Each digital tool has its benefits. Voyant, CartoDB, and Palladio offer the user different ways of viewing data in an engaging and enlightening way. Voyant is awesome when it works most of the time, and when it does function very well, the different visual representations of data help the user examine and analyze the textual data. I had some glitches with Voyant when I narrowed my search for the documents to two different states, Texas and Mississippi, in reference two words to compare their frequencies. Unfortunately, it did not display the Trends graph for the second selected word and it ignored the selected 2nd state. The Cirrus word cloud and the Context were my favorite visual representations of data. They worked, and I learned to examine text in a different way. Cirrus, in a simplistic way, displays the bigger words with the smaller words to show the frequencies of the words used in the south. Context displays where and how the words were used in the text to convey their meanings. The dialect of the particular region or state depicts a socio-linguistic and cultural influence, which would be interesting to research.
Another digital tool I enjoyed learning is CartoDB. After humbly learning to click on the grey area of each field instead of attempting to slide the button numerous times, I began to see the benefits of CartoDB. This tool converts datasets into maps in different visual representations to help the user examine and analyze data. There are over 7 different types of maps. The basic or simple map is the point map, where the points are pinpointed on the map in reference to the dataset. Each point has an information window with fields. Some or all of the fields of data can be activated. CartoDB also gives the user the option to layer the map for optimized visual representation of the data. The user can add more than one dataset. I was able to see discrepancies in the interviews from the WPA Slave Narratives Collection. I began to question the geographic locations in relation to the time period and political and social issues when the interviews were recorded. The racial divide and social isolation were apparent in the maps.
Palladio is another mapping digital tool for visualizing data, but it is displayed in a constellation like graph. It allows the user to select specific data for comparison and visualization. The user is able to view the close connections of the data in Palladio. Specific connections between the subject and topic were displayed on each graph. I was able to see the connections between the interviewers and which interviewers conducted more interviews with the former slaves. I noticed that most of the female interviewers were close in proximity of each other, but the male interviewers were spread out. Also, I was able to examine the connections of the words in relation to the type of slave and gender of slave. The graph displays a rhetorical disconnect between inside (house) and outside (field) slaves.
All three digital tools are useful and engaging. By learning to use Voyant, CartoDB, and Palladio, I am able to see data in different ways in order to see what is missing in my data and what needs to be further researched. By using Voyant to examine the frequency of certain common words, mapping it in CartoDB’s point and heat maps, and mapping the connections of the common words used by the interviewees in Palladio, the user is able to analyze the data for future research. All three tools can complement each other by providing different visual representations of data in order for the user to analyze it and question it for future research.
