Digital Scholarship Resources

Omeka - a free, open source web publishing platform for archiving and sharing digital collections and creating media-rich online exhibits. There are three (3) versions of Omeka:

• Omeka Classic best for single one-off projects
• Omeka S is suited for collaborative projects that needs shared data
• Omeka.net a hosted version of Omeka Classic that comes with a tiered pricing plan.
• Plugins (for Classic) and modules (for S) will provide added functionality your Omeka project.

Wordpress - Free, open-source software to build websites, blogs, and app (not as robust, but easier to use than Drupal). Drawback: need to buy or host your own domain - recommend use with Reclaim Hosting.

Prospect - From UNC, a free, open source tool to create a range of digitization projects such as virtual walking tours, interactive exhibits, including historical maps, images, to classroom teaching tools and community repositories. It's used as a plug-in for Wordpress. (currently compatible with business account only)

Scalar - a free, open source authoring and publishing platform for long-form, multimodal digital scholarship. It enable users to assemble media and juxtapose them with their own writing in a variety of interactive ways-great for non-linear narratives. Scalar can be hosted anywhere (recommended with Reclaim Hosting) or register for a free account hosted with USC. **Note that as of April 7, 2025, Scalar hosted at USC is experiencing technical issues.

ArcGIS Online - a mapping platform and suite tools for making interactive web maps. Brown faculty, students, and staff will have access via their school. See "Mapping" in Digital Tools for more details.

Mukurtu - Mukurtu (MOOK-oo-too) is a grassroots project aiming to empower communities to manage, share, preserve, and exchange their digital heritage in culturally relevant and ethically-minded ways.

Drupal - Drupal is an open source content management platform powering millions of websites and applications. It's built, used, and supported by an active and diverse community of people around the world but does require significant set-up and skills.

HistoryPin - A collaborative tool to share images history across time and space, and place those memories on maps and timelines.

CollectionBuilder - An free, open source tool for building digital collections and exhibitions via static websites. Choose from two frameworks: (1) GitHub Pages or (2) CSV.

MySQL - An open source relational database management system that uses structured query language (SQL) to store and manage data.

CollectiveAccess - A free, open source software for cataloging and publishing museum and archival collections.

Greenstone - A free Greenstone is a suite of software for building and distributing digital library collections. It provides a way of organizing information and publishing it on the web or on removable media such as DVD and USB flash drives.

Tabulator - A free plain JavaScript library that can be used to create, edit, and manage tables and grids of data; compatible with all frontend JavaScript frameworks and supported all modern desktop and mobile browsers.

Basecamp - private, secure space online where people working together can organize and discuss everything they need to get a project done. See it, track it, discuss it, act on it. Tasks, discussions, deadlines, and files - everything's predictably organized in Basecamp. **Free accounts for educators for classroom use.**

Github - GitHub fosters a fast, flexible, and collaborative development process that lets you work on your own or with others. It is often used by software developers to document and manage their agile workflow.

Redbooth - Project management platform to keep track of tasks and work. Free version has limited function and (recently) switched to a trial version.

Slack - A messaging app for teams: Organize your team conversations in open channels. Make a channel for a project, a topic, a team, or anything-everyone has a transparent view of all that's going on.

teamgantt - Easy to use project management software that uses Gantt charts.

Trello - Trello lets you work more collaboratively and get more done. Trello's boards, lists, and cards enable you to organize and prioritize your projects in a fun, flexible and rewarding way.

Ushahidi - open-source software for crowdsourcing for social activism and public accountability, serving as an initial model for what has been coined as "activist mapping"-the combination of social activism, citizen journalism and geospatial information.

Digital Scholarship at Brown (http://digitalscholarship.brown.edu) is available to Brown students, faculty, researchers and staff who are working on digital scholarship projects which cannot be hosted on existing Brown solutions such as Google Sites and Canvas. DS@B allows you to install your own instance (copy) of WordPress, Omeka, Scalar, MySQL, and other software and platforms.

Reclaim Hosting - Provides affordable web-hosting that faculty and students own and control. Includes a free website domain name, great user support, and one-click install of a number of digital humanities platforms.