- 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.








Recent Comments
- Debating the Digital Humanities Gets Real | Trevor Owens on Digital History: The Course That Never Ends
- Joanne Manaster (@sciencegoddess) on Ancient Wisdom from the Forums: Failures of Collective Intelligence
- Fran on Techies You Decide! You’re either a Feminist or a Misogynist
- tjowens on Techies You Decide! You’re either a Feminist or a Misogynist
- Ted on Techies You Decide! You’re either a Feminist or a Misogynist
Twitter: tjowens
- @deweeeese I kinda want to use it to go on a davinci code style romp. Chasing hidden meaning behind everyday life. about 6 hours ago from Tweetbot for iPhone in reply to deweeeese ReplyRetweetFavorite
- @deweeeese glad you liked it! Such a mind blowing thing you guys made about 6 hours ago from Tweetbot for iPhone in reply to deweeeese ReplyRetweetFavorite
- @wragge exciting! Can't wait to here about the results :) about 7 hours ago from Tweetbot for iPhone in reply to wragge ReplyRetweetFavorite
- @acdha @ccostino @shawnr indeed let's get this on the calender. @shawnr should do a podcast on it about 11 hours ago from Tweetbot for iPhone in reply to acdha ReplyRetweetFavorite
- @dancohen Re nGram phrases I stand by "The United States are" vs. "The United States is" as my fav search http://t.co/T8ag7vDZ about 14 hours ago from Tweetbot for iPhone in reply to dancohen 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.
Category Archives: Digital Tools
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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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
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
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
Distributed Research Tool Instruction: Think Interlibrary Loan for Training
The ever growing heap of neat digital research tools is simultaneously fascinating and problematic. Some of this stuff really has the potential to be transformational, to provide new avenues for scholarship, and teaching, but the sheer quantity of tools makes … Continue reading
Posted in Digital Tools, Education
Tagged Digital History, instruction, instructional technology, libraries, research tools, zotero
5 Comments
Re-mixing The Tech Tree: Build Your Own History Of Science
A few weeks back Rob Macdougall posted a great essay about using the game Civilization’s approach to the history of science and technology as a point of entry into conversations about models for representing the history of science and technology … Continue reading
Posted in Digital Tools, Education, Games, History
Tagged civilization, History of Science, mod, public understanding of science, science education, tech tree
1 Comment
Recap from first Triannual Zotero Trainers Workshop
Last week I had the pleasure of running the first in Zotero’s triannual (that’s three times a year) workshops for Zotero trainers (looking for a better name for “trainer”). I had a great time, and I think everyone left with … Continue reading
Visualization and History: Hint, It's Not About Pictures
If your into history and computers, and looking for a mildly trippy read, break open a bottle of wine and spend three of four hours reading through David Staley’s Computers Visualization and History. Staley’s central, somewhat provocative, contention is that … Continue reading
Posted in Clio2, Digital Tools, History
Tagged database, graphs, Maonvich, maps, Moretti, new media, Staley, swivel, trees, visualization, wordle
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