Dr. Strangecode - or: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the
Blog
Hey there! You might recognize my name (or initials) from Twitter, Facebook, and the
various other MoEML feeds. In addition to my work with the mayoral shows, it has also
been my privilege to help kick MoEML’s social media presence and promotions into gear.
Recent exciting developments are a fresh new look for the website, a redesigned news
page, a Twitter feed (included after much debate), and a new series of blog posts
from our entire team.
You might think that blogging would be the simplest of tasks for a team of researchers,
text encoders, and English students. It seems, however, that there is a fundamental
disconnect between writing research papers or proposals and writing blog posts. Nearly
every team member asked me this question at some point in the process of preparing
their blog posts:
Should my citations still be in MLA, or does blogging require something like Chicago?This question betrays our scholarly anxiety.
As a group of folks who have a near-Pavlovian response to structure and guidelines,
we found it natural to construct a series of prompts to help grease the blog-writing
wheels. Project Director Janelle Jenstad and I put together a range of questions and topics intended to help guide our team
members when writing their first posts. The prompts themselves speak to the frame
of mind of the new design and ideology of the MoEML you will all surely come to know
and love.
In approaching the team to begin filling up our blogroll, we created a rationale meant
to
underscore the desired ethics at stake:
The goal of the MoEML blog is to record the unseen labour of the project. Encoding is a lot of work, and it tends to get downplayed in the literary critical milieu. Encoding is often seen as the soft side of research and computer work. While hacking and building and scripting are given their proper dues, things like markup and encoding tend to be passed over as light design work. These blogs aim to highlight (in a light way) the work we do as encoders, and how this work contributes to the project and our own scholarly development as a whole. We are a fantastic team of techies, researchers, and administrators, and this blog will showcase it all.
With this rationale in mind, we then followed up with prompts in three categories:
Aesthetics and Environment Ethos
|
Personography
|
Technical
|
The category
Aesthetic and Environmental Ethosprovides bloggers an easy starting point for their writing: just write about how and where you do your encoding! This and most of the other prompts were generated from everyday discussions around our encoding work. We have, from time to time, taken to comparing and playfully slandering each other’s oXygen colour schemes. For example, those of us who use some of the more garish colour schemes (think neon pink and slime green on a field of jet black) do so for the sake of alertness. Having highly differentiated colours that leap off the screen and assault the eyes is preferable for some encoders who spend long hours peering into the murky depths of a two-thousand line sheet of XML. (Personally, I opt for my custom colour scheme named
reggae sunrise: dull red, yellow, orange, and green, over a field of charcoal grey. My defense is that the best encoding happens with a foundation of rhythm!)
The category
Personographywas designed to encourage MoEML team members to expand on their biographies, and perhaps provide a bit of depth to a personality behind their
@xml:id
. The most entertaining set of questions team members consider for their biographies
include, How do folks react when you explain encoding and programming to be integral to your work as an English student?and
How do you explain what you do to your friends and family?We’ve all got some funny stories about explaing our work to those outside the project, all of which have necessitated us being able to explain our work in multiple registers. Saying that
I work with stylesheets and databases to archive and conserve documentssounds quite different than
I work with transcriptions of mayoral shows from Early English Books Online and make them web-capable for an early modern research site,simply because I emphasize different features of the same act.
Technical,unlike the previous two categories, is geared towards the mechanical rather than the personal and social side of our work. Though it may seem a little interview-like, the question
What is your prior computer experience?elicits some surprising responses. Many of us came into technical work purely by chance, and had little or no experience with encoding, markup, programming before joining MoEML. Another hope at play with these prompts is the aspect of community-building by identifying other projects and experiences that have brought our team together.
Now you’re laughing, and that’s quite alright--anyone whose steps do not falter en
route to
success treads too light a path! I am proud to say that we have an outstanding series
of blog posts underway, in which every member of MoEML has contributed intriguing
and
insightful glimpses into their work processes. As the blog posts begin to roll out,
you’ll have some context as to why we’re getting so personal!
References
-
Citation
EEBO (EEBO). Proquest LLC. Subscr.This item is cited in the following documents:
Cite this page
MLA citation
Dr. Strangecode, or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BlogThe Map of Early Modern London, edited by , U of Victoria, 15 Sep. 2020, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/BLOG20.htm.
Chicago citation
Dr. Strangecode, or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BlogThe Map of Early Modern London. Ed. . Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed September 15, 2020. https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/BLOG20.htm.
APA citation
The Map of Early Modern London. Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/BLOG20.htm.
2020. Dr. Strangecode, or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog In (Ed), RIS file (for RefMan, EndNote etc.)
Provider: University of Victoria Database: The Map of Early Modern London Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8" TY - ELEC A1 - Virani, Zaqir ED - Jenstad, Janelle T1 - Dr. Strangecode, or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog T2 - The Map of Early Modern London PY - 2020 DA - 2020/09/15 CY - Victoria PB - University of Victoria LA - English UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/BLOG20.htm UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/xml/standalone/BLOG20.xml ER -
RefWorks
RT Web Page SR Electronic(1) A1 Virani, Zaqir A6 Jenstad, Janelle T1 Dr. Strangecode, or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog T2 The Map of Early Modern London WP 2020 FD 2020/09/15 RD 2020/09/15 PP Victoria PB University of Victoria LA English OL English LK https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/BLOG20.htm
TEI citation
<bibl type="mla"><author><name ref="#VIRA1"><surname>Virani</surname>, <forename>Zaqir</forename></name></author>.
<title level="a">Dr. Strangecode, or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the
Blog</title> <title level="m">The Map of Early Modern London</title>, edited by <editor><name
ref="#JENS1"><forename>Janelle</forename> <surname>Jenstad</surname></name></editor>,
<publisher>U of Victoria</publisher>, <date when="2020-09-15">15 Sep. 2020</date>,
<ref target="https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/BLOG20.htm">mapoflondon.uvic.ca/BLOG20.htm</ref>.</bibl>
Personography
-
Joey Takeda
JT
Programmer, 2018-present. Junior Programmer, 2015-2017. Research Assistant, 2014-2017. Joey Takeda was a graduate student at the University of British Columbia in the Department of English (Science and Technology research stream). He completed his BA honours in English (with a minor in Women’s Studies) at the University of Victoria in 2016. His primary research interests included diasporic and indigenous Canadian and American literature, critical theory, cultural studies, and the digital humanities.Roles played in the project
-
Abstract Author
-
Author
-
Author of Abstract
-
Author of Introduction
-
Author of Stub
-
CSS Editor
-
Compiler
-
Conceptor
-
Copy Editor
-
Copy Editor and Revisor
-
Data Manager
-
Date Encoder
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Encoder (Bibliography)
-
Geographic Information Specialist
-
Geographic Information Specialist (Agas)
-
Junior Programmer
-
Markup Editor
-
Metadata Co-Architect
-
MoEML Encoder
-
MoEML Transcriber
-
Post-conversion processing and markup correction
-
Programmer
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
-
Second Author
-
Toponymist
-
Transcriber
-
Transcription Editor
Contributions by this author
Joey Takeda is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Joey Takeda is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Katie Tanigawa
KT
Project Manager, 2015-2019. Katie Tanigawa was a doctoral candidate at the University of Victoria. Her dissertation focused on representations of poverty in Irish modernist literature. Her additional research interests included geospatial analyses of modernist texts and digital humanities approaches to teaching and analyzing literature.Roles played in the project
-
Author
-
Conceptor
-
Encoder
-
GIS Specialist
-
Managing Editor
-
Markup Editor
-
Name Encoder
-
Project Manager
-
Proofreader
-
Second Author
-
Transcription Proofreader
Contributions by this author
Katie Tanigawa is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Katie Tanigawa is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Tye Landels-Gruenewald
TLG
Data Manager, 2015-2016. Research Assistant, 2013-2015. Tye completed his undergraduate honours degree in English at the University of Victoria in 2015.Roles played in the project
-
Author
-
Author of Term Descriptions
-
CSS Editor
-
Compiler
-
Conceptor
-
Copy Editor
-
Data Manager
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Geographic Information Specialist
-
Markup Editor
-
Metadata Architect
-
MoEML Researcher
-
Name Encoder
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
-
Toponymist
-
Transcriber
Contributions by this author
Tye Landels-Gruenewald is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Tye Landels-Gruenewald is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Zaqir Virani
ZV
Research Assistant, 2013-2014. Zaqir Virani completed his MA at the University of Victoria in April 2014. He received his BA from Simon Fraser University in 2012, and has worked as a musician, producer, and author of short fiction. His research focused on the linkage of sound and textual analysis software and the work of Samuel Beckett.Roles played in the project
-
Author
-
CSS Editor
-
Conservator
-
Copy Editor
-
Encoder
-
First Transcriber
-
Markup Editor
-
MoEML Transcriber
-
Second Transcriber
-
Toponymist
Contributions by this author
Zaqir Virani is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Zaqir Virani is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Kim McLean-Fiander
KMF
Director of Pedagogy and Outreach, 2015–present. Associate Project Director, 2015–present. Assistant Project Director, 2013-2014. MoEML Research Fellow, 2013. Kim McLean-Fiander comes to The Map of Early Modern London from the Cultures of Knowledge digital humanities project at the University of Oxford, where she was the editor of Early Modern Letters Online, an open-access union catalogue and editorial interface for correspondence from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. She is currently Co-Director of a sister project to EMLO called Women’s Early Modern Letters Online (WEMLO). In the past, she held an internship with the curator of manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library, completed a doctorate at Oxford on paratext and early modern women writers, and worked a number of years for the Bodleian Libraries and as a freelance editor. She has a passion for rare books and manuscripts as social and material artifacts, and is interested in the development of digital resources that will improve access to these materials while ensuring their ongoing preservation and conservation. An avid traveler, Kim has always loved both London and maps, and so is particularly delighted to be able to bring her early modern scholarly expertise to bear on the MoEML project.Roles played in the project
-
Associate Project Director
-
Author
-
Author of MoEML Introduction
-
CSS Editor
-
Compiler
-
Contributor
-
Copy Editor
-
Data Contributor
-
Data Manager
-
Director of Pedagogy and Outreach
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Encoder (People)
-
Geographic Information Specialist
-
JCURA Co-Supervisor
-
Managing Editor
-
Markup Editor
-
Metadata Architect
-
Metadata Co-Architect
-
MoEML Research Fellow
-
MoEML Transcriber
-
Proofreader
-
Second Author
-
Secondary Author
-
Secondary Editor
-
Toponymist
-
Vetter
Contributions by this author
Kim McLean-Fiander is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Kim McLean-Fiander is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Janelle Jenstad
JJ
Janelle Jenstad is Associate Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and PI of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. She has taught at Queen’s University, the Summer Academy at the Stratford Festival, the University of Windsor, and the University of Victoria. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media (Routledge). She has prepared a documentary edition of John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Renaissance and Reformation,Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Early Modern Literary Studies, Elizabethan Theatre, Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism, and The Silver Society Journal. Her book chapters have appeared (or will appear) in Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society (Brill, 2004), Shakespeare, Language and the Stage, The Fifth Wall: Approaches to Shakespeare from Criticism, Performance and Theatre Studies (Arden/Thomson Learning, 2005), Approaches to Teaching Othello (Modern Language Association, 2005), Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate, 2007), New Directions in the Geohumanities: Art, Text, and History at the Edge of Place (Routledge, 2011), Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter, 2016), Teaching Early Modern English Literature from the Archives (MLA, 2015), Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana, 2016), Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota, 2017), and Rethinking Shakespeare’s Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge, 2018).Roles played in the project
-
Annotator
-
Author
-
Author of Abstract
-
Author of Stub
-
Author of Term Descriptions
-
Author of Textual Introduction
-
Compiler
-
Conceptor
-
Copy Editor
-
Copyeditor
-
Course Instructor
-
Course Supervisor
-
Course supervisor
-
Data Manager
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Encoder (Structure and Toponyms)
-
Final Markup Editor
-
GIS Specialist
-
Geographic Information Specialist
-
Geographic Information Specialist (Modern)
-
Geographical Information Specialist
-
JCURA Co-Supervisor
-
Main Transcriber
-
Markup Editor
-
Metadata Co-Architect
-
MoEML Project Director
-
MoEML Transcriber
-
Name Encoder
-
Peer Reviewer
-
Primary Author
-
Project Director
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
-
Reviewer
-
Reviser
-
Revising Author
-
Second Author
-
Second Encoder
-
Toponymist
-
Transcriber
-
Transcription Proofreader
-
Vetter
Contributions by this author
Janelle Jenstad is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Janelle Jenstad is mentioned in the following documents:
Janelle Jenstad authored or edited the following items in MoEML’s bibliography:
-
Jenstad, Janelle.
Building a Gazetteer for Early Modern London, 1550-1650.
Placing Names. Ed. Merrick Lex Berman, Ruth Mostern, and Humphrey Southall. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 2016. 129-145. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
The Burse and the Merchant’s Purse: Coin, Credit, and the Nation in Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody.
The Elizabethan Theatre XV. Ed. C.E. McGee and A.L. Magnusson. Toronto: P.D. Meany, 2002. 181–202. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Early Modern Literary Studies 8.2 (2002): 5.1–26..The City Cannot Hold You
: Social Conversion in the Goldsmith’s Shop. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
The Silver Society Journal 10 (1998): 40–43.The Gouldesmythes Storehowse
: Early Evidence for Specialisation. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Lying-in Like a Countess: The Lisle Letters, the Cecil Family, and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 34 (2004): 373–403. doi:10.1215/10829636–34–2–373. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Public Glory, Private Gilt: The Goldsmiths’ Company and the Spectacle of Punishment.
Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society. Ed. Anne Goldgar and Robert Frost. Leiden: Brill, 2004. 191–217. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Smock Secrets: Birth and Women’s Mysteries on the Early Modern Stage.
Performing Maternity in Early Modern England. Ed. Katherine Moncrief and Kathryn McPherson. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. 87–99. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Using Early Modern Maps in Literary Studies: Views and Caveats from London.
GeoHumanities: Art, History, Text at the Edge of Place. Ed. Michael Dear, James Ketchum, Sarah Luria, and Doug Richardson. London: Routledge, 2011. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Versioning John Stow’s A Survey of London, or, What’s New in 1618 and 1633?.
Janelle Jenstad Blog. https://janellejenstad.com/2013/03/20/versioning-john-stows-a-survey-of-london-or-whats-new-in-1618-and-1633/. -
Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Internet Shakespeare Editions. Open.
-
Stow, John. A SVRVAY OF LONDON. Contayning the Originall, Antiquity, Increase, Moderne estate, and description of that Citie, written in the yeare 1598. by Iohn Stow Citizen of London. Also an Apologie (or defence) against the opinion of some men, concerning that Citie, the greatnesse thereof. With an Appendix, containing in Latine, Libellum de situ & nobilitate Londini: written by William Fitzstephen, in the raigne of Henry the second. Ed. Janelle Jenstad and the MoEML Team. MoEML. Transcribed. Web.
-
-
Martin D. Holmes
MDH
Programmer at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC). Martin ported the MOL project from its original PHP incarnation to a pure eXist database implementation in the fall of 2011. Since then, he has been lead programmer on the project and has also been responsible for maintaining the project schemas. He was a co-applicant on MoEML’s 2012 SSHRC Insight Grant.Roles played in the project
-
Abstract Author
-
Author
-
Author of abstract
-
Conceptor
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Markup editor
-
Name Encoder
-
Post-conversion and Markup Editor
-
Post-conversion processing and markup correction
-
Programmer
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
Contributions by this author
Martin D. Holmes is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Martin D. Holmes is mentioned in the following documents:
-