Sally Thomas
sthomas@sims.berkeley.edu
Electronic Publishing: Research Assignment
Oct. 5, 1998
The three sources I looked at all came from the Journal of Electronic Publishing.
1. BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE WILLIAM BLAKE ARCHIVE
Collaboration Takes More Than E-mail by MORRIS EAVES
Journal of Electronic Publishing
http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-02/blake.htmlI was interested in this article because it related to the William Blake Archive, which is being developed under the auspices of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia, and funded by the Getty Grant Program (possible funders for our publication?). The Blake Archive is "thematic," which means that it aims to present to the researcher a variety of sources on one related theme—a model on which we are basing our site. The Blake Archive has succeeded in obtaining the cooperation of several esteemed archives, which is something else we’d potentially like to do. Eaves proscribes the three essential components for an intricate and tight coordination that spans geographic locations: a project manager; programmers; and project directors. One major barrier which they had to work very hard to overcome was bridging the gap between the knowledge held by various collaborators—some of whom were experts on Blake (and had little technical knowledge), others who were very technically savvy, but ignorant about Blake. "The inescapable answer is talk, show and tell, and talk until a common understanding emerges," Eaves advises.
2. Caution: Speed Zone by THOM LIEB, Contributing Editor
Journal of Electronic Publishing
http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-02/lieb0302.htmlThis article stresses the importance of quick downloading time for web documents. Lieb quotes Jakob Nielsen, Sun Microsystem’s chief Web usability expert, who says that research shows that users—especially teens and 20-somethings—need response times of less than one second, and that speed must be the overriding design criterion in web design. He offers several ways to achieve quick downloading, including using programs like Equilibrium’s DeBabelizer to remap images to fewer numbers of colors; using splash pages to cycle through graphical content; make graphics, sounds and videos option; use horizontal rather than vertical tables for page layout; and preloading graphics. He shows how he took one page, which was very slow to load, and redesigned it in two different ways to decrease the loading time. A good reminder for our group, which will have potentially a lot of different graphic sources, and which, if not handled properly, could scare our potential audience away. One question I had, however, was what speed of access you should design for. He mentions an unbearable wait with a 28.8 K modem—is that a good standard?
3. ELUCIDATED
Not Under Construction, Under Evolution! by ALAN LEVINE
Journal of Electronic Publishing
http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-02/homepage.htmlLevine shares his experience in automating web site functionality, especially handling user imput. Instead of designing static HTML documents, he explains how he created a searchable front end to the content of the site, which puts the burden of arranging items under various subject headings or keywords on the computer program. He explains that his community college district site allows anyone who visits to fill out a form that allows him/her to add new links to the community college district site. This is an interesting idea, and might be something that our group could employ to encourage ongoing development of the site by users—for example, as more sites are created relating to the woman suffrage movement, users could submit to build on our site. Overall, Levine’s main point—that web site administrators need to automate procedures as much as possible to maintain their sites, especially when they aim to offer comprehensive and/or dynamic functions—is a useful one, and something we should consider for longterm maintenance of the site.