For this week, I am facing a few challenges with language conversion, oral history content in OHMS, and a possibility of changing the title of my Omeka site. After I added a plugin for the Korean and English language display, I noticed a few issues. After contacting Reclaim about finding a way to display Korean and English in Omeka, I was directed to contact Omeka support. I hope I will finally get my answer. I created another WordPress site in case I could not find a solution for Omeka. In WordPress, I was able to find some great plugins for language conversion and display. However, I decided to continue with my project in Omeka and worry about the language conversion later. I changed the language back to English only.
I have been struggling a little bit with OHMS. I viewed the video tutorials and read the tutorial guides; however, I just didn’t understand the procedure. I was able to add my interview with Dr. Zo, a first-generation Korean American, to OHMS. However, the audio recording does not appear in the Preview. Now, I have to figure out the problem, so I can link it to my Omeka site. The audio recording is currently available on my Omeka site. After removing my first interview, I decided to upload an interview from Youtube. It is an interview with a famous musician, Allen Toussaint, courtesy of the Library of Congress. Here is the updated link to my OHMS annotation activity: https://ohms.uky.edu/preview/?id=35461. Unfortunately, the video is not available for Preview even though I added the URL in the Metadata.
After interviewing two influential Korean Americans, I am contemplating if I should change the title from Koreatowns in North Texas to North Texas Korean Americans. The interviewees provided wonderful and inspirational narratives about their journey to America (Texas) and how they have contributed to their Korean American community. Each interviewee expressed his or her own passion for community involvement. They did mention Koreatown Dallas, but I am gradually realizing that I need to let go or release my control of the project’s initial direction and see it from an inclusive and audience centered objective.
My next steps include oral history management, addition of social media plugins, additional video recordings, and testing the site with volunteers. I will be uploading and transcribing the remaining audio recordings of the 2 interviews. Before I add the plugins for social media, I need to create a Facebook account for the project site and a Youtube Channel. For Facebook, I can add an image from the Omeka site with a brief description and a title to invite audience participation. For the Youtube Channel, I plan to record a short video about one of the places in Koreatown Dallas or Carrollton to capture the audience’s attention. I might record a short food video from a Korean restaurant (if permitted by restaurant manager/owner) or a panoramic video of Koreatown Dallas or Carrollton and upload it to Youtube. Even though my project is in the early stages of a digital public history site, I will be asking for a few volunteers from different backgrounds and ages to view my site and provide a brief feedback. I might even ask my own students to take a look at the site as a classroom exercise on the rhetorical persuasion and audience engagement of a digital public history site that is a work in progress.
