Reaction to reading for 20 November 2013

The four readings that I was charged with reading this week were a PDF file entitled ''What is Digital History?" by Douglas Seefeldt and William G. Thomas III, ''It's All About Stuff'' by Tim Sherratt, ''Grappling With The Concept of Radical Trust'' which is a roundtable discussion and ''Frameworks and Lessons from the Public Participation in Science Research Report'' by Nina Simon.  The first two readings deal with different projects that employed digital history in their making and allowed a minority group to come to terms with their past and learn more about it whereas the last two dealt more with the issue of museums and cultural sites sharing their information with the outside world or not.  These two topics are important in that they emphasise the importance of digital history and the connexion that it has to the rest of the world.

The first reading was Seefeldt and Thomas' ''What is Digital History?'' This document was interesting in that it explained the importance of digital history through the brief description of relevant projects that employed digital history in some way.  Two examples were the Library of Congress' American Memories project that collected photographs, letters and other artifacts that could be digitised and shared with the rest of the world and the National Archives' digitisation efforts.  These are important in that these internationally recognised institutions employed different and groundbreaking methods of digital history to put their collections on the web for others to see.  The importance lies in the fact that they have given other, smaller institutions a model to follow on their own digitising paths.  Another example is the Texas Slavery Project done by the University of North Texas, which helps blacks in the US, not just those in Texas, come to terms with their ancestors' past and to learn more about that past.  The efforts of the university have given a face to all of those blacks who would have been forgotten in the mists of time.

This brings me to the second reading, which is Sherratt's ''It's All About Stuff.'' The focus of the article is on a website called 'Invisible Australia,'' which deals with the fallacy of a completely segregated, ''white'' Australia in the late 19th to early 20th century.  The site has the digitised images of original documents and photographs of all of the non-white residents that came to Australia from Syria, India and Canton China.  One can click on the picture and the document will appear with all of the person's details on it.  This gives all of these non-white immigrants to Australia a face and a presence in the country today.  Another example is "Remember Me?'' which is a site that has photographs of children from the Holocaust years on it and the ability for someone to add information about the child in the photograph.  These are available to anyone to do and this also gives these children a presence in this world.  This is digital history used to give a profile and a personality to a flat image, a thing.  That thing later comes alive as details and information are added to it as it is being shared with the world through the Web.  Harvester and Zotero and mentioned as well as ways to collect and organise sets of data.  Importance comes from the fact that these two websites previously listed could not be possible without these two sites or others like it to organise the data into a comprehensible set of information rather than binary nonsense.  That information is later shared on the sites.

The third reading comes to mind now.  This is the roundtable discussion named ''Grappling With the Concept of Radical Trust.''  Four directors with a basis in digital history are called to answer a question about radical trust and whether historic and cultural sites should trust their information to the outside world and put in the opinions of the masses.  All but Jim Gardner, a senior scholar at the Smithsonian, agreed with the concept of partial to complete radical trust as beneficial to providing information for the people in a way Prometheus provided fire for man.  It is still not widely accepted as many scholars wish not to associate with the uneducated masses as to what to show and not to show and what to study and what not to study and so on, but this is the future.  The people will soon have the power to completely control what it is that they learn rather than go with what they are told by experts or family members.  Sharing of information is vital to advancing man further into the future as they will be able to collaborate to a greater degree and, if man can do this, what is to stop them from averting wars with better diplomacy from greater knowledge of their own past?

Nina Simon's ''Greater Frameworks...'' is a discussion on the different models for institutions to use to usher in participation.  It asks for the readers' input on which would be the most efficient model.  This describes different models, such as contributory and co-creation as potential models to use on museums to put the crowd's opinions and knowledge out where others can see it.  This ties in with the above paragraph on the third reading in its importance.  Information must be shared so that gaps on the lower part of the history ladder can be filled in.

reaction to reading for 6 November 2013

We had only one reading that we were charged with this week and two websites to explore.  The theme of these sites and the article in question was commemoration, something that is incredibly hallowed in this world of ours.  The reading was an article from a history blog from the city of Chicago, Illinois entitled ''Commemoration and the Public Historian.''  The site's main theme was the portrayal of the historian as a moral pedagogue of sorts.  The historian, according to the blog, has a moral obligation to teach the public a version of history that is the truest and in a moral sense.  The example used was the occurrence of memorial services of Americans, in Chicago, by Czechs and memorial services, by Americans, of the remembrance of the destruction of the Czech city of Lidice.  Commemoration is an important part of history in itself and of the work of any historian, including a public historian.  To allow no one to forget about past wars, atrocities and more positive events allows history to live on in many forms.  The digital form is one of those shapes.  Digital commemorative sites, such as www.stockport1914-1918.co.uk, which is a First World War commemorative site for British soldiers who were killed in the First World War and were from Stockport, England, are numerous and represent many different groups.  The two sites we were charged with exploring were for the Kent State Massacre of 1970 and 9/11.  The first site showed the pictures of the four students killed by Ohio National Guardsmen and showed activities from a junior college commemorating the massacre.  This is one way to digitally commemorate an event; to put it in blog form.  The 9/11 site is another way; through photographs.  As we step into this modern age, photographs are much easier to take now than they were 20 years ago.  Photographs also speak volumes of historical and emotional words.  Historical photographs are valuable resource tools that anyone should have access to and this archive is a splendid way of giving that access to the people.  Digital archives help commemorate events of any historical significance and they help keep those who perished's memories alive.

reaction to reading 24/10/13 for 30 October 2013

The readings that I have been charged with to read this time were ''Public Media Meets Public History,'' an article from CMS Impact's website, a Dell Press Release about Clemson University creating a social media listening centre and a well written project proposal by Professor Burton.  Each of these readings deals with the usage of social media, that faithful yet unpredictable old friend of you and I, in historical studies.  

The first reading deals with different projects that used a form of social media.  The first was the Veterans' History Project, which I looked into, personally, and found it to be a site of storytelling.  The article calls it this and it did not fail to deliver, especially when I read about a Japanese-American soldier from Hawaii who witnessed the Pearl Harbour bombing.  This type of site uses social media to put a certain story or interpretation across, such as the history groups on Facebook which allow you to tell your own story.  I recently posted a couple of old photographs of my great-grandfather in the British Army during the First World War on a First World War Centenary page.  Others had stories to tell, and these sometimes included facts that were previously unknown to me.  The second example was the exceedingly interesting Water Conflict Map.  This was a Google Map which had bubbles that told of different battles and conflicts over water, all around the world and across history.  This is useful in that one could pinpoint a certain conflict in a certain region and could even use this technology to solve border wars or to at least fix them temporarily.  This article gave a beginner's insight into history and social media.

The next reading was an article about the social media listening centre at Clemson University.  The centre is an important event in the university's history in that it is the first of its kind.  The statement from Jason Thatcher, the associate professor in the centre's management department, sums up the main use and importance of the centre:  ''My students are learning to listen to the online conversations around private, non-profit, and public organizations. By learning how to listen and what to listen for, they can understand how to better engage in the civil discourse around different parts of our society.''  This statement from Professor Thatcher directly states the importance of the centre.  This centre shows, as well, that history and social media can be used to help humans understand each other and themselves, both past and present.

The final work was Professor Burton's project proposal.  Professor Burton wishes to use social media to ''further enhance'' history and its studies.  His first example was the causes of the Civil War, a conflict that is, sadly, inaccurately studied by many.  He states that the use of social media, such as Facebook, Flickr, Instagram and others would give us more knowledge on the Civil War by, through my reckoning, taking all of the stories told of this particular war and putting them together under one roof, digitally speaking.  Then one could study these stories and find the variations in them through certain subjects, such as Professor Burton's graph of Civil War Southern gender stereotypes.  This usage would be quite useful when trying to gather resources and ease some tensions between two parties.  This could also be done with the Spanish Civil War, only on a more careful scale as the tension between Nationalists and Republicans seethes and smolders even now.  This usage of social media in this way in history would take history to another level, a level that is more human and more personal than it is now.  The internet is the campfire and the users of this technology are the campers swapping stories.  This is how I see it.  

reaction to reading 21/10/13

The works that I was charged to read this week were three chapters from Roy Rosenzweig's book Digital History and from an article Shelia A. Brennan and T. Mills Kelly entitled ''Why Collecting History Online is Web 1.5.''  A third work was assigned, but it could not be found on the website and was left off.  The textbook's three chapters went into detail about how to build an audience for one's history website, tips and steps for collecting history online and posing the question of who owns said history.  Rosenzweig puts forth detailed steps and suggestions for each chapter, such as having a guestbook or contact us link on a website to help build an audience, a very helpful table of published and unpublished works in the United States and when their copyrights take effect and the use of listserv and email to collect data.  The table for copyrights is especially useful in that it has the ability to stop plagiarism before it starts and to stop lawsuits as well.  Even if one asks permission legally, there will always be someone who does not want their work or a timeless piece displayed on the world-wide Web.  Email is still useful because so many people still heavily rely on it and trust it.  The building of an audience is important.  With no one to lecture to, the lecture is quite useless, so building and keeping an audience is important.  The chapters in this book were helpful and detailed; they were detailed enough to prompt readers to look up certain terms that they do not understand.

The second work is about collecting history and building a website and the lessons learned by the author of the article.  The site was an archive containing blogs, stories and media from Hurricane Katrina.  The site did not attract the 10s of 1000s that the creators hoped for, though.  The main problem with the site that was created was that it was not user-friendly.  People had to upload photos one at a time when Flickr was available and one could upload many at once.  Also, bloggers sometimes gave permission to upload their blogs and the site would only allow one blog at a time.  This decreased the amount of people coming on the site.  This is true of any site; it must be user-friendly and use the same technology as the other sharing sites, something that is mentioned in the site's section ''Lessons Learned.''

Both of these works stress the importance of planning when creating a website for history and by doing so, one can avoid the pitfalls that the Katrina Archive faced.

Project blog, 13 october 2013

As was evident at our last class meeting, Jason Barrett and myself have chosen to undertake a new project, one put forth by Professor Shockley.  The reason for this was, as Jason stated, that the university wished to control our access to resources and to certain historical information, such as information on the slave cabins.  This would not do and this also adds a major headache for us since we now have to start completely over.  I have to write a new proposal, which is not easy considering that I have two term papers to write simultaneously and attend work at 6-10pm monday through friday night.  I will get it finished, though, and now Jason and myself have to confer with Professor Shockley about which tasks each of us could do on the project.  It is vexing in a substantial way and is another example of someone trying to whitewash history with a nice, rose-coloured coat.  We both should be able to do something on this project, I will probably be doing some research and writing what needs to be written and Jason will write some of the cards and re-organise the website itself to make it neater.  This is where we are on our project, a crossroads as to what to do on it.

reaction to reading october 10, 2013

This week's readings pertain to oral history.  Oral history is the oldest form of history, dating back to the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons through epic poems and songs.  Oral history is important in that it has to do with primary sources in the form of interviewees.  One cannot get closer to history than with a conversation with someone who took part in it.

The first reading was from the website ''History Controversy in the News'' which comes, ultimately, from Wikipedia.  The site itself was informative, yet the blog was superfluous since the information came from Wikipedia.  It gave examples of oral history, such as oral history in Britain, mentioning the transition from folklore studies to proper oral history.  It offers useful tidbits of information, such as the correct way to ask questions.  The example given is for interviewers to ask open-ended questions so that the interviewees will not answer the way the interviewer wishes them to answer.  This is useful in that you obtain truthful information from the informant.  The site is informative and gives the correct starting point for a good interview.

The second reading was from the website ''History Matters'' and from the article, ''Oral History Online.''  This site is basically a list of oral history websites, some of which I have explored.  Rutgers Oral History of the Second World War is a fairly decent site which is similar to the Texas Tech Archive for the Vietnam War in that it has letters and transcripts from previous interviews.  Archives such as this are useful in that they contain a decent cache of information but some, like the Rutgers Archive, are not very user-friendly and are not interactive.  For oral history in the secondary form to be useful and beneficial, it needs to be able to be used properly by anyone wishing to utilise the data contained within.

The third reading was a document about the changing face of oral history through time entitled ''Four Paradigm Transformations in Oral History'' by Alistair Thomson.  The document explains the four changes in oral history and its processes, mainly echoing the first reading and its information.  It details some examples, such as biographical methods and changes in objectivity of the oral history processes.  It also tells of the internationalisation of Oral history, with mentioning of the oral history society in Britain.  Nostalgia, being seen as a distorting factor in oral history, is seen in a negative light in this essay.  This is true in that nostalgia does taint memories and makes things seem more golden then they actually were.

reaction to reading 29 September 2013

This week's readings were about how to put together a web site and the pros and cons of digitising text and other data.  The digitising of data and textual artifacts is an important step in preservation but also has its limitations, which are mainly in cost and skill level.

The first text read were two chapters from Daniel Cohen's  textbook Digital History.  Cohen gives a helpful account of how to digitise manuscripts, documents and other data as well as starting a web site and the pitfalls involved with trying to have it done professionally.  He describes one as having to buy numerous computers and have them connected continuously.  Then, the caretaker of these machines ''wakes from sleep worrying about power failures, hackers and computer failures'' (Cohen).  Cohen makes one think about undertaking these tasks and urges one not to take them on at the advanced level as a novice, no matter how much skill one happens to possess.  To build a website and then to digitise information and place it on said site would be a boon to those who wish to access the information one has accumulated.  An example of this would be the British Library's digital copy of an original Beowulf manuscript from the last days of  Anglo-Saxon England.  Cohen states that the original is too fragile to view in real life, but many can see it on the Library's website, as well as letters in the margins, as if the monk copying the manuscript doodled slightly when on a break from copying the manuscript.  This technology could be used to not only display objects where everyone can see them, but restore their digital copies to their former glory so one could see what it looked like many years before.  This lends some helpful hands to research, especially for those wishing to see intricate details in the image or object that had not existed in many years.  Websites are a useful tool for anyone wishing to communicate information to the rest of the world, and this can lend some validity to a professional wishing to be taken seriously in the academic world through being a jack of all trades.  The writing of books and articles and the writing of websites and blogs increases the number of readers of the professional's work.  Websites, despite their cost are a useful tool.

The second work read was a blog on a website known as ProfHacker by a guest named Miriam Posner.  The subject of this blog was the creation of an online presence for academics.  It is a useful tool for the absolute novice with no knowledge of building a website as Ms. Posner goes through the process slowly, step by step, and gives good examples that everyone has heard of.  Examples of this are when Ms. Posner mentions Google Profile, and how to make one, Twitter and LinkedIn.  She even mentions Academia.edu, a ''social networking site for academics.''  What Ms. Posner does is give a starting point in making an online presence and getting your foot in the door, digitally speaking.  This is a clever idea in that by doing this, one can hope to network when trying to find a new position, a patron for a new work, or just someone to take the professional seriously.  This can lead to one building their own website when the notoriety comes or when the professional wishes to advance their work to the next level.  Ms. Posner's work was free from vexing jargon and was simple to follow.  It contained some surprising facts, such as Twitter being used in the academic world.  She states that it allows one to ''follow'' another's work and receive updates on future work.  A surprisingly helpful article.

The third work read was an article by Jeffrey Zeldman on ''Understanding Web Design.''  This article thoroughly got on my nerves.  Mr. Zeldman wrote this under the impression that his readers already had some knowledge of web design.  Jargon floats around like an evil spirit and the article is rigid and unhelpful until the last part, titled ''She Walks In Beauty.''  This part is helpful to a degree and even then it's only through similes such as ''Great web designs are like great buildings.  All office buildings, however distinctive, have lobbies and bathrooms and staircases.''  The article is pretentious babble.  What I could get from the site is the message of ''Make your design unique.''  This helps when trying to get others to study your work.  When one visits a site, they do not wish to see something that they have seen a thousand times before; they wish to see something new.  This ''something new'' helps to entice people onto the site and into your work.  A unique site is a must for an academic professional.