HackTheHearst: Revealing the treasures of the Hearst Museum of Anthropology (UC Berkeley)

[Nicholas Tripcevich]

This is perhaps of interest to members of the Antiquist community, an abridged description follows.

Please see the complete description here

http://hackthehearst.berkeley.edu/index.html

and a writeup in the UC Berkeley News Center

Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley

The HackTheHearst hackathon will be an opportunity to dig into the collections data of the Hearst Museum and work with it directly. This culture of building, playing, and “hacking as a way of knowing” is a crucial part of the innovative spirit of the Digital Humanities. The idea that one can acquire a deeper understanding of tools, technologies, platforms, information, and systems through development is a principle that surrounds this event. Furthermore, this event seeks to bring members of our campus and local communities together to work collaboratively and creatively to give back to these communities and to interested people worldwide.

The goal of HackTheHearst is to develop a compelling application and/or user interface for the digital collections data that the Hearst Museum is making available through an API. Each team of participants will develop an app or web interface for working with the Hearst’s collections data (see Contest Requirements for details). The application or interface should address issues of humanistic scholarship, and show applicability and adaptability to a range of projects and scholarly fields. Suggested applications include:

• A tool to facilitate student (K–12 and/or university) interaction with the collections data;
  
• A tool to facilitate researcher interaction with the collections data (e.g., planning a research visit, and submitting research products to the Museum);
  
• A tool to facilitate heritage community interaction with collections data (e.g., allowing searches for objects by user-drawn map polygons);
  
• A tool to promote visualization of the breadth and depth of the Hearst Museum’s collections (e.g., interactive statistics, timelines, and/or maps);
  

Kickoff: Wednesday, September 10, 102 Kroeber Hall (UC Berkeley), 4:30–9:00 PM (see schedule)

Judging: Sunday, September 21, 102 Kroeber Hall (UC Berkeley), 12:00–2:30 PM, winning entry will be announced and presented at a special event from 3:00–4:30 (see schedule)

Prizes: To be announced.

Dataset: The dataset being made available through the API consists of object-centric metadata for over 700,000 catalog records. This data includes basic identifying numbers and keys, plus a large set of additional fields that convey the 'what,' 'where,' 'who,' 'when,' and 'why' aspects of the objects.

See the complete description online