"Any medium powerful enough to extend man's reach is powerful enough to topple his world. To get the medium's magic to work for one's aims rather than against them is to attain literacy."
-- Alan Kay, "Computer Software", Scientific American, September 1984
Test driving Omeka: EPortfolios and Exhibits?
0I'm brought out of my long, sad blogging slumber by a system we're test-driving called Omeka. Here's what they say about it:
0 Omeka is a simple and flexible system for organizations, cultural institutions, and individuals to manage and publish items, collections, and exhibits on the web.
0It's in release candidate 3 right now, and looking very very nice. My first impression is that it fits a much-needed niche. It has the easy of use and nice display of Wordpress and the content management capabilities of Drupal combined with the repository management tools used by systems like DSpace or Fedora (but without the heavy administrative overhead). One can easily add items to collections, create exhibits from those items, and put it all into attractive displays using some predefined templates. Check out some of their showcases.
0Here's my favorite feature. Not only are there many different types of items available by default (along with relevant metadata fields), but you can also create your own item types, along with their own customized metadata fields. This, I think, is a brilliant move.
0And that brings up some possibilities: how about an Omeka exhibit as an e-portfolio?
0Portfolios and exhibits seem like they have a lot in common. Both are intended to present to others carefully chosen works, often (if not always) with accompanying comments and/or reflections. Portfolios are meant to say a great deal not only about the individual works within them, but also about the collective meaning, which ultimately points to saying a great deal about the person who produced the portfolio. Exhibits, too reach for a collective meaning that springs from the (act of) collection. Museum folks should comment on this one--it seems like an exhibit (like in a museum) also says a great deal about the institution and/or about the curator. For something like an artist's exhibit, of course, there is a clear element of the exhibit saying a great deal about the artist.
0There's one big difference that springs to mind between portfolios (no "e-") and exhibits, and that is that I often think of a portfolio as something that is placed into a folder and delivered to carefully selected audiences. No, add that initial "e-" back in, and an e-portfolio is even more like an exhibit.
0Whaddya think?
Comments
e-portfolios
I hope my question isn't too much of a threadjack...
I need to develop a system for creating and maintaining faculty promotion/tenure e-portfolios (these would be inward-facing, for committee member access only). I've been thinking of doing this via wordpress, but am now wondering if there's better option that I'm not already aware of. Do you have any advice?
Strange coincidence
So I just did a search for "Omeka and Course Portfolios," wondering if anybody has done this yet, and I discovered your post from two years ago. You were ahead of the curve! (And still ahead.)
This is something I'm actually beginning to work on now. Have you experimented with Omeka as a course portfolio platform since you wrote this post? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Now back to upgrading my Omeka 0.10 install to Omeka 1.1.
Mark
Omeka and portfolios
Mark,
Goodness! Good thing you found this...I'd just about forgotten about it, and would probably have written a new one saying just about the same things. :)
So far, I haven't had a chance to do this kind of experimenting with a portfolio. The widespread use of UMWBlogs seems to be filling that niche for the people who want it, and so there's little incentive for people to try using Omeka for it, even though I think Omeka would be a more powerful tool for an eportfolio, the ease of WordPress will probably keep people there for a while.
But, sometime this semester I'm going to try to get around to updating my CV, and when I do that I'll be trying out Omeka for an online CV (close enough to the same thing as an eportfolio).
But, here's two ideas that I have....
First, I might try to create an image that serves somehow as an overall 'map' of my career. Not sure what the image would look like, but something to give a more global overview of me. Then use the Image Annotation plugin to add descriptions to it. I doubt that I have the visual design skills to really pull off a map like that, but it might be fun to try
Second, I'm working on reworking the Zotero Feed Widget plugin for WordPress into a Zotero Feed Page plugin for Omeka, and using that to supply and share info about projects, papers, whatevers. Again, not really sure how that would work out in the details, but I'm hoping it might offer interesting possibilities.
Will let you know if/when I come up with anything that works!
Patrick
Oooh, I have been looking
Oooh, I have been looking for something like this for a new website that I want to setup. Thanks for the heads-up.
Oooh, I have been looking
Oooh, I have been looking for something like this for a new website that I want to setup. Thanks for the heads-up.
Usefull
Thank you so much, usefull +1
E-portfolios, etc.: similar questions
The structure of Omeka is beautiful from a user standpoint, with one thing missing to make it more useful for e-portfolios or my particular idea (scholars contributing primary-source notes for a subject-oriented document collection): a place for discussion of provenance and vetting/authenticity.
Discussion in Omeka
I quite agree--a discussion area alongside an Omeka collection would be a great addition for all sorts of reasons. Whether something like that comes along soon might hinge on the notion of 'exhibit' guiding the development priorities. That is, if at this stage they're concentrating on the user's perspective -- exhibiting collections in a one-way approach, that's likely low on the priorities. But it's interesting that the structure does seem to encourage that kind of interaction, especially in comparison to more formal repository systems like Fedora or D-Space. Hopefully in the future there will be an internal wiki plugin. Or, in the meantime, a completely separate wiki with links back into Omeka might be a good temporary solution.
For what it is -- a one-way exhibit -- it still seems to me like a great way for students to create an exhibit of their work.
Question
Are you able to point to resources already on the web for your repository (say, a Flickr album or a Fedora repository) or do you need to import a copy of those items into the system?
Sounds like it could be really interesting in a mashup sort of way!
Mashing up
Hmm....not sure. I haven't dug that deeply yet. It keeps its own archive of content, but that would be a great thing.
Cool stuff
So, now I know why I asked you to install Omeka: because you would immediately come up with two much better uses for the tool than I had even thought of.... yes, it seems a clear, user-friendly way to create e-portfolios. [I wonder if the CHNM people have even thought of it being used this way since it's being billed as a tool for museums and small organizations.
Thanks!
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