When diving into Omeka it is a good idea to
take heed of Ariadne’s advice to Theseus and leave a trail so you know how to
get back. Once in though, this labyrinth
is well worthwhile. Instead of the
Minotaur, the persistent explorer discovers the carefully crafted architecture
of “the web site,” the very vehicle of dissemination of knowledge and
information on the Internet. The magic
is hidden, crafted into an intuitive set of templates so that anyone with a
little patience can pull the levers and be the Wizard of Oz (to mix metaphors).
.
Which is sort of why Omeka exists. In a world of competition, advertising and
proprietary systems, and in reaction to the frenzy of digitization that has
come to dominate our institutions of memory, someone had to provide some life
rafts and it is not surprising that it would be the Roy Rosenzweig Center for
History and New Media. Though pioneer Rosenzweig
did not live to see this latest realization of his goal, which was to “democratize the past – both by incorporating
forgotten voices and by presenting the fullest possible story of the past to
diverse audiences,” I’m sure he would have been very proud of its design
and the scope of its success.[1]
Omeka was designed to fit a particular niche
in the galaxy of the Internet, one that was not really being served. The creators describe Omeka as being:
a next-generation
publishing platform for museums, historical societies, scholars, enthusiasts,
and educators. Omeka provides cultural institutions and individuals with easy-to-use
software for publishing collections and creating attractive, standards-based,
interoperable online exhibits. Free and open-source, Omeka is designed to
satisfy the needs of institutions that lack technical staffs and large budgets.[2]
In
his blog ‘Found History,’ Tom Scheinfeldt, Director-at-Large of the Roy
Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, describes the disconnect between
the tools of the collections professionals of our libraries, museums and
archives and those of the “humanist or interpretive professionals.” Both serve different purposes. The former strive to preserve collections,
maintain standards of metadata and provide discovery services. The latter aim to enlighten by generating
knowledge and creating meaning. Omeka
was developed to meet the needs of both groups in one easy to use package and
thereby it encourages collaboration between collection professionals and
interpretive professionals and between the “back of house” and “front of house”
staff of our institutions of memory. It
enables us to leverage our meticulously maintained archives and bring them out
into the open for public inspection on a grand scale. By bringing together rigorous standards in managing
and presenting collections through the use of Dublin Core, and the flexibility
of web authoring tools and interpretive opportunities, Omeka offers something
that is, at least for now, unique.[3]
There
is no doubt about its success. By its
own accounts it now has over 5,500 users working on approximately 3,800 sites
and the growth rate is about 120 sites a month.
In October, Omeka 2.0 will be launched, and the authors paint such a
delectable vision of possibilities that I wish that our own delving into the
labyrinth was coming in just a few more weeks.
I
would like to dedicate this blog to the man who was the heartbeat behind the
concept. In his own scholarship Roy
Rosenzweig’s goal was to present what he called the “perspectives of ordinary
men and women.”[4] Surely enabling the creation of thousands of
web sites across the digital universe, putting many more thousands of items of
human culture in the public domain for common view, and giving voice to
thousands of interpretations is a bold move towards that goal.
Thank you Roy
Rosenzweig.
[1] http://hnn.us/articles/43739.html.
Rosenzweig died in 2007 and Omeka was launched in February 2008
[2] http://chnm.gmu.edu/omeka/
[4] http://hnn.us/articles/43739.html
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