Ok, this has absolutely nothing to do with any assignment, but I was reading an article on Slate that is interesting enough, and learned that there is an entire blog devoted to Gatorade. I think it’s strange enough to warrant a posting here. http://firstinthirst.typepad.com/darren_rovells_blog_on_al/
I think the chapter, “Owning the Past” in Digital History was extremely confusing. This fault lies not with the authors, but with the laws themselves. I found the section about images most relevant to me, since I am very interested in visual culture and its use in history. In my research of Chinatown, I have had a very difficult time in finding images of the neighborhood in DC prior to 1930. One of the best images that I have found was in a book that did not cite the image, which leaves me with an ethical dilemma. Can I use a copy of the image and cite the use of it in the book I found, since I cannot find the original? According to Rosenzweig and Cohen, the answer is no, because you need access to the original. This is very frustrating to me, because I would love to use it (if I ever decided to try to publish). As great as copyrights are, I can see how it would become difficult to deal with the shades of gray in the copyright laws.
Fair use is also a difficult concept for me. I read the guidelines for fair use, but it still is not very clear to me. For instance, I have had the idea that everyone has to cite EVERYTHING drilled into my head, and apparently you do not have to (at least, Stephen Ambrose did not have to) under fair use? Can someone clarify this for me, or should I wait for class? Does our everyday writing as historians fall under fair use when we quote other historians and cite them? And finally, am I the only one getting hung up on all of this? I think it is probably good that I did not decide to go into law…
I liked the idea in Digital History of making your own version of what you want to use. Their example was if you want to use a recording of a traditional song that is copyrighted, you could just make your own recording to avoid it. This is what I do as often as possible with images. Why ask someone for permission to use an image of something when you can make it yourself? I have found, though, that most people are very nice about giving permission to use images (at least when you are asking on behalf of the Smithsonian NMAH). I had to ask several companies if I could use their images for an activity cart script that I worked on in my internship, and everyone was more than happy to give permission to use images from their sites, and some even offered to send me higher-quality images free. I could not imagine paying some of the prices that people charge for permission to use copies. I guess one of the nice things about being in academia or historical institutions in general is that people seem to be more willing to give permission to us.
Priya Chhaya & Linda Neylon
History in the Digital Age
Final Project Description
Our intention in this final project is to develop a collection site for American University which displays text and images relating to student life and the history of the university. The primary audience is the AU community—which includes students former, current, or perspective, faculty and staff while secondary audiences depending on the collections developed can include researchers on local history and university campus life. To some extent the intent of the site is to provide a place of reflection and to get primary source information about the role of American University in local and student life.
Organizationally, the site will be modeled after the North Carolina State College of Engineering Collecting site [http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/news/memories/index.html] with two separate sections to view and share memories. The view memory section will be divided up based on years, while the share memories will include an e-mail address/web space where text and/or image files can be sent. We shall use a combination of Dreamweaver and Photoshop to build this website using principles described in the Digital History text to make sure that it is both visually appealing and easy to navigate. In terms of design, the intention is to have a core main page which is simple, and has a sample of the collection within while the subsidiary sections provide other examples as well as easy to follow instructions for submissions. In addition, we are thinking about attaching a survey for visitors to tell us why they visited the site including citation information to encourage researchers to use to cite for academic information. Images of AU’s history will also be integrated in order to aid in survey collections as a memory prompt for visitors to the site.
The way this site will impact our personal and professional goals is two fold. On one hand it is a practice in Public History—impacting and serving a unique audience in a particular way. On the other hand it allows for the development of a local history archive, especially many of the American University students went to work and participated in a variety of events in and around the city. At present, there isn’t a distinct argument regarding the site, but perhaps we can say that through the resource we hope to collect we will show the importance and variety of ways in which AU impacted individuals, the city and maybe even the nation.
First, I don’t think we will ever reach a point where reading on the computer is as comfortable as reading something written on paper, no matter how good the color, font, etc. get. With that in mind, this is a completely different medium than print. The way it is used is different; the way people read web sites is completely different. Should we really be modeling web sites off design in print? I am just not sure that it makes complete sense to attempt to transfer design of one medium to another. Of course, maybe this is the best idea we have right now, since the internet and websites are so new, and it is hard to come up with a completely new design or style.
Websites started out looking garish, and like the “Ten reasons to learn and use web standards” blog entry says, you want to look professional and move on from that type of design. Last year I received an email announcement about an internship, with a link included for more information. I clicked on the link, which then took me to a site that was the least professional looking site I think I could find in existence today. The worst part was that it was supposed to be an internship for a government agency. The site used every bold, bright color available, making it difficult to look at or take seriously. I obviously want to avoid making a page that would have that effect on someone, and will take the advice that Cohen and Rosenzweig offer, as boring as grays may sound. (As an aside, I looked into the internship more, and the contact numbers listed, and I think it was fake. It asked for all information about you, including ssn, to be submitted online, without security, and the phone numbers, according to 411.com, were cell phone numbers, not office and fax numbers.)
The section of Digital History about accessibility was very interesting to me. It brought up legal issues I had never considered before, and has prompted me to take the accessibility prompt that pops up in Dreamweaver more seriously. I never thought about the need for accessibility online, it always seemed like something relegated to the real-world, not the virtual world of the internet. It makes sense that we should do this for people, but it isn’t necessarily something you think of if you don’t need it yourself. I hope to one day work for the government in some capacity, and it will be very important to pay attention to sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments.
Roy Rosenzweig’s article, “Crashing the System? Hypertext and Scholarship on American Culture,” brings up many benefits of the internet for historians, as well as some possible negatives. Rosenzweig describes the internet’s tools as “clunky” when it comes to certain field standards such as footnoting. The footnoting problem is one I have been trying to solve, because as an historian, I have to footnote everything. However, I have not figured out how to cite properly within a website while maintaining the design. Despite the drawbacks, Rosenzweig makes sure that readers understand the benefits of publishing online. Publishing in paper journals limits the amount of space an author can use to present his/her case. However, when the information is online, the author can allow access to full copies of images, films, and papers through links from the article. Historians should take full advantage of this amazing benefit, even if it does require them us to be historians, designers, and programmers, all in one.
Rosenzweig also points out the difficulty of establishing standards for scholarship online. How do you evaluate an article that has links throughout it, leading to new subsections and information? Rosenzweig notes that it is difficult to determine if an online article is well organized or not, because of issues such as the links. Should new standards be created for judging online articles as opposed to articles in paper journals? Is it possible to even create standards for something that seems to have no limit in design and organization?
David A. Bell’s comments in his article, The Bookless Future: What the Internet is Doing to Scholarship, about reading an e-book ring true. He states, “I start reading, but while the book is well written and informative, I find it remarkably hard to concentrate. I scroll back and forth, search for keywords, and interrupt myself even more often than usual to refill my coffee cup, check my e-mail, check the news, re- arrange files in my desk drawer. Eventually I get through the book, and am glad to have done so. But a week later I find it remarkably hard to remember what I have read.” I have found similar issues with reading long texts online. Perhaps it is the ease with which I can open another browser window and check my email, or maybe it is just that reading online really does make my eyes tired. Either way, I would very much prefer having a hard copy of what I am reading (though the benefits of free online reading are obvious). I know that I am not alone in thinking this, so I am sure that the fate of paper books and journals are secure.