Category: Digital Darwin

Darwin Online is the worlds largest and most widely used resource on Darwin, as said by its chief editor, John Van Wyhe. Van Wyhe is a historian of science, whose work has mainly focused on Charles Darwin and his “runner up” on the theory of evolution, Alfred Russel Wallace.

Van Wyhe’s Darwin Online is not a collection of his writings on Darwin. Instead, his website mainly functions as a connector or a digital network linking between the many primary and secondary sources on Darwin. Here users can find original works of Darwin in transcribed PDF form, original images of the handwritten text, and many more assets. The PDFs are accessible in multiple languages, making the site available to a much wider audience. The non-primary information on Darwin conveys other interesting knowledge about his life. For example on the sites media tab, interesting links can be found on the scientist’s background, including a timeline telling the story of Darwin’s life. This page also links to what seems to be every news bite ever written about the man. Here one can find new articles, academic writings, and radio shows. One interesting page I saw under the media tab, displayed primary and secondary sources on “Darwin and Religion.” This is something I would think to be uncommon in sites on Darwin. Although Darwin did write on theology, it was obviously not the primary focus of his work. The vast amount of knowledge on Darwin’s life in all aspects shows how this resource is indeed the best digital source for researching the man. I found it interesting how Van Wyhe, with his vast knowledge, could have written a book about Darwin. It could have included his summary of every aspect contained in the site. However Van Wyhe chose not to, and I find his work more productive. If one is researching for any reason, you can begin with the brief biography, view the timeline of his life, and quickly browse over all the titles he worked on. Before I start to research a topic in depth, I always begin by quickly reading over Wikipedia and I try to find some digital media on the subject. This way I can quickly get my head around the subject, and begin to form my outline. After a proper outline is formed I begin to start reading in depth. This layout of Van Wyhe’s site optimizes for quick learning by holding this structure. I think this point exposes what the most important aspect of digital history, that the structure of information can be much more dynamic. Dynamic structures can present and organize information in ways that will help you learn the best. In the Case of Darwin Online, I believe Van Wyhe did a good job organizing the information. The only suggestion I would make to his site is the somewhat outdated graphics and fonts, which do not exactly match current trends.

John Van Wyhe is a British historian based in Singapore that was founder and director of the world renowned Digital Darwin project. We had the opportunity to talk to him over Skype at 7am Singapore time, 7pm Colby time about his project and some of the stories, advice and lessons he learned from digitizing a database of hundreds of thousands of documents and other media forms. Before our talk, I only knew the basics of what his project was and what he wanted to accomplish by doing it, but being able to ask him questions and pick his brain allowed me to gain a real comprehension of what it would’ve been like to compile a database as large as the Digital Darwin project. I thought the scope and scale of the task he set out to complete was the most impressive, and it sought out to change the ownership of this information by opening it up to the world.

One aspect of the project that I hadn’t really thought of before was the copyright and ownership issues. I found the difficulty that he had to get the rights to use much of the work he needed quite interesting. Every document may have different ownership rights, and that needs to be factored in to the scope of the project as it can become very time consuming to obtain the rights to all the documents you may need for a project. I also really liked the simple objective of the Digital Darwin project, to make as much information about Darwin digitally available online as possible. It is one of the websites that makes the internet a better place for learning and sharing, how it was originally intended to, instead of arguably what it has become today.

Overall, I really enjoyed talking with Professor Van Wyhe and I learned a lot about how one would go about compiling and managing a project of such a large magnitude. Some of his lessons and guidance can definitely be applied into our projects for our class.

Sam Pratico

The Digital Darwin Event was extremely inspiring, especially after being able to put a face and personality to such a momentous project. The project itself was jaw dropping. There are large collections of writings from and about different thinkers, but the ability to access such a scope with the ease of your computer is unprecedented. Additionally, if I were to use this in an academic work, it is extremely helpful to be able to keyword search the documents themselves, and than to be able to search within the document and easily copy and paste quotes to be used in a paper. However, you can also experience some of the more physical elements that contribute to the story behind the work. The documents are scanned so you can see the paper, the wearing, the handwriting and actual drawings from Darwin himself. All of these things bring Darwin to life in ways that a student researching from their computer couldn’t typically experience, hopefully inspiring more excitement around the research. Additionally, the scope itself opens up new areas of study for many, who couldn’t traditionally find so many related documents surrounding a more niche field of study. Hopefully this project has, and continues to make this impact on academics and enthusiasts everywhere, as well as inspiring other similar projects on other fields or writers.

I thought the founder of the project himself to be extremely personable. He was excited to talk to us and took the time out of his day early in the morning, answered all our questions and seemed genuinely enthusiastic about helping us learn about this project. It was exciting putting a friendly face to such an impressive project. It made digital history projects seem more accessible, fun and exciting. As someone passionate about mtn biking, learning about his hobby as an avid and talented mountain biker definitely made the whole project and field of study seem that much “cooler”.

I thought the story of the projects beginnings were very exciting, sort of like an academic startup story. It is the type of thing that took lots of fundraising, bootstrapping and grit, just like a small business. Once established it started gaining more and more resources, materials and support, leading to exponential growth through the network effect. It has had to challenge intellectual property and plagiarism issues just like a startup and ended up being able to run itself off of people’s financial support just like a business. I thought this process showed how academia can be just as exciting as the business world, and the mountain biking professor definitely put a cool face to this story.

Overall I left the meeting feeling inspired going into my own project. I saw the value of digitizing existing archives and making them accessible. I was better able to understand how making something accessible directly leads to more research into a subject and more creative historical projects surrounding the topic. I can’t wait to visit the archives that my project focuses on and hopefully digitize and increase the access to some of these documents.

It has been over a century since the HMS Beagle, carrying a 22-year-old Charles Darwin, sailed around the world for 5 years studying foreign species. Darwin was famous for his work studying finches in the Galapagos and produced one of the most monumental books in the field of biology – The Origin of Species. To this day, Darwin’s work remains referenced by the academics and scholars in the field, but how does his work affect the average college student? More broadly, how does the lack of accessibility to Darwin’s work, both physically and intellectually, affect the ordinary student’s understanding of the Darwin’s research?

This leads to Darwin Online, one of the largest and most widely consulted anthologies of Charles Darwin’s publications ever produced. In my experience, Darwin Online has removed the barrier to information pertaining to Darwin and made it easier to gain a holistic understanding of the man himself. In layman’s terms, the online anthology has not only quelled my academic pursuits but also contained outside publications about the subject matter. Furthermore, the online collection includes materials that I may not have been privy to otherwise, as the website also contains some of Darwin’s private papers.

Additionally, Darwin Online attempts to allow individuals of all backgrounds equitable access to the information. With all that being said, the online collection has inherent limitations. People need wireless internet and a computer capable of connecting, but in many other ways, it removes the barriers to access. While browsing online, I noticed that the website also has translations for scholars and people to read in their native languages. This allows people to step out of the eurocentric lens and removes the language barrier that may have traditionally limited the opportunity to study these materials.

Darwin Online also ensures that the material is fully formatted for modern viewing. The entirety of Darwin’s works, including new discoveries, are constantly being scanned and uploaded to the web in the most widely accessible format. I mean everything. The website itself claims that “each text is absolutely complete, nothing is omitted (as so often with online texts) including end pages and publishers’ [advertisements].” This unadulterated version of Darwin’s works assists greatly when attempting to write research papers, editorials, and other publications because it removes the influence that another writer might have on the works.

Conclusively, Darwin Online is a tool that removes the inequities form studying the works of Darwin and allows everyone the chance to examine the original manuscripts, papers, and sketches otherwise inaccessible through traditional means.

Digital Darwinism is an online database that has compiled all of Darwins writings together into one space.  Believed to be the largest online database of any single writer.  The project was started by Dr John van Wyhe, who is now a historian of science at the Department of Biological Sciences at Tembusu College, National University of Singapore.  Van Wyhe has an M.A. from University College London and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.  He then later moved on to Singapore where he found Darwin Online.  

The project itself was a large task right from the beginning.  Dr. Wyhe created a team that consisted of programmers and historians to combine all the works that Darwin created into one online platform.  At the time it was very new, and cutting edge technology to learn how to program and make products on your own.  Dealing with hundreds of works from Darwin’s life time they had to make digital copies of all these works.  That was either taking the actual texts and recreating a digital version of it, or uploading actual photos of the works.  Each of these were then stored in a Jsquel database using php, javascript and html.  

Dr. Wyhe believed that the most challenging part to the whole project was actually collecting Darwins writings.  At the time he said most of the institutions he was going reaching out to were relatively helpful with providing the work so he could make these digital copies. However, writings and articles that were kept in museums etc.. were much more difficult to receive the grace to make copies of Darwin pieces that didn’t exist anywhere else.  In most cases he was able to convince and make it happen.  He noted that if this project was to be carried out in the present day, he believed that it would not have been possible.  Institutions that have thousands of articles, notes and essays from historic figures would not be willing to give their original copies away. They would rather create their own database for their own creditability as an institutions.  

Having all of Darwins work categorized and located in one spot allows for his work to be seen and studied much easier.  Before internet and projects such as this only scholars had the ability to really study Darwin and his work.  Now any person with access to the internet, or even a library computer can research his work.  It has accelerated the study of Darwinism and arguable has made his immortality stronger than ever.  However, are we sure that Darwin wanted his work to be filtered through by key word searches to find quotes and snippets without having to actually read his work in its entirety.     

Learning about one of the largest digital projects ever created, Digital Darwin, and getting to speak with the man behind the creation of it, John Van Wyhe, was an interesting and valuable experience. Digital Darwin is itself a very impressive project due to the amount of time, dedication, patience, and passion one must have for pursuing a project of this magnitude. I still find it mind-blowing that it is the largest collection of documents and information dedicated to one single figure. Going into this, I did not know about too many historical digital projects, so being exposed to one of the most revered ones and speaking face-to-face with the mastermind behind it was beneficial to my understanding of these works.

During our chat with Van Wyhe, I learned that with great projects comes great responsibility and risk. He noted that Digital Darwin just might be the most under-cited scholarly website in existence. He has had to deal with many counts of plagiarism and stealing, and believes that some people simply take for granted the work he has done to assemble all of the historical documents concerning Charles Darwin into one place. That said, he is not exempt from his share of legal hardships on the other end. He stated that possibly the most difficult aspect of creating Digital Darwin has been getting permissions and rights in order. When dealing with so much documentation and so much history, there are bound to be cases where legal issues arise. I feel as though most projects like this–though not on this scale–would experience similar difficulties and complications when piecing the project together.

When I asked Van Wyhe if he knew whether or not the popularity of Digital Darwin spurred the creation of similar projects for other important historical figures, his answer intrigued me. He said that there were a few small projects created for a few other scientists, but that Digital Darwin is a special outlier since there is so much content and it has remained so crucial and debated throughout the last 150 years. The evolution discussion has produced so much material and inspired so much research that few other scientists’ findings could ever match the production of what Darwin has done.

Speaking of the evolution discussion, Van Wyhe acknowledged that the resource he has created has been used by both those who believe in evolution, as well as those seeking to debunk it. He knows that his collection of documents has helped fuel the fire in this heated intellectual debate. I admire him for addressing this by saying, “That is what its there for.” He created Digital Darwin for scholars, no matter their beliefs, to use for whatever purpose they wish, as long as they are not stealing or plagiarizing the material. This evolutionary debate is also a good thing for the site as well, giving it continued exposure for the foreseeable future.

What intrigued me most was his discussion about the regular and uncontrollable plagiarism that goes on from Darwin Online. This site gives access to the entirety of Darwin’s works. 90,000 pages and 80,000 images are available free of charge to the public. John discussed that the main reason for plagiarism is when people cite the original work of Darwin rather than the site. Therefore, this site is basically giving convince in using Darwin’s work but not getting credited because scholars believe that citing the original text looks more official. John expressed his disappointment in these practices but there is not much to do in the way of changing this cycle.

One question I want to raise from learning about this monumental project in the world of the history of science is what great accessibility does for the world of research? More and more exposure to learning is always the goal but does this ease for analyzing take away from a genuine curiosity of the scholar? Darwin online allows for a student to pick through text in order to discover the quote or information needed. Darwin would have wanted more citing and use of his work but would he also have wanted a student to read his whole thoughts not just bits and pieces?

Another aspect of this work that is interesting to explore is the funding process. This site is completely free of charge and relies on donations and private funding. The United Kingdom Arts and Humanities Research Council was the original sponsor of the site. In addition, historian Janet Browne and the Welcome foundation provided grants. Without scholars like Van Wye and Browne fundraising the works of Darwin and other great thinkers could be cited less and less. Darwin online provides a precedent and inspiration for other online data bases to be created.

The esteem of Darwin is probable for the explosion in press coverage and ample funding Darwin is one of the most famous writers in the world. However, there are many other important writers in history that the world could benefit from if an online data base was created of their work. Because of the reliance on this funding and increase in only using accessible work, will we lose many important documents as a result of millennial laziness?

Having the discussion with Dr John van Wyhe, after being able to explore his website was very interesting. I had never thought about how hard it would be to acquire all of the material to upload them to the website for the collection. It was interesting to learn more about how the items were collected from different sources. Another topic that Dr. van Wyhe discussed, was the impact the wide spread accessibility of Darwin’s documents has had on different communities. This kind of digital history can make research on topics with historical ties much more extensive and all inclusive. This also gives historians the ability to explore historical figures that have large amounts of documentation or records created by the historical figure, that could have been kept. In addition, having all of these documents in one place makes it much easier than the many individuals continuously looking for information and trying to find who might have certain documents they are looking for. Putting this kind of collection in a digital format in one location is something that should be looked into for many major topics, not just people, as a way to explore them further, especially historically. Having the opportunity to speak with the man who was able to make this kind of project happen was very interesting, as well as learning about all the animals he has been able to jump on his bike. The discussion of a current day attempt at this project was also intriguing, because of the change in willingness to provide the documents for certain groups or organizations. Would a potential option would be to consider a compromise with a website that contains links to where the information can be found on sites that don’t want to give permissions?

The presentation and discussion on Digital Darwin was really informative and interesting to hear about for a multitude of reasons. I hadn’t previously known this was the largest online database dedicated to one singular historical figure, and just admiring the scope of the project was really incredible. I also found the discussion with John Van Wyhe especially intriguing because it was really unique to hear his side of things and his perspective on the site as a whole. Hearing the work and dedication he put into the site personally was also really powerful and really framed the entire project for me as a very large and well-crafted project. In all aspects the website seems like a major success to me because it is very easy to navigate even as a first time user. Things are all clearly labeled and you can really access any information or writings from Darwin that is available.

As we learned in the discussion with John Van Wyhe however, this abundance of information can actually lead to some very problematic situations for the website itself. A strong example of this is the lack of citation that the website receives itself. As we learned this is a product of thorough work and persistence on the part of John and others working on Digital Darwin. They were so meticulous that they managed to compile all of Darwin’s works into one website, which as John said is great for educational purposes and surely helps many people find the information they are looking for with ease. On the other hand because all of these sources are readily available on Digital Darwin it is problematic because they provide people with the original work to cite and so this database itself rarely gets the appreciation or recognition it deserves because people can just go directly to the primary source itself through the Digital Darwin website. I thought this was really interesting to consider and was something I hadn’t considered much before our discussion via Skype.

This made me think back on my academic career, specifically here at Colby, and the number of times I have similarly used someone else’s work or writing to find a specific quote or section in a primary source. It seems all too common in our modern world and it makes me almost feel sympathetic for the creators of websites such as Digital Darwin. It seems wrong that so much hard work can go into perfecting a site to only have it utilized for other people’s work without any sort of acknowledgment or recognition. All things considered though, I don’t necessarily see a simple solution to this problem or any way to avoid things like this happening in the future. In our digital age, information is available readily to everyone and it is becoming more and more difficult to receive credit or recognition for the work people put out there. In conclusion it is definitely unfortunate it may not always be cited when it should be, but Digital Darwin is an incredibly well thought out website that truly provides all the information you could want on an incredibly influential man.

I found the Digital Darwin project directed by Dr John van Wyhe to be quite fascinating and an eye opening project that opened up several new paths in the field of Science, Technology, and Society. To be honest, I didn’t even have an idea of what a digital project was stepping into this STS class so it’s crazy to think that a few weeks later, I was able to meet and interact with the director and leader of one of the biggest digital projects made in human history. Never did I think this was even something that was pursued, but come to think of it, it makes complete sense. I mean, someone has to be converting the information from the past and updating them into the technology we use today— I just had never thought about it.

While I had originally thought that a transferral of information from books or manuscripts into an online website would have been pretty simple, after hearing from Wyhe, I’ve come to realize that it is actually very difficult and a huge consumption of time and energy. I was especially intrigued by the fact that the hardest part of this digital project wasn’t the actual searching of the information but getting the okay and receiving permission to use it. But again, I guess that makes sense since we live in a world of ownership and copyright. It was definitely valuable to get the insight to all the inner workings of creating a digital project and hearing all the roadblocks and loopholes one had to go through to create a successful project.

Another aspect of digital projects that I and many other people might not think about is the actual publicizing of the final product once it’s launched. Wyhe explained how with a combination of luck and support, they were able to use the University of Cambridge as well as the newspaper to create publicity once the site was open to public. I found it humorous when Wyhe mentioned that the day that Darwin Online was published, there were no huge stories for the newspaper to cover so the digital project got the most of the attention that was needed.

If there is one thing that I personally took away from Darwin online and the skype with Dr John van Wyhe is the type of people that pursue these types of digital projects as well as the audience these projects are targeted at. I quickly realized that this was a scholars’ world where for the most part, scholars are the ones who create these projects and other scholars are the ones who utilize these sites to gain more knowledge. I had asked Wyhe if there was a particular reason why he chose Charles Darwin to be his subject and model for this huge project of his and although I don’t remember his exact answer, I do remember his message: “I decided to start this because of my love for Charles Darwin and to help make his information accessible in one location.” While I have a hard time imagining myself finding passion in accumulating information into one source, it was exciting and intriguing to seem someone else carry a passion of theirs and make the biggest digital project based on one person.