsistent tagging and titling in photos of camera bags and their contents is admittedly trivial and does not require high quality metadata, nor is it likely that casual Internet users will spend much effort improving their metadata, but it does illustrate a few of the problems that can be caused by low quality metadata. The importance of high quality metadata is much higher for museums, archives, libraries, etc., especially nowadays when the Internet has created a larger, more diverse audience for collections and repositories. Luckily, digital tools allow for the accommodation of multiple audiences that include scholars as well as less highly-trained students, teachers, and the general public.

Week 2: Metadata- Art Scandal

In the past I have worked with metadata in regards to artifacts and documents. Usually, I find these helpful in tracing the history of a piece as well as determining copyright. It is for this reason that I was reminded of several art scandals where background information and metadata can be crucial to understanding the piece. For instance, a few years ago, Steve Martin bought a “newly discovered” Campendonk painting only to discover later that it had been the work of the infamous Beltracchi, an art forger. While not digital, this is a perfect example of where cataloging and metadata can contribute to authenticity. Gilliland states that metadata plays a role in “preserv[ing] cultural heritage information.” I agree that metadata should accompany every document or piece that is exchanged not only in the digital world but also in the physical world. At some point, all information will be available in digital form and to not lose the original work, it is necessary to keep track of metatdata. In the case of the Capendonk painting, pieces such as these should have an incredibly detailed metadata to accompany them. The painting was proven a fake by the type of paint used; information such as this can be applied to other art pieces.  Artwork metadata at its best would consist of the painter, style, dimensions, description, location history, purchase history, chemical analysis, and names of individuals who can attest to the authenticity of the painting.

The Daily Beast, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/06/01/steve-martins-campendonk-painting-art-forgery-scandal.html

horse

Another example I am fond of is the Amber Room; a famous treasure of Russia that was dismantled by the Germans during WWII and remains lost. In this situation, metadata serves to give information about an object that no longer exists. If an artifact is destroyed, researchers must rely on images and stored information rather than the original.  Digital metadata is therefore also a method of preservation or documents or artifacts that no longer physically exist. Also, metadata serves to inform the public of basic information rather than having every researcher investigate copyright, take dimensions, determine authenticity, etc.

Smithsonian Magazine: Amber Room, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-amber-room-160940121/?no-ist

amber_room

Gillilan has also stated the need for standards in regards to metadata. I agree with the need to standardize the rules of metadata so as to have consistency in reports. I am also curious however that at what point does the metadata overcome the object? Focusing on the upkeep of the metadata, In my opinion, cannot take the place of upkeep of the object. Originals and non-digitized documents are still the responsibility of libraries and while digitization and metadata may make the information more accessible, neglecting the original information is unacceptable.

Anne Gilliland, “Setting the Stage,” from Murtha Baca, ed., Introduction to Metadata (Los Angeles: Getty, 2008)

Week 2: The “Social Responsibility” of Archives (Smithsonian Style)

After delving into the material assigned for this week’s readings, I couldn’t help but find myself reminiscing about the past summer, which I spent living in Washington D.C., working as a (regrettably) unpaid intern at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, abbreviated as the CFCH (that’s me, on the left in the blue dress).

During my internship I worked largely within the Center’s archives, processing different art and correspondence collections, and attempting to discern what might be worth including in recent digitization efforts funded by a federally subsidized, and therefore unsurprisingly modest budget. Along with other interns (namely my friend on the right, Heather), we sorted through hundreds of original works of art from records produced at the Center during the 20th century (you can browse many of the recordings here: http://www.folkways.si.edu/folkways-recordings/smithsonian).  The works of album artwork that we processed were  historically produced as a part of an  effort to release more unconventional or unorthodox music during the 1950s and 60s, when government censorship and the era of McCarthyism surged across the nation. Some of the most famous folk musicians of the 20th century such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger recorded with Folkways and left original works of art and recordings in the hands of the Smithsonian’s CFCH. Even at an institution as prestigious as the Smithsonian, these materials were not accessible to the public online. Individuals are still required to make an appointment to view the collection, and many of the materials have yet to be cataloged at all.

During our efforts, we grappled with many of the same questions brought to light by Chon Noriega in “Preservation Matters,” such as what the function of our collections were on both a public and an institutional level, and what the responsibility of the Center was in preserving these historic materials. Essentially, our boss wanted us to pick out particularly good examples of well-preserved or exceptional works of art to be digitized and eventually put online for public access. However in doing this, we were adding weight to Gamboa’s theory that it was impossible to give an accurate account of a  history because of the very fact that these materials were part of an archive. Heather and I were selecting what history would be publicly shown, and which pieces of art would remain hidden away or potentially even discarded (such as those with hazardous mold or other damages). I think this is one of the most universally important things to keep in mind when using archives and collections. True “History,” is unknowable because archives are an imperfect and meager snapshot of what happened, how it happened and who was involved.

For more information on the archives and collections I worked with check out these links:

http://www.folklife.si.edu/

http://www.folklife.si.edu/archive

 

Week 2: Bias in Archives

An important theme that stood out to me from this week’s readings was the notion that archived history is not the same as accurate history. Noriega’s “Preservation Matters” points out flaws surrounding the system of archiving information. An archive implies a complete collection of all existing documentation, gathered and preserved to represent history in its entirety. However, the reality is that not all existing documents find their way to an archive – if the information is even in a documentable form to begin with. A lot of data does not find its way into an archive, and therefore these pieces of history don’t “exist.” Julia Gaffield’s article, “Digging for Lost Documents,” brings up the issue of a fact – a historical occurrence – actually being doubted if it isn’t documented; Haiti’s Declaration of Independence could not be located, and because this physical document didn’t exist, the country’s independence could not be “reaffirmed” (Gaffield). A document was needed to validate this country’s important occurrence, and without it in a locatable archive, that piece of history was not valid. There were many reasons for this archival mishap; Gaffield identifies that “negligence, natural disasters, lack of funding, and political turmoil” can all lead to history being lost and undocumented. Even though those historical events happened, it was not archived, and therefore lost its value to the rest of the world until it was able to be located.

If a document isn’t included in an archive, it’s automatically excluded. Similarly, if a “group isn’t included in an archive, they’re automatically excluded” (Noriega). I took a class last year in Information Studies, where we discussed this social responsibility of the archivist. Noriega’s article reminds me of this modern day issue that if something isn’t online, we assume it doesn’t exist – this can be applied to the notion of an archive as well, as the internet serves as an online archive. Professor Srinivasan of Information Studies at UCLA is a strong advocate for “indigenous and ethnic communities’ appropriated use of media technologies” (Srinivasan) so that underrepresented groups can create their own presence online instead of risking misrepresentation or lack of representation. Srinivasan’s project “Tribal Peace” (http://www.tribalpeace.org/) does exactly this. The website is not only a tool for this Native community, but also serves as an online presence and therefore representation, depicted in a way chosen by the group themselves. Without the help of activists like Srinivasan, financial constraints and bad experiences (Noriega) working on a collaborative project – such as the archivist imposing their own historical account onto a group or event instead of the people being allowed to create their own vision – lead to the lack of an archive for a group. It is important to “facilitate and support” (Noriega) archival efforts in order to achieve complete, unbiased archives and therefore a more accurate account of history.

Chon Noriega, “Preservation Matters”

Gaffield, Julia, “Haiti’s Declaration of Independence: Digging for Lost Documents in the Archives of the Atlantic World”

Srinivasan, “Tribal Peace” http://www.tribalpeace.org/

Week 2 – Metadata

Field Notes (2)

 

This is an example of the process followed and field notes taken on a dig by the Museum of London (click on the image to zoom in).

Renfrew, Colin and Paul Bahn, 2000. Excavation in Archaeology:Theory, Methods, and Practice. 106-116.

National Information Standards Organization, “What is Metadata?” (Bethesda, MD: NISO Press, 2004)

The similarity between metadata for digital object and the cataloging data and field records given to archaeological artifacts is astounding. Because archaeology is a destructive science, precise documentation and careful records of almost every aspect of the excavation are crucial. These pre-set pieces of information are standardized across the field of archaeology, and include data such as the precise location and depth of the object when it was uncovered, its relationship to any stratigraphic elements (stratigraphy is just the study of the successive layering of different soil over time, and to over-simplify, allows one to assume that deeper layers are older, while layers nearer the surface are more recent), and even the consistency and color of the soil it was found in. These types of data are standard across the field – even to the point that there is a standardized scale of soil colors (same concept as the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, TEI, METS, EAD, MODS)– so that archaeologists will have the interoperability that the Open Archives Initiative is striving for. In the same way, the interoperability allows archaeologists who were not in the field to look into the field records and draw their own conclusions or new questions/projects from the universally understandable data.

These archaeological records also include the idea of metadata schema. For instance, the location of the artifact is noted using a predetermined code, which refers to the general area of the excavation down to the actual square meter grid in which it was found. In the United States, archaeological sites themselves have standard coded titles, such as 47-DR153, which refers first to the state, by its numerical location in an alphabetized list, the abbreviation for the county, and the site number.

These records are also crucial for future identification and preservation, both of which are also main goals of metadata. One concern about these digital projects is that the objects themselves will be lost, outdated, or inaccessible in the future, a concern which metadata can alleviate. In much the same way, if an artifact ever becomes lost in transport or in a messy lab, archaeologists can still study the piece through its detailed field records, even well into the future (for example, we still have access to field notes from the late 1800s, even though some of the objects excavated went missing during WWII).

In keeping with this class, a new program is being developed here at UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology where archaeologists can use iPads in the field to embed all of this information into a QR code. The code goes on the bag the object(s) are kept in, and all the pertinent data can be accessed immediately with a quick scan!

Week 1 Blog

Mapping Time

 

http://www.haohaohuang.com/project.php?id=38

http://kindred.stanford.edu/#/path/full/none/none/I5457/I3904/

This week’s readings included a database site titled Kindred Britain that offers a beautifully visualized network of nearly 30,000 individuals within the British culture who are connected through familial terms such as through blood, marriage, or affiliation. First began as an individual research project by Stanford University English professor, Nicholas Jenkins, who was mainly interested in examining the family connections in British culture and history, the project eventually developed into a collaboration amongst designers, coders, developers, and digital visualization specialists that produced Kindred Britain. Much like Jenkins, multi-media designer Hao Hao Huang was also interested in the extensive study of a national and family history – and Huang’s own role within it. Huang’s codified visualization, Mapping Time in comparison to Kindred Britain offers a juxtaposing counterexample of another artist’s approach to examining a heritage.

Data Vis 2, an extensive, book collection of the most compelling data visualization work across the world features Huang’s work on a two page spread and manages to document the artist’s laborious process. Working with a primary collection of information from past events and genealogy, Huang codifies his timeline onto a 25-metre scroll that covers the entire floor with hand-written numbers. He paints these numbers by hand, marking “official” facts colder shades while indicating personal events with warmer shades. The artist works his way slowly, but surely, across his timeline of landmark events within his national and family history.

Although the mediums of data visualization are obviously different, the overwhelming database is strikingly apparent in both Kindred Britain and Mapping Time. Huang chose to mediate his database into a handwritten scroll, perhaps an ode to his Chinese heritage. However, because of the intricacy of his tedious system, the end result of his scroll visually appears like columns of colorful code on a screen. Kindred Britain definitely offers a more interactive experience in finding the connections amongst the thousands of individuals while Mapping Time can only offer a more static representation of the insights made of Huang’s national and family history. Although Kindred Britain is an extremely impressive accomplishment within digital visualization, the team’s process can only really be understood through their FAQ page. Huang’s solo trek in mapping a similar subject like Kindred Britain was physical, using just his mind to compute his data. What is strikingly beautiful and humanistic about Huang’s work is that his process is clearly evident by observing the scroll itself. Every irregularly shaped circle that he painted himself shows nearly everything a viewer needs to know about Huang’s process.