To Cope

The Unknown

Like a child in the dark, we’re all frightened from time to time. I had always assumed that over time, fear would fade to be replaced by a dignified bravery. Repeatedly, Dr. Cox’s class has taught me otherwise.

Entering this semester, I could not have been more terrified. As a post-bac student, I didn’t know what to expect. I applied for the class, History in the Digital Age, knowing only that digital history had something to do with computers and something to do with history. Put bluntly, I felt inadequate. Unfamiliar with graduate school, I could only take solace in the fact that Dr. Cox had allowed me entry to her class. Upon entering the room, all of my fears were realized. “Wow, I’m unqualified.”

Alas, my good fortune is incomparable. Aside from my initial jitters, my fears were unfounded. During the first class, we met each other and I was quick to realize that I was not looked down upon; in fact, my experience was quite the opposite. As much as the class was a subject of my curiosity, I was met with genuine interest. Rather than being disregarded, I quickly was made to feel an equal.

As the class drew to an end, Dr. Cox initiated the group selection process. I was blessed to have an interest in music, a topic which caught the attention of three great people: Tina Wright, Reggie Rucker, and Anna Boyer. Between the four of us, a quick chemistry developed. Thus, my journey through HIST 6330 began.

The Project

The assignment was seemingly impossible. Chronicle Charlotte’s musical history and display the findings in an online exhibit. With haste, the group met to discuss the assignment. Initially, the project appeared implacable.

Our first sojourn to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg library brought little success. As we listlessly perused the contents of the Carolina Room, progress was little more than meaningless babble. As our time at the library drew to an end, we finally found traction. We discussed the topic and, by and large, agreed that a chronological representation of different mediums (venue, sheet music, recordings, etc.) would offer some continuity. We left that meeting with happy hearts. Ignorant to the long road ahead, I celebrated the small success.

We soon developed a mission statement. Having realized that selecting specific mediums, in reality, offered NO opportunity for continuity, a change was in order. We decided that if we each focused on a specific set of venues, defined temporally, we could adequately represent Charlotte’s music scene. Without burdening you with the thick details, our goals were as follows: utilize Venue as a structure by which to explore the diversity of musical culture in Charlotte. The aim was to show the change in culture over time and to understand the motivating factors for the change.

Each of us chose responsibility based on our specific skill sets, but I chose to be the web-master. Having once designed a website in Dreamweaver, I was not confident at all pretty confident in my ability to confront this task. Having a personal stake in the North Carolina music scene, I thought it only proper that I take on the Contemporary Music Venues section. I wanted to present the modern venues in Charlotte as part of a grander culture in Charlotte. I assumed with my connections within the rock, metal, and jazz scenes, I would have a respectively easy time forming an exhibit based on these subjects. In the end, my personal familiarity with the subject has served me little and less.

Crouching Tiger or Hidden Dragon (either way, we amount to dinner)

In a project such as this, the standard problems of History are only compounded by the mystifying enigma that is computing. Ideas about how to accomplish our goals were informed by what we had seen on different Omeka sites, such as the Silver Age Comics webpage hosted by the Atkins Library.

That website is immaculate.^{definitions 2 - 3} The layout, the colors, the information… it so beautifully presented. The Silver Age Comics website is easily navigable, but incorporates all of the (for lack of a better term) cool features that would excite computer nerds. The website instilled, within me, what could only be termed as a “delusion of grandeur.” After viewing the website, it was only natural to assume that we had an equal opportunity for success; after all, we were using the same web host/creation engine: Omeka.

As fate would have it, this was not the case. The Silver Age Comics website was not only developed by professionals, but utilized the full (and expensive) version of Omeka. Early in the class we had great expectations. We planned on using many plugins (to which, we would find, we had no access.) In our group contract we cite Contributions and Dropbox, which would allow users to upload their own content and Neatline, a timeline which incorporated mapping to offer our users both spatial and temporal coordinates for their viewing pleasure.  
Instead, to accomplish our goals, the only tools we had were hard work, ingenuity, and cumbersome web building software.

The Sound of Perseverance

Coping with the absence of our expected materials has been far more informing than I could have imagined  Part of life is adapting, and that’s exactly what we have done. We realized that certain materials, such as videos, are un-applicable. Omeka has strict rules which preclude the embedding of any fancy moving pictures video files. The neat organization which we so desired would be forgone for function. As a group, we decided that any video would be linked off site. Much the same, we decided against trying to impart any visitor participation. Without the Dropbox or Contributions plugins, any contribution would have to be our own.

More interesting, however, is how we adjusted to the absence of the aforementioned Neatline feature. Reggie first suggested that he would develop an individual timeline. We thought that was great, even if it isn’t interactive, a timeline offers a sense of continuity which is somewhat hard to obtain within the bounds of our available materials. Following Reggie’s lead, I decided I would design a map. Initially, I intended to embed a Google Map with all of the information from the website, but instead resolved to host the map off cite and create a simple picture which redirects the user to the interactive map.

Another issue I was forced to confront was the banner. While it seems a modest imposition, designing a banner for a website is challenging work. At first I resolved to pay a friend to complete the banner, however, my friends are less than reliable. As time went on, I was resolved to design my own banner. I downloaded an image editing program, GIMP, which is both free, and rivals Photoshop in terms of its capabilities... plus, its free...

 After hours of reading forums, cussing, crying, and sweating, I created THE GREATEST BANNER OF ALL TIME.

As the website is, it reflects a massive change in the social stratification and culture of Charlotte. Tina’s section, Charlotte’s Early Music Venues, offers a good overview of some of the more traditional venues of music, but also sets the stage for later festivals and venues. Her work represents a majority of white performers. Specifically, her piece on festivals informed my section on the Jazz Charlotte festival. Reggie’s section on Black Music venues shows the dynamic changes in racial acceptance; many of my venues are host to multiracial performers. Anna’s section on WBT also informs mine, as radio has been a great area which modern venues have used to advertise.

Really, this has been an exercise in lateral thinking. Building a website was never my intention in signing up for this class; but the challenge really offered me the opportunity to explore unfamiliar territory. At first this project, this class, and this setting were all frightening; but from this fear, creativity and perseverance met to create a true historical tool. 

Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll

Thanks to Yahoo's writing style guidelines, I've shaped up my writing. No more wasting space for me! My title has things that everyone is interested in: sexual theme, reference to illicit drugs, and a meaningless reference to music. Everyone feels comfortable with this Cliche!

This is actually a post about my results from the Writers Diet. I'll assume that by this point, most of those who began reading my post have gone back to trolling Facebook or laughing at Cat Memes. The writers diet is a program which examines one's writing and quantifies, rates, and graphs the authors use of the the parts of speech. The analogy is that the Writers Diet is a doctor looking at your blood sugar and vitamin levels and making suggestions on what food groups you need to cut back on.

I feel pretty good about my results. Hopefully this picture can draw some of the readership back into my story, so here goes:

I'm led to feel pretty good about this. Never in my life have I been called "Fit and (or) Trim," so this is a pleasant change of pace. I think I mainly need to thin out my use of prepositions (of, for, in, from, to, etc.)  so I've decided to embolden all of the prepositions I see. Aside from my flabby prepositions, I'm as happy as a seagull with a french fry. 

The Canary.

I felt, when I started this blog, that people would be able to enjoy my writing and maybe even learn a little bit from its contents. It's odd, though; I consider myself a decent writer, I try to keep all of my online writing simple and enjoyable. I think it makes sense, people aren't interested in being assaulted with complex verbiage. The Internet is a place in which writers should be free to write as themselves, at least, in an ideal world that would be the case.

Yahoo.com offers a list of tips and techniques for writing on the Internet... Take a second... Imagine the sort of advice an Internet mogul would offer...

It's quite disheartening. Yahoo proposes many useful techniques; techniques that all people writing for the a large audience should think about: be direct in your prose, make your opening and closing sentences interesting, craft an interesting title. Here, take two of these and call me in the morning.

I'm rambling, let's take a step back for a second
Yahoo insists that what I'm writing at this point in my blog post will not be read. In this article about eye-tracking, analysts propose that people only look at your title. I guess that makes sense, if someone writes a piece on the Internet that does not have a title that catches my attention then why would I read it? I'll just get to the meat of it: Yahoo claims that anything of value in web writing needs to be in the top third of the page:

• People scan the main sections of a page to determine what it’s about and whether they want to stay longer.
• They make decisions about the page in as little as three seconds.
• If they decide to stay, they pay the most attention to the content in the top part of the screen.

I guess I shouldn't be so bothered by this, but it's downright offensive to me to claim "web readers have the attention span of a goldfish." If people are only interested in writing with a content value no greater than that exhibited in a tweet, then I guess I'll have to be your canary. 

Collections digital searchable specific

Search terminology is a complicated topic; because different people use language differently, search engines are forced to predict the interactions of search criteria and the vernacular. IN William J. Turkel's article "Digital History Hacks," he examines  It's a complicated process, let's just say that the average person complicates a search parameter with their expectations. One such issue facing search engine developers is year parameters within documents.
"you also find that many people are trying to use dates to limit their searches in a way that most search engines don't allow.

england history 1350 to 1850
french history 1400's
world history 1500 through 1850"

Google's search parameters would seek documents containing, for instance, England, history, 1350, and 1850. It would not define the search in terms of year range.


Search engines are further complicated by the vast amount of information and the range of mediums which one might be seeking. In his article, "From Babel to Knowledge," Daniel Cohen expresses some of the ways in which these problems are being addressed  The seemingly limitless amount of information floating around on the Internet makes search engines necessary. Brute force searching, as applied by Google searches  websites for specific words; while it can be beneficial when you're looking for something specific presented in a web page format, it can be more daunting when searching for information contained in specific mediums such as course syllabus. Cohen expresses how an inclusive list of words can help refine a search to a syllabus:

"there were certain words that appeared very frequently on syllabi, far more so than on a typical web page. This list included, of course, 'syllabus' (appearing on over 90% of syllabi), 'readings' (and its singular, 'reading'), 'assignment' (and its plural 'assignments'), 'exam' and its variants and synonyms, and the word "week." When I ran the same analyses for word couplets, I found the most common pairings were 'fall' and 'spring' followed by a four-digit number (the 'Spring 2006' that is found on so many syllabi this term) followed by the all-important 'office hours...' A web page that contains many of these words – basic ingredients in the pedagogical cocktail – is extremely likely to be a syllabus"

Simple solutions, including education about search criteria as well as a utilization of parameter based search engines could really be to our benefit in the future. While search engines can not replace indexing systems like library ISBNs, people are making strides towards simplifying search results and increasing their functionality. 

Tweet Tweet - Who Cares?

Social media has been around for years now. After Myspace popularized self marketing on the web it was only a matter of time before thousands of other websites took up the call; the question is, who cares? I think one of the most common problems with the Internet is that people see only the negatives. Twitter is generally viewed as an unsupervised platform upon which the youth can waste away with their time following celebrities and Tweeting about what they had for lunch. I still remember learning about twitter jail, the term describing when twitter blocks a user due to overactive posting (over 1000 tweets in one day,) and thinking "Man, these kids need a hobby."

Then it hit me, the kids have a hobby: Tweeting. Twitter has become a common place on the Internet for young people to interact. Kids feel comfortable in the, oh so familiar, Twittersphere. Let me just put it out there, it's the perfect time to exploit Twitter, it offers a lot of advantages over traditional means of communication with students.

Andrew Mercer, a music teacher who teaches music over the Internet to students in isolated communities, agrees. He's well associated with the inter net's resources as his livelihood depends on it. He claims that one of the best advantages of twitter is its small word limit. "Twitter is a blogging tool, but with a twist -Twitter is a micro-blog. Unlike traditional blogs, which permit authors to write lengthy entries on the topic of their choice. Twitter limits each posting to 140 characters. No pictures of your cat, no videos of you and your friends doing The Chicken Dance - just 140 characters per posting, or 'tweet' as it is called. This cap has had an interesting (and refreshing) effect on what people post to the Internet - authors are forced to 'make it brief.'"

Twitter also helps to get students involved in the conversation. It's much less intimidating to post a couple of words than it is to think "Hey, I have to write two pages to make a blogger post worth it." Mercer finds that his students are more often asking for help, and helping each other, because Twitter's feed is never flooded with pages and pages of blocked paragraphs. The students are on it anyway, why not go to where they already are?

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=69588306&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Don't Be a Fool, It's a Tool!

The changing landscape of technology has opened opportunity for change in academia. The stale world that has long revolved around books and academic journals is now proliferated with Internet resources. Anything from webpages to blogs to digital maps can be used as a historical resource or as a source of inspiration.

But Ian! What's the real advantage here? Motivated people have managed successful educational endeavors for thousands of years without the aid of the World Wide Web; why fix something that ain't broke?

To respond, Embodiment of Doubt, it is "broke."

Knowledge is expanding at a geometric rate, while people around the world have used traditional mediums to transmit knowledge for centuries, new technologies lead to accessibility. While literacy rates have increased many people lack the drive to head to the local library. Furthermore, many are too intimidated by the prospect of a great body of information, seemingly endless and locked in moldy tomes, to start the a quest towards knowledge. The Internet disguises the vastness of information in a simple window. Because of its wide application, the Internet has become common to today's youth. You can socialize, make purchases, learn, and grow from the comfort of your own browser window. Honestly, kids these days feel way more comfortable with a keyboard under their fingers than a ratty old book in their hands.

But Ian! I like books, why should I have to change?

You don't have to change, if you're too intimidated by computer interfaces to adapt then you're a technophobe. Utilize it! Don't be a fool, it's a tool!

The Internet offers thousands of great features. One of my favorites is blogging; [and stated on a blog, none the less] blogging offers a sort of informal medium by which to transmit knowledge. Note the first person lean on my writing, within an academic setting it would be completely unacceptable, blogging lets me send out my ideas and also allows me to receive feedback. This can be particularly useful in a classroom setting

In "Blogging for Your Students," David Voelker discusses a few of the applications and advantages of blogging over traditional forms of classroom communication. "Blogs are open to the public, which means that students and colleagues can visit the site without worrying about password barriers. Furthermore, when students post comments, as I encourage them to do, they do so with the recognition that they are making public statements. As a result, I have noticed that their comments are more thoughtful and substantial than they usually are in walled-off online discussions."

Voelker goes on to describe the way that students can more directly see the link between their world (the present) and the subject material (generally rooted in the past) because of the simple integration of hyper-linking. When inserted into a blog post, students can engage with the material without shuffling through several sets of source material. Voelker suggests the use of an in the news section (a great idea,) but teachers can also link to excerpts from books as well as Journal articles.

OK, Ian, you're starting to win me over; but how will this help me NOW? I'm just a grad student...

Lucky for you, those brainy folks at the American Historical Association [AHA] have thought up a way to make your life easier. I know you're worried about finding someone to publish your dissertation. If it doesn't work out, how will you get tenured? 

In her article, "Talking Shop With the 'Gutenberg-es,'" Elizabeth Fairhead explains the opportunities presented in Electronic Publishing. AHA started a program to give grants and publish strong dissertations electronically citing "complaints about inadequate publishing opportunities for first-time authors"

Look, I know you're terrified of change, but it's comin' like a freight train. The Internet doesn't have to be scary, in fact, make the Internet scared of you. Use it like an intern on his/her first day - With a little time, it'll work for you.

Vandalism or Ignorance? Malice or Comedy?

Wikipedia has been a point of conversation in academia for many years. I can not remember a single research based class where a teacher did not warn us, the students, of Wikipedia's unreliability.

Wikipedia has its uses, in fact, I would go out on a limb and say it's an excellent source of basic information on given subjects. Wikipedia's open editing policy allows a massive body of contributors from which information may be pooled. Assuming that Wikipedia's contributors are well informed students of the topic upon which they are giving insight, Wikipedia's platform is the pinnacle of human intellectual forums; unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Wikipedia, for all of its potential, often shows that manipulation of information by an ambiguous, unregulated individuals allows not only ignorant, but also self interested contributors to distribute misinformation.

What drives people, then, to modify Wikipedia's entries? Many are motivated out of an interest to better the website, attempting to clarify and inform others on the topic at hand; unfortunately  many of these people are often mis-informed as well incapable of (or too lazy to) conveying valuable ideas. Ignorance manifests at every corner, mis-communications become the norm, and writings on Wikipedia convey incorrect information of little value.

Others are motivated by self interest; executives at Microsoft have hired individuals from around the globe to edit Microsoft's Wikipedia entry to convey a more positive view of the software giant. this blatant attempt at misleading Wikipedia's users is insulting and it diminishes the value of what could be an incredible source of knowledge.

Some people are driven by comedy. Entries on anything from our nations forefathers to popular sports have been edited sheerl for comedic effect. This article from Huffington Post shows some of the comedic interpretations. While some are complete nonsense (see Leonardo DaVinci Wikipedia entry) intended to garner a cheap laugh, others are serious political and social critiques.

Reviewing a few Wikipedia articles, one of the most common themes was the removal of content labeled as vandalism. Wikipedia does have a very quick turnaround, often reverting Wikipedia pages to older formats within minutes of vandalism. The Abraham Lincoln Wikipedia entry has one case of vandalism which was corrected in less than a minute.

Misinformation, however, is harder to spot. The Marie Antoinette page used to feature a section on how revered she was by the general population, Wikipedia even listed "let them eat cake" as a direct quote for a period of time. This article, however, has been well reviewed and now seems a stable source of information. The citation page at the bottom appears to be a reliable source of scholastic materials on Marie Antoinette. In the talk section, Marie Antoinette is argued over by scholars, sources are disputed, and improvements are constantly made on the page.

More modern topics such as famous rapper, Lil' Wayne receive scrutiny not only from scholarly, but also individuals unrelated to the field who are notoriously unprofessional and mis-informed. In one post on the talk page of the Lil Wayne Wikipedia page a fan points out an incorrect fact: "Yeah man, Dwayne only has one daughter and one son, there definately is NOT two daughters, so that REALLY needs a dick , cause it should have been changed by now. That would be great y'all. ^-stephaanie (talk) 23:01, 10 March 2009 (UTC)"

Who knows, rarely is an edit on Wikipedia motivated by malice, however, there have been cases of slander through Wikipedia. I find that the real problems with the information in Wikipedia entries arise in relation to ignorance and comedy.

Dead Ends and New Hopes

Leaving a group meeting last week I had planned to meet with many of the members of NC's music scene to get a view of Charlotte's musical past. My plan was to question many of the members of Greensboro's music scene about any affiliation with Charlotte's music scene. What I found was astounding even if it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. Of the people I questioned non appeared to have any information that particularly related to Charlotte. I heard stories about a dive in Greensboro called "Friday's" and a pizza joint called "New York Pizza" both of which were host to a myriad of bands from the seventies up through the late eighties. I heard about the culture surrounding UNC-Greensboro and how its student body helped to shape Greensboro's music scene. I learned about several Avant-Garde bands many of whom are still on the cutting edge of improvisational art. I even had the pleasure of playing with one, the F-Art Ensemble, who has been active since the early eighties.

While specifics surrounding the Charlotte area were sparse I found some good jumping off points. I was directed towards Bill Hanna who has been hosting an open Jazz Jam at the Double Door Inn (a bar in Charlotte) for almost twenty years. I also found out that the owner of Somewhere Else Tavern in Greensboro has thirty years of experience and contacts that could be to my advantage. 

These developments are also exciting because it gives me an idea of the era in which my research could be the most useful. Because I am currently involved in North Carolina's Music scene, I figured recent history would be more fitting to my experience. The sources that I have begun to pool give me a better target for the information that I might actually be able to find; the experience also introduced me to a great target audience, musicians. Interest was very high among the musicians to whom I spoke. Hopefully I can start building a great base of study. 

Contracting, Conspiring, Completing

Creating a group contract never appeared to be a massive undertaking, however, the due date for the project presented certain challenges. While it makes sense to present a full group contract early in the semester, the relative lack of familiarity with the project left me... concerned.

After a few trips to the Charlotte Public Library, our research led us to a conclusion: this is a huge undertaking. Ideas for organization of the project developed over time. We initially consented to select eras, around a decade a piece, upon which to base our research. We quickly realized that a decade of music not only included an incredibly diverse number of artists to log, but also presented us with too large body of other mediums (such as venues, shows, sheet music, and radio broadcasts) to reasonably manage. Eras were quickly presenting more problems than they solved.

We quickly decided that a better method by which to evaluate the music scene in Charlotte was selecting a medium. We resolved that each person should select from venue, radio, sheet music, magazine, recorded music, or photographs. We once again ran into a problem; creating any sort of narrative with no cross medium integration was nearly impossible.

Eventually, Tina decided that the best way to approach the issue was using Venue as an organizational tool, and so it stood. By focusing on certain venues each (concert halls, bars, hotels, radio stations) we are enabled to focus our research. Many venues in Charlotte have been host to bands large and small, national and local, signed and unsigned, from a variety of different backgrounds.

Drafting a contract, then, became much simpler. The Contract was now a way to decide what areas we needed to focus on and to be realistic about each of our responsibilities to the project and to the group. I decided that I would take overarching control of the website as well as focusing on contemporary music venues; most notably Tremont and the Double Door jazz club in uptown Charlotte. Our group has now decided what it wants to do with the website and how to represent the material in an interesting and valuable manner.

September 11 Digital Archive

The September 11 Digital Archive is an archive of resources related to the tragedies which occurred on September 11th, 2001.

From the website:

The September 11 Digital Archive uses electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the history of September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. The Archive contains more than 150,000 digital items, a tally that includes more than 40,000 emails and other electronic communications, more than 40,000 first-hand stories, and more than 15,000 digital images.

This website is a perfect representation of my aims as a digital historian; that is not to say that the website has no flaws, but it represents a huge database of electronic resources. Most interesting are the 40,000 emails. This is an indispensable collection.

Emails are a great source of first hand accounts, they are personal and contain personal accounts of situations. Personal correspondence can't be faked, these are actual insight into people's thoughts and feelings. it offers a great step towards humanizing and connecting users with the personal aspect of the tragedy.

The September 11 Digital Archive is also nice because its collection is seemingly endless, this archive has been open since 2002 and now includes Emails from regular individuals, relatives and friends of victims, and government officials. The website also contains information like FDNY daily plans at the World Trade Center site. It has a catalog of interviews and a photo archive of information relating to 9/11 which is fully searchable.

Having been created in 2002, the website describes its self not only as an archive of resources related to 9/11, but also as an "opportunity to develop free software tools to help historians do a better job of collecting, preserving, and writing history in the new century." This website benefits largely from the limitless space available on the internet as well as the ease of accessibility afforded by the internet. It was so successful that the library of congress accepted the database into its own catalog. The September 11 Digital Archive is now guaranteed continued accessibility.

The biggest issue I find with this website, however, is also its greatest advantage. The website's "Browse" section contains 31 headings linking users to thousands of resources. This body of information, while very thorough, is intimidating in its scale. Navigation of the website could also be simplified, by more intuitive headings and a home page with some useful information the website could seem more welcoming. At its welcome page, the website looks almost empty.

Omeka

Omeka is a powerful tool which allows users to create and organize information as an online exhibit. I've done some research and it appears that the interface for Omeka is both user friendly and diverse. Its simple layout offers the ability not only to easily manipulate data but also to apply ones creative flair to whatever medium they should choose.

Since my group is creating an archive of music in Charlotte I thought I would look at some of the tools available that may enhance our client's experience. Omeka offers a host of plugins that could really make the user experience on our website more rewarding and enjoyable.

Here are three of the features that I think will be very useful:

Download Logger:

Download Logger is a system which shows how many times each of the items on your website have been downloaded. I think this could be really useful because we could see which features on our website are the most popular. While popularity is not the only goal, if we have more popular exhibits then hopefully more traffic will come through all parts of our website.

Geolocation:

Geolocation adds mapping software to websites. This feature will make it easy to geographically note where certain hot spots within the Charlotte music scene were including clubs, bars, music venues, and record companies. I believe this is powered by Google maps which is an online tool that is widely used already and will hopefully be self explanatory to users. 

Dropbox:

Dropbox will allow users to upload their own media. While, in the long run, this could create more indexing work for the developers, it would be nice if we could get user contributions. The only thing I worry about with this plugin is the copyright implications. We will have to be very careful about what content we allow on our website. 

The WayBackMachine

Take a groovy trip into the past, transcend time and space, delight at the poor web design of days long gone.

The WayBackMachine

The WayBackMachine is an amazing tool which allows users to view snapshots of webpages in past formats. This is an incredible resource for any historian because it allows one to track the advances made in webpage design and structure; through its utilization people interested in web trends can track developments in web infrastructure.

Google.com - Nov 11, 1998

Google.com July 29, 2011

 Since access to the internet has become widespread, webpage design has had the opportunity to develop through trial and error; as a result, conventions have developed such as the way we denote buttons and hyperlink organization. Flash and HTML formats have also changed the way we browse: from simple link clicking navigation to interactive three dimensional menus - websites have come a long way.

Online indexes in particular have moved forward. One of the most important developments in net usability is the simplification of webpage navigation. While many of the things we take for granted like organized panes of information (similar to newspapers) and 3-dimensional clickable buttons did not always exist and they took a lot of time to become convention.

For the purposes of this blog I've decided to look at American Memory - the american history index maintained at the Library of Congress' webpage. This website has developed much since its introduction.

July 20, 1999

Throughout its own history, this index of history has undergone some major changes. If you look at the first panel, from 1999, you see some counter-intuitive measures probably thought to be engaging. The tiles in the middle of the page run on Java and constantly change to reveal new pictures. It offers the ability to view the captions from the tiles; however, this comes at the expense of ease of use: the enter button at the top left is not noticeable. In viewing this page my first thought was "this website no more than a photo captioning index." This turned out not to be true, but I would imagine I am not the first person to be misled. 

April 20, 2003

The second panel depicts the website in 2003, as you can see the design has improved and many of the features are much easier to locate. While the page has made advances it is still cluttered. The left side of the page (where my eyes are drawn first) contains only two links that I personally would click: "This Day in History" and "What's New," while the others (FAQ and How To View) are completely frivolous; I will not be clicking those. Fortunately, both the "Search" and the "Collection Finder" are grouped together and they are relatively easy to find. This page shows tons of potential and with a little reorganization could truly shine. 

June 20, 2012

Finally, the third panel shows the fully developed webpage. The search bar in the top right simplifies my search, but the real benefit is the instantly visible index of collections which are sorted by topic. This is the purpose of the website and now its acquisition takes no effort. This website has truly benefited from its time on the internet. The highlights feature on the right side of the screen is very enticing and I think this website has been organized in the best possible manner. 

Week 1, Digital History and Problems

Humans have been developing a way to store and transmit data for thousands of years; some of the most impressive strides in globalization have been made within the last thirty years. I will assume you have never attempted to update your Facebook with a hammer and chisel.

Pre digitization, print was the best way to reach a large audience. Unfortunately, for the normal person, mass distribution of the printed word was limited to those with access to a printing press and access to distribution.

Transmitting information over large geographic areas was a conundrum prior to internet connectivity. One could send letters or try to release a newspaper but geographic and linguistic barriers barred communication. A master of smoke signals may have been the closest thing to a social media master before the widespread use of print; and still only a select few had access to mass communication. Radio and later television then stood as vehicles for mass communication, but even those were only available to a small portion of the population. It wasn't until the explosion of the internet in the eighties and nineties that the average Joe had access to global communication. 

As a prospective historian it's important that I understand the implication of a growing body of digital information. Thanks to Daniel Cohen and Roy Rozenweig I have some good direction on interpreting digital sources. Their book, Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web, outlines many of the advantageous features of the internet; they have shown the true value of the internet is in its flexibility. As a medium, the internet is truly only limited by data acquisition speeds and one's ability to code. The internet offers a platform for anything from the arts to sciences to be presented in creative and entertaining ways. Considering that the internet is truly limitless in its capacity, storage space is cheap. Nobody is restricted from its utilization as a communication tool. 

Thanks to websites such as Yahoo and Google searching internet resources has become easy and fast; the flexibility of the internet is represented in the different indexing methods employed by search engines. On the one hand, Yahoo represents search results in an index which sorts websites based on content; this appears useful in the context of scholarship, however, the man hours taken to archive every website on the internet into Yahoo's index is unimaginable. For just this reason, Yahoo ignores many websites in its indexing system. On the other hand, Google uses blunt force to search for strings of text within web pages and presents them in order of popularity. This is a powerful tool and gives on access to almost the entirety of the internet with minimal searching. Unfortunately, when one searches a string like "Digital History" they are met with "About 75,300,000 results." A number that is truly impossible to sift through.

Stuart Fox's article "Digital Age Presents New Problems For Historians" focuses on just this problem. "Through Twitter, Facebook and email, a child in 2010 will, over their life, produce a body of writing that dwarfs the collected output of even the most prolific Founding Fathers such as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. This volume will shift the problems of historical research from the archeological recovery of rare texts and letters to the process of sifting through vast fields of digital information that weave through legal gray areas of corporate and private ownership." 

Growing challenges facing historians include legal grey areas and, just as Fox stated, an unreasonable amount of information. Fox also does a good job of representing the advantages to historians; the ability of historians to write social histories have been greatly enhanced . Socially based history will become as easy to represent as the traditional "Great-Man" view of history.