FOAF
The first step taken with the data of this project mainly surrounded connections and the basics of how the site would go about organizing and distributing the information given. Utilizing the properties FOAF knew they were able to start drawing connections to the different existing artists based off of the data given from FOAF’s database. A pilot was first conducted on twelve transcripts of taped interviews to test the
methodology.
A second iteration was later performed on an extended sample of fifty transcripts. Visualizations of the resulting network of relationships were created for both
datasets.
Database
This ideal with moving forward continued with eyes set on data consumption and digestion with the expansion of the database and how much the site could access with fifteen institutions holding collections of jazz history primary sources were identified as potential sources of data.
Jazz archives often hold rich collections of oral histories along with other unique materials. The biggest realization that came around on the ideals of using oral history was that oral history collections are a common presence in several institutions, though few of the oral histories have been transcribed from the original audio recordings.
The limited availability of digitized transcripts reduced the number of data sources eligible for the project’s testbed. There were four transcriptions selected from institutions those being, Hamilton College Jazz Archive, Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies Archive, Smithsonian Jazz Oral Histories, and The University of Michigan’s Nathaniel C. Standifer Archive of Oral History.
A jazz studies researcher was involved in the selection of
transcripts to ensure diversity in terms of geographical location and time period.
These major steps of course relating back to the tools listed and used due to how they are so heavily implemented into said tools. Within the webpage the article even lists in its past publications the efforts it took in order to use the data.