jacobs

Reading about digitalization opened my eyes once again regarding the advances in technology as of recent.  Although the idea of a computer typing out the words of a speech is not new, it is still interesting.  With the latest technological advances transcending into media other than text and speech, it will be interesting to get a glimpse of the future.  What is the next step for digitalization?  Will a computer be able to watch a show, game or movie and type out a general description of the entire event creating a product similar to a novel?  I also wonder if they will be able to do the opposite; translate a novel of the past to a digital image.

Regarding the OCR technology and current print formats.  I have used scanners with OCR technology when trying to make an editable document in Word, but they proved unreliable.  I assume that since then there have been many advancements in OCR technology.  I wonder whether we will eventually stop using paper prints, but instead solely use digital formats, to make it easiest to transfer to the next advancement. Will we make the full transition from paper to disk or will continued paper use be prevalent?

I was thinking about the positives and negatives surrounding the digitalization of audio and video.  I think that it is a duel edged sword.  While digitalizing an old audio track may result in a better sounding, digitally remastered recording, it may also take away from the songs style.  I believe that it changes the feeling of the audio, thus altering the meaning of it.  Imagine a digital remastering of The Declaration of Independence.  Who will know if that is the real notions of our founding fathers?

While reading the first reading, a question arose regarding the preservation of materials for the future. While creating materials for data preservation, one has to keep in mind the ever-changing norms of formats. Should we keep original documents in their original form with hopes that further down the technological timeline we can find more effective and longer lasting formats, or should we continue to update the documents to the current format, taking time, money and resources each attempt to update the data to the present?

Regarding the second reading, I was surprised that historians use machines to organize the data off websites instead of viewing the data interactively. The future seems to be making interaction with the informational websites obsolete for historians. I question whether the money and technology to produce websites similar to The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War site is worth investing, while the main clientele, historians, respond by implementing technology to breakdown the websites to ascertain the basic data the website is attempting to display in a visually pleasing and attention grasping way?

Regarding the legitimacy of view responses in digital archive websites as accurate portrayals of the time range they originated. I relate this to the responses found on The Video Store Project. I worked at a video store for a few months during high school, it is interesting to read, and often times relate to the experiences of other video store workers. A response that reminded my of high school, where on the NYS Regents they would have you read accounts of different time periods written in dairy form or a format similar style. I always questioned whether they were real or simply created by the exam makers.

“Did you tend to rent or buy videos? Why?

rent… money issues… besides, my father soon got a second VCR and we figured out dubbing pretty quickly… so he’d rent movies, especially before a road trip, so we could watch the copies in the back of his new van with the new tiny tv and the “portable” vcr…. ahh the good old days before the stock market crash in ‘87!

During the period that you shopped at this store, what changes did you see?

they expanded… more than doubled in size overnight.

Is this store still open? If not, when did it close?

not open anymore… don’t know when it closed”

The responses in Regents exams always seemed to fit the time periods too well. But after reading the few questions in the response from The Video Store Project website (above) I can see how it can be used. I wonder how historians in the future will be able to decide which responses are accurate and which are purely false.

Question 1:

I believe that regarding this course, our community consists of the students in our class, our activity is the creation, usage, and interaction of a functional blog. Our class will create relationships with one another unlike the relationships with our peers from other courses because in other courses there is little outside communication. Subsequently, this course can only function if the communication outside of class is fluid from start to end. In our case, the use of blogs will allow for continuous and fluid communication. I am wondering whether other students have a different interpretation of how this course breaks down. So my question is, Do you agree with this statement said, if not explain.

Question 2:

After reviewing the websites, I found that The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War was an archival site. It was easy to navigate because you had multiple options, browse through the format built by the webmaster, or simply click on the sitemap. A question arose regarding archival websites. Is it worth hindering accessibility of information for a intricate design format, should the just have a sitemap, or should there be a combination of both like how this particular archive was constructed?

Question 3:

After reading the readings and view the websites, I understand that the web is saturated with websites that contain practical and reliable information. However, many of those sites are block to the public that cannot afford membership. Do you think the future of the internet (expanding at an exponential rate) will make these websites obsolete?