neylon

http://eagle1.american.edu/~ln6943a/Chinatown/1880.html

As the use of the internet and digital media becomes increasingly common and more and more people are concerned about preserving and collecting personal memories of the past, collecting sites are becoming more prevalent.  Universities all over the world are setting up collection sites dedicated to their histories and their alumni memories.  More specifically, many academic departments and alumni associations have taken on these projects.  I am hoping to set up a collection site for memories of either American University in general, or specifically for AU’s History department.  I searched the internet using Google, and by going directly to schools and looking for collection sites.  Most sites target alumni only, though I ran across a few sites that are open to faculty.  Alumni are the targets, probably because the alumni associations are generally the organizations that have the time and energy to expend on collecting information, and there seems to be a perception that alumni are the ones who would care most to share their memories.  This may be true, but many of the sites had few responses on the sites.  The appeal to the wider audience is missing from the sites, and perhaps is what is limiting the number of responses the sites received.

I have found that there are many different ways to set up these sites and those in existence span the entire range.  Some require a great deal of information in form submissions as a sort of speed bump, to make sure that anyone submitting to the site is real and not a prank.  Another concern about the collection sites is whether to make submissions immediately available, as they would be through blogs or forums, or whether to monitor them closely before posting, as would be possible through email and form submissions.  These sites also vary in appearance.  Some sites have many images that serve a dual purpose of making the site look better and of jogging the memories of alumni.  These collection sites for alumni memories seem to fall into categories based on submission formats as well as use of images.

The first format for collection of memories relating to a university or college is one of the most common.  This is the collection form that visitors fill out and submit to the administrator who then posts the memories to the site.  Lawrence University’s collection site, created for the 150^th anniversary of the school in 1996, allows visitors to the site to submit memories of 25-150 word lengths.  The University’s magazine used these submissions for the yearlong celebration of the 150^th anniversary, and the library, who administers the site, continues to accept memories.  Staff at the library reviews submissions and then posted to the site for visitors to peruse.  The Lawrence University site only asks for a name and graduation year to accompany the memory, providing only the smallest of deterrents to those who might submit a false posting.  Rutgers University’s collection site for memories of its library also asks for little information from visitors before submission.  These sites are also purely functional- they have no images, are there simply to do their jobs, and are not very aesthetically pleasing.

The University of Alberta has a site set up by the alumni association for their members to share their memories.  This site much more attractive and has much greater controls over postings than Lawrence University’s site.  Similar to Lawrence University, though, University of Alberta also has a questionnaire that alumni can submit to the administrators, who then post them to the site.  The form requires only the first and last name, but there are a total of forty-three other questions that alumni can choose from to answer.  Though these other questions are not required, the number can appear daunting at first glance, thus providing another deterrent to those who might not post a serious comment.  Most other sites that I found are similar to that of the University of Alberta.  Central Michigan University has ten questions to verify identity before posting memories, and Florida International University asks eleven questions.

Other sites out there ask very little and immediately post the submissions.  These sites are either blogs or message boards that have been set up for the expressed purpose of collecting memories.  One of these types of sites, “The 75:20 Season Reunion

Where alumni of the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance reunite,” despite the blog format, actually has some oversight because only one member has administrator capability.  All new postings must be emailed to the administrator, who then posts the memories.  However, the comments, as on all blogs, any visitor can submit and post directly.  Nebraska Wesleyan University seems to have a format that it is a sort of message board that asks little information of the author of a post before they submit their memories of the school.

The best of the sites that collect alumni memories go farther than those previously discussed.  These sites use digital images and request submissions of more than just written memories.  The Imperial College of London has a page where alumni can read and submit written memories.  The college sets itself apart, though, by the requests it makes of its alumni.  They also ask for donations of images and videos to collect a fuller picture of the history of the college according to the alumni.  Unfortunately, though, the Imperial College of London does not have a site where these submissions will be accessible, though this could change, since the request for such submissions is relatively new.  Other sites, though, have images throughout.  The University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia, has a site with five memory books full of alumni submissions.  There are images throughout these memory books, rounding out the memories.  Unfortunately, the site only permitted each posting to contain fifty words or less, severely restricting the stories.  Despite this, there are several amusing stories on the site.  Though the administrators closed the site to new submissions, the layout of the memory books is a great example of how to present the submitted memories.

One of the more interesting of these sites to use images is that of the University of Waterloo’s Office of Alumni Affairs.  The office asks for memories specifically associated with concert memories.  The site contains images of Alice Cooper, YES, Harry Chapin, and Cat Stevens, among others.  There is a form on the site for submissions of stories relating to these and other concerts at the University of Waterloo.  The administrator reviews and posts the memories along with images from the concerts.  The administrator also provides a little background information when needed, including dates of the concerts, and any other needed background information, at times settling disputes about details.  NC State University College of Engineering also has a great site for memory collection.  The site has images and allows for a much larger amount of words (submissions are in the form of emails) than many of the other collections sites.  Perhaps the most unique part of the site was an image of a class, the date of which was apparently a mystery.  The image was posted to the site with a request that anyone who might know when the image was taken, or who was in the picture, would comment on it.  Many people commented, but the mystery apparently has yet to be solved.  Overall, this site is very well constructed, is an interesting way of collecting alumni memories, and a model for collecting sites for college/university memories.

The existing collection sites for memories of alumni communities from colleges and universities provide an interesting array of forms and designs.  Some make it very easy to submit memories to the site, while others require a great amount of information along with the written memory.  Some provide images that make the site more interesting and that make it easier for alumni to think of what they want to write.  Sites such as these also vary in the motivation for their construction.  Some schools created these sites in order to celebrate landmark anniversaries of the schools, while still others created them to gather information for the sake of history.  Though these are great reasons to have these sites, many of the sites do not seem to have advertised well to their targeted audience, or did not have an audience that was motivated enough to participate in the project.  Despite the drawbacks of some of these websites, they provide lessons in positive and negative aspects of construction, from which future site builders can learn.

Edward Tufte’s unfettered hatred of Power Point in his book, The Cognitive Style of Power Point, actually was a little shocking.  I am rather ambivalent in my feelings towards this program, and I never realized that it could incite such strong feelings.  I understand Tufte’s points that the program disrupts the flow and limits the presentation, but I wonder if he is a little bit too harsh.  I have seen both good and bad presentations made with Power Point.  I found that the best presentations using this were ones that used actual pictures, not clip art, and if they used bullet points, it was merely to help the listener follow the speech.  The worst, on the other hand, used bad clip art that was actually distracting (I spent more time trying to figure out what the pictures were than listening to the speech), and they often used the text as the speech itself, and began reading from the screen.  In those cases, I did begin to wonder if the presenter even needed to be there.  I guess what it comes down to is that Power Point can be useful, if it is supplemental to the presentation, not the presentation itself.

I began thinking about my own upcoming presentation on my research paper on Chinatown, DC, and I actually began to stress a little bit.  It is almost assumed that I will use Power Point, especially because images are an important part of the analysis of my argument.  I am now concerned about how I will present my images if I use Power Point.  I am concerned about the quality, after reading Tufte’s criticisms of the program, but I do not think I really have a choice in how I will present the images.  All of these images only exist digitally, which seems to lend itself to Power Point.

I saw many references to slide projectors in the discussion thread about making presentations.  I have had plenty of experience with using slide projectors in presentations.  My experience with them is that there always seems to be something going wrong with them, the images are never quite in focus, and if the projector is old enough, the image can get a little lopsided if the legs are not sturdy enough.  This experience came from working at Gettysburg and presenting campfire programs.  The funny thing about all of this to me is that last summer people kept talking about how nice it would be to have a computer system at the amphitheatre so that we could use Power Point for the camp fires.  Do you think all of this comes down to a little bit of “the grass is always greener on the other side?”

All we have been talking about in class are uses of the internet in history (obviously, this is called Digital History), but I came across a blog this week that made me realize other uses for the internet and blogs, specifically.  I heard about a movie, I’m Reed Fish, and I wanted to know more about it.  I searched it in Google, since that is where I search for everything, and I found a blog for Reed Fish, the guy that made the movie.  I found myself going through the blog, and though it is not just about the movie, I learned more about what the movie is about, and I was able to see pictures from the filming.  After seeing all of this, I really want to see this movie.  If the only information I could find about this film was the vague information on other sites, I might have forgotten about the movie.  Anyway, the whole point of this is that the internet is an amazing advertising space, even if Reed Fish did not specifically intend for his blog to advertise the movie.

Some random thoughts on the reading for this week…

There is an interesting trade-off when using technology such as Flash.  It is great that there is such technology that makes your web page more interesting and perhaps more professional looking.  The only problem is, if you use Flash, it is harder for Google or other search engines to find the page.  This is actually disappointing.  Flash does a lot to make a website look nice, as well as allow visitors to interact with the pages.  There are great positives of Flash, but if the technology could end up limiting the number of people who ever find your page, is it worth it?  Digital History said that the search engines had most problems with sites that were heavily-laden with Flash, so I guess if you make sure to manage the amount of Flash you use, it would still be possible to make sure that people can find your site.  Otherwise, the ability to share your information with the world is somewhat limited.  This is another reason why it is very important to determine what the site is going to be before making it.  I would not want to spend the time and money to figure out how to use the program, just to determine that its use would be counterproductive.

I like the fact that we have our own spaces for websites through AU, but I seem some definite downsides to using the school’s server.  The biggest problem is that the URL is not memorable at all.  There is so much to it that even though I was just at my page the other day, I cannot remember how to get back there.  Though I do not really expect anyone to want to visit my site multiple times, if I decided to publicize the collecting site in some way, it would be convenient to provide the address so that people could go there on his or her own.  It would be great if the address were short and sweet, not complicated.  I always figure if there is a ~ in the address, it is really overly complicated.

We had talked about funding for sites through the NEH in previous classes, but I did not realize how many other places there are that could provide funds for creating sites.  I guess this is yet another reason that I should get some experience in grant writing.  I also find it encouraging that there are so many resources for funding online projects.  The academic world is sometimes slow in moving towards the use of new technology or even just new ways to look at history, but the use of the web in researching and publishing history has clearly been accepted, and will continue to change the way we look at “doing history.”

I was particularly struck by a point that was made in Digital History this week.  The comparison came in the sentence, “It would be a shame to “print” your website on the digital equivalent of the acidic paper used by many Victorian publishers, which is now rapidly deteriorating in libraries around the world.”  This sentence really made me think critically about digital history and the continued maintenance of information and sites.  The loss of access to most of the memories from the My History is America’s History website is pretty depressing.  I keep thinking about the possibility of creating a collection site for my project, but this is another problem that I would have to confront- how to make sure it keeps going, and remains available to the public.  There were some interesting suggestions in the chapter, including finding an institution to take over the website if I am unwilling or unable to maintain it myself.  I’m actually considering modeling my project on what someone else would be willing and eager to maintain for me if I do decide to stop working on it.

This week’s reading has only reaffirmed the discussion that we had last week, when a few people said that we have to re-save all of our documents periodically on new media, to make sure that nothing is lost over time.  I would hate to be an archivist, because my instinct is to back up and keep saving EVERYTHING.  When I did a class project at the Historical Society of Washington, DC, I was told to copy the newspaper articles in my collection onto acid free paper, and then throw everything else out.  There were so many newspaper articles that went into the trash, but weren’t copied either because they were not relevant to the collection.  Throwing things like this out is scary to me, because though we may not think something is important now, someone down the line may think it is.  In fact, I have run into this problem myself, where I wanted to see something that no longer exists because people at the time saw no importance in it.  But, with the amazing price drop in storage (Digital History said that in 1993 1 terabyte of digital storage space cost $5 million, and today it only costs $500), do we ever have to get rid of anything?  I understand the problems that the chapter raised, such as the inability to search the documents in the future due to the sheer numbers, but I also wonder about the longevity of the media on which the information is stored.  Is it possible that one day even the New York Times method of storage will turn out to deteriorate much sooner than they think?  At that size, how difficult would it be then to re-save all of that information?  And many years down the road, will the format used in the encoding be usable?  I’m starting to feel a little pessimistic about this whole thing…

I really enjoyed the Lifehacker site.  I was pretty interested in the procrastination article, though I disagree with it.  I don’t think I sabotage myself.  I’ll go back to the typical procrastinator defense- I work best under pressure.  But other than that posting, I was fascinated by the links to sites that I have never seen before in my life.  I never know that there was a site that would tell you how to do everything you would ever need to do in life.  I didn’t know that someone would need an instruction manual to introduce their kid to snow, or how to make a snow angel.  In fact, I don’t think such instructions existed before, and this brings me back to a question I ask myself all the time.  We are so used to using technology for everything, that we’ve become almost dependent on it- do people actually use it for things like instructions on making a snow angel, and if so, do they realize that we lived without things like this for many years?

Digitization is, in my opinion, a huge technological advance for researchers.  It is now possible to view and search many writings, and browse through photograph collections with a speed and ease that I would not have imagined a few years ago.  I discovered the online archives of the Cold War International History Project in my senior year of college, and was amazed at the number of sources I could look at without leaving school.  Without that archive, I would not have been able to research and write about Cold War history for my thesis.  I believe that everything that we should digitize everything we can.  Though it is not always a replacement for the original, when provenance and the social biography of the information or object are important, I think that digitization is an important democratization of access to our cultural heritage.

One of the important things that we have to remember when considering digitization is the audience.  As Daniel Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig point out in Digital History, historians must analyze the audience for potential digitized materials to determine whether that audience is real.  This makes sense, because it is important to have a resource that many people will use, in order to make the expense of digitization worthwhile.  Unfortunately, this limits the creativity of researchers who are unable to travel to the location of the materials they need.  If their topic of interest is not a popular one, it is not worth it to reproduce it digitally.  Do you think we will reach a point where it will be economically viable to digitize even the obscure papers, photographs, etc.?

I found it very interesting that outsourcing occurs in this field, as well, and that outsourcing of digitization to other countries is hidden because of the surrounding political controversy.  I understand outsourcing to other companies, because of the cost benefits, but I wonder about the reliability.  Maybe I just am very hands-on, but I prefer doing things myself.  However, when many of the places that need to digitized information do not have a lot of money to put towards it, do they have much of an option?

I am working on a research project about Chinatown in Washington, DC.  There has not been a whole lot written about its history, so I want to use all available sources to create a full picture of its past.  I have many images from the 1980s on, but only one from the first half of the 20th century.  I would love to use a website as a collecting tool for this project, but after reading the chapter about collecting online in Digital History and discussing these ideas in class, I am not sure that this would be a viable option for me.  I would really want to reach an older audience, who might not even use the internet, let alone have the capability to provide me with digitized versions of old photographs of the area.  I also realized the full extent of the work required to advertise a collecting site.  I wonder how long it would take to get real, valuable reactions to my questions and requests.  I am thinking it would be longer than the time I have to research and write this paper.  I also do not know if I am ready to try to judge the validity of any responses I might get.  The whole process is much more time consuming than I would have previously thought.