Professional Documents
Culture Documents
FINAL PROJECTS
Contents
Introduction
....................................................................................................................................
1
Goals
...............................................................................................................................................
2
Structure
.........................................................................................................................................
2
Grading
Criteria
..............................................................................................................................
3
Due
Date
.........................................................................................................................................
3
Milestones
......................................................................................................................................
3
Technical
Information
....................................................................................................................
4
Introduction
Your
final
project
will
be
an
essay
in
“data
humanism”
focusing
on
a
specific
topic
relating
to
the
Persian
epic,
The
Shahnameh,
and
emulating
the
practice
of
data
journalism
discussed
at
the
beginning
of
the
course.
Your
essay
will
present
a
thesis
supported
by
a
series
of
embedded
visualizations.
Crucially,
these
visualizations
will
link
to
data
sets
that
you
will
help
create.
In
writing
and
building
your
essay,
you
will
use
your
knowledge
of
HTML,
CSS,
PHP,
and
SQL
to
aggregate,
organize,
and
synthesize
your
content.
In
terms
of
form,
you
are
free
to
emulate
the
conventions
of
data
journalism
or
else
innovate
using
the
ideas
discussed
in
the
course
about
the
relationship
between
data
and
discourse.
In
terms
of
content,
you
will
focus
on
a
research
topic
of
your
choice
concerning
the
Shahnameh
materials
we
have
at
our
disposal,
including
the
Princeton
manuscript
images
and
the
Zimmern
translation
(bad
as
it
is),
as
well
as
other
sources
you
may
find
on
the
web.
Your
final
product
will
be
evaluated
according
to
multiple
criteria,
as
described
below.
As
part
of
your
project,
you
will
keep
a
journal
on
the
course
blog
on
the
progress
of
your
work
and
relating
topics
discussed
in
class
to
your
project.
Your
blog
should
be
used
to
help
you
develop
the
final
argument
you
will
be
making
with
your
site.
You
are
expected
to
blog
at
least
once
a
week.
This
activity
is
an
important
aspect
of
the
project—it
allows
you
to
be
assessed
on
the
process
of
your
work
in
addition
to
the
final
product.
As
explained
in
the
syllabus,
the
final
project
is
worth
a
quarter
of
your
final
grade
and
will
be
due
on
the
last
day
class.
(Note
that
your
final
project
is
a
distinct
assignment
from
your
final
essay,
even
though
the
two
assignments
are
linked
in
terms
of
content.
Information
about
your
final
essay
will
be
provided
in
a
separate
document.)
1
Goals
The
general
goal
of
this
project
is
to
give
you
an
opportunity
to
apply
both
the
ideas
and
examples
we
have
explored
in
this
class
regarding
the
art
of
data
and
the
data
of
art.
Working
within
the
specific
constraints
and
affordances
of
database-‐driven
web
site
technology,
you
will
be
introduced
to
a
practical
level
of
knowledge
about
such
concepts
as
visualization,
data,
and
the
nature
of
scholarly
argument.
In
addition,
you
will
encounter
the
collaborative
dimension
of
technology
work
and
learn
something
about
how
technology
encourages
drawing
on
social
resources
in
ways
that
traditional
scholarship
does
not.
These
experiences
will
help
you
become
acquainted
with
the
difficulties
and
challenges
of
realizing
your
ideas
in
practice.
In
your
final
essays
(due
during
exam
week),
you
will
have
an
opportunity
to
reflect
on
your
experiences
in
trying
to
realize
your
design
goals
in
the
medium.
A
more
specific
goal
is
to
experiment
with
the
genre
of
data-‐driven
scholarship,
employing
the
ideas
of
Manovich,
Ramsey,
and
others
as
guides
to
helping
you
move
beyond
the
traditional
essay.
Like
all
academic
essays,
yours
will
make
an
argument,
but
it
should
do
so
using
the
rhetorical
affordances
of
the
medium
(HTML)
and
of
the
visualization
devices
we
have
explored.
Structure
Your
site
will
consist
of
the
following
basic
structure.
Note
that
metrics
are
included
in
italics
where
explanation
is
needed.
Note
also
that
these
are
minimum
requirements.
1. Topic—You
will
develop
a
thesis
statement
for
your
essay.
Regardless
of
how
you
organize
your
argument
visually
and
textually,
you
need
to
let
the
reader
know
what
your
site-‐essay
is
about.
This
should
be
about
a
paragraph,
but
can
be
longer.
2. Data—Your
site
will
connect
to
a
collaboratively
built
database
of
content
relating
to
the
Shahnameh.
You
will
contribute
data
to
this
database
in
some
form,
either
as
rows
to
an
existing
table
or
as
a
new
table.
The
nature
of
the
data
you
contribute
will
depend
on
your
specific
project.
3. Media—Your
essay
should
include
images
and
possibly
other
media
to
illustrate
your
argument.
For
example,
you
may
want
to
crop
images
of
illustrations
in
the
Shahnameh
to
make
a
point
about
the
iconography
of
these
works.
Again,
the
number
for
images
will
depend
on
your
project.
Negatively,
the
value
of
your
site
will
be
reduced
if
your
essay
has
no
images.
4. Code—Your
site
will
consist
of
pages
written
in
HTML,
CSS,
PHP,
and
SQL.
In
addition
you
may
use
jQuery
if
you
are
comfortable
doing
so.
You
must
create
at
least
one
PHP
page
that
does
not
copy
directly
from
one
of
the
examples
used
in
class.
In
addition,
your
HTML
pages
should
take
advantage
of
CSS
and
PHP
includes.
Extra
credit
will
be
given
to
those
who
use
web
forms
to
create
interactive
visualizations.
5. Visualizations—Your
essay
will
contain
visualizations
of
information
using
the
resources
we
discussed
in
class,
including
hand-‐made
image
graphs,
hypergraphs
with
GraphViz,
and
embeddable
visualizations
with
ManyEyes,
Google,
and
other
sources.
Your
essay
should
contain
at
least
three
visualizations
of
at
least
two
types.
2
6. Essay—Your
essay
will
be
the
interface
to
your
argument
and
to
supporting
data.
The
perspective
of
the
essay
should
be
that
of
a
data
humanist,
not
a
Persianist.
That
is,
your
thesis
should
be
about
how
the
data
you
have
assembled
can
be
interpreted,
and
about
how
the
visualizations
themselves
may
function
to
shed
light
on
issues
of
possible
interest
to
Persianists,
or
anyone
else
interested
in
the
Shahnameh.
The
final
product
may
be
organized
as
a
linear
essay
or
as
a
non-‐linear
arrangement
of
pages
and
exhibits.
Regardless
of
form,
it
should
contain
at
least
1000
words
(independent
of
the
topic
paragraph)
and
be
organically
connected
to
your
visualizations.
Essays
will
be
evaluated
for
their
quality
of
form
and
content.
7. Blog—As
described
earlier,
you
will
keep
a
diary
of
your
work.
You
will
use
this
blog
to
develop
the
ideas
of
your
essay.
Given
this,
you
will
use
the
blog
to
reflect
on
both
your
code
work
and
the
readings
and
topics
discussed
in
class.
Timely
posts
and
comments.
8. Presentation—Time
allowing,
we
will
devote
the
last
day
of
class
to
presentations.
You
are
expected
to
make
a
five-‐minute
presentation
of
your
work.
Grading
Criteria
Your
final
grade
for
this
project
will
be
a
composite
of
several
criteria,
each
given
a
relative
weight.
These
are
as
follows:
1. Meeting
the
metrics
described
above
(25%).
Self-‐explanatory.
2. Quality
of
the
argument
(15%).
Does
the
argument
have
an
interesting
and
compelling
thesis?
Is
it
supported
by
reason
and
evidence?
(Note:
Clearly,
given
the
time
frame
for
completing
the
project,
your
essays
will
not
as
interesting
and
compelling
as
they
might.
However,
it
is
important
to
keep
the
goal
of
your
essay
in
mind—what
is
it
trying
to
say?
Prove?
Draw
attention
to?)
3. Effectiveness
of
visualizations
(20%).
Do
the
visualizations
allow
the
reader
to
explore
the
argument?
Are
they
appropriate
for
the
data
being
represented?
4. Overall
coherence
of
site
(20%).
Do
all
of
the
elements
of
the
site—at
the
levels
of
form,
content,
and
layout—contribute
to
the
site’s
overall
effect?
5. Blogging
(10%).
As
described.
6. Presentation
(10%).
As
described.
Note
that
the
quality
of
your
code
is
not
important!
What
is
important
is
that
your
code
works
and
your
site
meets
the
criteria
described
above.
Due
Date
Your
project
will
be
due
on
the
last
day
of
class,
Thursday,
May
5th.
Milestones
1. Project
definition
Week
of
April
12th
and
April
14th
2. Data
extractions
Week
of
April
19th
and
21st
3. Visualization
development
Week
of
April
26th
and
28th
4. Essay
composition
Week
of
May
3rd
and
5th
3
Technical Information
4