design
University and museum websites follow a clear set of professional standards. However, what about the “amateur” historian? Should they follow the same set of standards as professionals? Cohen and Rosenzweig discuss the standardization of the book and how the internet in its youth has not yet achieved universal standards. While they make many excellent points, such as the importance of site structure and to maximize the opportunities for people to find your site. I wonder if it is fair to compare the internet to print media. After all, while historians have embraced the book as their main medium, how responsible are they for the lay out of books? I would think publishers would be more responsible for the lay out of books than the historian? Although, I guess the most important thing is that historians have continued to use the book as their main way to communicate, thus endorsing the standardization of the book.
The other question I had was should we have standards for history on the internet? I would overwhelming say yes, but something also kept coming up in my mind as I read this chapter. The internet, its not a book, websites are supposed to be unique and unfettered. It seems that there is a very delicate balance between scholarly standards and the independence of websites.
Cohen and Rosenzweig made some really great points about accessability that I probably would not have thought of. The thing about the internet, is it is not face to face communication (well most of the time). For the most part all you see is the computer and whatever site you are looking at. I never would have thought about people with disabilities using computers, because that has never come across my mind while using a computer. In the real world accommodations for those with disabilities are highly visible (ie, handicap parking spaces). However, this is not the case on the internet. I thought that was great that they devoted a good part of this chapter to talking about how to make your website accessible for as many people as possible.
Does anyone have any suggestions why J-stor uses symbols and numbers for storing files rather than file names and directories that would make it much easier for the user to search through the site?
March 20th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
I understand what you’re saying about publishers and a book versus web designers and web sites. To some extent, I can see regulation and standardization slowly creeping into web development. But righ now b/c the internet is still relatively new there isn’t as much beauracracy.