- I'm a digital archivist at the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) in the Office of Strategic Initiatives at the Library of Congress and a doctoral student at GMU. I'm interested in online communities, digital history, and video games. I blog on this site, and at playthepast.org. Views expressed are not those of any current or former employer.
My Recent LoC.gov posts- All Digital Objects are Born Digital Objects May 15, 2012
- Life-Saving: The National Software Reference Library May 4, 2012
- ArtBase and the Conservation and Exhibition of Born Digital Art: An Interview with Ben Fino-Radin May 1, 2012
- Better Know a Viewshare: Exploring Texas Funeral Records April 18, 2012
Recent Comments
- A Reply | grokingfeminism on Another way to count the books
- What Is the “New Aesthetic”? « stunlaw on The New Aesthetic and the Artifactual Digital Object
- MUSEUMS IN SOCIAL MEDIA & THE WEB | Culture Victoria News on Crowdsourcing Cultural Heritage: The Objectives Are Upside Down
- Matt Burton on The New Aesthetic and the Artifactual Digital Object
- The New Aesthetic and the Artifactual Digital Object | Trevor Owens on Deforming reality with Word Lens
Twitter: tjowens
- RT @thomasgpadilla: Digitization as Creation http://t.co/9J73Wpfe #digitization about 10 hours ago from Tweetbot for iOS ReplyRetweetFavorite
- Yay! MT @eosadler: I just committed to the Digital Preservation Stack Exchange Q&A site proposal: http://t.co/7WdLwLIm about 10 hours ago from Tweetbot for iOS ReplyRetweetFavorite
- @hellenophile to riveting! Opened it and read all the way through about 11 hours ago from Tweetbot for iOS in reply to hellenophile ReplyRetweetFavorite
- Facinated by draft @playthepast post @hellenophile shared with me. We're looking at mods for Colonization that add in triangle trade about 12 hours ago from Tweetbot for iOS ReplyRetweetFavorite
- RT @retius: Wow, they should sell prints! RT @amandafrench: #THATCamp Museums NYC has a serious poster. http://t.co/YCKZccV2 about 13 hours ago from Tweetbot for iOS ReplyRetweetFavorite
On typos
I blog because I want to. I don't get paid to do this. It isn't fancy like that. I am also not a particularly careful editor. I just wasn't wired that way. Every once and a while I get an email from someone who points out typos in my text. Sometimes they apologize for sending me those comments. I am always deeply grateful to them. If you see a typo, misspelling, or otherwise grammatically incorrect issue on my site and send me an email I will be thrilled. I will thank you. My email is trevor dot johnowens at gmail do com.Archives
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Author Archives: Trevor
Teaching with RPG Maker: Interview with Caleb Gentry
I had a ton of fun talking to folks about my research on RPG Maker at the Games Learning and Society Conference last month. I am a big fan of the opportunity for conversation that poster sessions provide. I expected … Continue reading
Posted in Digital Tools, Education, Games
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Divergent Design Competence in the RPG Maker Community: GLS Presentation
I am thrilled to be back in Madison, if only for a few days, for the Games Learning and Society conference. Now in it’s 6th year, it is very cool to see how much the conference has grown and matured … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Games
Tagged #gls2010, digital literacy, game design, Games, learning, programing, RPG Maker
2 Comments
Read My Article On Civ Modders in the Journal Simulation & Gaming
I am excited to announce that an article I wrote about how the game Civilization modders, players that edit and alter the game’s code, is now available as OnlineFirst through Sage. The project was a ton of fun and I … Continue reading
Posted in Digital Tools, Education, Games, History, Science
4 Comments
The Interest Driven Curriculum and Online Affinity Communities
The more I explore informal affinity communities, like the Civ modder community, or the RPG Maker Community, the more intriguing I find them. While the communities are themselves interesting, I think there are lessons in these spaces for rethinking more … Continue reading
So Who Are the RPG Makers? Preliminary Survey Results
I am excited to report that i have finished gathering data from my RPG Maker VX community survey and am well on the way toward finishing interviews with a subset of the respondents. For more information about this project see … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Games
Tagged design, digital literacy, Education, game design, informal education, learning, programing, rpg, rpgmaker
7 Comments
Becoming Storytellers and Game Makers in the RPG Maker VX Community
A while back, I wrote a post about a very neat piece of software called RPG Maker. I never really got to building a game with it, but I have become fascinated with the community that has come together around … Continue reading
Posted in Digital Tools, Education, Games
Tagged composition, design, digital literacy, Education, Games, informal, learning, mapping, RPG Maker, Video Games
5 Comments
Evolution in Spore: A Case Study in Player Agency
Spore is not a good game for learning about evolution. As many have eloquently articulated the games mechanics clearly place the player in the role of intelligent designer. With that said, I think this case provides an interesting moment to … Continue reading
Autotune for science, or when youtube got smart
When I first stumbled across Carl Sagan – ‘A Glorious Dawn’ ft Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remixed) I thought I would find a quick laugh, instead I found something profoundly moving. This autotuned mash-up of documentary footage ends up leaving viewers … Continue reading
Posted in Digital Tools, Education, Science
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Mining Old News For Fresh Historcal Insight
This week I had the honor of participating in the Library of Congress’ national strategy for digital news summit. The Library gathered together a diverse mix of corporate and public archivists, representatives from public and private foundations, and librarians to … Continue reading
Posted in Digital Tools, History
Tagged Gender, History, History of Science, howto, library, marie curie, visualization, zotero
2 Comments
