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<title>Witchfinder General – Data Visualisation Internship</title>
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<description>This blog will be used as a platform to document by summer internship with the University of Edinburgh and Wikidata as I work with the Scottish Witchcraft Dataset.</description>
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<title>Separating Legend from Legacy: Remembering the Accused Witches of Scotland</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/separating-legend-from-legacy/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ewan McAndrew]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2025 17:27:42 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[This post is the second written by LLB student Dervla Craig who has worked as our Information and Data Literacy intern this Summer researching and preparing a National Lottery Heritage Fund bid to preserve, and raise public engagement with, the accused witches of Scotland as an important part of Scotland’s heritage. As I sit to […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>This post is the second written by LLB student Dervla Craig who has worked as our Information and Data Literacy intern this Summer researching and preparing a National Lottery Heritage Fund bid to preserve, and raise public engagement with, the accused witches of Scotland as an important part of Scotland’s heritage.</strong></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">As I sit to write this blog post, my twelve-week internship is rapidly drawing to a close. How the time has flown! I have learned and achieved so much this summer, and it seems only appropriate that I reflect on and share what this experience has taught me through another blog post. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Since my first blog (</span><a href="https://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/preserving-scottish-heritage/"><span data-contrast="none">Preserving Scottish Heritage: The Accused Witches of Scotland</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">), my research and bid-writing have taken me down many different avenues. The more familiar I became with the past, however, the more questions arose about the present. Why is there still no appropriate memorial to the accused in Edinburgh? Does stigma still exist surrounding these persecuted individuals? How can we at the University best preserve and promote the individual stories of the accused and make sure they are not forgotten to history? Exploring these questions was extremely important for me in ensuring that I understood the context in which the bid lives and the landscape we would be entering with this project. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">In my search for answers to these questions, two main areas stuck out to me as requiring more work and attention to make sure the real, human stories of those accused of witchcraft are protected and valued now and into the future: increasing awareness, education, and understanding of the Scottish witch trials, and appropriately memorialising the victims who were accused, tortured and executed. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<div id="attachment_1634" style="width: 639px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Witches-and-Witchcraft.jpg"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1634" class="size-large wp-image-1634" src="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Witches-and-Witchcraft-941x1024.jpg" alt="Information board about "Witches and Witchcraft" at the National Museum of Scotland. Pic by Ewan McAndrew, CC-BY-SA" width="629" height="684" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1634" class="wp-caption-text">Information board about “Witches and Witchcraft” at the National Museum of Scotland. Pic by Ewan McAndrew, CC-BY-SA</p></div>
<h2><b><span data-contrast="auto">Education on the Scottish Witch Trials</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">My line manager, Ewan McAndrew, and I have spent the last few weeks consulting with various organisations in an effort to realise the full potential of our bid. One area we explored was how we at the University, as a teaching and learning institution, could help facilitate education on the Scottish witch trials and use our accused witches’ dataset to combat negative perceptions of the accused exacerbated by entertainment-driven media portrayals. I researched the </span><a href="https://education.gov.scot/parentzone/curriculum-in-scotland/"><span data-contrast="none">Curriculum in Scotland </span></a><span data-contrast="auto">for secondary schools and was surprised to find that whilst adjacent topics such as King James VI and the Protestant Reformation are covered in detail, the witch trials themselves are largely overlooked. We also spoke with Jo Spiller and Judy Robertson from the University about their work on data education in schools and how our dataset could be a valuable resource. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">A huge opportunity for progress in this area came in week eight, when we visited the National Museum of Scotland to meet with Anna Groundwater, the Principal Curator of Renaissance and Early Modern History, Scottish History and Archaeology. She showed us the current witchcraft exhibit, which has remained unchanged for the twenty-seven years it has been on display, and discussed what updates could be made to accurately reflect the research that has taken place in the years since and modern attitudes towards the study of witchcraft and the witch trials. We also had a great conversation about promoting education on this dark period of Scottish history and how we can engage a wider audience with this heritage. This was my first professional meeting, and I am happy to report that it went very well. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<div id="attachment_1635" style="width: 639px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Witches_Well.jpg"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1635" class="size-large wp-image-1635" src="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Witches_Well-1024x549.jpg" alt="Inscription plaque at the Witches Well memorial on Castlehill, Edinburgh. " width="629" height="337" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1635" class="wp-caption-text">Inscription plaque at the Witches Well memorial on Castlehill, Edinburgh. Pic by (Lila), CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons</p></div>
<h2><b><span data-contrast="auto">The issue of memorialisation</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">For centuries after the Scottish witch trials, sympathy for the accused was often seen as sympathy for the Devil and as such, there was not much research into the lives of those who were charged with the crime of witchcraft. Whilst modern attitudes have shifted to a more empathetic approach, the issue of memorialisation is still one of great controversy. </span><span data-contrast="none">The only memorial which stands in Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches%27_Well,_Edinburgh">Witches’ Well</a> on Castle Hill, which is hidden away and has a problematic inscription that has been criticised for its historical inaccuracy and contention that while ‘<em>some used their exceptional knowledge for evil purposes while others were misunderstood and wished their kind nothing but good</em>‘. This assumption that those accused did indeed have supernatural abilities and that the brutality of the Scottish witch hunts was in any way justifiable is extremely harmful to the memory of the innocent people (85% of whom were women) that possessed no such powers but who were tortured and executed for being ‘witches’. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">The <a href="https://www.witchesofscotland.com/">Witches of Scotland</a> campaign group have long been advocating for a national memorial to the accused which would honour the victims in an appropriate way, and have even created a new, highly symbolic </span><a href="https://www.witchesofscotland.com/tartan"><span data-contrast="none">Tartan </span></a><span data-contrast="none"> pattern to honour the victims and act as a living memorial to them. (They also released a </span><a href="https://www.witchesofscotland.com/book"><span data-contrast="none">Book</span></a><span data-contrast="none"> called </span><i><span data-contrast="none">How to Kill a Witch: A Guide to the Patriarchy </span></i><span data-contrast="none">which is a brilliant read and mentions the University’s </span><a href="https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/"><span data-contrast="none">The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> – I highly recommend putting it at the top of your reading list). In our consultations with various organisations, the issue of appropriately memorialising the accused was one which was met with much interest and enthusiasm, and it seems that a place to go and pay our solemn respects to those whose lives were unjustly taken is something that would largely be supported and welcomed in Edinburgh.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Final Thoughts</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Although there is much more work to be done in ensuring that the stories of the individuals who were accused of witchcraft are understood and remembered with accuracy and empathy, an appetite undoubtably exists for promoting these stories and memorialising these individuals in an appropriate and meaningful way. It is within this context that we will be submitting our bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund with the aim of establishing an open license, publicly accessible resource containing all known information on Scotland’s accused witches that can be used by researchers, historians, authors, artists, teachers, students and so many other groups to support work in and beyond the education and heritage sectors. Alongside this, we plan to run a programme of public engagement events to facilitate the public’s active participation with the data and stories of the accused. Further than simply historical education, we will encourage cultural reflection on themes such as women’s rights and the scapegoating of marginalised groups that permeate not just our past, but also our present. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">There is much we as a society can learn from this dark period of Scottish history, and I am hopeful that our bid, if successful, will support future research and work on the Scottish witch trials and bring awareness to the real stories behind the 3837 Scottish people, mostly women, who were accused of and in many cases executed for crimes they simply did not commit. I have been greatly moved by not just the deaths, but the lives of these individuals and am so grateful to have played a role this summer in preserving their memory for generations to come. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<div id="attachment_1636" style="width: 639px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Woodcut.jpg"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1636" class="size-large wp-image-1636" src="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Woodcut-1024x747.jpg" alt="Woodcut from the Newes of Scotland pamphlet depicting suspected witches from North Berwick as they are threatened with a beating as they appear before two Scottish magistrates." width="629" height="459" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1636" class="wp-caption-text">Woodcut on display at the National Museum of Scotland from the Newes of Scotland pamphlet depicting suspected witches from North Berwick as they are threatened with a beating as they appear before two Scottish magistrates. Pic by Ewan McAndrew, CC-BY-SA</p></div>
<p><strong>NB: Dervla has done so well over the last twelve weeks that she is continuing in post (part-time) during her studies this year.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ps. You can catch the Edinburgh Book festival talk, <a href="https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/claire-mitchell-and-zoe-venditozzi-women-not-witches"><em>Women not Witches</em>,</a> by Claire and Zoe of the Witches of Scotland at the Book Festival website.</strong></p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2025-10-07" itemprop="dateModified">Oct 7, 2025</time>
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<title>Preserving Scottish Heritage: The Accused Witches of Scotland</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/preserving-scottish-heritage-the-accused-witches-of-scotland/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/preserving-scottish-heritage-the-accused-witches-of-scotland/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ewan McAndrew]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 18:23:19 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Internship]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Witchcraft]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=471</guid>
<description><![CDATA[This post was written by LLB student Dervla Craig on her first month as Information and Data Literacy intern this Summer. My name is Dervla and I am going into my second year of the Graduate LLB at the University of Edinburgh. This summer I am doing a 12-week internship with the University’s Information Services […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>This post was written by LLB student Dervla Craig on her first month as Information and Data Literacy intern this Summer.</strong></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">My name is Dervla and I am going into my second year of the Graduate LLB at the University of Edinburgh. This summer I am doing a 12-week internship with the University’s <a href="https://information-services.ed.ac.uk/">Information Services Group (ISG)</a> on one of the most fascinating projects I have ever had the opportunity to be a part of: <a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/">the Accused Witches of Scotland project</a>.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">I am one of a long line of interns who has been involved in this project each year since 2019, which aims to commemorate and spread awareness about those who were persecuted as witches in Scotland during the 16th to 18th centuries. While previous interns have primarily been focused on processing and importing data from the University’s landmark </span><a href="https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/faq/"><span data-contrast="none">The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> database (2003) into <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Scotland%27s_Accused_Witches">Wikidata</a> and created our </span><a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/"><span data-contrast="none">witches</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> website with new map and timeline visualisations, this year my role looks a bit different.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">My remit for the 12 weeks is to prepare a bid to the <a href="https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/">National Lottery Heritage Fund</a> to secure funding for what we hope can be the next phase of the project. Our goal is to preserve the accused witches’ data in the long-term and ensure that people can connect with and participate in this heritage now and in the future. As it has come to the end of my first month, I wanted to join the tradition of blogging about my internship experience so far.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<h3><span data-contrast="none">Getting to know the individual stories of the accused</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"335559738":160,"335559739":80}"> </span></h3>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">My first week was spent diving down the rabbit hole to explore all there is to learn about the Scottish witch trials. If you had asked me to describe an accused witch before this week, I would’ve told you they wore a pointy hat and flew around on a broomstick. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Now when I picture these women, they look like my mother, or my grandmother, or me. They were ordinary people who suffered an egregious injustice, and I was extremely moved when learning about their stories.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Some of the most valuable tools for my research included </span><a href="https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/faq/"><span data-contrast="none">The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">, created by Julian Goodare, a history professor at the University of Edinburgh, and his team in the late 90’s, and the <a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/">interactive </a></span><span data-contrast="none">witches</span><span data-contrast="auto"> map resource created by Emma Carroll, a geography student and our former Data Visualisation intern, and our late developer colleague Richard Lawson in September 2019. The Survey made use of the historic records of all the accused witches in Scotland between 1563 – 1736 and organised the details into a MS Access 1997 database, and our new 2019 map brings this data to life in a new and engaging way through importing the data into Wikipedia’s sister project, Wikidata, as linked open machine-readable data.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Learning about the great work that has been done previously definitely made me realise I have a lot to live up to but also motivated me to give it my all in the next twelve weeks and hopefully produce an end result that meets the standards of my predecessors.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<h3><span data-contrast="none">Writing a National Lottery Heritage Fund bid</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"335559738":160,"335559739":80}"> </span></h3>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The next thing to familiarise myself with before I could dive into my writing was the bid itself. I spent a few days combing through the NLHF website to understand what it is they are looking for and how our project fits those needs. By getting to know my audience, I could ensure that my writing was intriguing, evidence-based and persuasive. I quickly found out that before submitting the 10,000-word application, I must submit a 1000-word ‘Expression of Interest’. This EoI asks questions about the heritage of the project, what our project aims to achieve, and why it is needed now. At this point, I felt I could write a dissertation for each of these questions, so the tight word count was my biggest enemy. I had lots of help from some lovely colleagues who offered their feedback and advice, including the Project Director of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft, Professor Julian Goodare. After many tweaks and a few redrafts, I am happy to say at the end of week four that the EoI is pretty much ready to go.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<h3><span data-contrast="none">Exploring avenues for community engagement</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"335559738":160,"335559739":80}"> </span></h3>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Alongside writing, writing and more writing, I have also been brainstorming ideas for the community engagement side of our project. There have been so many great ideas by the team which have led to interesting and helpful discussions with different people and organisations, including the National Museum of Scotland, Reforesting Scotland, and some really talented artists. Excitingly, most of the responses we have received have been positive and enthusiastic. In the upcoming weeks, I hope to visit some of these places and see firsthand the primary sources from the witch trials.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<h4><span data-contrast="none">Workshops and all-staff events</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"335559738":160,"335559739":80}"> </span></h4>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Another educational and fun aspect of my experience so far, outside of my bid writing role, has been the plethora of events hosted by ISG. In the past month I have taken part in ‘intern welcome’ socials, Wikipedia writing workshops and even a workshop on an introduction to blogging! Alongside these, I have also attended two all-staff events, one for all Information Services Group (ISG) staff and one for the Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW) division. Not only have I learned so much about the behind-the-scenes and the people who have made my studies possible for the past five years, but these events have also been an opportunity to get to know more of my colleagues and socialise with other interns. At ISG there is a strong emphasis on having a healthy work-life balance and making sure that you and those around you have what you need to produce your best work.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<div id="attachment_473" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-473" class="size-medium wp-image-473" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2025/07/Window-300x234.png" alt="View of Edinburgh Castle from Floor K, Argyle House." width="300" height="234" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2025/07/Window-300x234.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2025/07/Window.png 363w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-473" class="wp-caption-text">View of Edinburgh Castle from Floor K, Argyle House. CC-BY-SA by Dervla Craig.</p></div>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">In conclusion, I have had an amazing first month as an intern with the University of Edinburgh. I have learned a lot, met new people, and pushed myself outside of my comfort zone. Plus the amazing view of Edinburgh Castle from Floor K has been a real motivator to work from the office and not from home! I am nothing but hopeful that the next eight weeks will be even more exciting and productive, and that I can blog again soon with positive updates!</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">P.S. If you haven’t already, definitely visit <a href="https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/">The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft</a> and the <a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/">Map of Accused Witches in Scotland</a> websites! They are both amazing (and important) educational resources that I could browse for hours (and have).</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
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<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2025-07-11" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 11, 2025</time>
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<title>The Final Countdown: New Features and Nuxt 3 Upgrade</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/the-final-countdown/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/the-final-countdown/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Oct 2024 10:03:55 +0000</pubDate>
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<category><![CDATA[Wikimania]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=455</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Since I last wrote after I returned from Wikimania, I have been working on getting version 2.0 of the website up to scratch! The new version of the website is set to launch this October, which meant there was a lot to get done before then.Firstly, the website framework was due for an upgrade from […]]]></description>
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<p>Since I last wrote after I returned from Wikimania, I have been working on getting version 2.0 of the website up to scratch! The new version of the website is set to launch this October, which meant there was a lot to get done before then.<br />Firstly, the website framework was due for an upgrade from Nuxt 2 to Nuxt 3. Nuxt is a javascript web development framework based on Vue.js, designed to make it easier to build fast and dynamic websites by handling much of the configuration and setup for developers. This upgrade was crucial for the website’s longevity and security, making it a top priority. This was something I had never done before, so I was a bit apprehensive. This did end up being quite a long challenging task as lots of the packages used in the website were not compatible with Nuxt 3 meaning I had to do quite a lot of problem solving and research to find new packages which could provide the same functionality and have a similar user interface. I learnt a lot from this process and had to be quite patient because at times I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get everything working, – for example the clustering of markers on the map – but after lots of trial and error and research I found a solution and felt proud of myself.</p>
<p><br />We also worked on some exciting new pages:</p>
<p><br /><strong>Map of Memorials & Sites of Interest:</strong> This is an interactive map showcasing memorials across Scotland dedicated to those who suffered during the witch trials, along with other sites of interest such as execution sites, prisons, meeting places, and museums with witchcraft displays. The purpose of this map is to document how the witch trials have been memorialised over time, and increasingly in recent years, and to provide people interested in the Scottish witch trials with locations they can visit.</p>
<p><br />This project involved an initial research period carried out by Ewan McAndrew, Ellie Whitehead and myself. We sought to identify memorial locations to include by reading books, searching the internet, and having discussions with Professor Julian Goodare. During these discussions, it became clear that several monuments are not based on actual historical events. For example, the Maggie Wall monument in Dunning—there is no evidence that Maggie Wall existed or was executed as a witch. However, we still found locations like this of interest in understanding how stories of witchcraft have been passed down through generations.</p>
<p><br />To differentiate between various types of sites, we created three categories: memorials, sites of interest, and tourist attractions. This allowed us to classify each location appropriately. After the research stage, we created Wikidata items for each location, adding any available images from Wikimedia Commons, coordinate locations, links to external websites, and street addresses. This data was then used to query and display these locations on a new webpage, where they are plotted on a map. <br />To provide further information to users, Ellie Whitehead wrote descriptions for each location in the database, explaining how the site is connected to the Scottish Witch Trials and addressing any misconceptions about historic fact vs folklore.<br /><br />Once we had collated all the information needed and created all Wikidata items I developed the website page and Stewart Cromar created new icons from the same woodcut of the North Berwick witches that the original icons are from.<br /><br /></p>
<div id="attachment_458" style="width: 321px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-458" class=" wp-image-458" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/intro-300x241.jpg" alt="North Berwick Witches Woodcut- Newes from Scotland" width="311" height="250" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/intro-300x241.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/intro.jpg 747w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 311px) 100vw, 311px" /><p id="caption-attachment-458" class="wp-caption-text">North Berwick Witches Woodcut – Newes from Scotland</p></div>
<p><br />This was a particularly rewarding page to create, as it involved multiple stages, including research, brainstorming ideas, designing the interface, and development. The result is a page I believe users will love, and that I feel proud of, as I believe it helps represents how the injustice of the Scottish Witch Trials has been commemorated across Scotland.</p>
<div id="attachment_459" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-459" class=" wp-image-459" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-300x136.png" alt="Current Design of Memorials Page" width="474" height="215" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-300x136.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-1024x463.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-768x347.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-1536x694.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-1440x651.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page.png 1917w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px" /><p id="caption-attachment-459" class="wp-caption-text">Memorials Page</p></div>
<p><br /><strong>Further Reading:</strong> A list of books, journals, and articles recommended by Professor Julian Goodare (director of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft) and Ellie Whitehead for those who wanted to learn more about the Scottish witch trials. Links are provided on where they can be accessed.</p>
<p><br /><strong>Glossary:</strong> A glossary containing terms used across the website, along with their meanings, was created to help users understand specialized vocabulary, as the filter lists may include terms that are not commonly known. We wanted users to have an easy way to discover the contextual meanings to get the most out of the website. Ellie Whitehead used the glossary from the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft as a base, then added any additional terms from the filters that might not have an obvious meaning. After she compiled the list of terms and definitions, I created the web page. We decided it would be helpful if the list could be sorted either alphabetically or by category, making it easier for users to find terms.</p>
<div id="attachment_460" style="width: 445px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-460" class=" wp-image-460" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-300x133.png" alt="Glossary Page" width="435" height="193" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-300x133.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-1024x455.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-768x341.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-1536x682.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-1440x640.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary.png 1916w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 435px) 100vw, 435px" /><p id="caption-attachment-460" class="wp-caption-text">Glossary Page</p></div>
<p><br /><strong>Introduction to Scottish Witchcraft:</strong> A page offering contextual information on the Scottish witchcraft trials to help users understand the historical background and significance of these events. We decided to include a video of Professor Julian Goodare for users who find it easier to learn from video content or those looking for more information, and who better to learn from than the creator of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft himself!<br />Initially, we planned to create a short, 5-minute general introduction to Scottish witchcraft. However, but given Julian’s incredible wealth of knowledge, we asked him additional questions we thought people would be most interested in, resulting in more videos about the Scottish Witch Trials and the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft to add to the website.<br />We recorded these videos in the University of Edinburgh’s Media Studio at Argyle House. I thoroughly enjoyed using this space, as it allowed us to create professional-quality videos. The studio is fully equipped with tools like a teleprompter, TV backdrop, light boxes, a microphone, and, of course, a camera.</p>
<div id="attachment_461" style="width: 410px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-461" class=" wp-image-461" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-300x135.jpeg" alt="Media Studio" width="400" height="180" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-300x135.jpeg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-1024x461.jpeg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-768x346.jpeg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-1536x692.jpeg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-1440x649.jpeg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media.jpeg 2016w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /><p id="caption-attachment-461" class="wp-caption-text">Media Studio</p></div>
<p><br />Currently these new pages and upgrade are getting reviewed by web developer Andrew Millington before getting deployed to the site in order to make sure that the code is maintainable, working as intended, and a user friendly interface. Once these have been reviewed and all issues that come up resolved then the website will be ready for it’s version 2 launch!! <span data-teams="true"><span class="ui-provider a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ab ac ae af ag ah ai aj ak" dir="ltr">I’m really excited for this to go live so everyone can see all the work mentioned (above) that I’ve been working on for the last year and all the previous interns’ work too!</span></span></p>
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<time datetime="2024-10-03" itemprop="dateModified">Oct 3, 2024</time>
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<title>Wikimania 2024: A Conference of Collaboration, Learning and Culture</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Aug 2024 09:34:24 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Conference]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Student]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikimania]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=424</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ On July 15th I returned as ‘Witchfinder General’ – Data Visualisation Intern for another 3 months of working on the Map of Scottish Accused Witches of Project. We are now 4 weeks in and I have lots to share.I went to my first ever conference – Wikimania! Wikimania is an annual conference hosted by […]]]></description>
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<p>On July 15th I returned as ‘Witchfinder General’ – Data Visualisation Intern for another 3 months of working on the Map of Scottish Accused Witches of Project. We are now 4 weeks in and I have lots to share.<br /><br />I went to my first ever conference – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimania">Wikimania</a>! Wikimania is an annual conference hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, including presentations and discussions on Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. This year it was held in Katowice, Poland. I went with my manager Ewan McAndrew to give a presentation on Student engagement with openness. Ewan spoke about examples of all the Wikimedia related student projects he has run at the University of Edinburgh and then I spoke about the work we have done on this project.<br /><br /><a href="https://wikimania.eventyay.com/2024/talk/FALUVE/">Find out more about our presentation here!</a> <br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/wLgxZTcjhjY?si=POQvnW26tqevogTD&t=7920">Watch the presentation here.</a> <br /><br />Before going, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the conference. In my mind, a conference seemed like a very formal event, which I thought might make me feel a bit out of place. However, as soon as I arrived, I found a relaxed and open atmosphere with a diverse group of people. From volunteers to software developers, people who work for the Wikimedia Foundation to those who edit Wikipedia in their free time, there was a wide range of interests, passions, careers, ages, and nationalities present. This diversity created a warm and accepting environment that made open discussion comfortable. I was initially apprehensive about my presentation, as public speaking is something that scares me a little, but that made the achievement feel even greater.<br /><br />Along with giving the presentation I also got to attend lots of interesting talks and panel discussions. These covered lots of topics including the future of AI within the Wikipedia movement, facing the gender imbalance on Wikipedia, open data and the climate crisis, Wikipedia in education and even more. I think the standout for me was some of the AI discussions, thinking about how the Wikimedia movement could use AI but also the risks that would come along with them. Each session was really interesting and eye opening and great to hear views from people from all over the world. Throughout the conference I got to hear about all the different work that goes on in the Wikimedia movement.</p>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/wikimania_katowice_2024_-_opening_ceremony_wikimedian_of_the_year_awards_32/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="200" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32-300x200.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Marching Band at Wikimania Opening Ceremony" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/1024px-wikimania_katowice_2024_ksp_005/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="200" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/1024px-Wikimania_Katowice_2024_KsP_005-300x200.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Wikimania Entrance" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/1024px-Wikimania_Katowice_2024_KsP_005-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/1024px-Wikimania_Katowice_2024_KsP_005-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/1024px-Wikimania_Katowice_2024_KsP_005.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="201" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544-300x201.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Wikimania Opening Ceremony" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544-300x201.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544-768x513.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544.jpg 1306w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6316/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Pottery Painting at Wikimania" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6326/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Traditional Polish Choir" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6565/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Lighting Talk at Wikimania" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<p><br /><br />Not only were there many interesting sessions, the conference also included lots of entertainment – an opening ceremony with a Polish marching band and awards for the standout Wikimedians presented by Jimmy Wales (the founder of Wikipedia), a pottery painting class where we got to paint our own mug. I really enjoyed this activity. It was a lovely calming moment in a busy conference. There was also a performance from a traditional Polish choir, and a closing ceremony with a performance from the Wiki Orchestra , a group of talented musicians from the Wikimedia community playing a beautiful piece by Chopin. Then to finish a closing party in the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra with Wikimedians mingling and dancing to celebrate the end of a successful 4 day conference full of collaboration, learning, and cultural exchange.</p>
<p><br />During my free time, I also explored Katowice. I visited the Silesian Museum (An old mine that had since been repurposed), walked around appreciating the city’s architecture, and tried local cuisine such as Polish dumplings (called pierogies). They were delicious! On my way back, I flew out of Krakow, so I got to see some of that city as well, taking a walk around the old town, visiting the castle, strolling along the river, and exploring the Jewish quarter. It was exciting being able to explore and learn about both these cities that I hadn’t visited before.</p>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6400/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Silesian Museum" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6518/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Panteon Górnośląski w Katowicach" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6544/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Garrison Church" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6552/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Buildings in Katowice on Juliusxa Slowackiego" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6609/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Horse and Carriage in Krakow" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6621/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="St Mary's Basilica, Krakow" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<p><br /><br />Now back in Edinburgh with lots of work to continue, I’m reflecting on what was an enriching experience for which I am very grateful. I’m proud to have presented at an international conference, which will definitely boost my confidence. It was inspiring to see the variety of work happening within the Wikimedia community, such as the resilience of the Ukrainian community during the ongoing war. The conference felt like a community that was excited to meet and learn from one another and I’m glad to have been part of it.<br /><br /></p>
<div id="attachment_450" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-450" class="wp-image-450 size-large" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-1024x1024.jpeg" alt="Wikimania 2024 Group Photo" width="740" height="740" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-300x300.jpeg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-768x768.jpeg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media.jpeg 1080w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><p id="caption-attachment-450" class="wp-caption-text">Wikimania 2024 Group Photo</p></div>
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<time datetime="2024-08-19" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 19, 2024</time>
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<title>Remembering Scotland’s Accused Witches: Books, Plays and Memorials</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/internship-wrap-up/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/internship-wrap-up/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 25 Aug 2023 15:55:59 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=402</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I am writing this blog post on the final day of my internship. The 12 weeks have flown by! Over this period, a lot of progress has been made to the new version of the site. This has consisted of:• Quality checking the data by comparing the data from the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft to […]]]></description>
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<p style="text-align: left">I am writing this blog post on the final day of my internship. The 12 weeks have flown by! Over this period, a lot of progress has been made to the new version of the site.</p>
<p style="text-align: left"><br />This has consisted of:<br />• Quality checking the data by comparing the data from the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft to the data on Wikidata.<br />• Making improvements and getting rid of bugs on the website .<br />• User testing sessions.</p>
<p style="text-align: left"><br />You can read more about these in the previous blog posts. However, there is still progress to be made so I am going to continue to work on this project one day a week when I return to university in September! This will allow us to make sure we are fully confident with the data being used and the happy with the content of the website before releasing the new version of the website. The new version of the website includes lots of exciting new information and features such as accusations of shapeshifting and ritual objects plotted on a filterable map, custom timeline searches, a <a href="http://www.histropedia.com/">Histropedia</a> timeline where you can do name searches and filtering by age of accused and a new historic map layer using <a href="https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=10.6&lat=55.91496&lon=-3.36726&layers=125140579&b=1">the 1750 Dorret georeferenced map from National Library of Scotland</a>.</p>
<p>If you want to find out more about what I’ve been working on watch this video below:</p>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DKwfk7mgxk0?feature=oembed" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Over the past 2 weeks I’ve had the opportunity to attend interesting witch related events at the Edinburgh festivals. I went to a talk at Edinburgh International Book Festival with the authors Mairi Kidd (<a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/we-are-all-witches/mairi-kidd/9781785304132">We Are All Witches</a> ) and Allyson Shaw (<a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/ashes-and-stones/allyson-shaw/9781529395457">Ashes and Stone</a>) who have written books about the accused witches of Scotland which they discussed in this talk. “We Are All Witches” tells fictionalised accounts of 16 of the accused witches based on the information available and “Ashes and Stones” follows the authors journey visiting memorials of the accused witches around Scotland. This highlighted the importance and relevance of telling the individual stories and the memorialisation of those who suffered.</p>
<p>With my manager I also went to see a play at the fringe called <a href="https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/prick">Prick</a>, which told the stories of some of the executed women accused of witchcraft including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isobel_Gowdie">Issobell Gowdie</a>. These were both really inspiring, emotional and evocative events. I think after spending so long working with the data you begin to forget that these were real people and not just entries on a database, I was really reminded of how horrific, unjust and inhumane the trials and sufferings these women went through really were, which enforced in my mind the importance of sharing their stories. Also, both the authors at the book talk and the playwright of Prick used the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft as one of their primary resources when researching the Scottish witch trials which was a reminder of how valuable the data we are working with is.</p>
<div id="attachment_405" style="width: 349px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-405" class=" wp-image-405" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/booktalk-e1692977642502-225x300.jpg" alt="Mairi Kidd & Allyson Shaw: Who Are the Real Witches? - Book Festival Talk" width="339" height="452" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/booktalk-e1692977642502-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/booktalk-e1692977642502.jpg 480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 339px) 100vw, 339px" /><p id="caption-attachment-405" class="wp-caption-text">Mairi Kidd & Allyson Shaw: Who Are the Real Witches? – Book Festival Talk</p></div>
<p>After going to both events it was really in our minds how important it is to remember and learn from these people’s stories and the there is a lot of interest in how they are memorialised. This has lead us to decide we will begin working on the idea we had to create a map of memorials for the accused witches. So people can see in one place the memorials that local areas have dedicated to the accused witches that were subject to the trials, torture and executions. We have started researching this by borrowing the book <a href="https://beul-aithris-publishing.onlineweb.shop/Witch_Memorials_of_Scotland/p6366266_20228504.aspx"><em>Witch Memorials of Scotland</em> by Gregor Stewart</a> from the University library. We also met with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Goodare">Professor Julian Goodare</a> to update him on the progress that has been made, ask him for advice, make use of his expertise and discuss our future ideas going forward such as the map of memorials.</p>
<div id="attachment_406" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-406" class="size-medium wp-image-406" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-300x157.jpg" alt="Ruby and Professor Julian Goodare" width="300" height="157" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-300x157.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-768x402.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image.jpg 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-406" class="wp-caption-text">Ruby and Professor Julian Goodare</p></div>
<p><br />Overall, this internship has been a great experience because not only have I learnt lots of new technical skills (programming in R, Vue JavaScript framework, Wikidata, Sparql queries, user testing and user interface design) and professional skills (communication, teamwork and time management) I have also got to learn lots about this dark period of Scottish history through lots of different mediums. I’ve been inspired to learn more in my own time and have read <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/hex/jenni-fagan/9781846976223">Hex</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenni_Fagan">Jenni Fagan</a> which tells an imagining of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geillis_Duncan">Geillis Duncan</a>‘s last night. This has made me passionate about working on this project as I’ve realised the real world value and impact of helping people to understand the stories and individuals behind this data. I’m looking forward to continuing this work and launching the new version of the site which hopefully further shares these individual stories as best we can.</p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2023-08-25" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 25, 2023</time>
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<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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<title>From Witches to Widgets: A Witchfinder Intern’s Update</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/from-witches-to-widgets-a-witchfinder-interns-update/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/from-witches-to-widgets-a-witchfinder-interns-update/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 08 Aug 2023 09:14:50 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Internship]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=383</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Hello, It’s been a while since my last blog post so it’s time for an update about my time as Witchfinder General Data Visualisation intern! Since my last post, I’ve been busy as ever, diving into the world of data quality assuring, tinkering with our website, and getting some insights from users and lots of […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>Hello, It’s been a while since my last blog post so it’s time for an update about my time as Witchfinder General Data Visualisation intern! Since my last post, I’ve been busy as ever, diving into the world of data quality assuring, tinkering with our website, and getting some insights from users and lots of other fun and interesting experiences.</p>
<div id="attachment_389" style="width: 298px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-389" class=" wp-image-389" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-225x300.jpg" alt="Photo of Me Working on the Website" width="288" height="384" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal.jpg 1500w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 288px) 100vw, 288px" /><p id="caption-attachment-389" class="wp-caption-text">Working on the Website in Argyle House</p></div>
<p><br />My role in ensuring the accuracy and reliability of our data continues. With the aim of making sure our users get the most reliable insights and facts meanwhile respecting the original work of Survey of Scottish Witchcraft. I have now compared lots of fields including place of detention, primary & secondary case characteristics, cause of death, manner of death and lots more. From this I have been able to see that some information has been discovered since the Survey and added to Wikidata. I have made sure that all this information is referenced to trustworthy verifiable sources, ensuring that our website has the most accurate and up to date information possible. You can keep track of my progress <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Scotland%27s_Accused_Witches/To_do">on our Wikidata project page here</a>.</p>
<div id="attachment_386" style="width: 495px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-386" class=" wp-image-386" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-300x143.png" alt="New Feature on the Website which allows you to see historic version of Map" width="485" height="231" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-300x143.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-1024x489.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-768x367.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-1536x734.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-1440x688.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919.png 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px" /><p id="caption-attachment-386" class="wp-caption-text">New Historic Map Fearure</p></div>
<p><br />I’ve added some cool features to our website! You can now travel back in time with our historical map layer. After discussing different map layers with <span class="ui-provider fz b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ab ac ae af ag ah ai aj ak" dir="ltr">Chris Fleet at National Library of Scotland we selected <a href="https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=12.2&lat=55.92314&lon=-3.22392&layers=125140579&b=1">the 1750 georeferenced James Dorret map</a>. </span>This lets you see how things looked closer to the time of the accused witches. Plus, we’ve made it easier for users to pick and choose what they want to see with the select and deselect buttons and changing the list of filters to alphabetical order. And I’ve been on a bug-hunting mission to get rid of them and make sure everything runs smoothly to make the website easier to navigate. We have had several other ideas of how we can make our website more engaging and informative, one of these ideas was to add some illustrations to the website to help users understand what information is being displayed to them. So I talked to one of the other interns Ally who is working on an interactive colouring in book. She came out with some initial ideas that could be used as icons for the accusations of Shapeshifting and the Ritual Objects supposed used and they turned out great! However, we have some concerns relating to including modern illustrations on our website. We are worried it could distract from the academic historical work or misrepresent some of these historical ideas (e.g. Shapeshifting) that we are referring to.</p>
<div id="attachment_398" style="width: 325px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-398" class=" wp-image-398" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-300x155.jpg" alt="Concept Illustrations for Website" width="315" height="163" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-300x155.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-1024x527.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-768x396.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-1536x791.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-1440x742.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 315px) 100vw, 315px" /><p id="caption-attachment-398" class="wp-caption-text">Concept Illustrations for Website</p></div>
<p>I also ran 7 user testing sessions with support from the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/user-experience">User Experience team</a> who’s aim is to deliver user-centred products. I initially met with members of the team and they informed me that the best way to improve the user experience of the website would be to find out what needs improving by conducting user testing. They gave me lots of advice on how to go about these sessions and for one of my first sessions helped me take notes. We decided to test on users who were experts on history and some people with very little previous knowledge on witches! So I reached out to <span class="ui-provider fz b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ab ac ae af ag ah ai aj ak" dir="ltr">Assistant Professor Mikki Brock, Witches of Scotland podcasters, Dr. Chris Langley and other interns to see if they would be interested in participating, and they all were! </span>This range of knowledge was really useful to see how the different types of users interacted with the website, this is important as these are both user groups that our website in intended for. I would give the users tasks to complete on the site and watch them complete them, taking notes and then ask them questions to hear their thoughts and advice. Their feedback will help guide us towards the best version of the website possible. I’ve shared their insights with the team, and together we’re deciding what we came take from it to make improvements to the site.</p>
<p><br />As part of my internship, I’ve also had some pretty cool experiences beyond the screen. A trip to <a href="https://www.stcecilias.ed.ac.uk/whats-on/">St Celias Hall</a>, a musical instrument museum, was a really interesting experience that I learnt lots of new information from. I’ve also dabbled in Wikipedia writing after attending a Wikipedia training session, I researched and wrote a page about the accused witch <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issobell_Fergussone">Issobelle Fergesoune</a>. It’s great to be able to write about the accused witches individual stories as this humanizes them and helps people understand what they really went through. Also, I have attended several team meetings, where coffee and cake were involved!</p>
<div id="attachment_392" style="width: 297px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392" class=" wp-image-392" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-225x300.jpg" alt="Musical Instruments in St Celia's Hall" width="287" height="383" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px" /><p id="caption-attachment-392" class="wp-caption-text">Musical Instruments in St Celia’s Hall</p></div>
<p>So, what’s next? I have two quite big challenges to focus on, one being making sure the website is mobile responsive and the other being trying to reduce the load time when opening the website. Currently, the website can takes some time to load because there is huge amounts of data being pulled. This will be quite technically difficult to solve. Our approach is going to be separating the queries pulling the data into smaller queries so less data is being pulled at once. The load time is very important to user experience and something that was mentioned several times in the user testing sessions. Hopefully after these improvements the new version of the website will be one step closer to being released!</p>
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<time datetime="2023-08-08" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 8, 2023</time>
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<title>Weeks 2 and 3 – Unravelling Anomalies and Starting the Website Transformation</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/weeks-2-and-3-unravelling-anomalies-and-starting-the-website-transformation/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/weeks-2-and-3-unravelling-anomalies-and-starting-the-website-transformation/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 28 Jun 2023 06:31:51 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=377</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I am now coming the end of my third week as the Witchfinder General – Data Visualisation intern and time has flown by. Over the past 2 weeks I have begun on the journey of Quality Assuring the data and improving the website. This process began by dealing with the anomalies between the names and […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span data-contrast="auto">I am now coming the end of my third week as the Witchfinder General – Data Visualisation intern and time has flown by. Over the past 2 weeks I have begun on the journey of Quality Assuring the data and improving the website. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">This process began by dealing with the anomalies between the names and gender of accused witches that the previous intern, Claire had found and then after consulting with<a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/about-us/staff-profiles/profile_tab5_academic.php?uun=jgoodare&search=2¶ms="> Professor Julian Goodare</a> about these differences making the corresponding necessary changes in wikidata. Then I began with looking at different properties, starting with social class and occupation. From this I discovered there was some differences with the wording of some of the values used in the Survey and in Wikidata. This was because there are some very Survey-specific terms related to witch hunts in 16th century Scotland and a 21st century platform like Wikidata has items of data that are of more general use with often more modern definitions of terms as a community knowledgebase of open linked data. It is also because language changes over time and the definitions and use of terms and placenames has changed since the 16th century. Where possible it is better to use a common language of terms so that the data can be explored and parsed more easily. However, if there are stark differences then it is better to make sure that Wikidata has terms suitable for explaining the specific nature of terms of the information contained within the Survey so that there is no loss of meaning or misrepresentation creeping in. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><div id="attachment_380" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-380" class="wp-image-380 size-medium" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/wordTable-300x224.png" alt="Anomalies in Value Labels between Wikidata and the Survey" width="300" height="224" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/wordTable-300x224.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/wordTable.png 463w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-380" class="wp-caption-text">Anomalies in Value Labels between Wikidata and the Survey</p></div></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">In most cases Professor Julian Goodare, lecturer in History and project Director of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft database (2003), approved of these cases but he suggested that </span><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54128"><b><span data-contrast="auto">domestic worker</span></b></a><span data-contrast="auto"> did not give appropriate meaning and that adding a new value <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q119574553"><strong>servant</strong> </a>would represent the work they did more accurately so I changed every accused witch on Wikidata that was down a domestic worker to servant using <a href="https://quickstatements.toolforge.org/#/">Quickstatements</a>. Once we had confirmed that the rest of the terms being used in Wikidata were suitable, there was no anomalies left for social class but there was some for occupation. There were some witches in Wikidata where some additional occupations had been added that were not mentioned in the survey. We sent these to Prof. Julian Goodare and he looked through his resources and verified whether these occupations were accurate and provided us with a reference that could be added to Wikidata. This is part of the benefit of working with open linked data where multiple values can be added by a community of users if it aids and augments the data. It does need to be verifiable however so adding a reference to back up statements being added is key.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Looking at residence property was my next hurdle and it proved to be a more difficult and time consuming task than the previous properties. This was because in the Survey there were numerous columns of locations for each accused witch – settlement, parish, presbytery, county and burgh – and on Wikidata different locations have been chosen depending on which residence Emma.. ( the first student intern to work on this project) was able to find. Emma worked with georeferenced historic maps from the National Library of Scotland and placename books to try and identify which placename listed in the five columns of data in the Survey could be geolocated on a map to be the most specific place of residence for each accused witch we could approximate a co-ordinate location for. This means there is a lot of differences between the survey data and Wikidata to look through, so this is something I am still working on , as there are 820 locations to look at.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">I have also began working on the website improvements. This began by creating a list of all the things we would like to change/add and categorising them into bugs, new features, and navigation improvements. And we also had a meeting with Prof. Julian Goodare to discuss potential additions with him. Lots of great ideas came out of this meeting such as filming an explainer video for the ‘About’ webpage that would give an introduction this project, the background of the survey of Scottish witchcraft and a guide to the website. Once we had completed a categorised list, I had a meeting with the web development team, Andrew and Richard, and we played ‘scrum poker’, a method for each of us guesstimating how long each development task might take. The next stage was to start working through these tasks and prioritising any bugs.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The navigation and user interface of the test site of the website is something that needs improved before making this version available to the public. We reached out to the ISG’s User Experience (UX) Service to see if they could provide us with any support on this side of things. We had a meeting with them to give them an introduction the project and website, give our ideas, answer their questions and gauge the kind of support they could give us. I think the main goal of the site is to make a good resource for people interested in witches but also those with no prior knowledge. Since the website was first released loads of visualisations were added to the test site of version 2 by Maggie and Josep, our student interns in Summer 2022. These have provided great new insights but have caused for the navigational layout of the site to become slightly unorganised. It is often hard to find what you are looking for or understand what you are looking at. Ahead of the meeting with the UX team, I created some mock ups showing how we could change the navigation so that all the maps of accused witches are in the same place (discoverable in the left hand menu pictured below) and you can explore the map with different filters and read contextual text explaining each visualisation. This way people are more likely to view and understand more of the information. We are soon to have a follow up meeting with them to discuss things further.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><div id="attachment_378" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-378" class="wp-image-378 size-medium" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web1-300x131.png" alt="Mock-up of Web Improvements" width="300" height="131" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web1-300x131.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web1.png 683w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-378" class="wp-caption-text">Mock-up of Web Improvements</p></div></p>
<p><div id="attachment_379" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-379" class="wp-image-379 size-medium" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web2-300x136.png" alt="Mock-up of Web Improvements" width="300" height="136" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web2-300x136.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web2.png 681w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-379" class="wp-caption-text">Mock-up of Web Improvements</p></div></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Overall, I have really enjoyed my first few weeks. I have been able to work on a variation of tasks including web development, data assurance and Wikidata. This has kept things interesting and exciting and I have learnt so much already from new technical skills to greater historical knowledge of what happened to these accused witches. have had meetings with lots of interesting people all providing valuable ideas to the project. I have also met lots of other interns and staff at various events such as the welcome lunch, home baking morning and the all staff BBQ. I am excited to continue the work I have done so far.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span><br />
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
<time datetime="2023-06-28" itemprop="dateModified">Jun 28, 2023</time><br />
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<title>A Witchfinder’s Quest : Ensuring Data Accuracy & Enhancing the Website</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/witchfinders-data-accuracy-website/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/witchfinders-data-accuracy-website/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 Jun 2023 09:05:50 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Internship]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=366</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Hi! I’m Ruby and I’m a 3rd year undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh studying Computer Science. And I am the new Witchfinder General – Data Visualisation Intern and I am going to be continuing with the great work of the previous interns that have worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. So far, […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi! I’m Ruby and I’m a 3<sup>rd</sup> year undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh studying Computer Science. And I am the new Witchfinder General – Data Visualisation Intern and I am going to be continuing with the great work of the previous interns that have worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. So far, many amazing visualisations have been created and added to the website that make it a great educational resource that everyone can access.</p>
<p>These visualisations have been based on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Database created by academics in the early 2000’s. Key information from this database has been uploaded to <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page">Wikidata</a>, allowing for this data to be more accessible to a large community, and has allowed editing and augmentation by members of the Wikidata community. Most visualisations on the website are creating using the data from Wikidata. Wikidata is part of the Wikimedia family, and is a free and open knowledge base composed of structured data that is used in Wikipedia and projects such as this one.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><div id="attachment_367" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-367" class="size-medium wp-image-367" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-300x225.jpg" alt="Familiarizing myself with the datasets and the current website" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-768x576.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1.jpg 2016w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-367" class="wp-caption-text">Familiarizing myself with the datasets and the current website</p></div></p>
<p><strong>My Goals for Working on this Project</strong></p>
<p>Since the data has been uploaded to Wikidata, it means there may be differences between the Wikidata and the orginal survey data due to the possibility of import errors and other users editing the data. It is important that we check that the data is all this accurate in order to prevent the spread of misinformation and to respect the original historical record, the historical events, what happened to these women, and the work of the researchers on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft. The intern previous to me, Claire Panella, developed a method using R Studio to find the entries that don’t match between Wikidata and the original Survey of Scottish Witches databases. She first completed checking the gender and then the names of the accused witches matched the Survey, from this it was discovered there was several anomalies. One of my roles while pursuing this internship is to continue this work of quality assuring the linked open data used in our website. This will be approached by using Claire’s methodology to check all the different variables displayed in the visualisations, then verifying what changes need made by consulting with academic expert colleagues before making any of the changes. This way we will know the information we are displaying is the most accurate version possible. Although, because this is historical data there are omissions and inexactitudes that by opening up the data to a public audience we hope to be able to further scrutinise and improve on what we know about this dark period of Scottish history.</p>
<p>Along with quality assuring the data I will be working on improving the <a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/">website</a> in order, with the aim of users being able to gain as much from the website as possible. This will in involve making some changes to the user interface in order to make it more accessible and usable by making it more user friendly and easier to navigate. Furthermore, adding any visualisations that we believe will provide insightful information to users of the website. For example, I had the idea of creating a heatmap to show the distribution of the accused witches across Scotland. Whilst working on the website, we will gather ideas and opinions from experts in all things Wiki and Witches!</p>
<p><strong>My First Week</strong></p>
<p>During my first week on this project, I dedicated my time to familiarizing myself with the datasets, which comprise a substantial database with over 3,000 entries. This extensive collection contains a wealth of information about each accused witch, their respective witch trials, and the overarching investigations into witchcraft. Consequently, there were many aspects to consider, and this gave me a lot to think about.</p>
<p>In order for me to effectively use <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page">Wikidata</a>, a platform I had limited knowledge about before starting this project, I engaged with various members of the Wikidata community. These individuals offered valuable advice and guidance as I begin navigate this project. In order to make the most of Wikidata’s capabilities, I devoted time to learning how to effectively utilize Sparql (a query language for databases) and Openrefine (an open-source tool specifically designed for working with untidy datasets).</p>
<p>Furthermore, this project has required the development of new skills to effectively manipulate the databases and improve the website. In this pursuit, I acquainted myself with R Studio, a programming language I had not previously worked with. I discovered that R Studio offers a user-friendly interface along with robust statistical and data analysis functionalities, making it a suitable choice of software for the project’s requirements. Additionally, I followed tutorials on Vue.js, the JavaScript framework employed for constructing the website.</p>
<p>Over the past year, interns previous to me have worked on a version 2 of the website with some changes made and extra visualisations added to the website. This version currently has not been made public. Over the course of my internship we hope to get this version to a completed stage and make this version public. To kickstart the process, I engaged in brainstorming sessions to generate ideas for the website. Subsequently, I organized and prioritized these ideas, ensuring a clear direction for the project.</p>
<p>I’m really excited to work on this project. As a Computer Science student, I have some experience with working with large datasets and creating data visualizations and working on web applications, and I am excited to be able to develop these skills. Meanwhile, getting to learn to learn a lot about this historic event and work on a great resource that can educate people on one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in Scottish History.<br />
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<time datetime="2023-06-12" itemprop="dateModified">Jun 12, 2023</time><br />
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<title>Finding Impossible Witches: Part One The Search Begins</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/finding-impossible-witches-part-one/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/finding-impossible-witches-part-one/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[cpanella]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 05 Apr 2023 15:38:47 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[claire panella]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[open data]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=351</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Inheriting the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Project Hi! I’m Claire, a 4th year undergraduate studying International Relations with Quantitative Methods at the University of Edinburgh, and the latest in a long line of interns and others who’ve worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. The data involved in this project was originally compiled in […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><span data-contrast="none">Inheriting the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Project</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">Hi! I’m Claire, a 4</span><span data-contrast="none">th</span><span data-contrast="none"> year undergraduate studying International Relations with Quantitative Methods at the University of Edinburgh, and the latest in a long line of interns and others who’ve worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. The data involved in this project was originally compiled in a Microsoft Access Database by academics in the early 2000’s. Since then, key information from the database has been added to Wikidata, allowing for greater accessibility as well as editing and augmentation by members of the Wikidata community. People have done lots of great things with this data, including </span><a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/"><span data-contrast="none">all the visualisations</span></a><span data-contrast="none"> put together by the previous data visualisation interns, but now that the data is stored across several different platforms, it’s important to make sure that these versions are reconciled. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">My role is to find the ‘Impossible Witches’; those entries which don’t m</span><span data-contrast="none">atch between Wikidata and the original Access database.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><div id="attachment_353" style="width: 566px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-353" class="wp-image-353" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408-300x219.jpg" alt="" width="556" height="406" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408-300x219.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408-1024x747.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408-768x560.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408.jpg 1080w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 556px) 100vw, 556px" /><p id="caption-attachment-353" class="wp-caption-text">Working away making my first comparisons in R. By Claire Panella, Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0</p></div></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none"> </span><b><span data-contrast="none">Checking against the database item by item</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">My initial approach to this was to use R to compare between csv files exported from the Access database, and csv files accessed by querying Wikidata. This required downloading both files, checking to make sure variable labels matched, combining the datasets, and isolating the cases where the information didn’t match iso I could look through and see where the issues were.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">For some features, like gender, a lot of information h</span><span data-contrast="none">as been added to Wikidata that isn’t present in the survey, but there are very few cases where </span><span data-contrast="none">Wikidata and the survey have conflicting information.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><div id="attachment_354" style="width: 554px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-354" class="wp-image-354" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/gender-anomalies-300x169.png" alt="" width="544" height="306" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/gender-anomalies-300x169.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/gender-anomalies.png 602w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 544px) 100vw, 544px" /><p id="caption-attachment-354" class="wp-caption-text">Anomalies in Gender between Wikidata and the Survey</p></div></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">In others, like Name, the situation is a bit more complicated. Sometimes the spellings vary between Wikidata and the Survey – this could be for a few reasons, and to add to the complications, both data sources have multiple name categories – the survey includes both modern and historical first and last names, while Wikidata includes both an Item Identifier and aliases. I’ve also looked for exact matches between the text from each source, so some inconsistencies just have to do with capitalisation and spacing. Really, it’s impressive there are only 23 anomalies!</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><div id="attachment_352" style="width: 543px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-352" class="wp-image-352" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/name-anomalies-300x170.png" alt="" width="533" height="302" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/name-anomalies-300x170.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/name-anomalies.png 602w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px" /><p id="caption-attachment-352" class="wp-caption-text">Anomalies in Name between Wikidata and the Survey</p></div></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">My goal now is to come up with a solid procedure to check wikidata entri</span><span data-contrast="none">es against the survey so we can be sure we’re consistent and accurate in which data changes we keep. After that, I’ll work on a methodology to pass on to whomever the next ‘Witchfinder General’ is so that we can keep track of data changes as the project continues to grow and evolve. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">As I look for a method to continuously check for differences between the original survey data and the most up to date version of Wikidata, I’ve turned to the Wikidata community for help. Ewan reached out to his contacts, and I reached out via <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Project_chat">Project Chat</a> as well as a Slack channel for <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_LD4_Wikidata_Affinity_Group">libraries using Wikidata</a>. Different users have responded with various suggestions. One Wikidata user suggested a library I could use to efficiently link R with SPARQL queries, and some of Ewan’s contacts gave suggestions for the general workflow I could follow in creating a shareable methodology. One of the most helpful suggestions was that I use a tool called prompter, which would allow me to compare the results of a SPARQL query to a stable csv and store anomalies as a table on the Wikidata project page. While this looks like a great idea, it has led us to run into another of the common problems involved in working with Wikidata – not all of the tools are maintained. The </span><a href="https://prompter.toolforge.org/prompter"><span data-contrast="none">Prompter</span></a><span data-contrast="none"> tool was designed by the Every Politician Project, which was placed on indefinite pause in June 2019. This means that while the documentation for the tool still exists, it no longer works as a template in Wikidata. For me, this has been a valuable lesson on the pros and cons of working with a platform run and maintained by volunteers. Still, we are continuing to get great advice from Wikimedians around the world. A new goal of mine for the end of this project is to create a workable and well documented method that I can easily share, so I have something to give back to the community that has helped me so much throughout this project. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span><br />
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
<time datetime="2023-04-05" itemprop="dateModified">Apr 5, 2023</time><br />
</span></p>
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<title>Weeks 9 and 10 – Sweeping the Cobwebs(ite)</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/weeks-9-and-10-cleaning-the-cobwebsite/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/weeks-9-and-10-cleaning-the-cobwebsite/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[jgarcia7]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 12 Aug 2022 15:44:34 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=330</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Site re-development – Filtering Witchcraft Hi, this is Josep again! We are currently in Week 10 of our internship, and time is starting to become a limiting factor. Since my last blog post in Week 4 a lot of things have been going on, and in this post I am going to be explaining how […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Site re-development – Filtering Witchcraft</h2>
<p>Hi, this is Josep again! We are currently in Week 10 of our internship, and time is starting to become a limiting factor. Since my last blog post in Week 4 a lot of things have been going on, and in this post I am going to be explaining how the plans I had back then have turned out, what I have managed to accomplish, and the things I still have left to do in the two remaining weeks.</p>
<p>In week 5, I implemented the new filtering algorithm, and everything went rather smoothly – although I had to change the whole data structure. I think this was a significant improvement, as things ran a bit faster, we only had to keep one copy of the array we use to plot, and the code was neater.</p>
<p>However, after that I then spent quite a few days implementing a way to share filter status data across pages, so that when the user changed pages they would have the same filters on as they had in the previous page. Nevertheless, in order to do this without a backend I had to hardcode the filters array into something called Vue Store (so that its state could be accessed from all pages).</p>
<p>The nature of this array meant that it had to change if the data in the database changed, so I would also need a dynamic check, and I thought it was fine because the data is not likely to change, and I had a dynamic check implement just in case it did. But when I pushed the code over for review, the rest of the team felt it was not ideal to have something both static and dynamic at the same time, which in hindsight I agreed with.</p>
<p>Then I thought I could build the list dynamically and then enter it into the Vue Store, but once I had that implemented I realised that that didn’t work because of caching we were doing (which is quite important because of loading time issues). Therefore, in the end we decided we would just not have the filters share across pages until we had a backend. Back then it was a bit difficult as I felt I had wasted quite a lot of time, but at the same time it was a valuable learning experience!</p>
<p>With the new filtering functionality done, I then started changing the filtering user interface to move it to the left of the page, and with the help of the rest of the team I think we managed to get a pretty neat, professional looking design. This is what it is looking like now:</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-332 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-12-at-13.34.59-300x175.png" alt="" width="566" height="331" /></p>
<p>This was the last thing I did before leaving to Spain for holidays for a week.Right now, I have been back from holidays for a bit less than two weeks. In the time that I have been back, I have been working on developing a responsive timeline for the Leaflet Map pages and refactoring the code in order to be able to add more map pages with more filters very easy once Maggie has finished adding all the new data on to WikiData, which should be any time now.</p>
<p>Other than doing these two things, I was hoping to have time to add a backend in Python to process all the data after querying WikiData (as of now there is no backend and we do it in the front-end’s JavaScript) since we will have quite a lot of new data to process, and we are afraid the loading time will significantly increase. However, in the end it has been decided that I shouldn’t do the back end in Python since the team say that they can’t maintain a Python backend in the long term once I’m gone, as they work in PHP. I will try and have time to do the backend in PHP, but I would have to learn it from scratch and there are a lot more other bits and pieces that need doing!</p>
<h2>The Data Side of Things</h2>
<p>I was off for most of last week as I was in Turkey holidaying for a couple of days, but was back on Thursday for more data work! I finished processing the <strong>witches’ meeting places</strong> and <strong>what went down</strong> in these meetings, as well as the <strong>calendar customs </strong>that were mentioned in the witchcraft investigations. Looking at <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q112321273">Agnes Sampson’s investigation</a> page, you can see all the juicy new details we’ve fitted into the Wikidata data model from the Survey and processed using OpenRefine.</p>
<p>Speaking of OpenRefine, I am currently planning and scripting a little tutorial for users of the software or even future interns as I have really enjoyed how intuitive and helpful it’s been for this project. This should be recorded in the next week so keep your eyes peeled…</p>
<p>This week, I started off with doing some data cleaning. Previously, before we created case items for each witchcraft investigation, the <strong>shapeshifting</strong> and <strong>ritual objects</strong> data was added to the accused witches’ items. Some helpful Wikidatans saw this duplication and started deleting statements, so we decided we needed to clean this up to not cause confusion.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-336 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-300x111.png" alt="" width="586" height="217" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-300x111.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-1024x379.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-768x284.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-1536x568.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-1440x533.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339.png 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 586px) 100vw, 586px" /></p>
<p>Using the same Google sheet that was used to add the shapeshifting information, I used the handy “<em>Export to QuickStatements</em>” option to get all the edits into QuickStatements syntax. I did this as with QuickStatements, it’s easy to remove specific statements by <strong>prefixing</strong> a line with a <strong>minus sign. </strong></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-337 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357-300x154.png" alt="" width="399" height="205" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357-300x154.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357-1024x526.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357-768x394.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357.png 1430w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px" /></p>
<p>After this, I started to think about extracting the data added to Wikidata using the Wikidata Query Service. We have been in contact with Navino Evans, one of the co-founders of <a href="http://www.histropedia.com/">Histropedia</a>, to help us with the complex SPARQL query. <a href="https://query.wikidata.org/#SELECT%20distinct%20%3Fitem%20%3FitemLabel%20%3FinvestigationDate%0A%3FresidenceLabel%20%3FresidenceCoords%20%3FsexLabel%20%3Flink%20%3FoccupationLabel%20%3FsocialClassificationLabel%0A%3FplaceOfDeathLabel%20%3FplaceOfDeathCoords%20%3FmannerOfDeathLabel%20%3FdetentionLocationLabel%20%3FdetentionLocationCoords%0A%0A%23Newly%20added%0A%3Finvestigation%20%3FinvestigationStart%20%3FinvestigationEnd%0A%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FqualityWithQualifier%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3Fqualities%29%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FchargeWithQualifier%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3Fcharges%29%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FritualObjectLabel%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3FritualObjects%29%0A%0AWHERE%0A%7B%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP4478%20%3Fwitch%20.%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP551%20%3Fresidence%20.%0A%20%20%3Fresidence%20wdt%3AP625%20%3FresidenceCoords%20.%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP4478%20%3Flink%20.%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP21%20%3Fsex%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20%3Foccupation%20.%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP3716%20%3FsocialClassification%20.%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP20%20%3FplaceOfDeath%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3FplaceOfDeath%20wdt%3AP625%20%3FplaceOfDeathCoords%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP1196%20%3FmannerOfDeath%20.%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP2632%20%3FdetentionLocation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3FdetentionLocation%20wdt%3AP625%20%3FdetentionLocationCoords%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%0A%20%20%23%20INVESTIGATION%0A%20%0A%20%20%23OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP793%20%3Finvestigation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ66458810%20%3B%20%23%20Tip%3A%20Use%20%3B%20to%20repeat%20%3Finvestigation%20again%20without%20having%20to%20write%20it%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20wdt%3AP580%7Cwdt%3AP585%20%3FinvestigationStart%20%3B%20%23%20Tip%3A%20Use%20%7C%20symbol%20to%20mean%20%22OR%22%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Finvestigation%20wdt%3AP582%20%3FinvestigationEnd%20%7D%0A%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Quality%20%28COPY%20THIS%20FOR%20MULTIPLE%20VALUE%2C%20WITH%20qualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20p%3AP1552%20%3FhasQualityNode%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityNode%20ps%3AP1552%20%3FhasQuality%20.%20%23%20main%20value%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%20%23%20%22including%22%20qualifier%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityNode%20pq%3AP1012%20%3FqualityIncluding%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FqualityIncluding%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FqualityIncludingLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FqualityIncludingLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQuality%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FhasQualityLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FhasQualityLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20BIND%28IF%28%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20BOUND%28%3FqualityIncludingLabel%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20CONCAT%28%3FhasQualityLabel%2C%22%20%28%22%2C%20%3FqualityIncludingLabel%2C%20%22%29%22%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityLabel%29%20as%20%3FqualityWithQualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Charge%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20p%3AP1595%20%3FchargeNode%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FchargeNode%20ps%3AP1595%20%3Fcharge%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FchargeNode%20pq%3AP4675%20%3Fform%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fform%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FformLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FformLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fcharge%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FchargeLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FchargeLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20BIND%28IF%28%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20BOUND%28%3FformLabel%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20CONCAT%28%3FchargeLabel%2C%22%20%28%22%2C%20%3FformLabel%2C%20%22%29%22%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FchargeLabel%29%20as%20%3FchargeWithQualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Ritual%20object%20%28COPY%20THIS%20FOR%20MULTIPLE%20VALUE%2C%20but%20WITHOUT%20qualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20wdt%3AP8706%20%3FritualObject%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FritualObject%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FritualObjectLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FritualObjectLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%23%7D%0A%20%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22%5BAUTO_LANGUAGE%5D%2Cen%22.%0A%20%20%20%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A%0AGROUP%20BY%20%3Fitem%20%3FitemLabel%20%3FinvestigationDate%20%3FresidenceLabel%20%3FresidenceCoords%20%3FsexLabel%20%3Flink%0A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was the working example he sent us, and I used this example to try my hand at adding <strong>calendar customs</strong> and <strong>witches’ meeting places </strong>to the query (the data I added recently), with this <a 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<p> </p>
<p> <br />
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
<time datetime="2022-08-12" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 12, 2022</time><br />
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<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/separating-legend-from-legacy/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ewan McAndrew]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2025 17:27:42 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Internship]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=485</guid>
<description><![CDATA[This post is the second written by LLB student Dervla Craig who has worked as our Information and Data Literacy intern this Summer researching and preparing a National Lottery Heritage Fund bid to preserve, and raise public engagement with, the accused witches of Scotland as an important part of Scotland’s heritage. As I sit to […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>This post is the second written by LLB student Dervla Craig who has worked as our Information and Data Literacy intern this Summer researching and preparing a National Lottery Heritage Fund bid to preserve, and raise public engagement with, the accused witches of Scotland as an important part of Scotland’s heritage.</strong></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">As I sit to write this blog post, my twelve-week internship is rapidly drawing to a close. How the time has flown! I have learned and achieved so much this summer, and it seems only appropriate that I reflect on and share what this experience has taught me through another blog post. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Since my first blog (</span><a href="https://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/preserving-scottish-heritage/"><span data-contrast="none">Preserving Scottish Heritage: The Accused Witches of Scotland</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">), my research and bid-writing have taken me down many different avenues. The more familiar I became with the past, however, the more questions arose about the present. Why is there still no appropriate memorial to the accused in Edinburgh? Does stigma still exist surrounding these persecuted individuals? How can we at the University best preserve and promote the individual stories of the accused and make sure they are not forgotten to history? Exploring these questions was extremely important for me in ensuring that I understood the context in which the bid lives and the landscape we would be entering with this project. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">In my search for answers to these questions, two main areas stuck out to me as requiring more work and attention to make sure the real, human stories of those accused of witchcraft are protected and valued now and into the future: increasing awareness, education, and understanding of the Scottish witch trials, and appropriately memorialising the victims who were accused, tortured and executed. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<div id="attachment_1634" style="width: 639px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Witches-and-Witchcraft.jpg"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1634" class="size-large wp-image-1634" src="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Witches-and-Witchcraft-941x1024.jpg" alt="Information board about "Witches and Witchcraft" at the National Museum of Scotland. Pic by Ewan McAndrew, CC-BY-SA" width="629" height="684" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1634" class="wp-caption-text">Information board about “Witches and Witchcraft” at the National Museum of Scotland. Pic by Ewan McAndrew, CC-BY-SA</p></div>
<h2><b><span data-contrast="auto">Education on the Scottish Witch Trials</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">My line manager, Ewan McAndrew, and I have spent the last few weeks consulting with various organisations in an effort to realise the full potential of our bid. One area we explored was how we at the University, as a teaching and learning institution, could help facilitate education on the Scottish witch trials and use our accused witches’ dataset to combat negative perceptions of the accused exacerbated by entertainment-driven media portrayals. I researched the </span><a href="https://education.gov.scot/parentzone/curriculum-in-scotland/"><span data-contrast="none">Curriculum in Scotland </span></a><span data-contrast="auto">for secondary schools and was surprised to find that whilst adjacent topics such as King James VI and the Protestant Reformation are covered in detail, the witch trials themselves are largely overlooked. We also spoke with Jo Spiller and Judy Robertson from the University about their work on data education in schools and how our dataset could be a valuable resource. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">A huge opportunity for progress in this area came in week eight, when we visited the National Museum of Scotland to meet with Anna Groundwater, the Principal Curator of Renaissance and Early Modern History, Scottish History and Archaeology. She showed us the current witchcraft exhibit, which has remained unchanged for the twenty-seven years it has been on display, and discussed what updates could be made to accurately reflect the research that has taken place in the years since and modern attitudes towards the study of witchcraft and the witch trials. We also had a great conversation about promoting education on this dark period of Scottish history and how we can engage a wider audience with this heritage. This was my first professional meeting, and I am happy to report that it went very well. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<div id="attachment_1635" style="width: 639px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Witches_Well.jpg"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1635" class="size-large wp-image-1635" src="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Witches_Well-1024x549.jpg" alt="Inscription plaque at the Witches Well memorial on Castlehill, Edinburgh. " width="629" height="337" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1635" class="wp-caption-text">Inscription plaque at the Witches Well memorial on Castlehill, Edinburgh. Pic by (Lila), CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons</p></div>
<h2><b><span data-contrast="auto">The issue of memorialisation</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">For centuries after the Scottish witch trials, sympathy for the accused was often seen as sympathy for the Devil and as such, there was not much research into the lives of those who were charged with the crime of witchcraft. Whilst modern attitudes have shifted to a more empathetic approach, the issue of memorialisation is still one of great controversy. </span><span data-contrast="none">The only memorial which stands in Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches%27_Well,_Edinburgh">Witches’ Well</a> on Castle Hill, which is hidden away and has a problematic inscription that has been criticised for its historical inaccuracy and contention that while ‘<em>some used their exceptional knowledge for evil purposes while others were misunderstood and wished their kind nothing but good</em>‘. This assumption that those accused did indeed have supernatural abilities and that the brutality of the Scottish witch hunts was in any way justifiable is extremely harmful to the memory of the innocent people (85% of whom were women) that possessed no such powers but who were tortured and executed for being ‘witches’. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">The <a href="https://www.witchesofscotland.com/">Witches of Scotland</a> campaign group have long been advocating for a national memorial to the accused which would honour the victims in an appropriate way, and have even created a new, highly symbolic </span><a href="https://www.witchesofscotland.com/tartan"><span data-contrast="none">Tartan </span></a><span data-contrast="none"> pattern to honour the victims and act as a living memorial to them. (They also released a </span><a href="https://www.witchesofscotland.com/book"><span data-contrast="none">Book</span></a><span data-contrast="none"> called </span><i><span data-contrast="none">How to Kill a Witch: A Guide to the Patriarchy </span></i><span data-contrast="none">which is a brilliant read and mentions the University’s </span><a href="https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/"><span data-contrast="none">The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> – I highly recommend putting it at the top of your reading list). In our consultations with various organisations, the issue of appropriately memorialising the accused was one which was met with much interest and enthusiasm, and it seems that a place to go and pay our solemn respects to those whose lives were unjustly taken is something that would largely be supported and welcomed in Edinburgh.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Final Thoughts</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Although there is much more work to be done in ensuring that the stories of the individuals who were accused of witchcraft are understood and remembered with accuracy and empathy, an appetite undoubtably exists for promoting these stories and memorialising these individuals in an appropriate and meaningful way. It is within this context that we will be submitting our bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund with the aim of establishing an open license, publicly accessible resource containing all known information on Scotland’s accused witches that can be used by researchers, historians, authors, artists, teachers, students and so many other groups to support work in and beyond the education and heritage sectors. Alongside this, we plan to run a programme of public engagement events to facilitate the public’s active participation with the data and stories of the accused. Further than simply historical education, we will encourage cultural reflection on themes such as women’s rights and the scapegoating of marginalised groups that permeate not just our past, but also our present. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">There is much we as a society can learn from this dark period of Scottish history, and I am hopeful that our bid, if successful, will support future research and work on the Scottish witch trials and bring awareness to the real stories behind the 3837 Scottish people, mostly women, who were accused of and in many cases executed for crimes they simply did not commit. I have been greatly moved by not just the deaths, but the lives of these individuals and am so grateful to have played a role this summer in preserving their memory for generations to come. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<div id="attachment_1636" style="width: 639px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Woodcut.jpg"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1636" class="size-large wp-image-1636" src="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Woodcut-1024x747.jpg" alt="Woodcut from the Newes of Scotland pamphlet depicting suspected witches from North Berwick as they are threatened with a beating as they appear before two Scottish magistrates." width="629" height="459" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1636" class="wp-caption-text">Woodcut on display at the National Museum of Scotland from the Newes of Scotland pamphlet depicting suspected witches from North Berwick as they are threatened with a beating as they appear before two Scottish magistrates. Pic by Ewan McAndrew, CC-BY-SA</p></div>
<p><strong>NB: Dervla has done so well over the last twelve weeks that she is continuing in post (part-time) during her studies this year.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ps. You can catch the Edinburgh Book festival talk, <a href="https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/claire-mitchell-and-zoe-venditozzi-women-not-witches"><em>Women not Witches</em>,</a> by Claire and Zoe of the Witches of Scotland at the Book Festival website.</strong></p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2025-10-07" itemprop="dateModified">Oct 7, 2025</time>
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<title>Preserving Scottish Heritage: The Accused Witches of Scotland</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/preserving-scottish-heritage-the-accused-witches-of-scotland/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/preserving-scottish-heritage-the-accused-witches-of-scotland/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ewan McAndrew]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 18:23:19 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Internship]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[access]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[data science]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[data skills]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dervla craig]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[emma carroll]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[environment]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[heritage]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[history]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[inclusion]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[julian goodare]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[national lottery]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[open access]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[participation]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[wikipedia]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[witch trials]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witchcraft]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=471</guid>
<description><![CDATA[This post was written by LLB student Dervla Craig on her first month as Information and Data Literacy intern this Summer. My name is Dervla and I am going into my second year of the Graduate LLB at the University of Edinburgh. This summer I am doing a 12-week internship with the University’s Information Services […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>This post was written by LLB student Dervla Craig on her first month as Information and Data Literacy intern this Summer.</strong></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">My name is Dervla and I am going into my second year of the Graduate LLB at the University of Edinburgh. This summer I am doing a 12-week internship with the University’s <a href="https://information-services.ed.ac.uk/">Information Services Group (ISG)</a> on one of the most fascinating projects I have ever had the opportunity to be a part of: <a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/">the Accused Witches of Scotland project</a>.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">I am one of a long line of interns who has been involved in this project each year since 2019, which aims to commemorate and spread awareness about those who were persecuted as witches in Scotland during the 16th to 18th centuries. While previous interns have primarily been focused on processing and importing data from the University’s landmark </span><a href="https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/faq/"><span data-contrast="none">The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> database (2003) into <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Scotland%27s_Accused_Witches">Wikidata</a> and created our </span><a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/"><span data-contrast="none">witches</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> website with new map and timeline visualisations, this year my role looks a bit different.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">My remit for the 12 weeks is to prepare a bid to the <a href="https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/">National Lottery Heritage Fund</a> to secure funding for what we hope can be the next phase of the project. Our goal is to preserve the accused witches’ data in the long-term and ensure that people can connect with and participate in this heritage now and in the future. As it has come to the end of my first month, I wanted to join the tradition of blogging about my internship experience so far.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<h3><span data-contrast="none">Getting to know the individual stories of the accused</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"335559738":160,"335559739":80}"> </span></h3>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">My first week was spent diving down the rabbit hole to explore all there is to learn about the Scottish witch trials. If you had asked me to describe an accused witch before this week, I would’ve told you they wore a pointy hat and flew around on a broomstick. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Now when I picture these women, they look like my mother, or my grandmother, or me. They were ordinary people who suffered an egregious injustice, and I was extremely moved when learning about their stories.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Some of the most valuable tools for my research included </span><a href="https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/faq/"><span data-contrast="none">The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">, created by Julian Goodare, a history professor at the University of Edinburgh, and his team in the late 90’s, and the <a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/">interactive </a></span><span data-contrast="none">witches</span><span data-contrast="auto"> map resource created by Emma Carroll, a geography student and our former Data Visualisation intern, and our late developer colleague Richard Lawson in September 2019. The Survey made use of the historic records of all the accused witches in Scotland between 1563 – 1736 and organised the details into a MS Access 1997 database, and our new 2019 map brings this data to life in a new and engaging way through importing the data into Wikipedia’s sister project, Wikidata, as linked open machine-readable data.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Learning about the great work that has been done previously definitely made me realise I have a lot to live up to but also motivated me to give it my all in the next twelve weeks and hopefully produce an end result that meets the standards of my predecessors.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<h3><span data-contrast="none">Writing a National Lottery Heritage Fund bid</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"335559738":160,"335559739":80}"> </span></h3>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The next thing to familiarise myself with before I could dive into my writing was the bid itself. I spent a few days combing through the NLHF website to understand what it is they are looking for and how our project fits those needs. By getting to know my audience, I could ensure that my writing was intriguing, evidence-based and persuasive. I quickly found out that before submitting the 10,000-word application, I must submit a 1000-word ‘Expression of Interest’. This EoI asks questions about the heritage of the project, what our project aims to achieve, and why it is needed now. At this point, I felt I could write a dissertation for each of these questions, so the tight word count was my biggest enemy. I had lots of help from some lovely colleagues who offered their feedback and advice, including the Project Director of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft, Professor Julian Goodare. After many tweaks and a few redrafts, I am happy to say at the end of week four that the EoI is pretty much ready to go.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<h3><span data-contrast="none">Exploring avenues for community engagement</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"335559738":160,"335559739":80}"> </span></h3>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Alongside writing, writing and more writing, I have also been brainstorming ideas for the community engagement side of our project. There have been so many great ideas by the team which have led to interesting and helpful discussions with different people and organisations, including the National Museum of Scotland, Reforesting Scotland, and some really talented artists. Excitingly, most of the responses we have received have been positive and enthusiastic. In the upcoming weeks, I hope to visit some of these places and see firsthand the primary sources from the witch trials.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<h4><span data-contrast="none">Workshops and all-staff events</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"335559738":160,"335559739":80}"> </span></h4>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Another educational and fun aspect of my experience so far, outside of my bid writing role, has been the plethora of events hosted by ISG. In the past month I have taken part in ‘intern welcome’ socials, Wikipedia writing workshops and even a workshop on an introduction to blogging! Alongside these, I have also attended two all-staff events, one for all Information Services Group (ISG) staff and one for the Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW) division. Not only have I learned so much about the behind-the-scenes and the people who have made my studies possible for the past five years, but these events have also been an opportunity to get to know more of my colleagues and socialise with other interns. At ISG there is a strong emphasis on having a healthy work-life balance and making sure that you and those around you have what you need to produce your best work.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<div id="attachment_473" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-473" class="size-medium wp-image-473" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2025/07/Window-300x234.png" alt="View of Edinburgh Castle from Floor K, Argyle House." width="300" height="234" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2025/07/Window-300x234.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2025/07/Window.png 363w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-473" class="wp-caption-text">View of Edinburgh Castle from Floor K, Argyle House. CC-BY-SA by Dervla Craig.</p></div>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">In conclusion, I have had an amazing first month as an intern with the University of Edinburgh. I have learned a lot, met new people, and pushed myself outside of my comfort zone. Plus the amazing view of Edinburgh Castle from Floor K has been a real motivator to work from the office and not from home! I am nothing but hopeful that the next eight weeks will be even more exciting and productive, and that I can blog again soon with positive updates!</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">P.S. If you haven’t already, definitely visit <a href="https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/">The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft</a> and the <a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/">Map of Accused Witches in Scotland</a> websites! They are both amazing (and important) educational resources that I could browse for hours (and have).</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
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<time datetime="2025-07-11" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 11, 2025</time>
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<title>The Final Countdown: New Features and Nuxt 3 Upgrade</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/the-final-countdown/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/the-final-countdown/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Oct 2024 10:03:55 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Student]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikimania]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=455</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Since I last wrote after I returned from Wikimania, I have been working on getting version 2.0 of the website up to scratch! The new version of the website is set to launch this October, which meant there was a lot to get done before then.Firstly, the website framework was due for an upgrade from […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>Since I last wrote after I returned from Wikimania, I have been working on getting version 2.0 of the website up to scratch! The new version of the website is set to launch this October, which meant there was a lot to get done before then.<br />Firstly, the website framework was due for an upgrade from Nuxt 2 to Nuxt 3. Nuxt is a javascript web development framework based on Vue.js, designed to make it easier to build fast and dynamic websites by handling much of the configuration and setup for developers. This upgrade was crucial for the website’s longevity and security, making it a top priority. This was something I had never done before, so I was a bit apprehensive. This did end up being quite a long challenging task as lots of the packages used in the website were not compatible with Nuxt 3 meaning I had to do quite a lot of problem solving and research to find new packages which could provide the same functionality and have a similar user interface. I learnt a lot from this process and had to be quite patient because at times I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get everything working, – for example the clustering of markers on the map – but after lots of trial and error and research I found a solution and felt proud of myself.</p>
<p><br />We also worked on some exciting new pages:</p>
<p><br /><strong>Map of Memorials & Sites of Interest:</strong> This is an interactive map showcasing memorials across Scotland dedicated to those who suffered during the witch trials, along with other sites of interest such as execution sites, prisons, meeting places, and museums with witchcraft displays. The purpose of this map is to document how the witch trials have been memorialised over time, and increasingly in recent years, and to provide people interested in the Scottish witch trials with locations they can visit.</p>
<p><br />This project involved an initial research period carried out by Ewan McAndrew, Ellie Whitehead and myself. We sought to identify memorial locations to include by reading books, searching the internet, and having discussions with Professor Julian Goodare. During these discussions, it became clear that several monuments are not based on actual historical events. For example, the Maggie Wall monument in Dunning—there is no evidence that Maggie Wall existed or was executed as a witch. However, we still found locations like this of interest in understanding how stories of witchcraft have been passed down through generations.</p>
<p><br />To differentiate between various types of sites, we created three categories: memorials, sites of interest, and tourist attractions. This allowed us to classify each location appropriately. After the research stage, we created Wikidata items for each location, adding any available images from Wikimedia Commons, coordinate locations, links to external websites, and street addresses. This data was then used to query and display these locations on a new webpage, where they are plotted on a map. <br />To provide further information to users, Ellie Whitehead wrote descriptions for each location in the database, explaining how the site is connected to the Scottish Witch Trials and addressing any misconceptions about historic fact vs folklore.<br /><br />Once we had collated all the information needed and created all Wikidata items I developed the website page and Stewart Cromar created new icons from the same woodcut of the North Berwick witches that the original icons are from.<br /><br /></p>
<div id="attachment_458" style="width: 321px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-458" class=" wp-image-458" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/intro-300x241.jpg" alt="North Berwick Witches Woodcut- Newes from Scotland" width="311" height="250" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/intro-300x241.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/intro.jpg 747w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 311px) 100vw, 311px" /><p id="caption-attachment-458" class="wp-caption-text">North Berwick Witches Woodcut – Newes from Scotland</p></div>
<p><br />This was a particularly rewarding page to create, as it involved multiple stages, including research, brainstorming ideas, designing the interface, and development. The result is a page I believe users will love, and that I feel proud of, as I believe it helps represents how the injustice of the Scottish Witch Trials has been commemorated across Scotland.</p>
<div id="attachment_459" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-459" class=" wp-image-459" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-300x136.png" alt="Current Design of Memorials Page" width="474" height="215" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-300x136.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-1024x463.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-768x347.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-1536x694.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-1440x651.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page.png 1917w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px" /><p id="caption-attachment-459" class="wp-caption-text">Memorials Page</p></div>
<p><br /><strong>Further Reading:</strong> A list of books, journals, and articles recommended by Professor Julian Goodare (director of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft) and Ellie Whitehead for those who wanted to learn more about the Scottish witch trials. Links are provided on where they can be accessed.</p>
<p><br /><strong>Glossary:</strong> A glossary containing terms used across the website, along with their meanings, was created to help users understand specialized vocabulary, as the filter lists may include terms that are not commonly known. We wanted users to have an easy way to discover the contextual meanings to get the most out of the website. Ellie Whitehead used the glossary from the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft as a base, then added any additional terms from the filters that might not have an obvious meaning. After she compiled the list of terms and definitions, I created the web page. We decided it would be helpful if the list could be sorted either alphabetically or by category, making it easier for users to find terms.</p>
<div id="attachment_460" style="width: 445px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-460" class=" wp-image-460" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-300x133.png" alt="Glossary Page" width="435" height="193" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-300x133.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-1024x455.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-768x341.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-1536x682.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-1440x640.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary.png 1916w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 435px) 100vw, 435px" /><p id="caption-attachment-460" class="wp-caption-text">Glossary Page</p></div>
<p><br /><strong>Introduction to Scottish Witchcraft:</strong> A page offering contextual information on the Scottish witchcraft trials to help users understand the historical background and significance of these events. We decided to include a video of Professor Julian Goodare for users who find it easier to learn from video content or those looking for more information, and who better to learn from than the creator of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft himself!<br />Initially, we planned to create a short, 5-minute general introduction to Scottish witchcraft. However, but given Julian’s incredible wealth of knowledge, we asked him additional questions we thought people would be most interested in, resulting in more videos about the Scottish Witch Trials and the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft to add to the website.<br />We recorded these videos in the University of Edinburgh’s Media Studio at Argyle House. I thoroughly enjoyed using this space, as it allowed us to create professional-quality videos. The studio is fully equipped with tools like a teleprompter, TV backdrop, light boxes, a microphone, and, of course, a camera.</p>
<div id="attachment_461" style="width: 410px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-461" class=" wp-image-461" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-300x135.jpeg" alt="Media Studio" width="400" height="180" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-300x135.jpeg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-1024x461.jpeg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-768x346.jpeg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-1536x692.jpeg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-1440x649.jpeg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media.jpeg 2016w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /><p id="caption-attachment-461" class="wp-caption-text">Media Studio</p></div>
<p><br />Currently these new pages and upgrade are getting reviewed by web developer Andrew Millington before getting deployed to the site in order to make sure that the code is maintainable, working as intended, and a user friendly interface. Once these have been reviewed and all issues that come up resolved then the website will be ready for it’s version 2 launch!! <span data-teams="true"><span class="ui-provider a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ab ac ae af ag ah ai aj ak" dir="ltr">I’m really excited for this to go live so everyone can see all the work mentioned (above) that I’ve been working on for the last year and all the previous interns’ work too!</span></span></p>
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<time datetime="2024-10-03" itemprop="dateModified">Oct 3, 2024</time>
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<title>Wikimania 2024: A Conference of Collaboration, Learning and Culture</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Aug 2024 09:34:24 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Conference]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Student]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikimania]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=424</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ On July 15th I returned as ‘Witchfinder General’ – Data Visualisation Intern for another 3 months of working on the Map of Scottish Accused Witches of Project. We are now 4 weeks in and I have lots to share.I went to my first ever conference – Wikimania! Wikimania is an annual conference hosted by […]]]></description>
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<p>On July 15th I returned as ‘Witchfinder General’ – Data Visualisation Intern for another 3 months of working on the Map of Scottish Accused Witches of Project. We are now 4 weeks in and I have lots to share.<br /><br />I went to my first ever conference – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimania">Wikimania</a>! Wikimania is an annual conference hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, including presentations and discussions on Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. This year it was held in Katowice, Poland. I went with my manager Ewan McAndrew to give a presentation on Student engagement with openness. Ewan spoke about examples of all the Wikimedia related student projects he has run at the University of Edinburgh and then I spoke about the work we have done on this project.<br /><br /><a href="https://wikimania.eventyay.com/2024/talk/FALUVE/">Find out more about our presentation here!</a> <br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/wLgxZTcjhjY?si=POQvnW26tqevogTD&t=7920">Watch the presentation here.</a> <br /><br />Before going, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the conference. In my mind, a conference seemed like a very formal event, which I thought might make me feel a bit out of place. However, as soon as I arrived, I found a relaxed and open atmosphere with a diverse group of people. From volunteers to software developers, people who work for the Wikimedia Foundation to those who edit Wikipedia in their free time, there was a wide range of interests, passions, careers, ages, and nationalities present. This diversity created a warm and accepting environment that made open discussion comfortable. I was initially apprehensive about my presentation, as public speaking is something that scares me a little, but that made the achievement feel even greater.<br /><br />Along with giving the presentation I also got to attend lots of interesting talks and panel discussions. These covered lots of topics including the future of AI within the Wikipedia movement, facing the gender imbalance on Wikipedia, open data and the climate crisis, Wikipedia in education and even more. I think the standout for me was some of the AI discussions, thinking about how the Wikimedia movement could use AI but also the risks that would come along with them. Each session was really interesting and eye opening and great to hear views from people from all over the world. Throughout the conference I got to hear about all the different work that goes on in the Wikimedia movement.</p>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/wikimania_katowice_2024_-_opening_ceremony_wikimedian_of_the_year_awards_32/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="200" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32-300x200.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Marching Band at Wikimania Opening Ceremony" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/1024px-wikimania_katowice_2024_ksp_005/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="200" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/1024px-Wikimania_Katowice_2024_KsP_005-300x200.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Wikimania Entrance" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/1024px-Wikimania_Katowice_2024_KsP_005-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/1024px-Wikimania_Katowice_2024_KsP_005-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/1024px-Wikimania_Katowice_2024_KsP_005.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="201" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544-300x201.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Wikimania Opening Ceremony" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544-300x201.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544-768x513.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544.jpg 1306w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6316/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Pottery Painting at Wikimania" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6326/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Traditional Polish Choir" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6565/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Lighting Talk at Wikimania" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<p><br /><br />Not only were there many interesting sessions, the conference also included lots of entertainment – an opening ceremony with a Polish marching band and awards for the standout Wikimedians presented by Jimmy Wales (the founder of Wikipedia), a pottery painting class where we got to paint our own mug. I really enjoyed this activity. It was a lovely calming moment in a busy conference. There was also a performance from a traditional Polish choir, and a closing ceremony with a performance from the Wiki Orchestra , a group of talented musicians from the Wikimedia community playing a beautiful piece by Chopin. Then to finish a closing party in the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra with Wikimedians mingling and dancing to celebrate the end of a successful 4 day conference full of collaboration, learning, and cultural exchange.</p>
<p><br />During my free time, I also explored Katowice. I visited the Silesian Museum (An old mine that had since been repurposed), walked around appreciating the city’s architecture, and tried local cuisine such as Polish dumplings (called pierogies). They were delicious! On my way back, I flew out of Krakow, so I got to see some of that city as well, taking a walk around the old town, visiting the castle, strolling along the river, and exploring the Jewish quarter. It was exciting being able to explore and learn about both these cities that I hadn’t visited before.</p>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6400/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Silesian Museum" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6518/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Panteon Górnośląski w Katowicach" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6544/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Garrison Church" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6552/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Buildings in Katowice on Juliusxa Slowackiego" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6609/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Horse and Carriage in Krakow" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6621/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="St Mary's Basilica, Krakow" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<p><br /><br />Now back in Edinburgh with lots of work to continue, I’m reflecting on what was an enriching experience for which I am very grateful. I’m proud to have presented at an international conference, which will definitely boost my confidence. It was inspiring to see the variety of work happening within the Wikimedia community, such as the resilience of the Ukrainian community during the ongoing war. The conference felt like a community that was excited to meet and learn from one another and I’m glad to have been part of it.<br /><br /></p>
<div id="attachment_450" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-450" class="wp-image-450 size-large" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-1024x1024.jpeg" alt="Wikimania 2024 Group Photo" width="740" height="740" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-300x300.jpeg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-768x768.jpeg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media.jpeg 1080w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><p id="caption-attachment-450" class="wp-caption-text">Wikimania 2024 Group Photo</p></div>
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<time datetime="2024-08-19" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 19, 2024</time>
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<title>Remembering Scotland’s Accused Witches: Books, Plays and Memorials</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/internship-wrap-up/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/internship-wrap-up/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 25 Aug 2023 15:55:59 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=402</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I am writing this blog post on the final day of my internship. The 12 weeks have flown by! Over this period, a lot of progress has been made to the new version of the site. This has consisted of:• Quality checking the data by comparing the data from the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft to […]]]></description>
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<p style="text-align: left">I am writing this blog post on the final day of my internship. The 12 weeks have flown by! Over this period, a lot of progress has been made to the new version of the site.</p>
<p style="text-align: left"><br />This has consisted of:<br />• Quality checking the data by comparing the data from the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft to the data on Wikidata.<br />• Making improvements and getting rid of bugs on the website .<br />• User testing sessions.</p>
<p style="text-align: left"><br />You can read more about these in the previous blog posts. However, there is still progress to be made so I am going to continue to work on this project one day a week when I return to university in September! This will allow us to make sure we are fully confident with the data being used and the happy with the content of the website before releasing the new version of the website. The new version of the website includes lots of exciting new information and features such as accusations of shapeshifting and ritual objects plotted on a filterable map, custom timeline searches, a <a href="http://www.histropedia.com/">Histropedia</a> timeline where you can do name searches and filtering by age of accused and a new historic map layer using <a href="https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=10.6&lat=55.91496&lon=-3.36726&layers=125140579&b=1">the 1750 Dorret georeferenced map from National Library of Scotland</a>.</p>
<p>If you want to find out more about what I’ve been working on watch this video below:</p>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DKwfk7mgxk0?feature=oembed" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Over the past 2 weeks I’ve had the opportunity to attend interesting witch related events at the Edinburgh festivals. I went to a talk at Edinburgh International Book Festival with the authors Mairi Kidd (<a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/we-are-all-witches/mairi-kidd/9781785304132">We Are All Witches</a> ) and Allyson Shaw (<a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/ashes-and-stones/allyson-shaw/9781529395457">Ashes and Stone</a>) who have written books about the accused witches of Scotland which they discussed in this talk. “We Are All Witches” tells fictionalised accounts of 16 of the accused witches based on the information available and “Ashes and Stones” follows the authors journey visiting memorials of the accused witches around Scotland. This highlighted the importance and relevance of telling the individual stories and the memorialisation of those who suffered.</p>
<p>With my manager I also went to see a play at the fringe called <a href="https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/prick">Prick</a>, which told the stories of some of the executed women accused of witchcraft including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isobel_Gowdie">Issobell Gowdie</a>. These were both really inspiring, emotional and evocative events. I think after spending so long working with the data you begin to forget that these were real people and not just entries on a database, I was really reminded of how horrific, unjust and inhumane the trials and sufferings these women went through really were, which enforced in my mind the importance of sharing their stories. Also, both the authors at the book talk and the playwright of Prick used the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft as one of their primary resources when researching the Scottish witch trials which was a reminder of how valuable the data we are working with is.</p>
<div id="attachment_405" style="width: 349px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-405" class=" wp-image-405" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/booktalk-e1692977642502-225x300.jpg" alt="Mairi Kidd & Allyson Shaw: Who Are the Real Witches? - Book Festival Talk" width="339" height="452" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/booktalk-e1692977642502-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/booktalk-e1692977642502.jpg 480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 339px) 100vw, 339px" /><p id="caption-attachment-405" class="wp-caption-text">Mairi Kidd & Allyson Shaw: Who Are the Real Witches? – Book Festival Talk</p></div>
<p>After going to both events it was really in our minds how important it is to remember and learn from these people’s stories and the there is a lot of interest in how they are memorialised. This has lead us to decide we will begin working on the idea we had to create a map of memorials for the accused witches. So people can see in one place the memorials that local areas have dedicated to the accused witches that were subject to the trials, torture and executions. We have started researching this by borrowing the book <a href="https://beul-aithris-publishing.onlineweb.shop/Witch_Memorials_of_Scotland/p6366266_20228504.aspx"><em>Witch Memorials of Scotland</em> by Gregor Stewart</a> from the University library. We also met with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Goodare">Professor Julian Goodare</a> to update him on the progress that has been made, ask him for advice, make use of his expertise and discuss our future ideas going forward such as the map of memorials.</p>
<div id="attachment_406" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-406" class="size-medium wp-image-406" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-300x157.jpg" alt="Ruby and Professor Julian Goodare" width="300" height="157" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-300x157.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-768x402.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image.jpg 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-406" class="wp-caption-text">Ruby and Professor Julian Goodare</p></div>
<p><br />Overall, this internship has been a great experience because not only have I learnt lots of new technical skills (programming in R, Vue JavaScript framework, Wikidata, Sparql queries, user testing and user interface design) and professional skills (communication, teamwork and time management) I have also got to learn lots about this dark period of Scottish history through lots of different mediums. I’ve been inspired to learn more in my own time and have read <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/hex/jenni-fagan/9781846976223">Hex</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenni_Fagan">Jenni Fagan</a> which tells an imagining of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geillis_Duncan">Geillis Duncan</a>‘s last night. This has made me passionate about working on this project as I’ve realised the real world value and impact of helping people to understand the stories and individuals behind this data. I’m looking forward to continuing this work and launching the new version of the site which hopefully further shares these individual stories as best we can.</p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2023-08-25" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 25, 2023</time>
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<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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<title>From Witches to Widgets: A Witchfinder Intern’s Update</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/from-witches-to-widgets-a-witchfinder-interns-update/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/from-witches-to-widgets-a-witchfinder-interns-update/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 08 Aug 2023 09:14:50 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Internship]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=383</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Hello, It’s been a while since my last blog post so it’s time for an update about my time as Witchfinder General Data Visualisation intern! Since my last post, I’ve been busy as ever, diving into the world of data quality assuring, tinkering with our website, and getting some insights from users and lots of […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>Hello, It’s been a while since my last blog post so it’s time for an update about my time as Witchfinder General Data Visualisation intern! Since my last post, I’ve been busy as ever, diving into the world of data quality assuring, tinkering with our website, and getting some insights from users and lots of other fun and interesting experiences.</p>
<div id="attachment_389" style="width: 298px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-389" class=" wp-image-389" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-225x300.jpg" alt="Photo of Me Working on the Website" width="288" height="384" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal.jpg 1500w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 288px) 100vw, 288px" /><p id="caption-attachment-389" class="wp-caption-text">Working on the Website in Argyle House</p></div>
<p><br />My role in ensuring the accuracy and reliability of our data continues. With the aim of making sure our users get the most reliable insights and facts meanwhile respecting the original work of Survey of Scottish Witchcraft. I have now compared lots of fields including place of detention, primary & secondary case characteristics, cause of death, manner of death and lots more. From this I have been able to see that some information has been discovered since the Survey and added to Wikidata. I have made sure that all this information is referenced to trustworthy verifiable sources, ensuring that our website has the most accurate and up to date information possible. You can keep track of my progress <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Scotland%27s_Accused_Witches/To_do">on our Wikidata project page here</a>.</p>
<div id="attachment_386" style="width: 495px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-386" class=" wp-image-386" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-300x143.png" alt="New Feature on the Website which allows you to see historic version of Map" width="485" height="231" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-300x143.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-1024x489.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-768x367.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-1536x734.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-1440x688.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919.png 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px" /><p id="caption-attachment-386" class="wp-caption-text">New Historic Map Fearure</p></div>
<p><br />I’ve added some cool features to our website! You can now travel back in time with our historical map layer. After discussing different map layers with <span class="ui-provider fz b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ab ac ae af ag ah ai aj ak" dir="ltr">Chris Fleet at National Library of Scotland we selected <a href="https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=12.2&lat=55.92314&lon=-3.22392&layers=125140579&b=1">the 1750 georeferenced James Dorret map</a>. </span>This lets you see how things looked closer to the time of the accused witches. Plus, we’ve made it easier for users to pick and choose what they want to see with the select and deselect buttons and changing the list of filters to alphabetical order. And I’ve been on a bug-hunting mission to get rid of them and make sure everything runs smoothly to make the website easier to navigate. We have had several other ideas of how we can make our website more engaging and informative, one of these ideas was to add some illustrations to the website to help users understand what information is being displayed to them. So I talked to one of the other interns Ally who is working on an interactive colouring in book. She came out with some initial ideas that could be used as icons for the accusations of Shapeshifting and the Ritual Objects supposed used and they turned out great! However, we have some concerns relating to including modern illustrations on our website. We are worried it could distract from the academic historical work or misrepresent some of these historical ideas (e.g. Shapeshifting) that we are referring to.</p>
<div id="attachment_398" style="width: 325px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-398" class=" wp-image-398" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-300x155.jpg" alt="Concept Illustrations for Website" width="315" height="163" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-300x155.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-1024x527.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-768x396.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-1536x791.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-1440x742.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 315px) 100vw, 315px" /><p id="caption-attachment-398" class="wp-caption-text">Concept Illustrations for Website</p></div>
<p>I also ran 7 user testing sessions with support from the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/user-experience">User Experience team</a> who’s aim is to deliver user-centred products. I initially met with members of the team and they informed me that the best way to improve the user experience of the website would be to find out what needs improving by conducting user testing. They gave me lots of advice on how to go about these sessions and for one of my first sessions helped me take notes. We decided to test on users who were experts on history and some people with very little previous knowledge on witches! So I reached out to <span class="ui-provider fz b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ab ac ae af ag ah ai aj ak" dir="ltr">Assistant Professor Mikki Brock, Witches of Scotland podcasters, Dr. Chris Langley and other interns to see if they would be interested in participating, and they all were! </span>This range of knowledge was really useful to see how the different types of users interacted with the website, this is important as these are both user groups that our website in intended for. I would give the users tasks to complete on the site and watch them complete them, taking notes and then ask them questions to hear their thoughts and advice. Their feedback will help guide us towards the best version of the website possible. I’ve shared their insights with the team, and together we’re deciding what we came take from it to make improvements to the site.</p>
<p><br />As part of my internship, I’ve also had some pretty cool experiences beyond the screen. A trip to <a href="https://www.stcecilias.ed.ac.uk/whats-on/">St Celias Hall</a>, a musical instrument museum, was a really interesting experience that I learnt lots of new information from. I’ve also dabbled in Wikipedia writing after attending a Wikipedia training session, I researched and wrote a page about the accused witch <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issobell_Fergussone">Issobelle Fergesoune</a>. It’s great to be able to write about the accused witches individual stories as this humanizes them and helps people understand what they really went through. Also, I have attended several team meetings, where coffee and cake were involved!</p>
<div id="attachment_392" style="width: 297px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392" class=" wp-image-392" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-225x300.jpg" alt="Musical Instruments in St Celia's Hall" width="287" height="383" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px" /><p id="caption-attachment-392" class="wp-caption-text">Musical Instruments in St Celia’s Hall</p></div>
<p>So, what’s next? I have two quite big challenges to focus on, one being making sure the website is mobile responsive and the other being trying to reduce the load time when opening the website. Currently, the website can takes some time to load because there is huge amounts of data being pulled. This will be quite technically difficult to solve. Our approach is going to be separating the queries pulling the data into smaller queries so less data is being pulled at once. The load time is very important to user experience and something that was mentioned several times in the user testing sessions. Hopefully after these improvements the new version of the website will be one step closer to being released!</p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2023-08-08" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 8, 2023</time>
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<title>Weeks 2 and 3 – Unravelling Anomalies and Starting the Website Transformation</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/weeks-2-and-3-unravelling-anomalies-and-starting-the-website-transformation/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/weeks-2-and-3-unravelling-anomalies-and-starting-the-website-transformation/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 28 Jun 2023 06:31:51 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=377</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I am now coming the end of my third week as the Witchfinder General – Data Visualisation intern and time has flown by. Over the past 2 weeks I have begun on the journey of Quality Assuring the data and improving the website. This process began by dealing with the anomalies between the names and […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span data-contrast="auto">I am now coming the end of my third week as the Witchfinder General – Data Visualisation intern and time has flown by. Over the past 2 weeks I have begun on the journey of Quality Assuring the data and improving the website. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">This process began by dealing with the anomalies between the names and gender of accused witches that the previous intern, Claire had found and then after consulting with<a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/about-us/staff-profiles/profile_tab5_academic.php?uun=jgoodare&search=2¶ms="> Professor Julian Goodare</a> about these differences making the corresponding necessary changes in wikidata. Then I began with looking at different properties, starting with social class and occupation. From this I discovered there was some differences with the wording of some of the values used in the Survey and in Wikidata. This was because there are some very Survey-specific terms related to witch hunts in 16th century Scotland and a 21st century platform like Wikidata has items of data that are of more general use with often more modern definitions of terms as a community knowledgebase of open linked data. It is also because language changes over time and the definitions and use of terms and placenames has changed since the 16th century. Where possible it is better to use a common language of terms so that the data can be explored and parsed more easily. However, if there are stark differences then it is better to make sure that Wikidata has terms suitable for explaining the specific nature of terms of the information contained within the Survey so that there is no loss of meaning or misrepresentation creeping in. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><div id="attachment_380" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-380" class="wp-image-380 size-medium" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/wordTable-300x224.png" alt="Anomalies in Value Labels between Wikidata and the Survey" width="300" height="224" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/wordTable-300x224.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/wordTable.png 463w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-380" class="wp-caption-text">Anomalies in Value Labels between Wikidata and the Survey</p></div></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">In most cases Professor Julian Goodare, lecturer in History and project Director of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft database (2003), approved of these cases but he suggested that </span><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54128"><b><span data-contrast="auto">domestic worker</span></b></a><span data-contrast="auto"> did not give appropriate meaning and that adding a new value <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q119574553"><strong>servant</strong> </a>would represent the work they did more accurately so I changed every accused witch on Wikidata that was down a domestic worker to servant using <a href="https://quickstatements.toolforge.org/#/">Quickstatements</a>. Once we had confirmed that the rest of the terms being used in Wikidata were suitable, there was no anomalies left for social class but there was some for occupation. There were some witches in Wikidata where some additional occupations had been added that were not mentioned in the survey. We sent these to Prof. Julian Goodare and he looked through his resources and verified whether these occupations were accurate and provided us with a reference that could be added to Wikidata. This is part of the benefit of working with open linked data where multiple values can be added by a community of users if it aids and augments the data. It does need to be verifiable however so adding a reference to back up statements being added is key.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Looking at residence property was my next hurdle and it proved to be a more difficult and time consuming task than the previous properties. This was because in the Survey there were numerous columns of locations for each accused witch – settlement, parish, presbytery, county and burgh – and on Wikidata different locations have been chosen depending on which residence Emma.. ( the first student intern to work on this project) was able to find. Emma worked with georeferenced historic maps from the National Library of Scotland and placename books to try and identify which placename listed in the five columns of data in the Survey could be geolocated on a map to be the most specific place of residence for each accused witch we could approximate a co-ordinate location for. This means there is a lot of differences between the survey data and Wikidata to look through, so this is something I am still working on , as there are 820 locations to look at.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">I have also began working on the website improvements. This began by creating a list of all the things we would like to change/add and categorising them into bugs, new features, and navigation improvements. And we also had a meeting with Prof. Julian Goodare to discuss potential additions with him. Lots of great ideas came out of this meeting such as filming an explainer video for the ‘About’ webpage that would give an introduction this project, the background of the survey of Scottish witchcraft and a guide to the website. Once we had completed a categorised list, I had a meeting with the web development team, Andrew and Richard, and we played ‘scrum poker’, a method for each of us guesstimating how long each development task might take. The next stage was to start working through these tasks and prioritising any bugs.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The navigation and user interface of the test site of the website is something that needs improved before making this version available to the public. We reached out to the ISG’s User Experience (UX) Service to see if they could provide us with any support on this side of things. We had a meeting with them to give them an introduction the project and website, give our ideas, answer their questions and gauge the kind of support they could give us. I think the main goal of the site is to make a good resource for people interested in witches but also those with no prior knowledge. Since the website was first released loads of visualisations were added to the test site of version 2 by Maggie and Josep, our student interns in Summer 2022. These have provided great new insights but have caused for the navigational layout of the site to become slightly unorganised. It is often hard to find what you are looking for or understand what you are looking at. Ahead of the meeting with the UX team, I created some mock ups showing how we could change the navigation so that all the maps of accused witches are in the same place (discoverable in the left hand menu pictured below) and you can explore the map with different filters and read contextual text explaining each visualisation. This way people are more likely to view and understand more of the information. We are soon to have a follow up meeting with them to discuss things further.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><div id="attachment_378" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-378" class="wp-image-378 size-medium" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web1-300x131.png" alt="Mock-up of Web Improvements" width="300" height="131" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web1-300x131.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web1.png 683w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-378" class="wp-caption-text">Mock-up of Web Improvements</p></div></p>
<p><div id="attachment_379" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-379" class="wp-image-379 size-medium" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web2-300x136.png" alt="Mock-up of Web Improvements" width="300" height="136" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web2-300x136.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web2.png 681w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-379" class="wp-caption-text">Mock-up of Web Improvements</p></div></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Overall, I have really enjoyed my first few weeks. I have been able to work on a variation of tasks including web development, data assurance and Wikidata. This has kept things interesting and exciting and I have learnt so much already from new technical skills to greater historical knowledge of what happened to these accused witches. have had meetings with lots of interesting people all providing valuable ideas to the project. I have also met lots of other interns and staff at various events such as the welcome lunch, home baking morning and the all staff BBQ. I am excited to continue the work I have done so far.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span><br />
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
<time datetime="2023-06-28" itemprop="dateModified">Jun 28, 2023</time><br />
</span></p>
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<title>A Witchfinder’s Quest : Ensuring Data Accuracy & Enhancing the Website</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/witchfinders-data-accuracy-website/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/witchfinders-data-accuracy-website/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 Jun 2023 09:05:50 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Internship]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=366</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Hi! I’m Ruby and I’m a 3rd year undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh studying Computer Science. And I am the new Witchfinder General – Data Visualisation Intern and I am going to be continuing with the great work of the previous interns that have worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. So far, […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi! I’m Ruby and I’m a 3<sup>rd</sup> year undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh studying Computer Science. And I am the new Witchfinder General – Data Visualisation Intern and I am going to be continuing with the great work of the previous interns that have worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. So far, many amazing visualisations have been created and added to the website that make it a great educational resource that everyone can access.</p>
<p>These visualisations have been based on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Database created by academics in the early 2000’s. Key information from this database has been uploaded to <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page">Wikidata</a>, allowing for this data to be more accessible to a large community, and has allowed editing and augmentation by members of the Wikidata community. Most visualisations on the website are creating using the data from Wikidata. Wikidata is part of the Wikimedia family, and is a free and open knowledge base composed of structured data that is used in Wikipedia and projects such as this one.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><div id="attachment_367" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-367" class="size-medium wp-image-367" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-300x225.jpg" alt="Familiarizing myself with the datasets and the current website" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-768x576.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1.jpg 2016w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-367" class="wp-caption-text">Familiarizing myself with the datasets and the current website</p></div></p>
<p><strong>My Goals for Working on this Project</strong></p>
<p>Since the data has been uploaded to Wikidata, it means there may be differences between the Wikidata and the orginal survey data due to the possibility of import errors and other users editing the data. It is important that we check that the data is all this accurate in order to prevent the spread of misinformation and to respect the original historical record, the historical events, what happened to these women, and the work of the researchers on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft. The intern previous to me, Claire Panella, developed a method using R Studio to find the entries that don’t match between Wikidata and the original Survey of Scottish Witches databases. She first completed checking the gender and then the names of the accused witches matched the Survey, from this it was discovered there was several anomalies. One of my roles while pursuing this internship is to continue this work of quality assuring the linked open data used in our website. This will be approached by using Claire’s methodology to check all the different variables displayed in the visualisations, then verifying what changes need made by consulting with academic expert colleagues before making any of the changes. This way we will know the information we are displaying is the most accurate version possible. Although, because this is historical data there are omissions and inexactitudes that by opening up the data to a public audience we hope to be able to further scrutinise and improve on what we know about this dark period of Scottish history.</p>
<p>Along with quality assuring the data I will be working on improving the <a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/">website</a> in order, with the aim of users being able to gain as much from the website as possible. This will in involve making some changes to the user interface in order to make it more accessible and usable by making it more user friendly and easier to navigate. Furthermore, adding any visualisations that we believe will provide insightful information to users of the website. For example, I had the idea of creating a heatmap to show the distribution of the accused witches across Scotland. Whilst working on the website, we will gather ideas and opinions from experts in all things Wiki and Witches!</p>
<p><strong>My First Week</strong></p>
<p>During my first week on this project, I dedicated my time to familiarizing myself with the datasets, which comprise a substantial database with over 3,000 entries. This extensive collection contains a wealth of information about each accused witch, their respective witch trials, and the overarching investigations into witchcraft. Consequently, there were many aspects to consider, and this gave me a lot to think about.</p>
<p>In order for me to effectively use <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page">Wikidata</a>, a platform I had limited knowledge about before starting this project, I engaged with various members of the Wikidata community. These individuals offered valuable advice and guidance as I begin navigate this project. In order to make the most of Wikidata’s capabilities, I devoted time to learning how to effectively utilize Sparql (a query language for databases) and Openrefine (an open-source tool specifically designed for working with untidy datasets).</p>
<p>Furthermore, this project has required the development of new skills to effectively manipulate the databases and improve the website. In this pursuit, I acquainted myself with R Studio, a programming language I had not previously worked with. I discovered that R Studio offers a user-friendly interface along with robust statistical and data analysis functionalities, making it a suitable choice of software for the project’s requirements. Additionally, I followed tutorials on Vue.js, the JavaScript framework employed for constructing the website.</p>
<p>Over the past year, interns previous to me have worked on a version 2 of the website with some changes made and extra visualisations added to the website. This version currently has not been made public. Over the course of my internship we hope to get this version to a completed stage and make this version public. To kickstart the process, I engaged in brainstorming sessions to generate ideas for the website. Subsequently, I organized and prioritized these ideas, ensuring a clear direction for the project.</p>
<p>I’m really excited to work on this project. As a Computer Science student, I have some experience with working with large datasets and creating data visualizations and working on web applications, and I am excited to be able to develop these skills. Meanwhile, getting to learn to learn a lot about this historic event and work on a great resource that can educate people on one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in Scottish History.<br />
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
<time datetime="2023-06-12" itemprop="dateModified">Jun 12, 2023</time><br />
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<title>Finding Impossible Witches: Part One The Search Begins</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/finding-impossible-witches-part-one/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/finding-impossible-witches-part-one/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[cpanella]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 05 Apr 2023 15:38:47 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[claire panella]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[open data]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=351</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Inheriting the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Project Hi! I’m Claire, a 4th year undergraduate studying International Relations with Quantitative Methods at the University of Edinburgh, and the latest in a long line of interns and others who’ve worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. The data involved in this project was originally compiled in […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><span data-contrast="none">Inheriting the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Project</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">Hi! I’m Claire, a 4</span><span data-contrast="none">th</span><span data-contrast="none"> year undergraduate studying International Relations with Quantitative Methods at the University of Edinburgh, and the latest in a long line of interns and others who’ve worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. The data involved in this project was originally compiled in a Microsoft Access Database by academics in the early 2000’s. Since then, key information from the database has been added to Wikidata, allowing for greater accessibility as well as editing and augmentation by members of the Wikidata community. People have done lots of great things with this data, including </span><a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/"><span data-contrast="none">all the visualisations</span></a><span data-contrast="none"> put together by the previous data visualisation interns, but now that the data is stored across several different platforms, it’s important to make sure that these versions are reconciled. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">My role is to find the ‘Impossible Witches’; those entries which don’t m</span><span data-contrast="none">atch between Wikidata and the original Access database.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><div id="attachment_353" style="width: 566px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-353" class="wp-image-353" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408-300x219.jpg" alt="" width="556" height="406" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408-300x219.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408-1024x747.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408-768x560.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408.jpg 1080w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 556px) 100vw, 556px" /><p id="caption-attachment-353" class="wp-caption-text">Working away making my first comparisons in R. By Claire Panella, Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0</p></div></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none"> </span><b><span data-contrast="none">Checking against the database item by item</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">My initial approach to this was to use R to compare between csv files exported from the Access database, and csv files accessed by querying Wikidata. This required downloading both files, checking to make sure variable labels matched, combining the datasets, and isolating the cases where the information didn’t match iso I could look through and see where the issues were.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">For some features, like gender, a lot of information h</span><span data-contrast="none">as been added to Wikidata that isn’t present in the survey, but there are very few cases where </span><span data-contrast="none">Wikidata and the survey have conflicting information.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><div id="attachment_354" style="width: 554px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-354" class="wp-image-354" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/gender-anomalies-300x169.png" alt="" width="544" height="306" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/gender-anomalies-300x169.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/gender-anomalies.png 602w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 544px) 100vw, 544px" /><p id="caption-attachment-354" class="wp-caption-text">Anomalies in Gender between Wikidata and the Survey</p></div></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">In others, like Name, the situation is a bit more complicated. Sometimes the spellings vary between Wikidata and the Survey – this could be for a few reasons, and to add to the complications, both data sources have multiple name categories – the survey includes both modern and historical first and last names, while Wikidata includes both an Item Identifier and aliases. I’ve also looked for exact matches between the text from each source, so some inconsistencies just have to do with capitalisation and spacing. Really, it’s impressive there are only 23 anomalies!</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><div id="attachment_352" style="width: 543px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-352" class="wp-image-352" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/name-anomalies-300x170.png" alt="" width="533" height="302" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/name-anomalies-300x170.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/name-anomalies.png 602w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px" /><p id="caption-attachment-352" class="wp-caption-text">Anomalies in Name between Wikidata and the Survey</p></div></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">My goal now is to come up with a solid procedure to check wikidata entri</span><span data-contrast="none">es against the survey so we can be sure we’re consistent and accurate in which data changes we keep. After that, I’ll work on a methodology to pass on to whomever the next ‘Witchfinder General’ is so that we can keep track of data changes as the project continues to grow and evolve. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">As I look for a method to continuously check for differences between the original survey data and the most up to date version of Wikidata, I’ve turned to the Wikidata community for help. Ewan reached out to his contacts, and I reached out via <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Project_chat">Project Chat</a> as well as a Slack channel for <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_LD4_Wikidata_Affinity_Group">libraries using Wikidata</a>. Different users have responded with various suggestions. One Wikidata user suggested a library I could use to efficiently link R with SPARQL queries, and some of Ewan’s contacts gave suggestions for the general workflow I could follow in creating a shareable methodology. One of the most helpful suggestions was that I use a tool called prompter, which would allow me to compare the results of a SPARQL query to a stable csv and store anomalies as a table on the Wikidata project page. While this looks like a great idea, it has led us to run into another of the common problems involved in working with Wikidata – not all of the tools are maintained. The </span><a href="https://prompter.toolforge.org/prompter"><span data-contrast="none">Prompter</span></a><span data-contrast="none"> tool was designed by the Every Politician Project, which was placed on indefinite pause in June 2019. This means that while the documentation for the tool still exists, it no longer works as a template in Wikidata. For me, this has been a valuable lesson on the pros and cons of working with a platform run and maintained by volunteers. Still, we are continuing to get great advice from Wikimedians around the world. A new goal of mine for the end of this project is to create a workable and well documented method that I can easily share, so I have something to give back to the community that has helped me so much throughout this project. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span><br />
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<time datetime="2023-04-05" itemprop="dateModified">Apr 5, 2023</time><br />
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<title>Weeks 9 and 10 – Sweeping the Cobwebs(ite)</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/weeks-9-and-10-cleaning-the-cobwebsite/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/weeks-9-and-10-cleaning-the-cobwebsite/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[jgarcia7]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 12 Aug 2022 15:44:34 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=330</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Site re-development – Filtering Witchcraft Hi, this is Josep again! We are currently in Week 10 of our internship, and time is starting to become a limiting factor. Since my last blog post in Week 4 a lot of things have been going on, and in this post I am going to be explaining how […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Site re-development – Filtering Witchcraft</h2>
<p>Hi, this is Josep again! We are currently in Week 10 of our internship, and time is starting to become a limiting factor. Since my last blog post in Week 4 a lot of things have been going on, and in this post I am going to be explaining how the plans I had back then have turned out, what I have managed to accomplish, and the things I still have left to do in the two remaining weeks.</p>
<p>In week 5, I implemented the new filtering algorithm, and everything went rather smoothly – although I had to change the whole data structure. I think this was a significant improvement, as things ran a bit faster, we only had to keep one copy of the array we use to plot, and the code was neater.</p>
<p>However, after that I then spent quite a few days implementing a way to share filter status data across pages, so that when the user changed pages they would have the same filters on as they had in the previous page. Nevertheless, in order to do this without a backend I had to hardcode the filters array into something called Vue Store (so that its state could be accessed from all pages).</p>
<p>The nature of this array meant that it had to change if the data in the database changed, so I would also need a dynamic check, and I thought it was fine because the data is not likely to change, and I had a dynamic check implement just in case it did. But when I pushed the code over for review, the rest of the team felt it was not ideal to have something both static and dynamic at the same time, which in hindsight I agreed with.</p>
<p>Then I thought I could build the list dynamically and then enter it into the Vue Store, but once I had that implemented I realised that that didn’t work because of caching we were doing (which is quite important because of loading time issues). Therefore, in the end we decided we would just not have the filters share across pages until we had a backend. Back then it was a bit difficult as I felt I had wasted quite a lot of time, but at the same time it was a valuable learning experience!</p>
<p>With the new filtering functionality done, I then started changing the filtering user interface to move it to the left of the page, and with the help of the rest of the team I think we managed to get a pretty neat, professional looking design. This is what it is looking like now:</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-332 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-12-at-13.34.59-300x175.png" alt="" width="566" height="331" /></p>
<p>This was the last thing I did before leaving to Spain for holidays for a week.Right now, I have been back from holidays for a bit less than two weeks. In the time that I have been back, I have been working on developing a responsive timeline for the Leaflet Map pages and refactoring the code in order to be able to add more map pages with more filters very easy once Maggie has finished adding all the new data on to WikiData, which should be any time now.</p>
<p>Other than doing these two things, I was hoping to have time to add a backend in Python to process all the data after querying WikiData (as of now there is no backend and we do it in the front-end’s JavaScript) since we will have quite a lot of new data to process, and we are afraid the loading time will significantly increase. However, in the end it has been decided that I shouldn’t do the back end in Python since the team say that they can’t maintain a Python backend in the long term once I’m gone, as they work in PHP. I will try and have time to do the backend in PHP, but I would have to learn it from scratch and there are a lot more other bits and pieces that need doing!</p>
<h2>The Data Side of Things</h2>
<p>I was off for most of last week as I was in Turkey holidaying for a couple of days, but was back on Thursday for more data work! I finished processing the <strong>witches’ meeting places</strong> and <strong>what went down</strong> in these meetings, as well as the <strong>calendar customs </strong>that were mentioned in the witchcraft investigations. Looking at <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q112321273">Agnes Sampson’s investigation</a> page, you can see all the juicy new details we’ve fitted into the Wikidata data model from the Survey and processed using OpenRefine.</p>
<p>Speaking of OpenRefine, I am currently planning and scripting a little tutorial for users of the software or even future interns as I have really enjoyed how intuitive and helpful it’s been for this project. This should be recorded in the next week so keep your eyes peeled…</p>
<p>This week, I started off with doing some data cleaning. Previously, before we created case items for each witchcraft investigation, the <strong>shapeshifting</strong> and <strong>ritual objects</strong> data was added to the accused witches’ items. Some helpful Wikidatans saw this duplication and started deleting statements, so we decided we needed to clean this up to not cause confusion.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-336 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-300x111.png" alt="" width="586" height="217" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-300x111.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-1024x379.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-768x284.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-1536x568.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-1440x533.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339.png 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 586px) 100vw, 586px" /></p>
<p>Using the same Google sheet that was used to add the shapeshifting information, I used the handy “<em>Export to QuickStatements</em>” option to get all the edits into QuickStatements syntax. I did this as with QuickStatements, it’s easy to remove specific statements by <strong>prefixing</strong> a line with a <strong>minus sign. </strong></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-337 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357-300x154.png" alt="" width="399" height="205" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357-300x154.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357-1024x526.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357-768x394.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357.png 1430w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px" /></p>
<p>After this, I started to think about extracting the data added to Wikidata using the Wikidata Query Service. We have been in contact with Navino Evans, one of the co-founders of <a href="http://www.histropedia.com/">Histropedia</a>, to help us with the complex SPARQL query. <a href="https://query.wikidata.org/#SELECT%20distinct%20%3Fitem%20%3FitemLabel%20%3FinvestigationDate%0A%3FresidenceLabel%20%3FresidenceCoords%20%3FsexLabel%20%3Flink%20%3FoccupationLabel%20%3FsocialClassificationLabel%0A%3FplaceOfDeathLabel%20%3FplaceOfDeathCoords%20%3FmannerOfDeathLabel%20%3FdetentionLocationLabel%20%3FdetentionLocationCoords%0A%0A%23Newly%20added%0A%3Finvestigation%20%3FinvestigationStart%20%3FinvestigationEnd%0A%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FqualityWithQualifier%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3Fqualities%29%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FchargeWithQualifier%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3Fcharges%29%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FritualObjectLabel%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3FritualObjects%29%0A%0AWHERE%0A%7B%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP4478%20%3Fwitch%20.%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP551%20%3Fresidence%20.%0A%20%20%3Fresidence%20wdt%3AP625%20%3FresidenceCoords%20.%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP4478%20%3Flink%20.%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP21%20%3Fsex%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20%3Foccupation%20.%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP3716%20%3FsocialClassification%20.%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP20%20%3FplaceOfDeath%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3FplaceOfDeath%20wdt%3AP625%20%3FplaceOfDeathCoords%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP1196%20%3FmannerOfDeath%20.%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP2632%20%3FdetentionLocation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3FdetentionLocation%20wdt%3AP625%20%3FdetentionLocationCoords%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%0A%20%20%23%20INVESTIGATION%0A%20%0A%20%20%23OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP793%20%3Finvestigation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ66458810%20%3B%20%23%20Tip%3A%20Use%20%3B%20to%20repeat%20%3Finvestigation%20again%20without%20having%20to%20write%20it%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20wdt%3AP580%7Cwdt%3AP585%20%3FinvestigationStart%20%3B%20%23%20Tip%3A%20Use%20%7C%20symbol%20to%20mean%20%22OR%22%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Finvestigation%20wdt%3AP582%20%3FinvestigationEnd%20%7D%0A%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Quality%20%28COPY%20THIS%20FOR%20MULTIPLE%20VALUE%2C%20WITH%20qualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20p%3AP1552%20%3FhasQualityNode%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityNode%20ps%3AP1552%20%3FhasQuality%20.%20%23%20main%20value%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%20%23%20%22including%22%20qualifier%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityNode%20pq%3AP1012%20%3FqualityIncluding%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FqualityIncluding%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FqualityIncludingLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FqualityIncludingLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQuality%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FhasQualityLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FhasQualityLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20BIND%28IF%28%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20BOUND%28%3FqualityIncludingLabel%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20CONCAT%28%3FhasQualityLabel%2C%22%20%28%22%2C%20%3FqualityIncludingLabel%2C%20%22%29%22%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityLabel%29%20as%20%3FqualityWithQualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Charge%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20p%3AP1595%20%3FchargeNode%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FchargeNode%20ps%3AP1595%20%3Fcharge%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FchargeNode%20pq%3AP4675%20%3Fform%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fform%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FformLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FformLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fcharge%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FchargeLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FchargeLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20BIND%28IF%28%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20BOUND%28%3FformLabel%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20CONCAT%28%3FchargeLabel%2C%22%20%28%22%2C%20%3FformLabel%2C%20%22%29%22%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FchargeLabel%29%20as%20%3FchargeWithQualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Ritual%20object%20%28COPY%20THIS%20FOR%20MULTIPLE%20VALUE%2C%20but%20WITHOUT%20qualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20wdt%3AP8706%20%3FritualObject%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FritualObject%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FritualObjectLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FritualObjectLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%23%7D%0A%20%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22%5BAUTO_LANGUAGE%5D%2Cen%22.%0A%20%20%20%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A%0AGROUP%20BY%20%3Fitem%20%3FitemLabel%20%3FinvestigationDate%20%3FresidenceLabel%20%3FresidenceCoords%20%3FsexLabel%20%3Flink%0A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was the working example he sent us, and I used this example to try my hand at adding <strong>calendar customs</strong> and <strong>witches’ meeting places </strong>to the query (the data I added recently), with this <a href="https://query.wikidata.org/#SELECT%20distinct%20%3Fitem%20%3FitemLabel%20%3FinvestigationDate%0A%3FresidenceLabel%20%3FresidenceCoords%20%3FsexLabel%20%3Flink%20%3FoccupationLabel%20%3FsocialClassificationLabel%0A%3FplaceOfDeathLabel%20%3FplaceOfDeathCoords%20%3FmannerOfDeathLabel%20%3FdetentionLocationLabel%20%3FdetentionLocationCoords%0A%0A%23Newly%20added%0A%3Finvestigation%20%3FinvestigationStart%20%3FinvestigationEnd%0A%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FqualityWithQualifier%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3Fqualities%29%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FchargeWithQualifier%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3Fcharges%29%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FritualObjectLabel%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3FritualObjects%29%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FcalendarCustomsLabel%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3FcalendarCustoms%29%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FqualityWithLocation%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3FmeetingPlaces%29%20%0A%0AWHERE%0A%7B%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP4478%20%3Fwitch%20.%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP551%20%3Fresidence%20.%0A%20%20%3Fresidence%20wdt%3AP625%20%3FresidenceCoords%20.%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP4478%20%3Flink%20.%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP21%20%3Fsex%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20%3Foccupation%20.%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP3716%20%3FsocialClassification%20.%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP20%20%3FplaceOfDeath%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3FplaceOfDeath%20wdt%3AP625%20%3FplaceOfDeathCoords%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP1196%20%3FmannerOfDeath%20.%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP2632%20%3FdetentionLocation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3FdetentionLocation%20wdt%3AP625%20%3FdetentionLocationCoords%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%0A%20%20%23%20INVESTIGATION%0A%20%0A%20%20%23OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP793%20%3Finvestigation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ66458810%20%3B%20%23%20Tip%3A%20Use%20%3B%20to%20repeat%20%3Finvestigation%20again%20without%20having%20to%20write%20it%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20wdt%3AP580%7Cwdt%3AP585%20%3FinvestigationStart%20%3B%20%23%20Tip%3A%20Use%20%7C%20symbol%20to%20mean%20%22OR%22%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Finvestigation%20wdt%3AP582%20%3FinvestigationEnd%20%7D%0A%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Quality%20%28COPY%20THIS%20FOR%20MULTIPLE%20VALUE%2C%20WITH%20qualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20p%3AP1552%20%3FhasQualityNode%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityNode%20ps%3AP1552%20%3FhasQuality%20.%20%23%20main%20value%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%20%23%20%22including%22%20qualifier%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityNode%20pq%3AP1012%20%3FqualityIncluding%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FqualityIncluding%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FqualityIncludingLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FqualityIncludingLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQuality%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FhasQualityLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FhasQualityLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20BIND%28IF%28%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20BOUND%28%3FqualityIncludingLabel%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20CONCAT%28%3FhasQualityLabel%2C%22%20%28%22%2C%20%3FqualityIncludingLabel%2C%20%22%29%22%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityLabel%29%20as%20%3FqualityWithQualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Location%20%28COPY%20THIS%20FOR%20MULTIPLE%20VALUE%2C%20WITH%20qualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20p%3AP1552%20%3FhasQualityNode%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityNode%20ps%3AP1552%20%3FhasQuality%20.%20%23%20main%20value%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%7B%20%20%23%20%22location%22%20qualifier%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityNode%20pq%3AP276%20%3FqualityLocation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FqualityLocation%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FqualityLocationLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FqualityLocationLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQuality%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FhasQualityLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FhasQualityLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20BIND%28IF%28%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20BOUND%28%3FqualityLocationLabel%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20CONCAT%28%3FhasQualityLabel%2C%22%20%28%22%2C%20%3FqualityLocationLabel%2C%20%22%29%22%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityLabel%29%20as%20%3FqualityWithLocation%29%0A%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Charge%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20p%3AP1595%20%3FchargeNode%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FchargeNode%20ps%3AP1595%20%3Fcharge%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%2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<p> </p>
<p> <br />
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
<time datetime="2022-08-12" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 12, 2022</time><br />
</span></p>
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<description><![CDATA[This post is the second written by LLB student Dervla Craig who has worked as our Information and Data Literacy intern this Summer researching and preparing a National Lottery Heritage Fund bid to preserve, and raise public engagement with, the accused witches of Scotland as an important part of Scotland’s heritage. As I sit to […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>This post is the second written by LLB student Dervla Craig who has worked as our Information and Data Literacy intern this Summer researching and preparing a National Lottery Heritage Fund bid to preserve, and raise public engagement with, the accused witches of Scotland as an important part of Scotland’s heritage.</strong></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">As I sit to write this blog post, my twelve-week internship is rapidly drawing to a close. How the time has flown! I have learned and achieved so much this summer, and it seems only appropriate that I reflect on and share what this experience has taught me through another blog post. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Since my first blog (</span><a href="https://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/preserving-scottish-heritage/"><span data-contrast="none">Preserving Scottish Heritage: The Accused Witches of Scotland</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">), my research and bid-writing have taken me down many different avenues. The more familiar I became with the past, however, the more questions arose about the present. Why is there still no appropriate memorial to the accused in Edinburgh? Does stigma still exist surrounding these persecuted individuals? How can we at the University best preserve and promote the individual stories of the accused and make sure they are not forgotten to history? Exploring these questions was extremely important for me in ensuring that I understood the context in which the bid lives and the landscape we would be entering with this project. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">In my search for answers to these questions, two main areas stuck out to me as requiring more work and attention to make sure the real, human stories of those accused of witchcraft are protected and valued now and into the future: increasing awareness, education, and understanding of the Scottish witch trials, and appropriately memorialising the victims who were accused, tortured and executed. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<div id="attachment_1634" style="width: 639px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Witches-and-Witchcraft.jpg"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1634" class="size-large wp-image-1634" src="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Witches-and-Witchcraft-941x1024.jpg" alt="Information board about "Witches and Witchcraft" at the National Museum of Scotland. Pic by Ewan McAndrew, CC-BY-SA" width="629" height="684" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1634" class="wp-caption-text">Information board about “Witches and Witchcraft” at the National Museum of Scotland. Pic by Ewan McAndrew, CC-BY-SA</p></div>
<h2><b><span data-contrast="auto">Education on the Scottish Witch Trials</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">My line manager, Ewan McAndrew, and I have spent the last few weeks consulting with various organisations in an effort to realise the full potential of our bid. One area we explored was how we at the University, as a teaching and learning institution, could help facilitate education on the Scottish witch trials and use our accused witches’ dataset to combat negative perceptions of the accused exacerbated by entertainment-driven media portrayals. I researched the </span><a href="https://education.gov.scot/parentzone/curriculum-in-scotland/"><span data-contrast="none">Curriculum in Scotland </span></a><span data-contrast="auto">for secondary schools and was surprised to find that whilst adjacent topics such as King James VI and the Protestant Reformation are covered in detail, the witch trials themselves are largely overlooked. We also spoke with Jo Spiller and Judy Robertson from the University about their work on data education in schools and how our dataset could be a valuable resource. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">A huge opportunity for progress in this area came in week eight, when we visited the National Museum of Scotland to meet with Anna Groundwater, the Principal Curator of Renaissance and Early Modern History, Scottish History and Archaeology. She showed us the current witchcraft exhibit, which has remained unchanged for the twenty-seven years it has been on display, and discussed what updates could be made to accurately reflect the research that has taken place in the years since and modern attitudes towards the study of witchcraft and the witch trials. We also had a great conversation about promoting education on this dark period of Scottish history and how we can engage a wider audience with this heritage. This was my first professional meeting, and I am happy to report that it went very well. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<div id="attachment_1635" style="width: 639px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Witches_Well.jpg"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1635" class="size-large wp-image-1635" src="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Witches_Well-1024x549.jpg" alt="Inscription plaque at the Witches Well memorial on Castlehill, Edinburgh. " width="629" height="337" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1635" class="wp-caption-text">Inscription plaque at the Witches Well memorial on Castlehill, Edinburgh. Pic by (Lila), CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons</p></div>
<h2><b><span data-contrast="auto">The issue of memorialisation</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></h2>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">For centuries after the Scottish witch trials, sympathy for the accused was often seen as sympathy for the Devil and as such, there was not much research into the lives of those who were charged with the crime of witchcraft. Whilst modern attitudes have shifted to a more empathetic approach, the issue of memorialisation is still one of great controversy. </span><span data-contrast="none">The only memorial which stands in Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches%27_Well,_Edinburgh">Witches’ Well</a> on Castle Hill, which is hidden away and has a problematic inscription that has been criticised for its historical inaccuracy and contention that while ‘<em>some used their exceptional knowledge for evil purposes while others were misunderstood and wished their kind nothing but good</em>‘. This assumption that those accused did indeed have supernatural abilities and that the brutality of the Scottish witch hunts was in any way justifiable is extremely harmful to the memory of the innocent people (85% of whom were women) that possessed no such powers but who were tortured and executed for being ‘witches’. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">The <a href="https://www.witchesofscotland.com/">Witches of Scotland</a> campaign group have long been advocating for a national memorial to the accused which would honour the victims in an appropriate way, and have even created a new, highly symbolic </span><a href="https://www.witchesofscotland.com/tartan"><span data-contrast="none">Tartan </span></a><span data-contrast="none"> pattern to honour the victims and act as a living memorial to them. (They also released a </span><a href="https://www.witchesofscotland.com/book"><span data-contrast="none">Book</span></a><span data-contrast="none"> called </span><i><span data-contrast="none">How to Kill a Witch: A Guide to the Patriarchy </span></i><span data-contrast="none">which is a brilliant read and mentions the University’s </span><a href="https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/"><span data-contrast="none">The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> – I highly recommend putting it at the top of your reading list). In our consultations with various organisations, the issue of appropriately memorialising the accused was one which was met with much interest and enthusiasm, and it seems that a place to go and pay our solemn respects to those whose lives were unjustly taken is something that would largely be supported and welcomed in Edinburgh.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Final Thoughts</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Although there is much more work to be done in ensuring that the stories of the individuals who were accused of witchcraft are understood and remembered with accuracy and empathy, an appetite undoubtably exists for promoting these stories and memorialising these individuals in an appropriate and meaningful way. It is within this context that we will be submitting our bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund with the aim of establishing an open license, publicly accessible resource containing all known information on Scotland’s accused witches that can be used by researchers, historians, authors, artists, teachers, students and so many other groups to support work in and beyond the education and heritage sectors. Alongside this, we plan to run a programme of public engagement events to facilitate the public’s active participation with the data and stories of the accused. Further than simply historical education, we will encourage cultural reflection on themes such as women’s rights and the scapegoating of marginalised groups that permeate not just our past, but also our present. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":279}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">There is much we as a society can learn from this dark period of Scottish history, and I am hopeful that our bid, if successful, will support future research and work on the Scottish witch trials and bring awareness to the real stories behind the 3837 Scottish people, mostly women, who were accused of and in many cases executed for crimes they simply did not commit. I have been greatly moved by not just the deaths, but the lives of these individuals and am so grateful to have played a role this summer in preserving their memory for generations to come. </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<div id="attachment_1636" style="width: 639px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Woodcut.jpg"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1636" class="size-large wp-image-1636" src="http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2025/10/Woodcut-1024x747.jpg" alt="Woodcut from the Newes of Scotland pamphlet depicting suspected witches from North Berwick as they are threatened with a beating as they appear before two Scottish magistrates." width="629" height="459" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1636" class="wp-caption-text">Woodcut on display at the National Museum of Scotland from the Newes of Scotland pamphlet depicting suspected witches from North Berwick as they are threatened with a beating as they appear before two Scottish magistrates. Pic by Ewan McAndrew, CC-BY-SA</p></div>
<p><strong>NB: Dervla has done so well over the last twelve weeks that she is continuing in post (part-time) during her studies this year.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ps. You can catch the Edinburgh Book festival talk, <a href="https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/claire-mitchell-and-zoe-venditozzi-women-not-witches"><em>Women not Witches</em>,</a> by Claire and Zoe of the Witches of Scotland at the Book Festival website.</strong></p>
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<time datetime="2025-10-07" itemprop="dateModified">Oct 7, 2025</time>
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<title>Preserving Scottish Heritage: The Accused Witches of Scotland</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/preserving-scottish-heritage-the-accused-witches-of-scotland/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/preserving-scottish-heritage-the-accused-witches-of-scotland/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ewan McAndrew]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 18:23:19 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Internship]]></category>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=471</guid>
<description><![CDATA[This post was written by LLB student Dervla Craig on her first month as Information and Data Literacy intern this Summer. My name is Dervla and I am going into my second year of the Graduate LLB at the University of Edinburgh. This summer I am doing a 12-week internship with the University’s Information Services […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>This post was written by LLB student Dervla Craig on her first month as Information and Data Literacy intern this Summer.</strong></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">My name is Dervla and I am going into my second year of the Graduate LLB at the University of Edinburgh. This summer I am doing a 12-week internship with the University’s <a href="https://information-services.ed.ac.uk/">Information Services Group (ISG)</a> on one of the most fascinating projects I have ever had the opportunity to be a part of: <a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/">the Accused Witches of Scotland project</a>.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">I am one of a long line of interns who has been involved in this project each year since 2019, which aims to commemorate and spread awareness about those who were persecuted as witches in Scotland during the 16th to 18th centuries. While previous interns have primarily been focused on processing and importing data from the University’s landmark </span><a href="https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/faq/"><span data-contrast="none">The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> database (2003) into <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Scotland%27s_Accused_Witches">Wikidata</a> and created our </span><a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/"><span data-contrast="none">witches</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> website with new map and timeline visualisations, this year my role looks a bit different.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">My remit for the 12 weeks is to prepare a bid to the <a href="https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/">National Lottery Heritage Fund</a> to secure funding for what we hope can be the next phase of the project. Our goal is to preserve the accused witches’ data in the long-term and ensure that people can connect with and participate in this heritage now and in the future. As it has come to the end of my first month, I wanted to join the tradition of blogging about my internship experience so far.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<h3><span data-contrast="none">Getting to know the individual stories of the accused</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"335559738":160,"335559739":80}"> </span></h3>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">My first week was spent diving down the rabbit hole to explore all there is to learn about the Scottish witch trials. If you had asked me to describe an accused witch before this week, I would’ve told you they wore a pointy hat and flew around on a broomstick. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Now when I picture these women, they look like my mother, or my grandmother, or me. They were ordinary people who suffered an egregious injustice, and I was extremely moved when learning about their stories.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Some of the most valuable tools for my research included </span><a href="https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/faq/"><span data-contrast="none">The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">, created by Julian Goodare, a history professor at the University of Edinburgh, and his team in the late 90’s, and the <a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/">interactive </a></span><span data-contrast="none">witches</span><span data-contrast="auto"> map resource created by Emma Carroll, a geography student and our former Data Visualisation intern, and our late developer colleague Richard Lawson in September 2019. The Survey made use of the historic records of all the accused witches in Scotland between 1563 – 1736 and organised the details into a MS Access 1997 database, and our new 2019 map brings this data to life in a new and engaging way through importing the data into Wikipedia’s sister project, Wikidata, as linked open machine-readable data.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Learning about the great work that has been done previously definitely made me realise I have a lot to live up to but also motivated me to give it my all in the next twelve weeks and hopefully produce an end result that meets the standards of my predecessors.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<h3><span data-contrast="none">Writing a National Lottery Heritage Fund bid</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"335559738":160,"335559739":80}"> </span></h3>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The next thing to familiarise myself with before I could dive into my writing was the bid itself. I spent a few days combing through the NLHF website to understand what it is they are looking for and how our project fits those needs. By getting to know my audience, I could ensure that my writing was intriguing, evidence-based and persuasive. I quickly found out that before submitting the 10,000-word application, I must submit a 1000-word ‘Expression of Interest’. This EoI asks questions about the heritage of the project, what our project aims to achieve, and why it is needed now. At this point, I felt I could write a dissertation for each of these questions, so the tight word count was my biggest enemy. I had lots of help from some lovely colleagues who offered their feedback and advice, including the Project Director of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft, Professor Julian Goodare. After many tweaks and a few redrafts, I am happy to say at the end of week four that the EoI is pretty much ready to go.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<h3><span data-contrast="none">Exploring avenues for community engagement</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"335559738":160,"335559739":80}"> </span></h3>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Alongside writing, writing and more writing, I have also been brainstorming ideas for the community engagement side of our project. There have been so many great ideas by the team which have led to interesting and helpful discussions with different people and organisations, including the National Museum of Scotland, Reforesting Scotland, and some really talented artists. Excitingly, most of the responses we have received have been positive and enthusiastic. In the upcoming weeks, I hope to visit some of these places and see firsthand the primary sources from the witch trials.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<h4><span data-contrast="none">Workshops and all-staff events</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"335559738":160,"335559739":80}"> </span></h4>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Another educational and fun aspect of my experience so far, outside of my bid writing role, has been the plethora of events hosted by ISG. In the past month I have taken part in ‘intern welcome’ socials, Wikipedia writing workshops and even a workshop on an introduction to blogging! Alongside these, I have also attended two all-staff events, one for all Information Services Group (ISG) staff and one for the Learning, Teaching and Web (LTW) division. Not only have I learned so much about the behind-the-scenes and the people who have made my studies possible for the past five years, but these events have also been an opportunity to get to know more of my colleagues and socialise with other interns. At ISG there is a strong emphasis on having a healthy work-life balance and making sure that you and those around you have what you need to produce your best work.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<div id="attachment_473" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-473" class="size-medium wp-image-473" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2025/07/Window-300x234.png" alt="View of Edinburgh Castle from Floor K, Argyle House." width="300" height="234" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2025/07/Window-300x234.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2025/07/Window.png 363w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-473" class="wp-caption-text">View of Edinburgh Castle from Floor K, Argyle House. CC-BY-SA by Dervla Craig.</p></div>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">In conclusion, I have had an amazing first month as an intern with the University of Edinburgh. I have learned a lot, met new people, and pushed myself outside of my comfort zone. Plus the amazing view of Edinburgh Castle from Floor K has been a real motivator to work from the office and not from home! I am nothing but hopeful that the next eight weeks will be even more exciting and productive, and that I can blog again soon with positive updates!</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">P.S. If you haven’t already, definitely visit <a href="https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/">The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft</a> and the <a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/">Map of Accused Witches in Scotland</a> websites! They are both amazing (and important) educational resources that I could browse for hours (and have).</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
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<time datetime="2025-07-11" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 11, 2025</time>
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<title>The Final Countdown: New Features and Nuxt 3 Upgrade</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/the-final-countdown/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/the-final-countdown/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Oct 2024 10:03:55 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikimania]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=455</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Since I last wrote after I returned from Wikimania, I have been working on getting version 2.0 of the website up to scratch! The new version of the website is set to launch this October, which meant there was a lot to get done before then.Firstly, the website framework was due for an upgrade from […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>Since I last wrote after I returned from Wikimania, I have been working on getting version 2.0 of the website up to scratch! The new version of the website is set to launch this October, which meant there was a lot to get done before then.<br />Firstly, the website framework was due for an upgrade from Nuxt 2 to Nuxt 3. Nuxt is a javascript web development framework based on Vue.js, designed to make it easier to build fast and dynamic websites by handling much of the configuration and setup for developers. This upgrade was crucial for the website’s longevity and security, making it a top priority. This was something I had never done before, so I was a bit apprehensive. This did end up being quite a long challenging task as lots of the packages used in the website were not compatible with Nuxt 3 meaning I had to do quite a lot of problem solving and research to find new packages which could provide the same functionality and have a similar user interface. I learnt a lot from this process and had to be quite patient because at times I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get everything working, – for example the clustering of markers on the map – but after lots of trial and error and research I found a solution and felt proud of myself.</p>
<p><br />We also worked on some exciting new pages:</p>
<p><br /><strong>Map of Memorials & Sites of Interest:</strong> This is an interactive map showcasing memorials across Scotland dedicated to those who suffered during the witch trials, along with other sites of interest such as execution sites, prisons, meeting places, and museums with witchcraft displays. The purpose of this map is to document how the witch trials have been memorialised over time, and increasingly in recent years, and to provide people interested in the Scottish witch trials with locations they can visit.</p>
<p><br />This project involved an initial research period carried out by Ewan McAndrew, Ellie Whitehead and myself. We sought to identify memorial locations to include by reading books, searching the internet, and having discussions with Professor Julian Goodare. During these discussions, it became clear that several monuments are not based on actual historical events. For example, the Maggie Wall monument in Dunning—there is no evidence that Maggie Wall existed or was executed as a witch. However, we still found locations like this of interest in understanding how stories of witchcraft have been passed down through generations.</p>
<p><br />To differentiate between various types of sites, we created three categories: memorials, sites of interest, and tourist attractions. This allowed us to classify each location appropriately. After the research stage, we created Wikidata items for each location, adding any available images from Wikimedia Commons, coordinate locations, links to external websites, and street addresses. This data was then used to query and display these locations on a new webpage, where they are plotted on a map. <br />To provide further information to users, Ellie Whitehead wrote descriptions for each location in the database, explaining how the site is connected to the Scottish Witch Trials and addressing any misconceptions about historic fact vs folklore.<br /><br />Once we had collated all the information needed and created all Wikidata items I developed the website page and Stewart Cromar created new icons from the same woodcut of the North Berwick witches that the original icons are from.<br /><br /></p>
<div id="attachment_458" style="width: 321px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-458" class=" wp-image-458" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/intro-300x241.jpg" alt="North Berwick Witches Woodcut- Newes from Scotland" width="311" height="250" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/intro-300x241.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/intro.jpg 747w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 311px) 100vw, 311px" /><p id="caption-attachment-458" class="wp-caption-text">North Berwick Witches Woodcut – Newes from Scotland</p></div>
<p><br />This was a particularly rewarding page to create, as it involved multiple stages, including research, brainstorming ideas, designing the interface, and development. The result is a page I believe users will love, and that I feel proud of, as I believe it helps represents how the injustice of the Scottish Witch Trials has been commemorated across Scotland.</p>
<div id="attachment_459" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-459" class=" wp-image-459" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-300x136.png" alt="Current Design of Memorials Page" width="474" height="215" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-300x136.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-1024x463.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-768x347.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-1536x694.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page-1440x651.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/memorials-page.png 1917w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px" /><p id="caption-attachment-459" class="wp-caption-text">Memorials Page</p></div>
<p><br /><strong>Further Reading:</strong> A list of books, journals, and articles recommended by Professor Julian Goodare (director of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft) and Ellie Whitehead for those who wanted to learn more about the Scottish witch trials. Links are provided on where they can be accessed.</p>
<p><br /><strong>Glossary:</strong> A glossary containing terms used across the website, along with their meanings, was created to help users understand specialized vocabulary, as the filter lists may include terms that are not commonly known. We wanted users to have an easy way to discover the contextual meanings to get the most out of the website. Ellie Whitehead used the glossary from the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft as a base, then added any additional terms from the filters that might not have an obvious meaning. After she compiled the list of terms and definitions, I created the web page. We decided it would be helpful if the list could be sorted either alphabetically or by category, making it easier for users to find terms.</p>
<div id="attachment_460" style="width: 445px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-460" class=" wp-image-460" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-300x133.png" alt="Glossary Page" width="435" height="193" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-300x133.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-1024x455.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-768x341.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-1536x682.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary-1440x640.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/glossary.png 1916w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 435px) 100vw, 435px" /><p id="caption-attachment-460" class="wp-caption-text">Glossary Page</p></div>
<p><br /><strong>Introduction to Scottish Witchcraft:</strong> A page offering contextual information on the Scottish witchcraft trials to help users understand the historical background and significance of these events. We decided to include a video of Professor Julian Goodare for users who find it easier to learn from video content or those looking for more information, and who better to learn from than the creator of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft himself!<br />Initially, we planned to create a short, 5-minute general introduction to Scottish witchcraft. However, but given Julian’s incredible wealth of knowledge, we asked him additional questions we thought people would be most interested in, resulting in more videos about the Scottish Witch Trials and the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft to add to the website.<br />We recorded these videos in the University of Edinburgh’s Media Studio at Argyle House. I thoroughly enjoyed using this space, as it allowed us to create professional-quality videos. The studio is fully equipped with tools like a teleprompter, TV backdrop, light boxes, a microphone, and, of course, a camera.</p>
<div id="attachment_461" style="width: 410px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-461" class=" wp-image-461" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-300x135.jpeg" alt="Media Studio" width="400" height="180" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-300x135.jpeg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-1024x461.jpeg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-768x346.jpeg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-1536x692.jpeg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media-1440x649.jpeg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/10/Media.jpeg 2016w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /><p id="caption-attachment-461" class="wp-caption-text">Media Studio</p></div>
<p><br />Currently these new pages and upgrade are getting reviewed by web developer Andrew Millington before getting deployed to the site in order to make sure that the code is maintainable, working as intended, and a user friendly interface. Once these have been reviewed and all issues that come up resolved then the website will be ready for it’s version 2 launch!! <span data-teams="true"><span class="ui-provider a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ab ac ae af ag ah ai aj ak" dir="ltr">I’m really excited for this to go live so everyone can see all the work mentioned (above) that I’ve been working on for the last year and all the previous interns’ work too!</span></span></p>
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<time datetime="2024-10-03" itemprop="dateModified">Oct 3, 2024</time>
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<title>Wikimania 2024: A Conference of Collaboration, Learning and Culture</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 19 Aug 2024 09:34:24 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Conference]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Student]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikimania]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=424</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ On July 15th I returned as ‘Witchfinder General’ – Data Visualisation Intern for another 3 months of working on the Map of Scottish Accused Witches of Project. We are now 4 weeks in and I have lots to share.I went to my first ever conference – Wikimania! Wikimania is an annual conference hosted by […]]]></description>
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<p>On July 15th I returned as ‘Witchfinder General’ – Data Visualisation Intern for another 3 months of working on the Map of Scottish Accused Witches of Project. We are now 4 weeks in and I have lots to share.<br /><br />I went to my first ever conference – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimania">Wikimania</a>! Wikimania is an annual conference hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, including presentations and discussions on Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. This year it was held in Katowice, Poland. I went with my manager Ewan McAndrew to give a presentation on Student engagement with openness. Ewan spoke about examples of all the Wikimedia related student projects he has run at the University of Edinburgh and then I spoke about the work we have done on this project.<br /><br /><a href="https://wikimania.eventyay.com/2024/talk/FALUVE/">Find out more about our presentation here!</a> <br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/wLgxZTcjhjY?si=POQvnW26tqevogTD&t=7920">Watch the presentation here.</a> <br /><br />Before going, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the conference. In my mind, a conference seemed like a very formal event, which I thought might make me feel a bit out of place. However, as soon as I arrived, I found a relaxed and open atmosphere with a diverse group of people. From volunteers to software developers, people who work for the Wikimedia Foundation to those who edit Wikipedia in their free time, there was a wide range of interests, passions, careers, ages, and nationalities present. This diversity created a warm and accepting environment that made open discussion comfortable. I was initially apprehensive about my presentation, as public speaking is something that scares me a little, but that made the achievement feel even greater.<br /><br />Along with giving the presentation I also got to attend lots of interesting talks and panel discussions. These covered lots of topics including the future of AI within the Wikipedia movement, facing the gender imbalance on Wikipedia, open data and the climate crisis, Wikipedia in education and even more. I think the standout for me was some of the AI discussions, thinking about how the Wikimedia movement could use AI but also the risks that would come along with them. Each session was really interesting and eye opening and great to hear views from people from all over the world. Throughout the conference I got to hear about all the different work that goes on in the Wikimedia movement.</p>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/wikimania_katowice_2024_-_opening_ceremony_wikimedian_of_the_year_awards_32/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="200" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32-300x200.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Marching Band at Wikimania Opening Ceremony" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Wikimania_Katowice_2024_-_Opening_Ceremony_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_Awards_32.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/1024px-wikimania_katowice_2024_ksp_005/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="200" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/1024px-Wikimania_Katowice_2024_KsP_005-300x200.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Wikimania Entrance" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/1024px-Wikimania_Katowice_2024_KsP_005-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/1024px-Wikimania_Katowice_2024_KsP_005-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/1024px-Wikimania_Katowice_2024_KsP_005.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="201" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544-300x201.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Wikimania Opening Ceremony" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544-300x201.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544-768x513.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/c907a818-a6ad-4279-82f7-414c4f367a0c-e1724058923544.jpg 1306w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6316/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Pottery Painting at Wikimania" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6316-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6326/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Traditional Polish Choir" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6326-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6565/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Lighting Talk at Wikimania" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6565-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<p><br /><br />Not only were there many interesting sessions, the conference also included lots of entertainment – an opening ceremony with a Polish marching band and awards for the standout Wikimedians presented by Jimmy Wales (the founder of Wikipedia), a pottery painting class where we got to paint our own mug. I really enjoyed this activity. It was a lovely calming moment in a busy conference. There was also a performance from a traditional Polish choir, and a closing ceremony with a performance from the Wiki Orchestra , a group of talented musicians from the Wikimedia community playing a beautiful piece by Chopin. Then to finish a closing party in the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra with Wikimedians mingling and dancing to celebrate the end of a successful 4 day conference full of collaboration, learning, and cultural exchange.</p>
<p><br />During my free time, I also explored Katowice. I visited the Silesian Museum (An old mine that had since been repurposed), walked around appreciating the city’s architecture, and tried local cuisine such as Polish dumplings (called pierogies). They were delicious! On my way back, I flew out of Krakow, so I got to see some of that city as well, taking a walk around the old town, visiting the castle, strolling along the river, and exploring the Jewish quarter. It was exciting being able to explore and learn about both these cities that I hadn’t visited before.</p>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6400/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Silesian Museum" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6400-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6518/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Panteon Górnośląski w Katowicach" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6518-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6544/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Garrison Church" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6544-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6552/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Buildings in Katowice on Juliusxa Slowackiego" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6552-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6609/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="Horse and Carriage in Krakow" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6609-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<a href='https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wikimania-2024-a-conference-of-collaboration-learning-and-culture/img_6621/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="225" height="300" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-225x300.jpg" class="attachment-medium size-medium" alt="St Mary's Basilica, Krakow" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/IMG_6621-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a>
<p><br /><br />Now back in Edinburgh with lots of work to continue, I’m reflecting on what was an enriching experience for which I am very grateful. I’m proud to have presented at an international conference, which will definitely boost my confidence. It was inspiring to see the variety of work happening within the Wikimedia community, such as the resilience of the Ukrainian community during the ongoing war. The conference felt like a community that was excited to meet and learn from one another and I’m glad to have been part of it.<br /><br /></p>
<div id="attachment_450" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-450" class="wp-image-450 size-large" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-1024x1024.jpeg" alt="Wikimania 2024 Group Photo" width="740" height="740" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-300x300.jpeg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media-768x768.jpeg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2024/08/Media.jpeg 1080w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><p id="caption-attachment-450" class="wp-caption-text">Wikimania 2024 Group Photo</p></div>
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<time datetime="2024-08-19" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 19, 2024</time>
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<title>Remembering Scotland’s Accused Witches: Books, Plays and Memorials</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/internship-wrap-up/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/internship-wrap-up/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 25 Aug 2023 15:55:59 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=402</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I am writing this blog post on the final day of my internship. The 12 weeks have flown by! Over this period, a lot of progress has been made to the new version of the site. This has consisted of:• Quality checking the data by comparing the data from the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft to […]]]></description>
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<p style="text-align: left">I am writing this blog post on the final day of my internship. The 12 weeks have flown by! Over this period, a lot of progress has been made to the new version of the site.</p>
<p style="text-align: left"><br />This has consisted of:<br />• Quality checking the data by comparing the data from the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft to the data on Wikidata.<br />• Making improvements and getting rid of bugs on the website .<br />• User testing sessions.</p>
<p style="text-align: left"><br />You can read more about these in the previous blog posts. However, there is still progress to be made so I am going to continue to work on this project one day a week when I return to university in September! This will allow us to make sure we are fully confident with the data being used and the happy with the content of the website before releasing the new version of the website. The new version of the website includes lots of exciting new information and features such as accusations of shapeshifting and ritual objects plotted on a filterable map, custom timeline searches, a <a href="http://www.histropedia.com/">Histropedia</a> timeline where you can do name searches and filtering by age of accused and a new historic map layer using <a href="https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=10.6&lat=55.91496&lon=-3.36726&layers=125140579&b=1">the 1750 Dorret georeferenced map from National Library of Scotland</a>.</p>
<p>If you want to find out more about what I’ve been working on watch this video below:</p>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DKwfk7mgxk0?feature=oembed" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Over the past 2 weeks I’ve had the opportunity to attend interesting witch related events at the Edinburgh festivals. I went to a talk at Edinburgh International Book Festival with the authors Mairi Kidd (<a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/we-are-all-witches/mairi-kidd/9781785304132">We Are All Witches</a> ) and Allyson Shaw (<a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/ashes-and-stones/allyson-shaw/9781529395457">Ashes and Stone</a>) who have written books about the accused witches of Scotland which they discussed in this talk. “We Are All Witches” tells fictionalised accounts of 16 of the accused witches based on the information available and “Ashes and Stones” follows the authors journey visiting memorials of the accused witches around Scotland. This highlighted the importance and relevance of telling the individual stories and the memorialisation of those who suffered.</p>
<p>With my manager I also went to see a play at the fringe called <a href="https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/prick">Prick</a>, which told the stories of some of the executed women accused of witchcraft including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isobel_Gowdie">Issobell Gowdie</a>. These were both really inspiring, emotional and evocative events. I think after spending so long working with the data you begin to forget that these were real people and not just entries on a database, I was really reminded of how horrific, unjust and inhumane the trials and sufferings these women went through really were, which enforced in my mind the importance of sharing their stories. Also, both the authors at the book talk and the playwright of Prick used the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft as one of their primary resources when researching the Scottish witch trials which was a reminder of how valuable the data we are working with is.</p>
<div id="attachment_405" style="width: 349px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-405" class=" wp-image-405" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/booktalk-e1692977642502-225x300.jpg" alt="Mairi Kidd & Allyson Shaw: Who Are the Real Witches? - Book Festival Talk" width="339" height="452" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/booktalk-e1692977642502-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/booktalk-e1692977642502.jpg 480w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 339px) 100vw, 339px" /><p id="caption-attachment-405" class="wp-caption-text">Mairi Kidd & Allyson Shaw: Who Are the Real Witches? – Book Festival Talk</p></div>
<p>After going to both events it was really in our minds how important it is to remember and learn from these people’s stories and the there is a lot of interest in how they are memorialised. This has lead us to decide we will begin working on the idea we had to create a map of memorials for the accused witches. So people can see in one place the memorials that local areas have dedicated to the accused witches that were subject to the trials, torture and executions. We have started researching this by borrowing the book <a href="https://beul-aithris-publishing.onlineweb.shop/Witch_Memorials_of_Scotland/p6366266_20228504.aspx"><em>Witch Memorials of Scotland</em> by Gregor Stewart</a> from the University library. We also met with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Goodare">Professor Julian Goodare</a> to update him on the progress that has been made, ask him for advice, make use of his expertise and discuss our future ideas going forward such as the map of memorials.</p>
<div id="attachment_406" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-406" class="size-medium wp-image-406" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-300x157.jpg" alt="Ruby and Professor Julian Goodare" width="300" height="157" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-300x157.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-768x402.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/MicrosoftTeams-image.jpg 1440w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-406" class="wp-caption-text">Ruby and Professor Julian Goodare</p></div>
<p><br />Overall, this internship has been a great experience because not only have I learnt lots of new technical skills (programming in R, Vue JavaScript framework, Wikidata, Sparql queries, user testing and user interface design) and professional skills (communication, teamwork and time management) I have also got to learn lots about this dark period of Scottish history through lots of different mediums. I’ve been inspired to learn more in my own time and have read <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/hex/jenni-fagan/9781846976223">Hex</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenni_Fagan">Jenni Fagan</a> which tells an imagining of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geillis_Duncan">Geillis Duncan</a>‘s last night. This has made me passionate about working on this project as I’ve realised the real world value and impact of helping people to understand the stories and individuals behind this data. I’m looking forward to continuing this work and launching the new version of the site which hopefully further shares these individual stories as best we can.</p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2023-08-25" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 25, 2023</time>
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<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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<title>From Witches to Widgets: A Witchfinder Intern’s Update</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/from-witches-to-widgets-a-witchfinder-interns-update/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/from-witches-to-widgets-a-witchfinder-interns-update/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 08 Aug 2023 09:14:50 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Internship]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=383</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Hello, It’s been a while since my last blog post so it’s time for an update about my time as Witchfinder General Data Visualisation intern! Since my last post, I’ve been busy as ever, diving into the world of data quality assuring, tinkering with our website, and getting some insights from users and lots of […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>Hello, It’s been a while since my last blog post so it’s time for an update about my time as Witchfinder General Data Visualisation intern! Since my last post, I’ve been busy as ever, diving into the world of data quality assuring, tinkering with our website, and getting some insights from users and lots of other fun and interesting experiences.</p>
<div id="attachment_389" style="width: 298px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-389" class=" wp-image-389" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-225x300.jpg" alt="Photo of Me Working on the Website" width="288" height="384" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/bereal.jpg 1500w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 288px) 100vw, 288px" /><p id="caption-attachment-389" class="wp-caption-text">Working on the Website in Argyle House</p></div>
<p><br />My role in ensuring the accuracy and reliability of our data continues. With the aim of making sure our users get the most reliable insights and facts meanwhile respecting the original work of Survey of Scottish Witchcraft. I have now compared lots of fields including place of detention, primary & secondary case characteristics, cause of death, manner of death and lots more. From this I have been able to see that some information has been discovered since the Survey and added to Wikidata. I have made sure that all this information is referenced to trustworthy verifiable sources, ensuring that our website has the most accurate and up to date information possible. You can keep track of my progress <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Scotland%27s_Accused_Witches/To_do">on our Wikidata project page here</a>.</p>
<div id="attachment_386" style="width: 495px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-386" class=" wp-image-386" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-300x143.png" alt="New Feature on the Website which allows you to see historic version of Map" width="485" height="231" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-300x143.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-1024x489.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-768x367.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-1536x734.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919-1440x688.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-08-091919.png 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px" /><p id="caption-attachment-386" class="wp-caption-text">New Historic Map Fearure</p></div>
<p><br />I’ve added some cool features to our website! You can now travel back in time with our historical map layer. After discussing different map layers with <span class="ui-provider fz b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ab ac ae af ag ah ai aj ak" dir="ltr">Chris Fleet at National Library of Scotland we selected <a href="https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=12.2&lat=55.92314&lon=-3.22392&layers=125140579&b=1">the 1750 georeferenced James Dorret map</a>. </span>This lets you see how things looked closer to the time of the accused witches. Plus, we’ve made it easier for users to pick and choose what they want to see with the select and deselect buttons and changing the list of filters to alphabetical order. And I’ve been on a bug-hunting mission to get rid of them and make sure everything runs smoothly to make the website easier to navigate. We have had several other ideas of how we can make our website more engaging and informative, one of these ideas was to add some illustrations to the website to help users understand what information is being displayed to them. So I talked to one of the other interns Ally who is working on an interactive colouring in book. She came out with some initial ideas that could be used as icons for the accusations of Shapeshifting and the Ritual Objects supposed used and they turned out great! However, we have some concerns relating to including modern illustrations on our website. We are worried it could distract from the academic historical work or misrepresent some of these historical ideas (e.g. Shapeshifting) that we are referring to.</p>
<div id="attachment_398" style="width: 325px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-398" class=" wp-image-398" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-300x155.jpg" alt="Concept Illustrations for Website" width="315" height="163" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-300x155.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-1024x527.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-768x396.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-1536x791.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1-1440x742.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/blog3heading1.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 315px) 100vw, 315px" /><p id="caption-attachment-398" class="wp-caption-text">Concept Illustrations for Website</p></div>
<p>I also ran 7 user testing sessions with support from the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/user-experience">User Experience team</a> who’s aim is to deliver user-centred products. I initially met with members of the team and they informed me that the best way to improve the user experience of the website would be to find out what needs improving by conducting user testing. They gave me lots of advice on how to go about these sessions and for one of my first sessions helped me take notes. We decided to test on users who were experts on history and some people with very little previous knowledge on witches! So I reached out to <span class="ui-provider fz b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ab ac ae af ag ah ai aj ak" dir="ltr">Assistant Professor Mikki Brock, Witches of Scotland podcasters, Dr. Chris Langley and other interns to see if they would be interested in participating, and they all were! </span>This range of knowledge was really useful to see how the different types of users interacted with the website, this is important as these are both user groups that our website in intended for. I would give the users tasks to complete on the site and watch them complete them, taking notes and then ask them questions to hear their thoughts and advice. Their feedback will help guide us towards the best version of the website possible. I’ve shared their insights with the team, and together we’re deciding what we came take from it to make improvements to the site.</p>
<p><br />As part of my internship, I’ve also had some pretty cool experiences beyond the screen. A trip to <a href="https://www.stcecilias.ed.ac.uk/whats-on/">St Celias Hall</a>, a musical instrument museum, was a really interesting experience that I learnt lots of new information from. I’ve also dabbled in Wikipedia writing after attending a Wikipedia training session, I researched and wrote a page about the accused witch <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issobell_Fergussone">Issobelle Fergesoune</a>. It’s great to be able to write about the accused witches individual stories as this humanizes them and helps people understand what they really went through. Also, I have attended several team meetings, where coffee and cake were involved!</p>
<div id="attachment_392" style="width: 297px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392" class=" wp-image-392" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-225x300.jpg" alt="Musical Instruments in St Celia's Hall" width="287" height="383" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-225x300.jpg 225w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195-1440x1920.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/08/st-celias-hall-trip-scaled-e1691485923195.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px" /><p id="caption-attachment-392" class="wp-caption-text">Musical Instruments in St Celia’s Hall</p></div>
<p>So, what’s next? I have two quite big challenges to focus on, one being making sure the website is mobile responsive and the other being trying to reduce the load time when opening the website. Currently, the website can takes some time to load because there is huge amounts of data being pulled. This will be quite technically difficult to solve. Our approach is going to be separating the queries pulling the data into smaller queries so less data is being pulled at once. The load time is very important to user experience and something that was mentioned several times in the user testing sessions. Hopefully after these improvements the new version of the website will be one step closer to being released!</p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2023-08-08" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 8, 2023</time>
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<title>Weeks 2 and 3 – Unravelling Anomalies and Starting the Website Transformation</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/weeks-2-and-3-unravelling-anomalies-and-starting-the-website-transformation/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/weeks-2-and-3-unravelling-anomalies-and-starting-the-website-transformation/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 28 Jun 2023 06:31:51 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=377</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I am now coming the end of my third week as the Witchfinder General – Data Visualisation intern and time has flown by. Over the past 2 weeks I have begun on the journey of Quality Assuring the data and improving the website. This process began by dealing with the anomalies between the names and […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span data-contrast="auto">I am now coming the end of my third week as the Witchfinder General – Data Visualisation intern and time has flown by. Over the past 2 weeks I have begun on the journey of Quality Assuring the data and improving the website. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">This process began by dealing with the anomalies between the names and gender of accused witches that the previous intern, Claire had found and then after consulting with<a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/about-us/staff-profiles/profile_tab5_academic.php?uun=jgoodare&search=2¶ms="> Professor Julian Goodare</a> about these differences making the corresponding necessary changes in wikidata. Then I began with looking at different properties, starting with social class and occupation. From this I discovered there was some differences with the wording of some of the values used in the Survey and in Wikidata. This was because there are some very Survey-specific terms related to witch hunts in 16th century Scotland and a 21st century platform like Wikidata has items of data that are of more general use with often more modern definitions of terms as a community knowledgebase of open linked data. It is also because language changes over time and the definitions and use of terms and placenames has changed since the 16th century. Where possible it is better to use a common language of terms so that the data can be explored and parsed more easily. However, if there are stark differences then it is better to make sure that Wikidata has terms suitable for explaining the specific nature of terms of the information contained within the Survey so that there is no loss of meaning or misrepresentation creeping in. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><div id="attachment_380" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-380" class="wp-image-380 size-medium" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/wordTable-300x224.png" alt="Anomalies in Value Labels between Wikidata and the Survey" width="300" height="224" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/wordTable-300x224.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/wordTable.png 463w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-380" class="wp-caption-text">Anomalies in Value Labels between Wikidata and the Survey</p></div></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">In most cases Professor Julian Goodare, lecturer in History and project Director of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft database (2003), approved of these cases but he suggested that </span><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54128"><b><span data-contrast="auto">domestic worker</span></b></a><span data-contrast="auto"> did not give appropriate meaning and that adding a new value <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q119574553"><strong>servant</strong> </a>would represent the work they did more accurately so I changed every accused witch on Wikidata that was down a domestic worker to servant using <a href="https://quickstatements.toolforge.org/#/">Quickstatements</a>. Once we had confirmed that the rest of the terms being used in Wikidata were suitable, there was no anomalies left for social class but there was some for occupation. There were some witches in Wikidata where some additional occupations had been added that were not mentioned in the survey. We sent these to Prof. Julian Goodare and he looked through his resources and verified whether these occupations were accurate and provided us with a reference that could be added to Wikidata. This is part of the benefit of working with open linked data where multiple values can be added by a community of users if it aids and augments the data. It does need to be verifiable however so adding a reference to back up statements being added is key.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Looking at residence property was my next hurdle and it proved to be a more difficult and time consuming task than the previous properties. This was because in the Survey there were numerous columns of locations for each accused witch – settlement, parish, presbytery, county and burgh – and on Wikidata different locations have been chosen depending on which residence Emma.. ( the first student intern to work on this project) was able to find. Emma worked with georeferenced historic maps from the National Library of Scotland and placename books to try and identify which placename listed in the five columns of data in the Survey could be geolocated on a map to be the most specific place of residence for each accused witch we could approximate a co-ordinate location for. This means there is a lot of differences between the survey data and Wikidata to look through, so this is something I am still working on , as there are 820 locations to look at.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">I have also began working on the website improvements. This began by creating a list of all the things we would like to change/add and categorising them into bugs, new features, and navigation improvements. And we also had a meeting with Prof. Julian Goodare to discuss potential additions with him. Lots of great ideas came out of this meeting such as filming an explainer video for the ‘About’ webpage that would give an introduction this project, the background of the survey of Scottish witchcraft and a guide to the website. Once we had completed a categorised list, I had a meeting with the web development team, Andrew and Richard, and we played ‘scrum poker’, a method for each of us guesstimating how long each development task might take. The next stage was to start working through these tasks and prioritising any bugs.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The navigation and user interface of the test site of the website is something that needs improved before making this version available to the public. We reached out to the ISG’s User Experience (UX) Service to see if they could provide us with any support on this side of things. We had a meeting with them to give them an introduction the project and website, give our ideas, answer their questions and gauge the kind of support they could give us. I think the main goal of the site is to make a good resource for people interested in witches but also those with no prior knowledge. Since the website was first released loads of visualisations were added to the test site of version 2 by Maggie and Josep, our student interns in Summer 2022. These have provided great new insights but have caused for the navigational layout of the site to become slightly unorganised. It is often hard to find what you are looking for or understand what you are looking at. Ahead of the meeting with the UX team, I created some mock ups showing how we could change the navigation so that all the maps of accused witches are in the same place (discoverable in the left hand menu pictured below) and you can explore the map with different filters and read contextual text explaining each visualisation. This way people are more likely to view and understand more of the information. We are soon to have a follow up meeting with them to discuss things further.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><div id="attachment_378" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-378" class="wp-image-378 size-medium" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web1-300x131.png" alt="Mock-up of Web Improvements" width="300" height="131" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web1-300x131.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web1.png 683w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-378" class="wp-caption-text">Mock-up of Web Improvements</p></div></p>
<p><div id="attachment_379" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-379" class="wp-image-379 size-medium" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web2-300x136.png" alt="Mock-up of Web Improvements" width="300" height="136" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web2-300x136.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/web2.png 681w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-379" class="wp-caption-text">Mock-up of Web Improvements</p></div></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Overall, I have really enjoyed my first few weeks. I have been able to work on a variation of tasks including web development, data assurance and Wikidata. This has kept things interesting and exciting and I have learnt so much already from new technical skills to greater historical knowledge of what happened to these accused witches. have had meetings with lots of interesting people all providing valuable ideas to the project. I have also met lots of other interns and staff at various events such as the welcome lunch, home baking morning and the all staff BBQ. I am excited to continue the work I have done so far.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span><br />
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
<time datetime="2023-06-28" itemprop="dateModified">Jun 28, 2023</time><br />
</span></p>
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<title>A Witchfinder’s Quest : Ensuring Data Accuracy & Enhancing the Website</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/witchfinders-data-accuracy-website/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/witchfinders-data-accuracy-website/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[rimrie2]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 Jun 2023 09:05:50 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Internship]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[map of accused witches]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ruby imrie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=366</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Hi! I’m Ruby and I’m a 3rd year undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh studying Computer Science. And I am the new Witchfinder General – Data Visualisation Intern and I am going to be continuing with the great work of the previous interns that have worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. So far, […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi! I’m Ruby and I’m a 3<sup>rd</sup> year undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh studying Computer Science. And I am the new Witchfinder General – Data Visualisation Intern and I am going to be continuing with the great work of the previous interns that have worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. So far, many amazing visualisations have been created and added to the website that make it a great educational resource that everyone can access.</p>
<p>These visualisations have been based on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Database created by academics in the early 2000’s. Key information from this database has been uploaded to <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page">Wikidata</a>, allowing for this data to be more accessible to a large community, and has allowed editing and augmentation by members of the Wikidata community. Most visualisations on the website are creating using the data from Wikidata. Wikidata is part of the Wikimedia family, and is a free and open knowledge base composed of structured data that is used in Wikipedia and projects such as this one.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><div id="attachment_367" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-367" class="size-medium wp-image-367" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-300x225.jpg" alt="Familiarizing myself with the datasets and the current website" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-768x576.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1-1440x1080.jpg 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/06/blog1.jpg 2016w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-367" class="wp-caption-text">Familiarizing myself with the datasets and the current website</p></div></p>
<p><strong>My Goals for Working on this Project</strong></p>
<p>Since the data has been uploaded to Wikidata, it means there may be differences between the Wikidata and the orginal survey data due to the possibility of import errors and other users editing the data. It is important that we check that the data is all this accurate in order to prevent the spread of misinformation and to respect the original historical record, the historical events, what happened to these women, and the work of the researchers on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft. The intern previous to me, Claire Panella, developed a method using R Studio to find the entries that don’t match between Wikidata and the original Survey of Scottish Witches databases. She first completed checking the gender and then the names of the accused witches matched the Survey, from this it was discovered there was several anomalies. One of my roles while pursuing this internship is to continue this work of quality assuring the linked open data used in our website. This will be approached by using Claire’s methodology to check all the different variables displayed in the visualisations, then verifying what changes need made by consulting with academic expert colleagues before making any of the changes. This way we will know the information we are displaying is the most accurate version possible. Although, because this is historical data there are omissions and inexactitudes that by opening up the data to a public audience we hope to be able to further scrutinise and improve on what we know about this dark period of Scottish history.</p>
<p>Along with quality assuring the data I will be working on improving the <a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/">website</a> in order, with the aim of users being able to gain as much from the website as possible. This will in involve making some changes to the user interface in order to make it more accessible and usable by making it more user friendly and easier to navigate. Furthermore, adding any visualisations that we believe will provide insightful information to users of the website. For example, I had the idea of creating a heatmap to show the distribution of the accused witches across Scotland. Whilst working on the website, we will gather ideas and opinions from experts in all things Wiki and Witches!</p>
<p><strong>My First Week</strong></p>
<p>During my first week on this project, I dedicated my time to familiarizing myself with the datasets, which comprise a substantial database with over 3,000 entries. This extensive collection contains a wealth of information about each accused witch, their respective witch trials, and the overarching investigations into witchcraft. Consequently, there were many aspects to consider, and this gave me a lot to think about.</p>
<p>In order for me to effectively use <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page">Wikidata</a>, a platform I had limited knowledge about before starting this project, I engaged with various members of the Wikidata community. These individuals offered valuable advice and guidance as I begin navigate this project. In order to make the most of Wikidata’s capabilities, I devoted time to learning how to effectively utilize Sparql (a query language for databases) and Openrefine (an open-source tool specifically designed for working with untidy datasets).</p>
<p>Furthermore, this project has required the development of new skills to effectively manipulate the databases and improve the website. In this pursuit, I acquainted myself with R Studio, a programming language I had not previously worked with. I discovered that R Studio offers a user-friendly interface along with robust statistical and data analysis functionalities, making it a suitable choice of software for the project’s requirements. Additionally, I followed tutorials on Vue.js, the JavaScript framework employed for constructing the website.</p>
<p>Over the past year, interns previous to me have worked on a version 2 of the website with some changes made and extra visualisations added to the website. This version currently has not been made public. Over the course of my internship we hope to get this version to a completed stage and make this version public. To kickstart the process, I engaged in brainstorming sessions to generate ideas for the website. Subsequently, I organized and prioritized these ideas, ensuring a clear direction for the project.</p>
<p>I’m really excited to work on this project. As a Computer Science student, I have some experience with working with large datasets and creating data visualizations and working on web applications, and I am excited to be able to develop these skills. Meanwhile, getting to learn to learn a lot about this historic event and work on a great resource that can educate people on one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in Scottish History.<br />
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
<time datetime="2023-06-12" itemprop="dateModified">Jun 12, 2023</time><br />
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<title>Finding Impossible Witches: Part One The Search Begins</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/finding-impossible-witches-part-one/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/finding-impossible-witches-part-one/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[cpanella]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 05 Apr 2023 15:38:47 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[claire panella]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlamfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[internfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[open data]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Openedfeed]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[survey of scottish witchcraft]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Wikidata]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Witches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=351</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Inheriting the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Project Hi! I’m Claire, a 4th year undergraduate studying International Relations with Quantitative Methods at the University of Edinburgh, and the latest in a long line of interns and others who’ve worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. The data involved in this project was originally compiled in […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><span data-contrast="none">Inheriting the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Project</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">Hi! I’m Claire, a 4</span><span data-contrast="none">th</span><span data-contrast="none"> year undergraduate studying International Relations with Quantitative Methods at the University of Edinburgh, and the latest in a long line of interns and others who’ve worked on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft project. The data involved in this project was originally compiled in a Microsoft Access Database by academics in the early 2000’s. Since then, key information from the database has been added to Wikidata, allowing for greater accessibility as well as editing and augmentation by members of the Wikidata community. People have done lots of great things with this data, including </span><a href="https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/"><span data-contrast="none">all the visualisations</span></a><span data-contrast="none"> put together by the previous data visualisation interns, but now that the data is stored across several different platforms, it’s important to make sure that these versions are reconciled. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">My role is to find the ‘Impossible Witches’; those entries which don’t m</span><span data-contrast="none">atch between Wikidata and the original Access database.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><div id="attachment_353" style="width: 566px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-353" class="wp-image-353" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408-300x219.jpg" alt="" width="556" height="406" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408-300x219.jpg 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408-1024x747.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408-768x560.jpg 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/VideoCapture_20230405-124408.jpg 1080w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 556px) 100vw, 556px" /><p id="caption-attachment-353" class="wp-caption-text">Working away making my first comparisons in R. By Claire Panella, Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0</p></div></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none"> </span><b><span data-contrast="none">Checking against the database item by item</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">My initial approach to this was to use R to compare between csv files exported from the Access database, and csv files accessed by querying Wikidata. This required downloading both files, checking to make sure variable labels matched, combining the datasets, and isolating the cases where the information didn’t match iso I could look through and see where the issues were.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">For some features, like gender, a lot of information h</span><span data-contrast="none">as been added to Wikidata that isn’t present in the survey, but there are very few cases where </span><span data-contrast="none">Wikidata and the survey have conflicting information.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><div id="attachment_354" style="width: 554px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-354" class="wp-image-354" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/gender-anomalies-300x169.png" alt="" width="544" height="306" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/gender-anomalies-300x169.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/gender-anomalies.png 602w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 544px) 100vw, 544px" /><p id="caption-attachment-354" class="wp-caption-text">Anomalies in Gender between Wikidata and the Survey</p></div></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">In others, like Name, the situation is a bit more complicated. Sometimes the spellings vary between Wikidata and the Survey – this could be for a few reasons, and to add to the complications, both data sources have multiple name categories – the survey includes both modern and historical first and last names, while Wikidata includes both an Item Identifier and aliases. I’ve also looked for exact matches between the text from each source, so some inconsistencies just have to do with capitalisation and spacing. Really, it’s impressive there are only 23 anomalies!</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><div id="attachment_352" style="width: 543px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-352" class="wp-image-352" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/name-anomalies-300x170.png" alt="" width="533" height="302" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/name-anomalies-300x170.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2023/04/name-anomalies.png 602w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px" /><p id="caption-attachment-352" class="wp-caption-text">Anomalies in Name between Wikidata and the Survey</p></div></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">My goal now is to come up with a solid procedure to check wikidata entri</span><span data-contrast="none">es against the survey so we can be sure we’re consistent and accurate in which data changes we keep. After that, I’ll work on a methodology to pass on to whomever the next ‘Witchfinder General’ is so that we can keep track of data changes as the project continues to grow and evolve. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span data-contrast="none">As I look for a method to continuously check for differences between the original survey data and the most up to date version of Wikidata, I’ve turned to the Wikidata community for help. Ewan reached out to his contacts, and I reached out via <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Project_chat">Project Chat</a> as well as a Slack channel for <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_LD4_Wikidata_Affinity_Group">libraries using Wikidata</a>. Different users have responded with various suggestions. One Wikidata user suggested a library I could use to efficiently link R with SPARQL queries, and some of Ewan’s contacts gave suggestions for the general workflow I could follow in creating a shareable methodology. One of the most helpful suggestions was that I use a tool called prompter, which would allow me to compare the results of a SPARQL query to a stable csv and store anomalies as a table on the Wikidata project page. While this looks like a great idea, it has led us to run into another of the common problems involved in working with Wikidata – not all of the tools are maintained. The </span><a href="https://prompter.toolforge.org/prompter"><span data-contrast="none">Prompter</span></a><span data-contrast="none"> tool was designed by the Every Politician Project, which was placed on indefinite pause in June 2019. This means that while the documentation for the tool still exists, it no longer works as a template in Wikidata. For me, this has been a valuable lesson on the pros and cons of working with a platform run and maintained by volunteers. Still, we are continuing to get great advice from Wikimedians around the world. A new goal of mine for the end of this project is to create a workable and well documented method that I can easily share, so I have something to give back to the community that has helped me so much throughout this project. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":1,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559737":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":270}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span><br />
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<time datetime="2023-04-05" itemprop="dateModified">Apr 5, 2023</time><br />
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<title>Weeks 9 and 10 – Sweeping the Cobwebs(ite)</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/weeks-9-and-10-cleaning-the-cobwebsite/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/weeks-9-and-10-cleaning-the-cobwebsite/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[jgarcia7]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 12 Aug 2022 15:44:34 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=330</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Site re-development – Filtering Witchcraft Hi, this is Josep again! We are currently in Week 10 of our internship, and time is starting to become a limiting factor. Since my last blog post in Week 4 a lot of things have been going on, and in this post I am going to be explaining how […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Site re-development – Filtering Witchcraft</h2>
<p>Hi, this is Josep again! We are currently in Week 10 of our internship, and time is starting to become a limiting factor. Since my last blog post in Week 4 a lot of things have been going on, and in this post I am going to be explaining how the plans I had back then have turned out, what I have managed to accomplish, and the things I still have left to do in the two remaining weeks.</p>
<p>In week 5, I implemented the new filtering algorithm, and everything went rather smoothly – although I had to change the whole data structure. I think this was a significant improvement, as things ran a bit faster, we only had to keep one copy of the array we use to plot, and the code was neater.</p>
<p>However, after that I then spent quite a few days implementing a way to share filter status data across pages, so that when the user changed pages they would have the same filters on as they had in the previous page. Nevertheless, in order to do this without a backend I had to hardcode the filters array into something called Vue Store (so that its state could be accessed from all pages).</p>
<p>The nature of this array meant that it had to change if the data in the database changed, so I would also need a dynamic check, and I thought it was fine because the data is not likely to change, and I had a dynamic check implement just in case it did. But when I pushed the code over for review, the rest of the team felt it was not ideal to have something both static and dynamic at the same time, which in hindsight I agreed with.</p>
<p>Then I thought I could build the list dynamically and then enter it into the Vue Store, but once I had that implemented I realised that that didn’t work because of caching we were doing (which is quite important because of loading time issues). Therefore, in the end we decided we would just not have the filters share across pages until we had a backend. Back then it was a bit difficult as I felt I had wasted quite a lot of time, but at the same time it was a valuable learning experience!</p>
<p>With the new filtering functionality done, I then started changing the filtering user interface to move it to the left of the page, and with the help of the rest of the team I think we managed to get a pretty neat, professional looking design. This is what it is looking like now:</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-332 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-12-at-13.34.59-300x175.png" alt="" width="566" height="331" /></p>
<p>This was the last thing I did before leaving to Spain for holidays for a week.Right now, I have been back from holidays for a bit less than two weeks. In the time that I have been back, I have been working on developing a responsive timeline for the Leaflet Map pages and refactoring the code in order to be able to add more map pages with more filters very easy once Maggie has finished adding all the new data on to WikiData, which should be any time now.</p>
<p>Other than doing these two things, I was hoping to have time to add a backend in Python to process all the data after querying WikiData (as of now there is no backend and we do it in the front-end’s JavaScript) since we will have quite a lot of new data to process, and we are afraid the loading time will significantly increase. However, in the end it has been decided that I shouldn’t do the back end in Python since the team say that they can’t maintain a Python backend in the long term once I’m gone, as they work in PHP. I will try and have time to do the backend in PHP, but I would have to learn it from scratch and there are a lot more other bits and pieces that need doing!</p>
<h2>The Data Side of Things</h2>
<p>I was off for most of last week as I was in Turkey holidaying for a couple of days, but was back on Thursday for more data work! I finished processing the <strong>witches’ meeting places</strong> and <strong>what went down</strong> in these meetings, as well as the <strong>calendar customs </strong>that were mentioned in the witchcraft investigations. Looking at <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q112321273">Agnes Sampson’s investigation</a> page, you can see all the juicy new details we’ve fitted into the Wikidata data model from the Survey and processed using OpenRefine.</p>
<p>Speaking of OpenRefine, I am currently planning and scripting a little tutorial for users of the software or even future interns as I have really enjoyed how intuitive and helpful it’s been for this project. This should be recorded in the next week so keep your eyes peeled…</p>
<p>This week, I started off with doing some data cleaning. Previously, before we created case items for each witchcraft investigation, the <strong>shapeshifting</strong> and <strong>ritual objects</strong> data was added to the accused witches’ items. Some helpful Wikidatans saw this duplication and started deleting statements, so we decided we needed to clean this up to not cause confusion.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-336 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-300x111.png" alt="" width="586" height="217" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-300x111.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-1024x379.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-768x284.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-1536x568.png 1536w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339-1440x533.png 1440w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-112-e1660311037339.png 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 586px) 100vw, 586px" /></p>
<p>Using the same Google sheet that was used to add the shapeshifting information, I used the handy “<em>Export to QuickStatements</em>” option to get all the edits into QuickStatements syntax. I did this as with QuickStatements, it’s easy to remove specific statements by <strong>prefixing</strong> a line with a <strong>minus sign. </strong></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-337 aligncenter" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357-300x154.png" alt="" width="399" height="205" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357-300x154.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357-1024x526.png 1024w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357-768x394.png 768w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/wp-content/uploads/sites/524/2022/08/Screenshot-113-e1660312198357.png 1430w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px" /></p>
<p>After this, I started to think about extracting the data added to Wikidata using the Wikidata Query Service. We have been in contact with Navino Evans, one of the co-founders of <a href="http://www.histropedia.com/">Histropedia</a>, to help us with the complex SPARQL query. <a href="https://query.wikidata.org/#SELECT%20distinct%20%3Fitem%20%3FitemLabel%20%3FinvestigationDate%0A%3FresidenceLabel%20%3FresidenceCoords%20%3FsexLabel%20%3Flink%20%3FoccupationLabel%20%3FsocialClassificationLabel%0A%3FplaceOfDeathLabel%20%3FplaceOfDeathCoords%20%3FmannerOfDeathLabel%20%3FdetentionLocationLabel%20%3FdetentionLocationCoords%0A%0A%23Newly%20added%0A%3Finvestigation%20%3FinvestigationStart%20%3FinvestigationEnd%0A%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FqualityWithQualifier%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3Fqualities%29%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FchargeWithQualifier%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3Fcharges%29%0A%28GROUP_CONCAT%28DISTINCT%20%3FritualObjectLabel%3B%20separator%3D%27%20%7C%20%27%29%20as%20%3FritualObjects%29%0A%0AWHERE%0A%7B%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP4478%20%3Fwitch%20.%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP551%20%3Fresidence%20.%0A%20%20%3Fresidence%20wdt%3AP625%20%3FresidenceCoords%20.%0A%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP4478%20%3Flink%20.%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP21%20%3Fsex%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP106%20%3Foccupation%20.%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP3716%20%3FsocialClassification%20.%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP20%20%3FplaceOfDeath%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3FplaceOfDeath%20wdt%3AP625%20%3FplaceOfDeathCoords%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP1196%20%3FmannerOfDeath%20.%7D%0A%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP2632%20%3FdetentionLocation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3FdetentionLocation%20wdt%3AP625%20%3FdetentionLocationCoords%20.%0A%20%20%7D%0A%20%0A%20%20%23%20INVESTIGATION%0A%20%0A%20%20%23OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fitem%20wdt%3AP793%20%3Finvestigation%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20wdt%3AP31%20wd%3AQ66458810%20%3B%20%23%20Tip%3A%20Use%20%3B%20to%20repeat%20%3Finvestigation%20again%20without%20having%20to%20write%20it%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20wdt%3AP580%7Cwdt%3AP585%20%3FinvestigationStart%20%3B%20%23%20Tip%3A%20Use%20%7C%20symbol%20to%20mean%20%22OR%22%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%3Finvestigation%20wdt%3AP582%20%3FinvestigationEnd%20%7D%0A%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Quality%20%28COPY%20THIS%20FOR%20MULTIPLE%20VALUE%2C%20WITH%20qualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20p%3AP1552%20%3FhasQualityNode%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityNode%20ps%3AP1552%20%3FhasQuality%20.%20%23%20main%20value%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%20%20%23%20%22including%22%20qualifier%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityNode%20pq%3AP1012%20%3FqualityIncluding%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FqualityIncluding%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FqualityIncludingLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FqualityIncludingLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQuality%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FhasQualityLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FhasQualityLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20BIND%28IF%28%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20BOUND%28%3FqualityIncludingLabel%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20CONCAT%28%3FhasQualityLabel%2C%22%20%28%22%2C%20%3FqualityIncludingLabel%2C%20%22%29%22%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FhasQualityLabel%29%20as%20%3FqualityWithQualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Charge%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20p%3AP1595%20%3FchargeNode%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FchargeNode%20ps%3AP1595%20%3Fcharge%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FchargeNode%20pq%3AP4675%20%3Fform%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fform%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FformLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FformLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fcharge%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FchargeLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FchargeLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20BIND%28IF%28%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20BOUND%28%3FformLabel%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20CONCAT%28%3FchargeLabel%2C%22%20%28%22%2C%20%3FformLabel%2C%20%22%29%22%29%2C%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FchargeLabel%29%20as%20%3FchargeWithQualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%20%0A%20%20%20%20%23%20Ritual%20object%20%28COPY%20THIS%20FOR%20MULTIPLE%20VALUE%2C%20but%20WITHOUT%20qualifier%29%0A%20%20%20%20OPTIONAL%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Finvestigation%20wdt%3AP8706%20%3FritualObject%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%3FritualObject%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3FritualObjectLabel%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20FILTER%20%28lang%28%3FritualObjectLabel%29%20%3D%20%22en%22%29%20.%0A%20%20%20%20%7D%20.%0A%20%20%23%7D%0A%20%0A%20%20SERVICE%20wikibase%3Alabel%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20bd%3AserviceParam%20wikibase%3Alanguage%20%22%5BAUTO_LANGUAGE%5D%2Cen%22.%0A%20%20%20%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A%0AGROUP%20BY%20%3Fitem%20%3FitemLabel%20%3FinvestigationDate%20%3FresidenceLabel%20%3FresidenceCoords%20%3FsexLabel%20%3Flink%0A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was the working example he sent us, and I used this example to try my hand at adding <strong>calendar customs</strong> and <strong>witches’ meeting places </strong>to the query (the data I added recently), with this <a 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<p> </p>
<p> <br />
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
<time datetime="2022-08-12" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 12, 2022</time><br />
</span></p>
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=485] "Separating Legend from Legacy: Remembering the Accused Witches of Scotland"
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Diag====| Item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=485] "Separating Legend from Legacy: Remembering the Accused Witches of Scotland" is a duplicate of an existing post.
Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=471] "Preserving Scottish Heritage: The Accused Witches of Scotland"
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=455] "The Final Countdown: New Features and Nuxt 3 Upgrade"
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=424] "Wikimania 2024: A Conference of Collaboration, Learning and Culture"
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=402] "Remembering Scotland’s Accused Witches: Books, Plays and Memorials"
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Diag====| Item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=402] "Remembering Scotland’s Accused Witches: Books, Plays and Memorials" is a duplicate of an existing post.
Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=383] "From Witches to Widgets: A Witchfinder Intern’s Update"
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Diag====| Item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=383] "From Witches to Widgets: A Witchfinder Intern’s Update" is a duplicate of an existing post.
Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=377] "Weeks 2 and 3 – Unravelling Anomalies and Starting the Website Transformation"
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=366] "A Witchfinder’s Quest : Ensuring Data Accuracy & Enhancing the Website"
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=351] "Finding Impossible Witches: Part One The Search Begins"
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Diag| Considering item [https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/witchcraft_visualisation/?p=330] "Weeks 9 and 10 – Sweeping the Cobwebs(ite)"
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<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/2026/04/17/phpuk-2026/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Green]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:08:58 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Conference]]></category>
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<description><![CDATA[This February I was back at the PHPUK conference in London. The venue this year was 1 America Square with a historic wall through the middle of one of the rooms. There were three tracks to follow so unfortunately we couldn’t go to all the talks, but managed to cover two thirds. It Depends – […]]]></description>
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<p>This February I was back at the PHPUK conference in London. The venue this year was 1 America Square with a historic wall through the middle of one of the rooms. There were three tracks to follow so unfortunately we couldn’t go to all the talks, but managed to cover two thirds.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">It Depends – Gary Hockin</h2>
<p>After a short welcome to the conference (and the new venue), Gary Hockin gave a talk about how decisions that we make every day have different outcomes based on the context. There are always trade-offs to consider for every choice we make and because one option is not chosen in one instance, it doesn’t mean it is unsuitable for all situations.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Know Your Enemies: Live Exploit of a PHP Engine Security Breach – Alexandre Daubois</h2>
<p>Alexandre presented an interesting talk on real exploits or attempted exploits in PHP. The most interesting example to me was an attempt to add malicious code that would allow executing any code on a server running PHP as long as it’s connected to the internet. This was done by interpreting a specific header on incoming requests as code to run when given a certain prefix. It even made it to a release candidate before it was noticed by other contributors. This was done by exploiting a vulnerability in the version control server that allowed the malicious actor to submit the code changes under a different user. Luckily the code was spotted and removed before becoming widely available in a full release. This also influenced the decision to move the code into GitHub, so maintainers didn’t have to worry as much about the security of the code.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Packets, Protocols and PHP: Networking Fundamentals for Developers – Jessica Smith</h2>
<p>This next talk discussed what happens behind the scenes whenever a network request is made over the internet. Jessica covered a lot during the 45 minutes and even though it isn’t knowledge that I’d usually consider a key part to my job, I think it is very useful to understand what is happening in the background when users are accessing your website. It still amazes me how we can send information across the world in seconds (or less) over the internet. Even with an explanation on how data is split into packets and how they are routed, it’s still hard to comprehend.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Four Pillars of Observability – Florian Engelhardt</h2>
<p>Next came a guide to monitoring live applications and how to quickly find when something is wrong with Florian. I found a lot of the tips to be relevant to websites I have worked on within the university such as the Short Courses Platform (SCP). Occasionally we have a bug in the site, and it can be very difficult to find what the actual cause of it is. Using metrics, logging, tracing, and profiling we can get a better idea of what is causing an issue and why it has started happening. As a developer, I’m used to using logs and error messages to get an idea about what is going wrong when something breaks, but Florian gave some interesting ideas that aren’t completely code related like monitoring live sales (or course enrolments for the SCP) and visualising them. If the numbers start to drop rapidly, then something has probably broken which means people can’t use the website properly.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Saving Time by Using a Debugger – Derick Rethans</h2>
<p>Derick gave a demonstration on ways to use Xdebug to improve developer efficiency. Once setup, it can be a useful tool for stepping through PHP code and inspecting the current state of the web application to find out what is happening. Personally, I have used debuggers with C# and C++ code and found it useful there since I don’t have to recompile anything to add in some logs and inspect data. In interpreted languages like PHP, this isn’t something I have considered before, however I will definitely be finding it useful in my future work. Even though some technical issues disrupted the live demonstrations, Derick still managed to inspire me to check out Xdebug for myself and use with both personal and work projects.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Stepping away from the code… but not quite… – Wim Godden</h2>
<p>This was one of my favourite talks of the day from Wim about how stakeholders in a project should approach the code, particularly emphasising when people in management or non-development roles need to <em>step away from the code</em> and let developers do their job. He talked about how people from outside of development teams, especially those with development experience, can often try to dictate the implementation of a feature rather than what the result of having that feature should be which can cause issues with development and often makes the process of adding a feature take longer. Providing high quality user stories that have good coverage of what the users need to be able to do on the application will be far more valuable to developers. He also talked about how the career progression of a developer doesn’t have to be continuously upwards within an organisation. Instead, it’s ok to move up and down or stay where we’re comfortable.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Escaping the Code Maze – Yannick Chenot</h2>
<p>To finish off the day, Yannick discussed how we can make our code easier to understand by reducing the assumptions that can be made. Some languages are already stricter on some of the methods of explaining code such as providing types to variables with static types, whereas languages like PHP don’t enforce many rules like this. He demonstrated a few PHP classes and how the assumptions can be reduced by making simple changes that can greatly improve the readability of the code.</p>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In conclusion</h2>
<p>There were lots of interesting topic discussed throughout the day and plenty to think about afterwards. I will definitely be looking into Xdebug and different tools for monitoring and observing web applications. I found Wim Godden’s talk about how we should see code in different roles across an organisation interesting. I’d highly recommend watching/listening to the recording as this one is also relevant to less technical people who work with developers.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Elephants </h2>
<p>I’ve also started a collection of PHP elephants with two from this conference.</p>
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<title>PHPUK Conference 2025</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/2025/08/19/phpuk-conference-2025/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/2025/08/19/phpuk-conference-2025/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Green]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:09:19 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[In February, a colleague and I got the chance to attend the PHPUK conference 2025. Throughout the day, we attended talks from various contributors to the PHP community. The conference had two tracks, which allowed us to split up and cover as much as possible with plenty of breaks to discuss what we’ve learnt about. […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In February, a colleague and I got the chance to attend the PHPUK conference 2025. Throughout the day, we attended talks from various contributors to the PHP community. The conference had two tracks, which allowed us to split up and cover as much as possible with plenty of breaks to discuss what we’ve learnt about.</p>
<p>Before splitting into separate tracks, Daniel Terhorst-North gave a talk on behaviour driven development (BDD) and the 20 years of history behind it. He showed how even though it was started by one person, the community has kept it going.</p>
<p>The next speaker I listened to was Wim Godden who spoke about deploying software at both small and large scales and automating the processes behind it as much as possible. He showed a real-world example of deploying software to rental lockers for a Belgium based company. They used a tool called Ansible to remotely connect to each computer and run tasks for setting up the computer, installing software, and running the company’s software that operates the lockers. This talk felt especially relevant to the Short Courses Platform I am currently working on, since we are also using Ansible to deploy the website onto multiple servers and update it when required.</p>
<p>After a quick break and discussion about the talks we’d listened to, I attended a talk about how large codebases can be compared to onions from Katy Ereira. She explained how large systems can be broken down into smaller, more understandable parts and comparing them to different parts of an onion to help understand their function.</p>
<p>Nils Adermann gave a talk on securing software supply chains. When most people add a library to their codebase, they don’t always think about the security of the library itself, and especially not the dependencies required by it. However, a dependency of a dependency of a library used for something as simple as logging messages could have a security vulnerability that affects the whole codebase. Nils talked about ways to protect against that using tools like GitHub Dependabot or Conductor, which Private Packagist is currently developing. He also revealed how many widely used and often open source libraries receive extremely little funding, which can make it difficult finding volunteers to maintain security.</p>
<p>Over lunch, we discussed the speakers we had listened to and spoke to other attendees of the conference.</p>
<p>Next was a talk from Gina Banyard about discovering edge cases in the PHP language. As a PHP core maintainer, they had an interesting perspective on how bugs are diagnosed and discussions about the expected functionality. Some examples of recently addressed bugs were demonstrated, along with how PHP now handles them.</p>
<p>After the final break, I attended a talk about OpenAPI from Lorna Mitchell, which discussed what the OpenAPI specification is and how it can benefit both developers and users of APIs. The specification assists developers in designing APIs and creating extensive documentation for them through a schema written in either JSON or YAML. Since it is language agnostic, it can be applied to any API.</p>
<p>The conference provided some interesting perspectives and ideas that I will be sharing with other colleagues and may encourage us to consider in current or future projects. Many of the talks were not just relevant to PHP, so can be applied to other projects such as the short courses platform, which already uses Ansible for deployment.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Information about all the speakers and recordings of the talks can be found on the <a href="https://www.phpconference.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PHPUK Conference website</a></p>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Green]]></dc:creator>
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<description><![CDATA[This February I was back at the PHPUK conference in London. The venue this year was 1 America Square with a historic wall through the middle of one of the rooms. There were three tracks to follow so unfortunately we couldn’t go to all the talks, but managed to cover two thirds. It Depends – […]]]></description>
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<p>This February I was back at the PHPUK conference in London. The venue this year was 1 America Square with a historic wall through the middle of one of the rooms. There were three tracks to follow so unfortunately we couldn’t go to all the talks, but managed to cover two thirds.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">It Depends – Gary Hockin</h2>
<p>After a short welcome to the conference (and the new venue), Gary Hockin gave a talk about how decisions that we make every day have different outcomes based on the context. There are always trade-offs to consider for every choice we make and because one option is not chosen in one instance, it doesn’t mean it is unsuitable for all situations.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w5Ja7Gysm_w?feature=oembed" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Know Your Enemies: Live Exploit of a PHP Engine Security Breach – Alexandre Daubois</h2>
<p>Alexandre presented an interesting talk on real exploits or attempted exploits in PHP. The most interesting example to me was an attempt to add malicious code that would allow executing any code on a server running PHP as long as it’s connected to the internet. This was done by interpreting a specific header on incoming requests as code to run when given a certain prefix. It even made it to a release candidate before it was noticed by other contributors. This was done by exploiting a vulnerability in the version control server that allowed the malicious actor to submit the code changes under a different user. Luckily the code was spotted and removed before becoming widely available in a full release. This also influenced the decision to move the code into GitHub, so maintainers didn’t have to worry as much about the security of the code.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jXkBWNLUO2M?feature=oembed" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Packets, Protocols and PHP: Networking Fundamentals for Developers – Jessica Smith</h2>
<p>This next talk discussed what happens behind the scenes whenever a network request is made over the internet. Jessica covered a lot during the 45 minutes and even though it isn’t knowledge that I’d usually consider a key part to my job, I think it is very useful to understand what is happening in the background when users are accessing your website. It still amazes me how we can send information across the world in seconds (or less) over the internet. Even with an explanation on how data is split into packets and how they are routed, it’s still hard to comprehend.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
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</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Four Pillars of Observability – Florian Engelhardt</h2>
<p>Next came a guide to monitoring live applications and how to quickly find when something is wrong with Florian. I found a lot of the tips to be relevant to websites I have worked on within the university such as the Short Courses Platform (SCP). Occasionally we have a bug in the site, and it can be very difficult to find what the actual cause of it is. Using metrics, logging, tracing, and profiling we can get a better idea of what is causing an issue and why it has started happening. As a developer, I’m used to using logs and error messages to get an idea about what is going wrong when something breaks, but Florian gave some interesting ideas that aren’t completely code related like monitoring live sales (or course enrolments for the SCP) and visualising them. If the numbers start to drop rapidly, then something has probably broken which means people can’t use the website properly.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
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</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Saving Time by Using a Debugger – Derick Rethans</h2>
<p>Derick gave a demonstration on ways to use Xdebug to improve developer efficiency. Once setup, it can be a useful tool for stepping through PHP code and inspecting the current state of the web application to find out what is happening. Personally, I have used debuggers with C# and C++ code and found it useful there since I don’t have to recompile anything to add in some logs and inspect data. In interpreted languages like PHP, this isn’t something I have considered before, however I will definitely be finding it useful in my future work. Even though some technical issues disrupted the live demonstrations, Derick still managed to inspire me to check out Xdebug for myself and use with both personal and work projects.</p>
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</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Stepping away from the code… but not quite… – Wim Godden</h2>
<p>This was one of my favourite talks of the day from Wim about how stakeholders in a project should approach the code, particularly emphasising when people in management or non-development roles need to <em>step away from the code</em> and let developers do their job. He talked about how people from outside of development teams, especially those with development experience, can often try to dictate the implementation of a feature rather than what the result of having that feature should be which can cause issues with development and often makes the process of adding a feature take longer. Providing high quality user stories that have good coverage of what the users need to be able to do on the application will be far more valuable to developers. He also talked about how the career progression of a developer doesn’t have to be continuously upwards within an organisation. Instead, it’s ok to move up and down or stay where we’re comfortable.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
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</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Escaping the Code Maze – Yannick Chenot</h2>
<p>To finish off the day, Yannick discussed how we can make our code easier to understand by reducing the assumptions that can be made. Some languages are already stricter on some of the methods of explaining code such as providing types to variables with static types, whereas languages like PHP don’t enforce many rules like this. He demonstrated a few PHP classes and how the assumptions can be reduced by making simple changes that can greatly improve the readability of the code.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In conclusion</h2>
<p>There were lots of interesting topic discussed throughout the day and plenty to think about afterwards. I will definitely be looking into Xdebug and different tools for monitoring and observing web applications. I found Wim Godden’s talk about how we should see code in different roles across an organisation interesting. I’d highly recommend watching/listening to the recording as this one is also relevant to less technical people who work with developers.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Elephants </h2>
<p>I’ve also started a collection of PHP elephants with two from this conference.</p>
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<title>PHPUK Conference 2025</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/2025/08/19/phpuk-conference-2025/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/2025/08/19/phpuk-conference-2025/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Green]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:09:19 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/?p=7</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In February, a colleague and I got the chance to attend the PHPUK conference 2025. Throughout the day, we attended talks from various contributors to the PHP community. The conference had two tracks, which allowed us to split up and cover as much as possible with plenty of breaks to discuss what we’ve learnt about. […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In February, a colleague and I got the chance to attend the PHPUK conference 2025. Throughout the day, we attended talks from various contributors to the PHP community. The conference had two tracks, which allowed us to split up and cover as much as possible with plenty of breaks to discuss what we’ve learnt about.</p>
<p>Before splitting into separate tracks, Daniel Terhorst-North gave a talk on behaviour driven development (BDD) and the 20 years of history behind it. He showed how even though it was started by one person, the community has kept it going.</p>
<p>The next speaker I listened to was Wim Godden who spoke about deploying software at both small and large scales and automating the processes behind it as much as possible. He showed a real-world example of deploying software to rental lockers for a Belgium based company. They used a tool called Ansible to remotely connect to each computer and run tasks for setting up the computer, installing software, and running the company’s software that operates the lockers. This talk felt especially relevant to the Short Courses Platform I am currently working on, since we are also using Ansible to deploy the website onto multiple servers and update it when required.</p>
<p>After a quick break and discussion about the talks we’d listened to, I attended a talk about how large codebases can be compared to onions from Katy Ereira. She explained how large systems can be broken down into smaller, more understandable parts and comparing them to different parts of an onion to help understand their function.</p>
<p>Nils Adermann gave a talk on securing software supply chains. When most people add a library to their codebase, they don’t always think about the security of the library itself, and especially not the dependencies required by it. However, a dependency of a dependency of a library used for something as simple as logging messages could have a security vulnerability that affects the whole codebase. Nils talked about ways to protect against that using tools like GitHub Dependabot or Conductor, which Private Packagist is currently developing. He also revealed how many widely used and often open source libraries receive extremely little funding, which can make it difficult finding volunteers to maintain security.</p>
<p>Over lunch, we discussed the speakers we had listened to and spoke to other attendees of the conference.</p>
<p>Next was a talk from Gina Banyard about discovering edge cases in the PHP language. As a PHP core maintainer, they had an interesting perspective on how bugs are diagnosed and discussions about the expected functionality. Some examples of recently addressed bugs were demonstrated, along with how PHP now handles them.</p>
<p>After the final break, I attended a talk about OpenAPI from Lorna Mitchell, which discussed what the OpenAPI specification is and how it can benefit both developers and users of APIs. The specification assists developers in designing APIs and creating extensive documentation for them through a schema written in either JSON or YAML. Since it is language agnostic, it can be applied to any API.</p>
<p>The conference provided some interesting perspectives and ideas that I will be sharing with other colleagues and may encourage us to consider in current or future projects. Many of the talks were not just relevant to PHP, so can be applied to other projects such as the short courses platform, which already uses Ansible for deployment.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Information about all the speakers and recordings of the talks can be found on the <a href="https://www.phpconference.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PHPUK Conference website</a></p>
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<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:08:58 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[This February I was back at the PHPUK conference in London. The venue this year was 1 America Square with a historic wall through the middle of one of the rooms. There were three tracks to follow so unfortunately we couldn’t go to all the talks, but managed to cover two thirds. It Depends – […]]]></description>
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<p>This February I was back at the PHPUK conference in London. The venue this year was 1 America Square with a historic wall through the middle of one of the rooms. There were three tracks to follow so unfortunately we couldn’t go to all the talks, but managed to cover two thirds.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">It Depends – Gary Hockin</h2>
<p>After a short welcome to the conference (and the new venue), Gary Hockin gave a talk about how decisions that we make every day have different outcomes based on the context. There are always trade-offs to consider for every choice we make and because one option is not chosen in one instance, it doesn’t mean it is unsuitable for all situations.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w5Ja7Gysm_w?feature=oembed" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Know Your Enemies: Live Exploit of a PHP Engine Security Breach – Alexandre Daubois</h2>
<p>Alexandre presented an interesting talk on real exploits or attempted exploits in PHP. The most interesting example to me was an attempt to add malicious code that would allow executing any code on a server running PHP as long as it’s connected to the internet. This was done by interpreting a specific header on incoming requests as code to run when given a certain prefix. It even made it to a release candidate before it was noticed by other contributors. This was done by exploiting a vulnerability in the version control server that allowed the malicious actor to submit the code changes under a different user. Luckily the code was spotted and removed before becoming widely available in a full release. This also influenced the decision to move the code into GitHub, so maintainers didn’t have to worry as much about the security of the code.</p>
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</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Packets, Protocols and PHP: Networking Fundamentals for Developers – Jessica Smith</h2>
<p>This next talk discussed what happens behind the scenes whenever a network request is made over the internet. Jessica covered a lot during the 45 minutes and even though it isn’t knowledge that I’d usually consider a key part to my job, I think it is very useful to understand what is happening in the background when users are accessing your website. It still amazes me how we can send information across the world in seconds (or less) over the internet. Even with an explanation on how data is split into packets and how they are routed, it’s still hard to comprehend.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
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</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Four Pillars of Observability – Florian Engelhardt</h2>
<p>Next came a guide to monitoring live applications and how to quickly find when something is wrong with Florian. I found a lot of the tips to be relevant to websites I have worked on within the university such as the Short Courses Platform (SCP). Occasionally we have a bug in the site, and it can be very difficult to find what the actual cause of it is. Using metrics, logging, tracing, and profiling we can get a better idea of what is causing an issue and why it has started happening. As a developer, I’m used to using logs and error messages to get an idea about what is going wrong when something breaks, but Florian gave some interesting ideas that aren’t completely code related like monitoring live sales (or course enrolments for the SCP) and visualising them. If the numbers start to drop rapidly, then something has probably broken which means people can’t use the website properly.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
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</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Saving Time by Using a Debugger – Derick Rethans</h2>
<p>Derick gave a demonstration on ways to use Xdebug to improve developer efficiency. Once setup, it can be a useful tool for stepping through PHP code and inspecting the current state of the web application to find out what is happening. Personally, I have used debuggers with C# and C++ code and found it useful there since I don’t have to recompile anything to add in some logs and inspect data. In interpreted languages like PHP, this isn’t something I have considered before, however I will definitely be finding it useful in my future work. Even though some technical issues disrupted the live demonstrations, Derick still managed to inspire me to check out Xdebug for myself and use with both personal and work projects.</p>
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</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Stepping away from the code… but not quite… – Wim Godden</h2>
<p>This was one of my favourite talks of the day from Wim about how stakeholders in a project should approach the code, particularly emphasising when people in management or non-development roles need to <em>step away from the code</em> and let developers do their job. He talked about how people from outside of development teams, especially those with development experience, can often try to dictate the implementation of a feature rather than what the result of having that feature should be which can cause issues with development and often makes the process of adding a feature take longer. Providing high quality user stories that have good coverage of what the users need to be able to do on the application will be far more valuable to developers. He also talked about how the career progression of a developer doesn’t have to be continuously upwards within an organisation. Instead, it’s ok to move up and down or stay where we’re comfortable.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" src="about:blank" data-bs-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fa2WywiwFik?feature=oembed" width="660" height="544" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Escaping the Code Maze – Yannick Chenot</h2>
<p>To finish off the day, Yannick discussed how we can make our code easier to understand by reducing the assumptions that can be made. Some languages are already stricter on some of the methods of explaining code such as providing types to variables with static types, whereas languages like PHP don’t enforce many rules like this. He demonstrated a few PHP classes and how the assumptions can be reduced by making simple changes that can greatly improve the readability of the code.</p>
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</div></figure>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In conclusion</h2>
<p>There were lots of interesting topic discussed throughout the day and plenty to think about afterwards. I will definitely be looking into Xdebug and different tools for monitoring and observing web applications. I found Wim Godden’s talk about how we should see code in different roles across an organisation interesting. I’d highly recommend watching/listening to the recording as this one is also relevant to less technical people who work with developers.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Elephants </h2>
<p>I’ve also started a collection of PHP elephants with two from this conference.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/2025/08/19/phpuk-conference-2025/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/egreen2/2025/08/19/phpuk-conference-2025/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Green]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:09:19 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[In February, a colleague and I got the chance to attend the PHPUK conference 2025. Throughout the day, we attended talks from various contributors to the PHP community. The conference had two tracks, which allowed us to split up and cover as much as possible with plenty of breaks to discuss what we’ve learnt about. […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In February, a colleague and I got the chance to attend the PHPUK conference 2025. Throughout the day, we attended talks from various contributors to the PHP community. The conference had two tracks, which allowed us to split up and cover as much as possible with plenty of breaks to discuss what we’ve learnt about.</p>
<p>Before splitting into separate tracks, Daniel Terhorst-North gave a talk on behaviour driven development (BDD) and the 20 years of history behind it. He showed how even though it was started by one person, the community has kept it going.</p>
<p>The next speaker I listened to was Wim Godden who spoke about deploying software at both small and large scales and automating the processes behind it as much as possible. He showed a real-world example of deploying software to rental lockers for a Belgium based company. They used a tool called Ansible to remotely connect to each computer and run tasks for setting up the computer, installing software, and running the company’s software that operates the lockers. This talk felt especially relevant to the Short Courses Platform I am currently working on, since we are also using Ansible to deploy the website onto multiple servers and update it when required.</p>
<p>After a quick break and discussion about the talks we’d listened to, I attended a talk about how large codebases can be compared to onions from Katy Ereira. She explained how large systems can be broken down into smaller, more understandable parts and comparing them to different parts of an onion to help understand their function.</p>
<p>Nils Adermann gave a talk on securing software supply chains. When most people add a library to their codebase, they don’t always think about the security of the library itself, and especially not the dependencies required by it. However, a dependency of a dependency of a library used for something as simple as logging messages could have a security vulnerability that affects the whole codebase. Nils talked about ways to protect against that using tools like GitHub Dependabot or Conductor, which Private Packagist is currently developing. He also revealed how many widely used and often open source libraries receive extremely little funding, which can make it difficult finding volunteers to maintain security.</p>
<p>Over lunch, we discussed the speakers we had listened to and spoke to other attendees of the conference.</p>
<p>Next was a talk from Gina Banyard about discovering edge cases in the PHP language. As a PHP core maintainer, they had an interesting perspective on how bugs are diagnosed and discussions about the expected functionality. Some examples of recently addressed bugs were demonstrated, along with how PHP now handles them.</p>
<p>After the final break, I attended a talk about OpenAPI from Lorna Mitchell, which discussed what the OpenAPI specification is and how it can benefit both developers and users of APIs. The specification assists developers in designing APIs and creating extensive documentation for them through a schema written in either JSON or YAML. Since it is language agnostic, it can be applied to any API.</p>
<p>The conference provided some interesting perspectives and ideas that I will be sharing with other colleagues and may encourage us to consider in current or future projects. Many of the talks were not just relevant to PHP, so can be applied to other projects such as the short courses platform, which already uses Ansible for deployment.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Information about all the speakers and recordings of the talks can be found on the <a href="https://www.phpconference.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PHPUK Conference website</a></p>
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<title>Working hand in hand</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2025/12/10/working-hand-in-hand/</link>
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<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[A lot of the time IT services are supporting users – that is, students and teaching staff – or work quietly in the background to assure systems and infrastructure are in good shape and fit for purpose. In my own role I rarely have an opportunity to see what happens “on the ground”, in the […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A lot of the time IT services are supporting users – that is, students and teaching staff – or work quietly in the background to assure systems and infrastructure are in good shape and fit for purpose. In my own role I rarely have an opportunity to see what happens “on the ground”, in the physical teaching environments. However, recently I was attending a staff training event for Data Protection Champions, and it ended up being an exciting little showcase of how our services work together to make learning and teaching happen. Not just for students <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
<p>What are Data Protection Champions? These are a group of staff members who commit to staying up to date on current developments across the university on matters intersecting with Data Protection and to help keep information otherwise available on the web current in discussions and work locally. The Community Meetings help to exchange knowledge and ask questions to understand in better detail what processes and procedures are designed to do and to disambiguate the legalese that necessarily accompanies legal and compliance rules and regulations.</p>
<p>In other words, understanding the details is important, and summarising this “second hand” is not always easy. This prompted some champions to reach out to the organiser asking if the event could be recorded.</p>
<p>This was not a Teams meeting. But, it was set at a lecture theatre with Lecture recording facilities. So after a little consideration of alternatives (recording in segments on a mobile phone? recording via Kaltura video recorder from a laptop?) we set to work out what might need to happen to make use of the lecture recording equipment.</p>
<ul>
<li>Sound check – oh my. Somehow feedback reverberating in stereo through the theatre makes for a great alarm clock, but it transpired quite quickly that we were in need of support. A colleague from Digital Spaces Tech attended within minutes – and some troubleshooting later had all the microphones operating normally. Sigh of relief – we can all hear and know this will be captured in the recording.</li>
<li>Recording – typically recordings are linked to course delivery in our VLE, Learn. And timetabling allows for lectures to be added to the courses automatically. When requesting an ad-hoc recording, this is available to instructors; or can be supported from the Media Service team with a little notice. In our case, notice was very limited, and the support from the service team was invaluable. The lights of the recording equipment turned red – on time for the meeting to start.</li>
<li>Processing – with the event being a full morning, including a break for coffee and networking, the recording took some time to process on the system. With help from the service team, this time duly recorded using our ticketing system Unidesk, the recording was modified to exclude the break to make this more convenient for champions to review once shared.</li>
</ul>
<p>Since the event was not associated with a course or programme, and the default of our lecture recordings setup via the VLE did not apply, sharing recordings is not automatic. The system is designed to safeguard teaching activities and keep permissions for processing and sharing details in line with the terms and conditions of service. Data Protection compliance at its best. Staff training, still falls within the remit of teaching, but staff training is not hosted on our VLE Learn, again, in order to comply with the terms and conditions of service for the VLE. On guidance from the Media Service team we requested for the migration of the video to our other media channel, Media Hopper Create. With this being the first interaction on the service the help and support with this process was incredibly appreciated by the organiser and all involved in the event.</p>
<ul>
<li>Migrating – as part of this whole process, I discovered a whole new set of environments that can be logged into, alas, because my account is linked to a playground account, and I was not the owner of the video recording, we took up the kind offer of support from the Media Service team who brought the video into Media Hopper Create, which offers captioning and wider sharing permissions.</li>
<li>Sharing – as with many of our services, the ability to secure content is shared with the appropriate user groups is really important. Materials can be set to only exist for the video owner (private), made accessible only to users who have been given the link (unlisted) or be made public to all users. In addition, licensing selections assure that users are informed of what is permissible with regards to use of the content and copyright.</li>
</ul>
<p>The support and efforts across the different teams was a really good reminder of why working in ISG / LTW / DLAM is such a rewarding experience. Sometimes we end up being in the role of our own users, and colleagues come to our rescue and support to make the most of the teaching and training that keeps our service provisions compliant and up to date.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
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<item>
<title>What’s in a measure? Considerations on Anthology Ally</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/12/04/whats-in-a-measure-considerations-on-anthology-ally/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/12/04/whats-in-a-measure-considerations-on-anthology-ally/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 04 Dec 2023 11:09:51 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=85</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Let me take a moment to share my thoughts around one of our newer services with Learning, Teaching and Web: Anthology Ally. Accessibility is fast becoming one of my favourite topics working within DLAM. A Humanities graduate myself, maybe the link between Hermeneutics (Interpretation theory) and digital transformations in accessible design play a part. Whilst […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Let me take a moment to share my thoughts around one of our newer services with Learning, Teaching and Web: Anthology Ally. Accessibility is fast becoming one of my favourite topics working within DLAM. A Humanities graduate myself, maybe the link between Hermeneutics (Interpretation theory) and digital transformations in accessible design play a part. Whilst I used to be primarily concerned about the meaning behind the words, I now find myself deeply fascinated by the (digital) transactions that take place to transmit and present information, and the tools it takes to make this happen!</p>
<p><span class="TextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun CommentStart CommentHighlightPipeRest CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">Digital accessibility refers to </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">digital content </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">that has been reviewed and tested to be </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">accessible to the widest possible audience and be free from any avoidable access restrictions when using assisti</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">ve technologies. </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">In the broad landscape of software, programmes and platforms, readability and interoperability </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">are crucial if we are to enable our users to interact with out content in an output format suited to th</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">eir needs. Thus, for accessibility to </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">translate to digital media </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">educational design (content focussed), interoperability, and user navigation and software availability</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8"> all play a part</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">. </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">To achieve this, </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">the ability </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">to review and revise </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightPipeRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">core information – such as</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> file properties,</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> logical </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">input</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> and design </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">elements</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> – </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">this data </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">must be clearly readable to </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">a variety of </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">software </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">before the </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">output</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> can be guaranteed</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">. Who else remembers the wonders of opening a foreign file extension with Word and being faced with code </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">rendered</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> in Webdings?</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW170933220 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8">Our ability to alter and edit our content and </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8">render</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8"> it accessible at all levels, is critical. </span>Anthology Ally offers us a window into the system level dialogue of our digital learning environment and the digital media we populate our classrooms with. Ally is a software integration on our primary VLE that scans contents for digital accessibility, its meta text, settings and requirements hidden behind the on-the-face output. It allows the users to identify accessibility issues at software level and supports some measures of fixing these; as well as enabling the conversion of files into alternative formats. Alternative formats can make teaching resources more adaptable to the diverse needs and wants of our students. Changing file type may help in presenting a file more adaptive to screen size; opting for a different display modus can support reading; access to audio can allow you to listen back on materials whilst working out, running chores or on the commute… with a diverse student body, we have the opportunity to fit all our teaching courses into a more flexible learning style. An improved digital experience supports all our learners, and having a chance to gauge better what poses a hindrance to assistive technology will make an impact to our users!</p>
<figure id="attachment_87" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-87" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-87" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats-300x224.png" alt="Image title: Know your options. Chose a format that's right for you. List of alternative formats and their advantages shows 8 items. Item 1 Format: OCRed PDF for automatically extracted text. Advantage: Improved scanned documents for better reading and text search. Item 2 Format: Tagged PDF for a structured PDF for assistive technology. Advantage: Improved structure for navigation, essential for screen readers. Item 3 Format: HTML for browser and mobile. Advantage: Customize your text with a file that adapts text to mobile screen sizes. Item 4 Format: ePub for reading on tablets and e-book readers. Advantage: usable for ebooks on tablets to annotate and highlight. Item 5 Format: Electronic braille in BRF file format. Advantage: supports tactile reading and offers relief from screenreaders. Item 6 Format: Audio as MP3 recording of text. Advantage: Listen and learn on the go by engaging different modalities. Item 7 Format: BeeLine Reader. This creates a machine translated version of the document. Advantage: Improved on-screen reading to read faster and with greater focus. Item 8 Format: Translated version (this is an opt-in product) offering a machine translated version of the document. Advantage: Translates text to one of 50 different languages. Speak to Information Services if you are interested in this version." width="300" height="224" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats-300x224.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats.png 343w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-87" class="wp-caption-text">Table of available alternative formats</figcaption></figure>
<p>Here at DLAM testing out our service solutions to assure that they work as intended and integrate seamlessly (we can but try!) into our existing service environment is a wonderful part of the job. The <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/">Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1</a> (version 2.2 has been launched in October) offer a detailed list of criteria when reviewing all our websites and applications for legal compliance <span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8"> under the </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8">Equality Act (2010)</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8"> and </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8">The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (<a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility/guidelines-policy-legislation">https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility/guidelines-policy-legislation</a>)</span></span>. One of the core efforts in the standard is that organisations have to lay bare how they identified and thought about accessibility for their products and services, and where possible, mitigated any avoidable shortcomings. In broad terms, our applications are challenged on three aspects: audio, visual and navigation / workflow; the touch points of our digital environment. It is a “dimension of interoperability” to assess whether “assistive technologies [are] working predictably with different combinations of browsers, mobile operating systems, and devices“ (<a href="https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4842-7948-9_7">The Next Frontier – Expanding the Definition of Accessibility | SpringerLink</a>). When testing for Ally, a core challenge for me was using assistive technology, often for the first time, and to interpret the behaviour. Whilst I was reasonably familiar with Ease of Access settings for my PC and browser, other more specialist tools I found hard to judge. What if my lack of familiarity with assistive technology in the test makes for a poor result due to difficulties with the assistive tool rather than the target interface? It is the hard to judge places that lead us to use tools to scan and evaluate what meets compliance criteria and helps us to correlate our own experience with the data we interact with.</p>
<p>To guide instructors about digital accessibility, Ally produces a score. It is meant as a guide to how clean a file is in digital terms, i.e. how successful it will be in converting to an alternative file format or being negotiated by any common assistive technology tool. So taking a moment to demystify the scoring for a moment should clear our view to how Ally supports our wider mission to produce accessible learning and teaching materials.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-86" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Low-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in red pointing to low level to denote 0-33% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>Low </strong>(0-33%): Needs help! There are severe accessibility issues.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Medium-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in amber pointing to mid-level to denote 34-66% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>Medium </strong>(34-66%): A little better. The file is somewhat accessible and needs improvement.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/high-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in light green pointing to high level to denote 67-99% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>High </strong>(67-99%): Almost there. The file is accessible but more improvements are possible.</p>
<p><strong><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Perfect-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in dark green pointing to full tank level to denote 100% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> Perfect </strong>(100%): Perfect! Ally didn’t identify any accessibility issues but further improvements may still be possible.</p>
<p>Now, a scan for alternative text, in spite of the potential for AI to play a part here in future, cannot infer the context for the teaching resource and the focus the image might have in the lesson plan in the assessment of the appropriateness of ALT text. Ally is first and foremost an editing tool for the instructor, and a convenient conversion tool for the students. Accessibility needs remain to be assessed at the human level. So what do we do to assure we keep the service on track?</p>
<ul>
<li>Training; we must foster a keen awareness of what constitute accessible design in our digital service landscape</li>
<li>Testing; we must test out applications and websites to identify and mitigate challenges in accessibility</li>
<li>Research; we must continue to learn about digital trends, possible new solutions and developments in assistive technology, and accessible design</li>
<li>Feedback; we must actively listen to user feedback to satisfy ourselves that we are not merely offering a legally compliant but a practical and usable service solution and that users understand the benefits and limits of the tools we provide; evaluating our service data can support this conversation (and I hope to go into more detail about this in my next blog).</li>
</ul>
<p>What I have found in the course of the launch of Ally is that users, academics and technologists alike, need to know not only what the barriers of student users may be, and what assistive technologies might be employed, but how to make the leap between the informational content, the educational experience or activities, and the digital needs of the programmes to make it operate for other software. Whilst it is important to point out that accessibility needs are as diverse as the subjects we offer in teaching, focused on honing different skills and abilities, the same goes for assistive technologies. There will never be a one-size-fits-all. And that is a positive thing. It curtails our tendency to reduce accessibility to a tick box exercise. Checking for accessibility remains at all times an iterative process. With Ally, we have one more tool to help us orientate ourselves amidst this ever evolving digital landscape.</p>
<p> </p>
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<time datetime="2023-12-04" itemprop="dateModified">Dec 4, 2023</time>
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<title>Accessible by design</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/07/25/accessible-by-design/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/07/25/accessible-by-design/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 25 Jul 2023 07:20:48 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[general]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[#digitalaccessibility]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=59</guid>
<description><![CDATA[For many years I have worked as a proof-reader and editor on an assignment basis. It seemed a suitable outlet to my fastidious nature and relentless drive for detail (attributes that I have only marginally been able to tamper for polite society since). What it has given me, however, is a deep appreciation of the […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>For many years I have worked as a proof-reader and editor on an assignment basis. It seemed a suitable outlet to my fastidious nature and relentless drive for detail (attributes that I have only marginally been able to tamper for polite society since). What it has given me, however, is a deep appreciation of the intricacies of good type setting, clean style guides and accurate referencing.</p>
<p>Fast forward to the present day, I am starting to learn more about the digital footprint all these choices and settings create and which of them support interoperability with assistive technologies. What used to be, to my untrained eye, just a flat surface, a 2-dimensional choice of matching the style to the words for the benefit of the reader, suddenly had 3 dimensions: making the text comprehensible to technology to assist in its easy transformation across media by means of tags and codes and alt text… and with it opening up to a more agile interaction with that all-important source material that was being communicated.</p>
<p>So I have set myself two goals: to collate reference material in support of accessibility that may help in designing documents at the outset with accessibility in mind; and to work on some style sheets that can meaningfully integrate what characteristics might be required for different materials to make them meaningfully accessible in their own context and user groups. </p>
<p>What does it take to annotate an art textbook in digital print? What software best integrates disciplinary challenges like specialist symbols and characters? What etiquette rules should be followed in the landscape of gifs and emoji? How can good editing eliminate additional workflows and processes to create differently accessible materials? Is there really ever going to be a “golden copy”?</p>
<p>Let the journey begin <img decoding="async" src="https://statics.teams.cdn.office.net/evergreen-assets/personal-expressions/v2/assets/emoticons/mmm/default/50_f.png?v=v17" alt="Mmmmm…" width="20px" height="20px" aria-label="Mmmmm…" /></p>
<h4>Accessibility Resources </h4>
<p>Government Digital Service – <a href="https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2017/10/23/an-accessibility-reading-list/">An accessibility reading list – Accessibility in government (blog.gov.uk)</a></p>
<p>TextBox Digital – Designing Accessibly – <a href="https://www.textboxdigital.com/aspiredatabase-education/university-of-kent">University of Kent (textboxdigital.com)</a></p>
<p>Universal Design for Learning Guidelines <a href="https://udlguidelines.cast.org/">UDL: The UDL Guidelines (cast.org)</a></p>
<p>Ally Accessibility Formats <a href="https://sites.reading.ac.uk/tel-support-for-students/2018/09/21/blackboard-ally-getting-started-with-alternative-accessible-formats/">Blackboard Ally: Getting started with alternative accessible formats – Blackboard Help for Students – University of Reading</a></p>
<p>Guidelines for Assessment Descriptions <a href="https://www.nwea.org/uploads/2022/11/Image-Description-Guidelines-for-Assessments_NWEA_2021.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">NWEA Image Description Guidelines for Assessments</a></p>
<p>Guide to writing ALT text <a href="https://matthewdeeprose.github.io/alt-text-images-charts-graphs.html">What is alternative text? How do I write it for images, charts, and graphs? (matthewdeeprose.github.io)</a></p>
<p>Accessibility Resources Portfolio <a href="https://inclusiveinstructionaldesign.com/favorite-resources/#STEM_Accessibility">Favorite Resources – Inclusive Instructional Design</a></p>
<h4>Visuals and Graphics around Accessibility</h4>
<p>Designing for Accessibility Dos and Dont’s – https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2016/09/02/dos-and-donts-on-designing-for-accessibility/</p>
<h4>Accessibility standards, compliance legislation and tools</h4>
<p><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/952/contents/made">The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (legislation.gov.uk)</a></p>
<p><a href="https://aha.elliance.com/2017/12/30/ada-accessibility-compliance-for-college-and-university-websites/">ADA Accessibility Compliance for College and University Websites | Aha! :: Elliance Blog</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-EM/">Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 1.0 (w3.org)</a><br /><a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/test-evaluate/#conformance">Evaluating Web Accessibility Overview | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C</a></p>
<p>Maintaining Accessibility <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/planning-and-managing/sustain/">Sustain | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C</a></p>
<p>Contrast Checker <a href="https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/">WebAIM: Contrast Checker</a></p>
<p>MS Office Accessibility Inspector <a href="https://matthewdeeprose.github.io/inspector_for_all">Accessibility Inspector for Everyone (matthewdeeprose.github.io)</a></p>
<p>Nvda Screen Reader <a href="https://www.nvaccess.org/download/">NV Access | Download NVDA</a></p>
<h4>Reporting around Accessibility</h4>
<p>University of Edinburgh – <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/equality-diversity/about/reports">Monitoring and Data | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<h4>Community</h4>
<p>Anthology Accessibility Discussion Board <a href="https://community.anthology.com/discuss/viewcategory/91">Accessibility – The Anthology Community</a></p>
<p>Anthology Ally User Group <a href="https://usergroup.ally.ac/dashboard">Dashboard – Ally User Group</a></p>
<p>Digital Accessibility at the University of Reading <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/digital-accessibility/digital-accessibility-section/user-stories">User stories (reading.ac.uk)</a></p>
<p>AbilityNet <a href="https://abilitynet.org.uk/accessibility-services/what-digital-accessibility">What is Digital Accessibility? | AbilityNet</a></p>
<p>Champians of Accessibility Network <a href="https://www.skyscanner.net/company-news/introducing-the-champions-of-accessibility-network">Introducing the Champions of Accessibility Network | Skyscanner’s Travel Blog</a></p>
<p>UoE Intern view of LaTeX <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/">Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility – Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog (ed.ac.uk)</a></p>
<h4>Self-help and training materials</h4>
<p>Discovering Learning styles <a href="https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/learner/front-matter/introduction/">Enter The Learning – Liberated Learners (pressbooks.pub)</a></p>
<p>ABC Teaching toolkit <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/learning-design/abc/toolkit-for-facilitators">Toolkit for facilitators | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p><a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-dae3b2b3ef25">Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities – Microsoft Support</a></p>
<h4>University of Edinburgh Resources</h4>
<p><a href="https://media.ed.ac.uk/playlist/details/1_qd3s9zbx">Playlist Details – Global Accessibility Awareness Day – 18 May 2023 – Media Hopper Create</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/accessibility/creating-materials">Creating accessible materials | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/accessibility">Learning Technology and Accessibility | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2023-07-25" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 25, 2023</time>
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<title>Welcome!</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2018/08/08/hello-world/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2018/08/08/hello-world/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Blog administrator]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 08 Aug 2018 14:05:17 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[#general]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=1</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Welcome to Digital Sojourns! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will find my content interesting, and if, like me, you get excited over IT drop me a comment if you think there are things out there I haven’t seen and maybe should! Together we can make this into a diverting and educational space. I’m […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1>Welcome to Digital Sojourns!</h1>
<p>Thanks for stopping by.</p>
<p>I hope you will find my content interesting, and if, like me, you get excited over IT drop me a comment if you think there are things out there I haven’t seen and maybe should! Together we can make this into a diverting and educational space.</p>
<p>I’m leaving the little guidance notes underneath for reference until I made a bit of progress on the content for this blog… hopefully you will see development along the way.</p>
<blockquote><p>For help and advice on getting started with a WordPress blog, see the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/blogging">Academic Blogging help pages</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Your blog is private by default</strong></p>
<p>You can open your blog up to as many or as few people as you like in <strong>Dashboard > Settings > Reading > Site Visibility</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li>You can open your blog up to specific University members by adding them as users to your blog.</li>
<li>You can open your blog up to all University members who have an EASE login.</li>
<li>You can make you blog open to the world.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>The featured image on this post comes from the University Collections. If you want to use more images in your blog posts, or perhaps use your own choice of image in your blog header, you can:<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/crcedinburgh/albums/with/72157651943511750">Browse a selection of images on Flickr</a> from the Collections that are available for you to use on open licenses.</li>
<li><a href="https://images.is.ed.ac.uk/">Search the full online image collections</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://open.ed.ac.uk/how-to-guides/">Find more information about searching for and using openly licensed images</a> on the Open.ed site.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>You should read the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/is/blogging/terms">Terms of Use</a> if you haven’t already.</p></blockquote>
<p> <span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
<time datetime="2018-08-08" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 8, 2018</time><br />
</span></p>
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<title>Working hand in hand</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2025/12/10/working-hand-in-hand/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2025/12/10/working-hand-in-hand/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[general]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=126</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A lot of the time IT services are supporting users – that is, students and teaching staff – or work quietly in the background to assure systems and infrastructure are in good shape and fit for purpose. In my own role I rarely have an opportunity to see what happens “on the ground”, in the […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A lot of the time IT services are supporting users – that is, students and teaching staff – or work quietly in the background to assure systems and infrastructure are in good shape and fit for purpose. In my own role I rarely have an opportunity to see what happens “on the ground”, in the physical teaching environments. However, recently I was attending a staff training event for Data Protection Champions, and it ended up being an exciting little showcase of how our services work together to make learning and teaching happen. Not just for students <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
<p>What are Data Protection Champions? These are a group of staff members who commit to staying up to date on current developments across the university on matters intersecting with Data Protection and to help keep information otherwise available on the web current in discussions and work locally. The Community Meetings help to exchange knowledge and ask questions to understand in better detail what processes and procedures are designed to do and to disambiguate the legalese that necessarily accompanies legal and compliance rules and regulations.</p>
<p>In other words, understanding the details is important, and summarising this “second hand” is not always easy. This prompted some champions to reach out to the organiser asking if the event could be recorded.</p>
<p>This was not a Teams meeting. But, it was set at a lecture theatre with Lecture recording facilities. So after a little consideration of alternatives (recording in segments on a mobile phone? recording via Kaltura video recorder from a laptop?) we set to work out what might need to happen to make use of the lecture recording equipment.</p>
<ul>
<li>Sound check – oh my. Somehow feedback reverberating in stereo through the theatre makes for a great alarm clock, but it transpired quite quickly that we were in need of support. A colleague from Digital Spaces Tech attended within minutes – and some troubleshooting later had all the microphones operating normally. Sigh of relief – we can all hear and know this will be captured in the recording.</li>
<li>Recording – typically recordings are linked to course delivery in our VLE, Learn. And timetabling allows for lectures to be added to the courses automatically. When requesting an ad-hoc recording, this is available to instructors; or can be supported from the Media Service team with a little notice. In our case, notice was very limited, and the support from the service team was invaluable. The lights of the recording equipment turned red – on time for the meeting to start.</li>
<li>Processing – with the event being a full morning, including a break for coffee and networking, the recording took some time to process on the system. With help from the service team, this time duly recorded using our ticketing system Unidesk, the recording was modified to exclude the break to make this more convenient for champions to review once shared.</li>
</ul>
<p>Since the event was not associated with a course or programme, and the default of our lecture recordings setup via the VLE did not apply, sharing recordings is not automatic. The system is designed to safeguard teaching activities and keep permissions for processing and sharing details in line with the terms and conditions of service. Data Protection compliance at its best. Staff training, still falls within the remit of teaching, but staff training is not hosted on our VLE Learn, again, in order to comply with the terms and conditions of service for the VLE. On guidance from the Media Service team we requested for the migration of the video to our other media channel, Media Hopper Create. With this being the first interaction on the service the help and support with this process was incredibly appreciated by the organiser and all involved in the event.</p>
<ul>
<li>Migrating – as part of this whole process, I discovered a whole new set of environments that can be logged into, alas, because my account is linked to a playground account, and I was not the owner of the video recording, we took up the kind offer of support from the Media Service team who brought the video into Media Hopper Create, which offers captioning and wider sharing permissions.</li>
<li>Sharing – as with many of our services, the ability to secure content is shared with the appropriate user groups is really important. Materials can be set to only exist for the video owner (private), made accessible only to users who have been given the link (unlisted) or be made public to all users. In addition, licensing selections assure that users are informed of what is permissible with regards to use of the content and copyright.</li>
</ul>
<p>The support and efforts across the different teams was a really good reminder of why working in ISG / LTW / DLAM is such a rewarding experience. Sometimes we end up being in the role of our own users, and colleagues come to our rescue and support to make the most of the teaching and training that keeps our service provisions compliant and up to date.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2025-12-10" itemprop="dateModified">Dec 10, 2025</time>
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<title>What’s in a measure? Considerations on Anthology Ally</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/12/04/whats-in-a-measure-considerations-on-anthology-ally/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/12/04/whats-in-a-measure-considerations-on-anthology-ally/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 04 Dec 2023 11:09:51 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=85</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Let me take a moment to share my thoughts around one of our newer services with Learning, Teaching and Web: Anthology Ally. Accessibility is fast becoming one of my favourite topics working within DLAM. A Humanities graduate myself, maybe the link between Hermeneutics (Interpretation theory) and digital transformations in accessible design play a part. Whilst […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Let me take a moment to share my thoughts around one of our newer services with Learning, Teaching and Web: Anthology Ally. Accessibility is fast becoming one of my favourite topics working within DLAM. A Humanities graduate myself, maybe the link between Hermeneutics (Interpretation theory) and digital transformations in accessible design play a part. Whilst I used to be primarily concerned about the meaning behind the words, I now find myself deeply fascinated by the (digital) transactions that take place to transmit and present information, and the tools it takes to make this happen!</p>
<p><span class="TextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun CommentStart CommentHighlightPipeRest CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">Digital accessibility refers to </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">digital content </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">that has been reviewed and tested to be </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">accessible to the widest possible audience and be free from any avoidable access restrictions when using assisti</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">ve technologies. </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">In the broad landscape of software, programmes and platforms, readability and interoperability </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">are crucial if we are to enable our users to interact with out content in an output format suited to th</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">eir needs. Thus, for accessibility to </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">translate to digital media </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">educational design (content focussed), interoperability, and user navigation and software availability</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8"> all play a part</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">. </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">To achieve this, </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">the ability </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">to review and revise </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightPipeRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">core information – such as</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> file properties,</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> logical </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">input</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> and design </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">elements</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> – </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">this data </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">must be clearly readable to </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">a variety of </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">software </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">before the </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">output</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> can be guaranteed</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">. Who else remembers the wonders of opening a foreign file extension with Word and being faced with code </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">rendered</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> in Webdings?</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW170933220 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8">Our ability to alter and edit our content and </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8">render</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8"> it accessible at all levels, is critical. </span>Anthology Ally offers us a window into the system level dialogue of our digital learning environment and the digital media we populate our classrooms with. Ally is a software integration on our primary VLE that scans contents for digital accessibility, its meta text, settings and requirements hidden behind the on-the-face output. It allows the users to identify accessibility issues at software level and supports some measures of fixing these; as well as enabling the conversion of files into alternative formats. Alternative formats can make teaching resources more adaptable to the diverse needs and wants of our students. Changing file type may help in presenting a file more adaptive to screen size; opting for a different display modus can support reading; access to audio can allow you to listen back on materials whilst working out, running chores or on the commute… with a diverse student body, we have the opportunity to fit all our teaching courses into a more flexible learning style. An improved digital experience supports all our learners, and having a chance to gauge better what poses a hindrance to assistive technology will make an impact to our users!</p>
<figure id="attachment_87" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-87" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-87" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats-300x224.png" alt="Image title: Know your options. Chose a format that's right for you. List of alternative formats and their advantages shows 8 items. Item 1 Format: OCRed PDF for automatically extracted text. Advantage: Improved scanned documents for better reading and text search. Item 2 Format: Tagged PDF for a structured PDF for assistive technology. Advantage: Improved structure for navigation, essential for screen readers. Item 3 Format: HTML for browser and mobile. Advantage: Customize your text with a file that adapts text to mobile screen sizes. Item 4 Format: ePub for reading on tablets and e-book readers. Advantage: usable for ebooks on tablets to annotate and highlight. Item 5 Format: Electronic braille in BRF file format. Advantage: supports tactile reading and offers relief from screenreaders. Item 6 Format: Audio as MP3 recording of text. Advantage: Listen and learn on the go by engaging different modalities. Item 7 Format: BeeLine Reader. This creates a machine translated version of the document. Advantage: Improved on-screen reading to read faster and with greater focus. Item 8 Format: Translated version (this is an opt-in product) offering a machine translated version of the document. Advantage: Translates text to one of 50 different languages. Speak to Information Services if you are interested in this version." width="300" height="224" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats-300x224.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats.png 343w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-87" class="wp-caption-text">Table of available alternative formats</figcaption></figure>
<p>Here at DLAM testing out our service solutions to assure that they work as intended and integrate seamlessly (we can but try!) into our existing service environment is a wonderful part of the job. The <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/">Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1</a> (version 2.2 has been launched in October) offer a detailed list of criteria when reviewing all our websites and applications for legal compliance <span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8"> under the </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8">Equality Act (2010)</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8"> and </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8">The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (<a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility/guidelines-policy-legislation">https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility/guidelines-policy-legislation</a>)</span></span>. One of the core efforts in the standard is that organisations have to lay bare how they identified and thought about accessibility for their products and services, and where possible, mitigated any avoidable shortcomings. In broad terms, our applications are challenged on three aspects: audio, visual and navigation / workflow; the touch points of our digital environment. It is a “dimension of interoperability” to assess whether “assistive technologies [are] working predictably with different combinations of browsers, mobile operating systems, and devices“ (<a href="https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4842-7948-9_7">The Next Frontier – Expanding the Definition of Accessibility | SpringerLink</a>). When testing for Ally, a core challenge for me was using assistive technology, often for the first time, and to interpret the behaviour. Whilst I was reasonably familiar with Ease of Access settings for my PC and browser, other more specialist tools I found hard to judge. What if my lack of familiarity with assistive technology in the test makes for a poor result due to difficulties with the assistive tool rather than the target interface? It is the hard to judge places that lead us to use tools to scan and evaluate what meets compliance criteria and helps us to correlate our own experience with the data we interact with.</p>
<p>To guide instructors about digital accessibility, Ally produces a score. It is meant as a guide to how clean a file is in digital terms, i.e. how successful it will be in converting to an alternative file format or being negotiated by any common assistive technology tool. So taking a moment to demystify the scoring for a moment should clear our view to how Ally supports our wider mission to produce accessible learning and teaching materials.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-86" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Low-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in red pointing to low level to denote 0-33% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>Low </strong>(0-33%): Needs help! There are severe accessibility issues.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Medium-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in amber pointing to mid-level to denote 34-66% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>Medium </strong>(34-66%): A little better. The file is somewhat accessible and needs improvement.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/high-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in light green pointing to high level to denote 67-99% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>High </strong>(67-99%): Almost there. The file is accessible but more improvements are possible.</p>
<p><strong><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Perfect-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in dark green pointing to full tank level to denote 100% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> Perfect </strong>(100%): Perfect! Ally didn’t identify any accessibility issues but further improvements may still be possible.</p>
<p>Now, a scan for alternative text, in spite of the potential for AI to play a part here in future, cannot infer the context for the teaching resource and the focus the image might have in the lesson plan in the assessment of the appropriateness of ALT text. Ally is first and foremost an editing tool for the instructor, and a convenient conversion tool for the students. Accessibility needs remain to be assessed at the human level. So what do we do to assure we keep the service on track?</p>
<ul>
<li>Training; we must foster a keen awareness of what constitute accessible design in our digital service landscape</li>
<li>Testing; we must test out applications and websites to identify and mitigate challenges in accessibility</li>
<li>Research; we must continue to learn about digital trends, possible new solutions and developments in assistive technology, and accessible design</li>
<li>Feedback; we must actively listen to user feedback to satisfy ourselves that we are not merely offering a legally compliant but a practical and usable service solution and that users understand the benefits and limits of the tools we provide; evaluating our service data can support this conversation (and I hope to go into more detail about this in my next blog).</li>
</ul>
<p>What I have found in the course of the launch of Ally is that users, academics and technologists alike, need to know not only what the barriers of student users may be, and what assistive technologies might be employed, but how to make the leap between the informational content, the educational experience or activities, and the digital needs of the programmes to make it operate for other software. Whilst it is important to point out that accessibility needs are as diverse as the subjects we offer in teaching, focused on honing different skills and abilities, the same goes for assistive technologies. There will never be a one-size-fits-all. And that is a positive thing. It curtails our tendency to reduce accessibility to a tick box exercise. Checking for accessibility remains at all times an iterative process. With Ally, we have one more tool to help us orientate ourselves amidst this ever evolving digital landscape.</p>
<p> </p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2023-12-04" itemprop="dateModified">Dec 4, 2023</time>
</span>
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<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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<title>Accessible by design</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/07/25/accessible-by-design/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/07/25/accessible-by-design/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 25 Jul 2023 07:20:48 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[general]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[#digitalaccessibility]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=59</guid>
<description><![CDATA[For many years I have worked as a proof-reader and editor on an assignment basis. It seemed a suitable outlet to my fastidious nature and relentless drive for detail (attributes that I have only marginally been able to tamper for polite society since). What it has given me, however, is a deep appreciation of the […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>For many years I have worked as a proof-reader and editor on an assignment basis. It seemed a suitable outlet to my fastidious nature and relentless drive for detail (attributes that I have only marginally been able to tamper for polite society since). What it has given me, however, is a deep appreciation of the intricacies of good type setting, clean style guides and accurate referencing.</p>
<p>Fast forward to the present day, I am starting to learn more about the digital footprint all these choices and settings create and which of them support interoperability with assistive technologies. What used to be, to my untrained eye, just a flat surface, a 2-dimensional choice of matching the style to the words for the benefit of the reader, suddenly had 3 dimensions: making the text comprehensible to technology to assist in its easy transformation across media by means of tags and codes and alt text… and with it opening up to a more agile interaction with that all-important source material that was being communicated.</p>
<p>So I have set myself two goals: to collate reference material in support of accessibility that may help in designing documents at the outset with accessibility in mind; and to work on some style sheets that can meaningfully integrate what characteristics might be required for different materials to make them meaningfully accessible in their own context and user groups. </p>
<p>What does it take to annotate an art textbook in digital print? What software best integrates disciplinary challenges like specialist symbols and characters? What etiquette rules should be followed in the landscape of gifs and emoji? How can good editing eliminate additional workflows and processes to create differently accessible materials? Is there really ever going to be a “golden copy”?</p>
<p>Let the journey begin <img decoding="async" src="https://statics.teams.cdn.office.net/evergreen-assets/personal-expressions/v2/assets/emoticons/mmm/default/50_f.png?v=v17" alt="Mmmmm…" width="20px" height="20px" aria-label="Mmmmm…" /></p>
<h4>Accessibility Resources </h4>
<p>Government Digital Service – <a href="https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2017/10/23/an-accessibility-reading-list/">An accessibility reading list – Accessibility in government (blog.gov.uk)</a></p>
<p>TextBox Digital – Designing Accessibly – <a href="https://www.textboxdigital.com/aspiredatabase-education/university-of-kent">University of Kent (textboxdigital.com)</a></p>
<p>Universal Design for Learning Guidelines <a href="https://udlguidelines.cast.org/">UDL: The UDL Guidelines (cast.org)</a></p>
<p>Ally Accessibility Formats <a href="https://sites.reading.ac.uk/tel-support-for-students/2018/09/21/blackboard-ally-getting-started-with-alternative-accessible-formats/">Blackboard Ally: Getting started with alternative accessible formats – Blackboard Help for Students – University of Reading</a></p>
<p>Guidelines for Assessment Descriptions <a href="https://www.nwea.org/uploads/2022/11/Image-Description-Guidelines-for-Assessments_NWEA_2021.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">NWEA Image Description Guidelines for Assessments</a></p>
<p>Guide to writing ALT text <a href="https://matthewdeeprose.github.io/alt-text-images-charts-graphs.html">What is alternative text? How do I write it for images, charts, and graphs? (matthewdeeprose.github.io)</a></p>
<p>Accessibility Resources Portfolio <a href="https://inclusiveinstructionaldesign.com/favorite-resources/#STEM_Accessibility">Favorite Resources – Inclusive Instructional Design</a></p>
<h4>Visuals and Graphics around Accessibility</h4>
<p>Designing for Accessibility Dos and Dont’s – https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2016/09/02/dos-and-donts-on-designing-for-accessibility/</p>
<h4>Accessibility standards, compliance legislation and tools</h4>
<p><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/952/contents/made">The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (legislation.gov.uk)</a></p>
<p><a href="https://aha.elliance.com/2017/12/30/ada-accessibility-compliance-for-college-and-university-websites/">ADA Accessibility Compliance for College and University Websites | Aha! :: Elliance Blog</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-EM/">Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 1.0 (w3.org)</a><br /><a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/test-evaluate/#conformance">Evaluating Web Accessibility Overview | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C</a></p>
<p>Maintaining Accessibility <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/planning-and-managing/sustain/">Sustain | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C</a></p>
<p>Contrast Checker <a href="https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/">WebAIM: Contrast Checker</a></p>
<p>MS Office Accessibility Inspector <a href="https://matthewdeeprose.github.io/inspector_for_all">Accessibility Inspector for Everyone (matthewdeeprose.github.io)</a></p>
<p>Nvda Screen Reader <a href="https://www.nvaccess.org/download/">NV Access | Download NVDA</a></p>
<h4>Reporting around Accessibility</h4>
<p>University of Edinburgh – <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/equality-diversity/about/reports">Monitoring and Data | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<h4>Community</h4>
<p>Anthology Accessibility Discussion Board <a href="https://community.anthology.com/discuss/viewcategory/91">Accessibility – The Anthology Community</a></p>
<p>Anthology Ally User Group <a href="https://usergroup.ally.ac/dashboard">Dashboard – Ally User Group</a></p>
<p>Digital Accessibility at the University of Reading <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/digital-accessibility/digital-accessibility-section/user-stories">User stories (reading.ac.uk)</a></p>
<p>AbilityNet <a href="https://abilitynet.org.uk/accessibility-services/what-digital-accessibility">What is Digital Accessibility? | AbilityNet</a></p>
<p>Champians of Accessibility Network <a href="https://www.skyscanner.net/company-news/introducing-the-champions-of-accessibility-network">Introducing the Champions of Accessibility Network | Skyscanner’s Travel Blog</a></p>
<p>UoE Intern view of LaTeX <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/">Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility – Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog (ed.ac.uk)</a></p>
<h4>Self-help and training materials</h4>
<p>Discovering Learning styles <a href="https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/learner/front-matter/introduction/">Enter The Learning – Liberated Learners (pressbooks.pub)</a></p>
<p>ABC Teaching toolkit <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/learning-design/abc/toolkit-for-facilitators">Toolkit for facilitators | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p><a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-dae3b2b3ef25">Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities – Microsoft Support</a></p>
<h4>University of Edinburgh Resources</h4>
<p><a href="https://media.ed.ac.uk/playlist/details/1_qd3s9zbx">Playlist Details – Global Accessibility Awareness Day – 18 May 2023 – Media Hopper Create</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/accessibility/creating-materials">Creating accessible materials | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/accessibility">Learning Technology and Accessibility | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2023-07-25" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 25, 2023</time>
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<title>Welcome!</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2018/08/08/hello-world/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2018/08/08/hello-world/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Blog administrator]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 08 Aug 2018 14:05:17 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[#general]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=1</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Welcome to Digital Sojourns! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will find my content interesting, and if, like me, you get excited over IT drop me a comment if you think there are things out there I haven’t seen and maybe should! Together we can make this into a diverting and educational space. I’m […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1>Welcome to Digital Sojourns!</h1>
<p>Thanks for stopping by.</p>
<p>I hope you will find my content interesting, and if, like me, you get excited over IT drop me a comment if you think there are things out there I haven’t seen and maybe should! Together we can make this into a diverting and educational space.</p>
<p>I’m leaving the little guidance notes underneath for reference until I made a bit of progress on the content for this blog… hopefully you will see development along the way.</p>
<blockquote><p>For help and advice on getting started with a WordPress blog, see the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/blogging">Academic Blogging help pages</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Your blog is private by default</strong></p>
<p>You can open your blog up to as many or as few people as you like in <strong>Dashboard > Settings > Reading > Site Visibility</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li>You can open your blog up to specific University members by adding them as users to your blog.</li>
<li>You can open your blog up to all University members who have an EASE login.</li>
<li>You can make you blog open to the world.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>The featured image on this post comes from the University Collections. If you want to use more images in your blog posts, or perhaps use your own choice of image in your blog header, you can:<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/crcedinburgh/albums/with/72157651943511750">Browse a selection of images on Flickr</a> from the Collections that are available for you to use on open licenses.</li>
<li><a href="https://images.is.ed.ac.uk/">Search the full online image collections</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://open.ed.ac.uk/how-to-guides/">Find more information about searching for and using openly licensed images</a> on the Open.ed site.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>You should read the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/is/blogging/terms">Terms of Use</a> if you haven’t already.</p></blockquote>
<p> <span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
<time datetime="2018-08-08" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 8, 2018</time><br />
</span></p>
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<title>Working hand in hand</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2025/12/10/working-hand-in-hand/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2025/12/10/working-hand-in-hand/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[general]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=126</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A lot of the time IT services are supporting users – that is, students and teaching staff – or work quietly in the background to assure systems and infrastructure are in good shape and fit for purpose. In my own role I rarely have an opportunity to see what happens “on the ground”, in the […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A lot of the time IT services are supporting users – that is, students and teaching staff – or work quietly in the background to assure systems and infrastructure are in good shape and fit for purpose. In my own role I rarely have an opportunity to see what happens “on the ground”, in the physical teaching environments. However, recently I was attending a staff training event for Data Protection Champions, and it ended up being an exciting little showcase of how our services work together to make learning and teaching happen. Not just for students <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
<p>What are Data Protection Champions? These are a group of staff members who commit to staying up to date on current developments across the university on matters intersecting with Data Protection and to help keep information otherwise available on the web current in discussions and work locally. The Community Meetings help to exchange knowledge and ask questions to understand in better detail what processes and procedures are designed to do and to disambiguate the legalese that necessarily accompanies legal and compliance rules and regulations.</p>
<p>In other words, understanding the details is important, and summarising this “second hand” is not always easy. This prompted some champions to reach out to the organiser asking if the event could be recorded.</p>
<p>This was not a Teams meeting. But, it was set at a lecture theatre with Lecture recording facilities. So after a little consideration of alternatives (recording in segments on a mobile phone? recording via Kaltura video recorder from a laptop?) we set to work out what might need to happen to make use of the lecture recording equipment.</p>
<ul>
<li>Sound check – oh my. Somehow feedback reverberating in stereo through the theatre makes for a great alarm clock, but it transpired quite quickly that we were in need of support. A colleague from Digital Spaces Tech attended within minutes – and some troubleshooting later had all the microphones operating normally. Sigh of relief – we can all hear and know this will be captured in the recording.</li>
<li>Recording – typically recordings are linked to course delivery in our VLE, Learn. And timetabling allows for lectures to be added to the courses automatically. When requesting an ad-hoc recording, this is available to instructors; or can be supported from the Media Service team with a little notice. In our case, notice was very limited, and the support from the service team was invaluable. The lights of the recording equipment turned red – on time for the meeting to start.</li>
<li>Processing – with the event being a full morning, including a break for coffee and networking, the recording took some time to process on the system. With help from the service team, this time duly recorded using our ticketing system Unidesk, the recording was modified to exclude the break to make this more convenient for champions to review once shared.</li>
</ul>
<p>Since the event was not associated with a course or programme, and the default of our lecture recordings setup via the VLE did not apply, sharing recordings is not automatic. The system is designed to safeguard teaching activities and keep permissions for processing and sharing details in line with the terms and conditions of service. Data Protection compliance at its best. Staff training, still falls within the remit of teaching, but staff training is not hosted on our VLE Learn, again, in order to comply with the terms and conditions of service for the VLE. On guidance from the Media Service team we requested for the migration of the video to our other media channel, Media Hopper Create. With this being the first interaction on the service the help and support with this process was incredibly appreciated by the organiser and all involved in the event.</p>
<ul>
<li>Migrating – as part of this whole process, I discovered a whole new set of environments that can be logged into, alas, because my account is linked to a playground account, and I was not the owner of the video recording, we took up the kind offer of support from the Media Service team who brought the video into Media Hopper Create, which offers captioning and wider sharing permissions.</li>
<li>Sharing – as with many of our services, the ability to secure content is shared with the appropriate user groups is really important. Materials can be set to only exist for the video owner (private), made accessible only to users who have been given the link (unlisted) or be made public to all users. In addition, licensing selections assure that users are informed of what is permissible with regards to use of the content and copyright.</li>
</ul>
<p>The support and efforts across the different teams was a really good reminder of why working in ISG / LTW / DLAM is such a rewarding experience. Sometimes we end up being in the role of our own users, and colleagues come to our rescue and support to make the most of the teaching and training that keeps our service provisions compliant and up to date.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2025-12-10" itemprop="dateModified">Dec 10, 2025</time>
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<title>What’s in a measure? Considerations on Anthology Ally</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/12/04/whats-in-a-measure-considerations-on-anthology-ally/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/12/04/whats-in-a-measure-considerations-on-anthology-ally/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 04 Dec 2023 11:09:51 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Uncategorised]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[accessibility]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dlam-feed]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=85</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Let me take a moment to share my thoughts around one of our newer services with Learning, Teaching and Web: Anthology Ally. Accessibility is fast becoming one of my favourite topics working within DLAM. A Humanities graduate myself, maybe the link between Hermeneutics (Interpretation theory) and digital transformations in accessible design play a part. Whilst […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Let me take a moment to share my thoughts around one of our newer services with Learning, Teaching and Web: Anthology Ally. Accessibility is fast becoming one of my favourite topics working within DLAM. A Humanities graduate myself, maybe the link between Hermeneutics (Interpretation theory) and digital transformations in accessible design play a part. Whilst I used to be primarily concerned about the meaning behind the words, I now find myself deeply fascinated by the (digital) transactions that take place to transmit and present information, and the tools it takes to make this happen!</p>
<p><span class="TextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun CommentStart CommentHighlightPipeRest CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">Digital accessibility refers to </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">digital content </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">that has been reviewed and tested to be </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">accessible to the widest possible audience and be free from any avoidable access restrictions when using assisti</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">ve technologies. </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">In the broad landscape of software, programmes and platforms, readability and interoperability </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">are crucial if we are to enable our users to interact with out content in an output format suited to th</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">eir needs. Thus, for accessibility to </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">translate to digital media </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">educational design (content focussed), interoperability, and user navigation and software availability</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8"> all play a part</span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">. </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">To achieve this, </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">the ability </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">to review and revise </span><span class="NormalTextRun CommentHighlightPipeRest SCXW170933220 BCX8">core information – such as</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> file properties,</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> logical </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">input</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> and design </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">elements</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> – </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">this data </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">must be clearly readable to </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">a variety of </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">software </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">before the </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">output</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> can be guaranteed</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">. Who else remembers the wonders of opening a foreign file extension with Word and being faced with code </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8">rendered</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW170933220 BCX8"> in Webdings?</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW170933220 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> </span></p>
<p><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8">Our ability to alter and edit our content and </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8">render</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW185165916 BCX8"> it accessible at all levels, is critical. </span>Anthology Ally offers us a window into the system level dialogue of our digital learning environment and the digital media we populate our classrooms with. Ally is a software integration on our primary VLE that scans contents for digital accessibility, its meta text, settings and requirements hidden behind the on-the-face output. It allows the users to identify accessibility issues at software level and supports some measures of fixing these; as well as enabling the conversion of files into alternative formats. Alternative formats can make teaching resources more adaptable to the diverse needs and wants of our students. Changing file type may help in presenting a file more adaptive to screen size; opting for a different display modus can support reading; access to audio can allow you to listen back on materials whilst working out, running chores or on the commute… with a diverse student body, we have the opportunity to fit all our teaching courses into a more flexible learning style. An improved digital experience supports all our learners, and having a chance to gauge better what poses a hindrance to assistive technology will make an impact to our users!</p>
<figure id="attachment_87" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-87" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-87" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats-300x224.png" alt="Image title: Know your options. Chose a format that's right for you. List of alternative formats and their advantages shows 8 items. Item 1 Format: OCRed PDF for automatically extracted text. Advantage: Improved scanned documents for better reading and text search. Item 2 Format: Tagged PDF for a structured PDF for assistive technology. Advantage: Improved structure for navigation, essential for screen readers. Item 3 Format: HTML for browser and mobile. Advantage: Customize your text with a file that adapts text to mobile screen sizes. Item 4 Format: ePub for reading on tablets and e-book readers. Advantage: usable for ebooks on tablets to annotate and highlight. Item 5 Format: Electronic braille in BRF file format. Advantage: supports tactile reading and offers relief from screenreaders. Item 6 Format: Audio as MP3 recording of text. Advantage: Listen and learn on the go by engaging different modalities. Item 7 Format: BeeLine Reader. This creates a machine translated version of the document. Advantage: Improved on-screen reading to read faster and with greater focus. Item 8 Format: Translated version (this is an opt-in product) offering a machine translated version of the document. Advantage: Translates text to one of 50 different languages. Speak to Information Services if you are interested in this version." width="300" height="224" srcset="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats-300x224.png 300w, https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/accessibility-formats.png 343w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-87" class="wp-caption-text">Table of available alternative formats</figcaption></figure>
<p>Here at DLAM testing out our service solutions to assure that they work as intended and integrate seamlessly (we can but try!) into our existing service environment is a wonderful part of the job. The <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/">Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1</a> (version 2.2 has been launched in October) offer a detailed list of criteria when reviewing all our websites and applications for legal compliance <span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8"> under the </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8">Equality Act (2010)</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8"> and </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8" lang="EN-GB" xml:lang="EN-GB" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW56190171 BCX8">The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (<a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility/guidelines-policy-legislation">https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility/guidelines-policy-legislation</a>)</span></span>. One of the core efforts in the standard is that organisations have to lay bare how they identified and thought about accessibility for their products and services, and where possible, mitigated any avoidable shortcomings. In broad terms, our applications are challenged on three aspects: audio, visual and navigation / workflow; the touch points of our digital environment. It is a “dimension of interoperability” to assess whether “assistive technologies [are] working predictably with different combinations of browsers, mobile operating systems, and devices“ (<a href="https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4842-7948-9_7">The Next Frontier – Expanding the Definition of Accessibility | SpringerLink</a>). When testing for Ally, a core challenge for me was using assistive technology, often for the first time, and to interpret the behaviour. Whilst I was reasonably familiar with Ease of Access settings for my PC and browser, other more specialist tools I found hard to judge. What if my lack of familiarity with assistive technology in the test makes for a poor result due to difficulties with the assistive tool rather than the target interface? It is the hard to judge places that lead us to use tools to scan and evaluate what meets compliance criteria and helps us to correlate our own experience with the data we interact with.</p>
<p>To guide instructors about digital accessibility, Ally produces a score. It is meant as a guide to how clean a file is in digital terms, i.e. how successful it will be in converting to an alternative file format or being negotiated by any common assistive technology tool. So taking a moment to demystify the scoring for a moment should clear our view to how Ally supports our wider mission to produce accessible learning and teaching materials.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-86" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Low-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in red pointing to low level to denote 0-33% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>Low </strong>(0-33%): Needs help! There are severe accessibility issues.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Medium-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in amber pointing to mid-level to denote 34-66% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>Medium </strong>(34-66%): A little better. The file is somewhat accessible and needs improvement.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/high-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in light green pointing to high level to denote 67-99% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> <strong>High </strong>(67-99%): Almost there. The file is accessible but more improvements are possible.</p>
<p><strong><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90" src="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/wp-content/uploads/sites/8190/2023/11/Perfect-gauge.png" alt="Fuel gauge symbol pictured in dark green pointing to full tank level to denote 100% success rate" width="22" height="19" /> Perfect </strong>(100%): Perfect! Ally didn’t identify any accessibility issues but further improvements may still be possible.</p>
<p>Now, a scan for alternative text, in spite of the potential for AI to play a part here in future, cannot infer the context for the teaching resource and the focus the image might have in the lesson plan in the assessment of the appropriateness of ALT text. Ally is first and foremost an editing tool for the instructor, and a convenient conversion tool for the students. Accessibility needs remain to be assessed at the human level. So what do we do to assure we keep the service on track?</p>
<ul>
<li>Training; we must foster a keen awareness of what constitute accessible design in our digital service landscape</li>
<li>Testing; we must test out applications and websites to identify and mitigate challenges in accessibility</li>
<li>Research; we must continue to learn about digital trends, possible new solutions and developments in assistive technology, and accessible design</li>
<li>Feedback; we must actively listen to user feedback to satisfy ourselves that we are not merely offering a legally compliant but a practical and usable service solution and that users understand the benefits and limits of the tools we provide; evaluating our service data can support this conversation (and I hope to go into more detail about this in my next blog).</li>
</ul>
<p>What I have found in the course of the launch of Ally is that users, academics and technologists alike, need to know not only what the barriers of student users may be, and what assistive technologies might be employed, but how to make the leap between the informational content, the educational experience or activities, and the digital needs of the programmes to make it operate for other software. Whilst it is important to point out that accessibility needs are as diverse as the subjects we offer in teaching, focused on honing different skills and abilities, the same goes for assistive technologies. There will never be a one-size-fits-all. And that is a positive thing. It curtails our tendency to reduce accessibility to a tick box exercise. Checking for accessibility remains at all times an iterative process. With Ally, we have one more tool to help us orientate ourselves amidst this ever evolving digital landscape.</p>
<p> </p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2023-12-04" itemprop="dateModified">Dec 4, 2023</time>
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<title>Accessible by design</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/07/25/accessible-by-design/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2023/07/25/accessible-by-design/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kat]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 25 Jul 2023 07:20:48 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[general]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[#digitalaccessibility]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=59</guid>
<description><![CDATA[For many years I have worked as a proof-reader and editor on an assignment basis. It seemed a suitable outlet to my fastidious nature and relentless drive for detail (attributes that I have only marginally been able to tamper for polite society since). What it has given me, however, is a deep appreciation of the […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>For many years I have worked as a proof-reader and editor on an assignment basis. It seemed a suitable outlet to my fastidious nature and relentless drive for detail (attributes that I have only marginally been able to tamper for polite society since). What it has given me, however, is a deep appreciation of the intricacies of good type setting, clean style guides and accurate referencing.</p>
<p>Fast forward to the present day, I am starting to learn more about the digital footprint all these choices and settings create and which of them support interoperability with assistive technologies. What used to be, to my untrained eye, just a flat surface, a 2-dimensional choice of matching the style to the words for the benefit of the reader, suddenly had 3 dimensions: making the text comprehensible to technology to assist in its easy transformation across media by means of tags and codes and alt text… and with it opening up to a more agile interaction with that all-important source material that was being communicated.</p>
<p>So I have set myself two goals: to collate reference material in support of accessibility that may help in designing documents at the outset with accessibility in mind; and to work on some style sheets that can meaningfully integrate what characteristics might be required for different materials to make them meaningfully accessible in their own context and user groups. </p>
<p>What does it take to annotate an art textbook in digital print? What software best integrates disciplinary challenges like specialist symbols and characters? What etiquette rules should be followed in the landscape of gifs and emoji? How can good editing eliminate additional workflows and processes to create differently accessible materials? Is there really ever going to be a “golden copy”?</p>
<p>Let the journey begin <img decoding="async" src="https://statics.teams.cdn.office.net/evergreen-assets/personal-expressions/v2/assets/emoticons/mmm/default/50_f.png?v=v17" alt="Mmmmm…" width="20px" height="20px" aria-label="Mmmmm…" /></p>
<h4>Accessibility Resources </h4>
<p>Government Digital Service – <a href="https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2017/10/23/an-accessibility-reading-list/">An accessibility reading list – Accessibility in government (blog.gov.uk)</a></p>
<p>TextBox Digital – Designing Accessibly – <a href="https://www.textboxdigital.com/aspiredatabase-education/university-of-kent">University of Kent (textboxdigital.com)</a></p>
<p>Universal Design for Learning Guidelines <a href="https://udlguidelines.cast.org/">UDL: The UDL Guidelines (cast.org)</a></p>
<p>Ally Accessibility Formats <a href="https://sites.reading.ac.uk/tel-support-for-students/2018/09/21/blackboard-ally-getting-started-with-alternative-accessible-formats/">Blackboard Ally: Getting started with alternative accessible formats – Blackboard Help for Students – University of Reading</a></p>
<p>Guidelines for Assessment Descriptions <a href="https://www.nwea.org/uploads/2022/11/Image-Description-Guidelines-for-Assessments_NWEA_2021.pdf" class="mtli_attachment mtli_pdf">NWEA Image Description Guidelines for Assessments</a></p>
<p>Guide to writing ALT text <a href="https://matthewdeeprose.github.io/alt-text-images-charts-graphs.html">What is alternative text? How do I write it for images, charts, and graphs? (matthewdeeprose.github.io)</a></p>
<p>Accessibility Resources Portfolio <a href="https://inclusiveinstructionaldesign.com/favorite-resources/#STEM_Accessibility">Favorite Resources – Inclusive Instructional Design</a></p>
<h4>Visuals and Graphics around Accessibility</h4>
<p>Designing for Accessibility Dos and Dont’s – https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2016/09/02/dos-and-donts-on-designing-for-accessibility/</p>
<h4>Accessibility standards, compliance legislation and tools</h4>
<p><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/952/contents/made">The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (legislation.gov.uk)</a></p>
<p><a href="https://aha.elliance.com/2017/12/30/ada-accessibility-compliance-for-college-and-university-websites/">ADA Accessibility Compliance for College and University Websites | Aha! :: Elliance Blog</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-EM/">Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 1.0 (w3.org)</a><br /><a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/test-evaluate/#conformance">Evaluating Web Accessibility Overview | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C</a></p>
<p>Maintaining Accessibility <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/planning-and-managing/sustain/">Sustain | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C</a></p>
<p>Contrast Checker <a href="https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/">WebAIM: Contrast Checker</a></p>
<p>MS Office Accessibility Inspector <a href="https://matthewdeeprose.github.io/inspector_for_all">Accessibility Inspector for Everyone (matthewdeeprose.github.io)</a></p>
<p>Nvda Screen Reader <a href="https://www.nvaccess.org/download/">NV Access | Download NVDA</a></p>
<h4>Reporting around Accessibility</h4>
<p>University of Edinburgh – <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/equality-diversity/about/reports">Monitoring and Data | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<h4>Community</h4>
<p>Anthology Accessibility Discussion Board <a href="https://community.anthology.com/discuss/viewcategory/91">Accessibility – The Anthology Community</a></p>
<p>Anthology Ally User Group <a href="https://usergroup.ally.ac/dashboard">Dashboard – Ally User Group</a></p>
<p>Digital Accessibility at the University of Reading <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/digital-accessibility/digital-accessibility-section/user-stories">User stories (reading.ac.uk)</a></p>
<p>AbilityNet <a href="https://abilitynet.org.uk/accessibility-services/what-digital-accessibility">What is Digital Accessibility? | AbilityNet</a></p>
<p>Champians of Accessibility Network <a href="https://www.skyscanner.net/company-news/introducing-the-champions-of-accessibility-network">Introducing the Champions of Accessibility Network | Skyscanner’s Travel Blog</a></p>
<p>UoE Intern view of LaTeX <a href="https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/isintern/2023/08/15/lewis-forbes-latex-and-accessibility/">Lewis Forbes – LaTeX and Accessibility – Information Services Group: Student Employee Blog (ed.ac.uk)</a></p>
<h4>Self-help and training materials</h4>
<p>Discovering Learning styles <a href="https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/learner/front-matter/introduction/">Enter The Learning – Liberated Learners (pressbooks.pub)</a></p>
<p>ABC Teaching toolkit <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/learning-design/abc/toolkit-for-facilitators">Toolkit for facilitators | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p><a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-dae3b2b3ef25">Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities – Microsoft Support</a></p>
<h4>University of Edinburgh Resources</h4>
<p><a href="https://media.ed.ac.uk/playlist/details/1_qd3s9zbx">Playlist Details – Global Accessibility Awareness Day – 18 May 2023 – Media Hopper Create</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/accessibility/creating-materials">Creating accessible materials | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/accessibility">Learning Technology and Accessibility | The University of Edinburgh</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area">
<time datetime="2023-07-25" itemprop="dateModified">Jul 25, 2023</time>
</span>
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<title>Welcome!</title>
<link>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2018/08/08/hello-world/</link>
<comments>https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/2018/08/08/hello-world/#comments</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Blog administrator]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 08 Aug 2018 14:05:17 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[#general]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/kneuman2/?p=1</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Welcome to Digital Sojourns! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will find my content interesting, and if, like me, you get excited over IT drop me a comment if you think there are things out there I haven’t seen and maybe should! Together we can make this into a diverting and educational space. I’m […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1>Welcome to Digital Sojourns!</h1>
<p>Thanks for stopping by.</p>
<p>I hope you will find my content interesting, and if, like me, you get excited over IT drop me a comment if you think there are things out there I haven’t seen and maybe should! Together we can make this into a diverting and educational space.</p>
<p>I’m leaving the little guidance notes underneath for reference until I made a bit of progress on the content for this blog… hopefully you will see development along the way.</p>
<blockquote><p>For help and advice on getting started with a WordPress blog, see the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/learning-technology/blogging">Academic Blogging help pages</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Your blog is private by default</strong></p>
<p>You can open your blog up to as many or as few people as you like in <strong>Dashboard > Settings > Reading > Site Visibility</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li>You can open your blog up to specific University members by adding them as users to your blog.</li>
<li>You can open your blog up to all University members who have an EASE login.</li>
<li>You can make you blog open to the world.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>The featured image on this post comes from the University Collections. If you want to use more images in your blog posts, or perhaps use your own choice of image in your blog header, you can:<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/crcedinburgh/albums/with/72157651943511750">Browse a selection of images on Flickr</a> from the Collections that are available for you to use on open licenses.</li>
<li><a href="https://images.is.ed.ac.uk/">Search the full online image collections</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://open.ed.ac.uk/how-to-guides/">Find more information about searching for and using openly licensed images</a> on the Open.ed site.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>You should read the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/is/blogging/terms">Terms of Use</a> if you haven’t already.</p></blockquote>
<p> <span class="uoe-published-time uoe-seo-hidden-area"><br />
<time datetime="2018-08-08" itemprop="dateModified">Aug 8, 2018</time><br />
</span></p>
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Sustainability – Digital Learning Applications and Media
Any views expressed within media held on this service are those of the contributors, should not be taken as approved or endorsed by the University, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University in respect of any particular issue.
Ok, well not totally meaningless. But it certainly isn’t always the untouchable source of truth that is often perceived to be. My name is Otis Laundon, and throughout my Green Web Platforms internship I have focused so much on trying to find data. Data on energy usage, energy grid carbon intensity, and equipment manufacturing, to […]
This post was written by LLB student Dervla Craig on her first month as Information and Data Literacy intern this Summer. My name is Dervla and I am going into my second year of the Graduate LLB at the University of Edinburgh. This summer I am doing a 12-week internship with the University’s Information Services […]
The question “what is the environmental impact of a digital service?” is very open ended. It’s hard to come up with a neat answer because there is just so much to consider. Even if we restrict our attention to carbon emissions (far from the only environmental impact that digital services have) the question is still […]
How do we measure web service emissions? is one of the questions that I have been hired to tackle. My name is Otis Laundon, and I’m the new Green Web Platforms Intern. My first 2 weeks in the office have been super enjoyable, from familiarising myself with our beloved Argyle House, to meeting some of […]
I’ve had an exciting week so far (and it’s only Thursday), in a good way rather than a bad exciting week (which sometimes happens but is less fun….!). We had 3 new interns join us in DLAM (David, Hera and Otis) more about that in a future blog post) to …
After a conversation with Tracey Madden in the dim and distant past, I’ve been more and more interested in the impact our services have on the environment. Our Web and Communications Section in LTW have had some very talented ‘green’ interns this summer and I’ve been lucky enough to get …
Hi Jackie, This sounds like an exciting creative project. Designing and animating custom stick figures from scratch is not that…
This is fascinating, particularly the idea of "coding without writing a single line." It really highlights the potential of prompt…
N.B. Closing date now extended to 23:59 on Wednesday, 4th of March.
Thanks Stewart for your encouragement!
Thank you Miki. I very much enjoyed reading this with my morning coffee. It was lovely to have such a…