CFP last date
20 January 2025
Reseach Article

Regenerated Identities: A Collaborative Web-based Content Management System for Digital Humanities

by Kartikay Chadha
International Journal of Computer Applications
Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA
Volume 186 - Number 29
Year of Publication: 2024
Authors: Kartikay Chadha
10.5120/ijca2024923804

Kartikay Chadha . Regenerated Identities: A Collaborative Web-based Content Management System for Digital Humanities. International Journal of Computer Applications. 186, 29 ( Jul 2024), 28-33. DOI=10.5120/ijca2024923804

@article{ 10.5120/ijca2024923804,
author = { Kartikay Chadha },
title = { Regenerated Identities: A Collaborative Web-based Content Management System for Digital Humanities },
journal = { International Journal of Computer Applications },
issue_date = { Jul 2024 },
volume = { 186 },
number = { 29 },
month = { Jul },
year = { 2024 },
issn = { 0975-8887 },
pages = { 28-33 },
numpages = {9},
url = { https://ijcaonline.org/archives/volume186/number29/regenerated-identities-a-collaborative-web-based-content-management-system-for-digital-humanities/ },
doi = { 10.5120/ijca2024923804 },
publisher = {Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA},
address = {New York, USA}
}
%0 Journal Article
%1 2024-07-26T23:00:28.745251+05:30
%A Kartikay Chadha
%T Regenerated Identities: A Collaborative Web-based Content Management System for Digital Humanities
%J International Journal of Computer Applications
%@ 0975-8887
%V 186
%N 29
%P 28-33
%D 2024
%I Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA
Abstract

Regenerated Identities (RegID) is a web-based content management system for digital humanities (DH) scholars to curate, meta-tag, analyze, visualize, cross-reference, and publish large volumes of historical datasets. This article describes the development methodology of RegID, highlighting the underlying theoretical concepts driven by information studies and the results of participatory research that employs user-centered design and design thinking strategies. Focusing on African studies and slavery research as a case study, the development of RegID demonstrates that a thematic approach and understanding of users’ needs and behavior of information interactions is important in developing such digital tools. Scholars' engagement in the design process helps address their unique challenges and workflows, which is unachievable through broad-spectrum content management systems such as WordPress, Jumla, or Wix. The user-centered design facilitated a more intuitive and efficient interface that provides a digital space for collaborative research. RegID is hosting over 20 projects addressing the technological challenges faced by scholars in the field.

References
  1. J.-M. Martinez-Caro, A.-J. Aledo-Hernandez, A. Guillen-Perez, R. Sanchez-Iborra, and M.-D. Cano, “A Comparative Study of Web Content Management Systems,” Information, vol. 9, no. 2, p. 27, Feb. 2018, doi: 10.3390/info9020027.
  2. World Technology Survey, “Usage Statistics and Market Share of Content Management Systems, May 2024,” W3 Techs. Accessed: May 16, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management
  3. K. Baran, P. Kopniak, and G. Koziel, “Using the WordPress system for the implementation of student projects during the course: fundamentals and technologies of the electronic economy,” presented at the INTED2021 Proceedings, Virtual: IATED, Mar. 2021, pp. 9525–9534. doi: 10.21125/inted.2021.
  4. C. Bohen and J. Smith, “Making the Digital Humanities More Open,” Dec. 2014, Accessed: May 16, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:12211/
  5. G. Rockwell, P. Organisciak, M. Meredith-Lobay, K. Ranaweera, S. Ruecker, and J. Nyhan, “The Design of an International Social Media Event: A Day in the Life of the Digital Humanities,” Digit. Humanit. Q., vol. 6, no. 2, 2012, Accessed: May 16, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/6/2/000123/000123.html
  6. D. G. Tracy, “Assessing Digital Humanities Tools: Use of Scalar at a Research University,” Portal Libr. Acad., vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 163–189, 2016.
  7. R. Risam and A. Gil, “Introduction: The Questions of Minimal Computing,” Digit. Humanit. Q., vol. 016, no. 2, Jun. 2022.
  8. R. Liu, D. McKay, and G. Buchanan, “Humanities Scholars and Digital Humanities Projects: Practice Barriers in Tools Usage,” in Linking Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries, G. Berget, M. M. Hall, D. Brenn, and S. Kumpulainen, Eds., Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021, pp. 215–226. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-86324-1_25.
  9. J. Schindling, “The Spatial Historian: Creating a spatially aware historical research system,” Grad. Theses Diss. Probl. Rep., Jan. 2020, doi: https://doi.org/10.33915/etd.7657.
  10. A. C. Marsh, “Omeka in the classroom: The challenges of teaching material culture in a digital world,” Lit. Linguist. Comput., vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 279–282, Jun. 2013, doi: 10.1093/llc/fqs068.
  11. A. Morton, “Digital Tools: Zotero and Omeka,” J. Am. Hist., vol. 98, no. 3, pp. 952–953, Dec. 2011, doi: 10.1093/jahist/jar520.
  12. D. Eltis, “Slave Voyages.” Accessed: Apr. 27, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.slavevoyages.org/
  13. D. Eltis, S. D. Behrendt, D. Richardson, and H. S. Klein, The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: A Database on CD-ROM. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
  14. G. M. Hall, “Databases for the Study of Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1699-1860.” Baton Rouge:Louisiana State University Press (CD-ROM), 2000. [Online]. Available: https://www.ibiblio.org/laslave/
  15. G. M. Hall, “Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy - Website,” the Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy 1699 - 1820 Database. Accessed: Apr. 16, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.ibiblio.org/laslave/
  16. G. M. Hall, “Africa and Africans in the African Diaspora: The Uses of Relational Databases,” Am. Hist. Rev., vol. 115, no. 1, pp. 136–150, 2010.
  17. James Madison University, “Mapping the Black Digital and Public Humanities |.” Accessed: May 17, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/mappingbdph/
  18. Walk With Web Inc., “Digital Humanities Project List.” Accessed: May 17, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://dhprojects.regid.ca/Public/index.php
  19. I. Brinkman and D. Merolla, “Space, time, and culture on African/diaspora websites: a tangled web we weave,” J. Afr. Cult. Stud., vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 1–6, Jan. 2020, doi: 10.1080/13696815.2019.1657003.
  20. S. M. Kelley, “DB or not DB: Writing the history of the slave trade to North America in the era of the database,” Hist. Compass, vol. 17, no. 5, p. e12530, 2019, doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12530.
  21. H. B. Lovejoy, “The Registers of Liberated Africans of the Havana Slave Trade Commission: Implementation and Policy, 1824–1841,” Slavery Abolit., vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 23–44, Jan. 2016, doi: 10.1080/0144039X.2015.1117253.
  22. H. B. Lovejoy, “Who Did What When? Acknowledging Collaborative Contributions in Digital History Projects,” Esclavages Post-Esclavages Slaveries Post-Slaveries, no. 3, Art. no. 3, Nov. 2020, doi: https://doi.org/10.4000/slaveries.2717.
  23. P. E. Lovejoy and K. Chadha, “Equiano’s World: Chronicling the Life and Times of Gustavus Vassa,” Esclavages Post-Esclavages Slaveries Post-Slaveries, no. 4, Art. no. 4, May 2021, doi: 10.4000/slaveries.4140.
  24. L. Zhou et al., “The Enslaved Dataset: A Real-world Complex Ontology Alignment Benchmark using Wikibase,” in Proceedings of the 29th ACM International Conference on Information & Knowledge Management, in CIKM ’20. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, Oct. 2020, pp. 3197–3204. doi: 10.1145/3340531.3412768.
  25. P. Lovejoy, H. B. Lovejoy, E. Melek Delgado, and K. Chadha, Regenerated Identities: Documenting African Lives. Africa World Press & The Red Sea Press, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://tinyurl.com/2fpe89nx
  26. G. M. Hall, Africans in colonial Louisiana: the development of Afro-Creole culture in the eighteenth century. Louisiana State University Press, 1992.
  27. A. Chassanoff, “Historians and the use of primary source materials in the digital age,” Am. Arch., vol. 76, no. 2, pp. 458–480, Nov. 2013, doi: 10.17723/aarc.76.2.lh76217m2m376n28.
  28. W. Duff, B. L. Craig, and J. M. Cherry, “Finding and using archival resources: A cross-Canada survey of historians studying Canadian history,” Archivaria, pp. 51–80, Aug. 2004.
  29. W. Duff, B. Craig, and J. Cherry, “Historians’ use of archival sources: Promises and pitfalls of the digital age,” Public Hist., vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 7–22, May 2004, doi: 10.1525/tph.2004.26.2.7.
  30. W. Duff and C. Johnson, “Accidentally found on purpose: Information-Seeking Behavior of historians in archives,” Libr. Q., vol. 72, no. 4, pp. 472–496, Oct. 2002, doi: 10.1086/lq.72.4.40039793.
  31. É. Melek Delgado, “Freedom Narratives: The West African person as the central focus for a Digital Humanities database,” Hist. Afr., vol. 48, pp. 35–59, Jun. 2021, doi: 10.1017/hia.2021.14.
  32. C. Abras, D. Maloney-Krichmar, and J. Preece, “User-Centered Design,” Bainbridge W Encycl. Hum.-Comput. Interact. Thousand Oaks Sage Publ., vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 445–456, 2004.
  33. D. A. Norman and S. W. Draper, Eds., User centered system design: new perspectives on human-computer interaction. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1986.
  34. U. Johansson‐Sköldberg, J. Woodilla, and M. Çetinkaya, “Design Thinking: Past, Present and Possible Futures,” Creat. Innov. Manag., vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 121–146, 2013, doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/caim.12023.
  35. J. C. Jones, Design Methods. John Wiley & Sons, 1992.
  36. M. Zahedi and M. Sharlin, “Using Design Thinking collaboratively to develop the scope of a website,” 01Design, vol. 8, pp. 103–116, 2013.
  37. L. M. Vaughn and F. Jacquez, “Participatory Research Methods – Choice Points in the Research Process,” J. Particip. Res. Methods, vol. 1, no. 1, Jul. 2020, doi: 10.35844/001c.13244.
  38. P. DuBois, MySQL, Fifth edition. Upper Saddle, NJ: Addison-Wesley, 2013.
  39. E. Zimmerman, “Play as research: The iterative design process,” in Mobile Nation: Creating methodologies for mobile platforms, P. Beesley and M. Ladly, Eds., Cambridge, Ont.: Riverside Architectural Press, 2008, pp. 25–37.
Index Terms

Computer Science
Information Sciences

Keywords

Content Management Systems; Information Behaviour; Human-Computer Interaction; User-centered Design; Participatory Research; Digital Humanities; African Studies and Slavery research.