Hello all, today I’ll be reviewing Vince Fecteau’s final project that was presented to the entirety of the digital humanities students. Vince topic focused on the birthplaces of NHL players from the 1900’s who have played a minimum of ten games, and displays this information through an online interactive mapping site. This project aims to allow both the professionals, as well as the day to day hockey enthusiasts to utilize this site and its information.
The first aspect of the project that I would like to touch upon within this review is the type of content that is available to users. Vince chose to use mapping software to display the information that he collected, and through this find trends that exist, or have existed within the past 100 years. To indicate areas on the maps, Vince used blue pin markers to show where the players were born, while simultaneously linking the markers to the year that they were born in. All of the information was provided on the Geocommons website, which is apparently only available to those who subscribe to the site. However, it was shown through the presentation, which allowed the viewers to understand the process. Furthermore, the website that was utilized by Vince provided pictures and youtube videos that showed the information that was readily available through the Geocommons website. Overall, I personally thought the platform was a good way to convey the information because it provided visuals (which I always find useful, even if they weren’t interactive), as well as youtube videos, and facts that are useful to the particular study of NHL players birthplaces.
Throughout the presentation, some problems were addressed by Vince, including the Geocommons website (as stated above). Another problem that was addressed was the fact that some cities do not come up when they were input into the excel program that placed them on the chart, thus causing them to be placed in nearby cities to compensate. Another problem that was available was the spacing of the pin markers, which looked clustered throughout the page and often covered up the region where they were making it harder to interpret. These problems may have been solved by using other software, including GIS, which was presented earlier in the semester. The last problem that was associated with the project was the colourization of the markers. Vince had mentioned that the colourization of the markers would provide the ability to distinguish between the variables, thus allowing for better visualizations as well as interpretations.
Overall, this topic was very interesting to me, and I was glad to review the project. This project added to the digital humanities collection and did not stray from the base purpose of creating a website to further the pursuit of knowledge for the public. I think that the idea that vince came up with had a lot of merit and was unique in its own right.
To view the site, follow this link: http://vfecteau.wix.com/nhl-hist4170#!north-america/cjg9
marcpatrick 