A Quick Introduction to Data Formats
In this video, we take a closer look at what happens when we store those documents onto our computers. After a quick experiment with file extensions in this video, it will become clear how important it is to consider data formats at the outset of a project, to help safeguard the interoperability and long-term sustainability of the data we produce and share.
This video was made for the Datalogical Thinking course, specifically its Module called: ‘A Quest for Meaning’. A large part of the video was directly copied from a video Wout originally made for a course called ‘Technologies for Digital Libraries 1’ in the DLIS Master’s Programme at the University of Borås. Some voice over and slide images were added to contextualise the lecture in the Datalogical Thinking course.
To try out the experiment on your own, you can download the materials mentioned in the video by clicking on the button below (.zip <200kb).
Text for Humans, Text for Computers
Before the workshops, students are expected to have participated in a class on digital text analysis. Those who did not attend that class, are treating these materials as self-study, or would simply like a refresher can check out my lecture on Text for Humans, Text for Computers that I originally recorded in 2021 for the Information Research 1 course in the DLIS Master’s programme taught at the University of Borås. This class focusses on questions such as: What does the concept of ‘Text’ signify for humans?; and How can we translate our human understanding of texts to the computer? This second question is especially relevant when we want to start to retrieve information that is stored in digitised texts.