So you’ve looked at neatline.org, seen their fancy web exhibits, and said to yourself, “Hey, I’d like to do that!” Well, this tutorial is going to take you step by step on how to do that from scratch. It’s not an intuitive process, for sure, but with about an hour of time you can get started with your own cloud-based Neatline website, with all the bells and whistles! The major technologies we are going to use are Amazon Web Services (AWS), a terminal window for SSH, Ubuntu (a Linux operating system), Omeka 2.0 (the platform Neatline sits on top of), and Neatline 2.0. There are many resources for you to consult for all these technologies, so feel free to explore at your leisure. I have used a few different resources to help me assemble this guide, and I hope to reference them when I can; the main goal, however, is to take someone with little experience in web development and get them started quickly in Neatline. I am going to try to provide copious illustrations, so you can see what I am doing every step of the way. I am completing this tutorial on Mac OS X computer using a chrome web browser, but the process should be portable to Windows or Linux with little trouble. This tutorial assumes no experience with web development, but it also may be of interest for those either familiar with Omeka-Neatline but wanting to get an introduction to cloud computing, or for those who have AWS experience interested in Neatline. Either way, I hope you enjoy!

UPDATE: Of course, as soon as one finishes a guide, the software updates and the guide is no longer up to date. I will be updating in February 2014 when I am putting on an Omeka tutorial through HWL. So, here I am going to provide a pdf version of this guide, feel free to come back later for the update!

Installing Omeka – Neatline on AWS (Link to PDF)