This project is the second large scale collaborative project that I have worked on. There are twice as many people working on this one than my first but the scale of material that will be produced are about the same. It’s always a challenge when it comes to a collaborative project, especially of this nature where there tends to be creativity involved in the process.
So far, this project has exposed me to a lot of digital research techniques that I plan on using later on in life. I had heard of Zotero, Neatline, Omeka and other resources alike in the Create Caribbean environment but being exposed to them as well as learning how to use them is a totally different thing. I recently started syncing my Zotero clippings so that way, I don’t really lose my sources. I haven’t started analyzing my research as yet but I feel like I should go through my sources so that there’s a subconscious presence of the information as I carry out my daily activities. I was fortunate to visit the Kalinago Barana Aute on a trip and I took photos of Kalinago artwork and crafts which will not only be useful to providing visual aid in this project, but will give me a greater sense of involvement and achievement when the project is completed. When it comes to collaboration, we plan on having weekly checkups to ensure that everyone is on the same page and pulling their weight on this project. I commend my group members on their efforts so far since we have not had any major issues when it comes to providing information for the collaborative submissions. However, I feel that we should begin analyzing our information as early as possible to ensure that we capitalize on the month that we have left to complete this project.
I’ve been faced with a lot of challenges for this project so far. Firstly, I’m an employee and a student and obligations at work tend to clash with my schoolwork at times. It gets a bit stressful and may delay productivity for me by as much as a day. I don’t let it get the best of me and I’m grateful that the director behind the project is a very understanding one as it makes the stress load lighter, Recently, I’ve been plagued with an absence of internet at my residency and that’s making it quite difficult to work on digital humanities project. I’ll get it sorted out soon enough. I believe that my team as well as the other teams are more than capable of completing this project on time.