The Second Week
1. I thought that there was a lot of practical and useful advice on building websites and finding audiences in this week’s chapter of Digital History. Although we have discussed the concept of an audience in numerous classes, I hadn’t really given any thought to the potential audience of a website. I found the tips for attracting contributors to be especially helpful. I can see how it would be really important to tailor your methods of soliciting comments to fit your prospective audience or group of contributors. The author gives a great example of collecting soldiers’ stories and the difference between email and IM contributions depending on the age group being surveyed.
2. Although the issue of qualitative concerns is addressed to an extent, there is not much on how to edit stupid contributions. I don’t feel like the author really discussed the possibility of receiving useless and inappropriate messages on boards (like the ones we encountered on the Pearl Harbor site). He mentions that log-ins and passwords for contributions often discourage people from contributing to a site. But I think this could work the other way too. If you ask people to provide some information, or make logging-in a mandatory process before you can post anything, you could weed out those who are serious from the immature idiots who are just bored.
3. I am so impressed with the September 11th Digital Archive. The site is enormous, I’m pretty sure I could spend a ton of time just browsing the basics, let alone reading all of the stories. It’s almost overwhelming. This is a great example of a way to preserve recent history and open it up to a wide variety of people and memories (although you do run the risk of tasteless remarks and immature behavior). However, while I found this an incredibly important and fascinating archive, I was a little thrown off by the Thin Blue Line website. Is a discussion board really necessary? I’m not really interested in reading people’s experiences with a pregnancy test. I don’t know who the intended audience may be in this case, but I can’t imagine it is very large.
January 29th, 2006 at 11:44 pm
See, I found myself fascinated by the Thin Blue Line..because to some extent the discussion boards revealed just how much of an impact HPT’s had on the lives of women in America….. What I thought was intersting was seeing how much a women wanted to say about her experience, and the language in which she couched the answer. In addition the one narrative by a man was interesting b/c we forget that men also had a different experience with the test than women did.
To some extent this site and the narratives provided was a glimpse into recent elements in the history of sexuality..
January 30th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
I view the discussion board on the Thin Blue Line website as a mini-support group. The discussion focuses on the person’s first time using the HPT. No doubt many people going to the website have questions about the HPT: whether they should use one, how much should they rely on it, is anyone in the same situation…? I think that anyone perusing the website would find a plethora of answers on everyside of the issue.
The same virtual support system is inherent in all the 9-11 stories. To know the loss that others dealt with and to know how much the events of that day meant to so many people must comfort those visiting the website.
January 30th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
It was interesting and oddly unsettling to see just how much personal information women (and a few men) shared on the Thin Blue Line collections page. So many of the women viewed the experience of taking a preganancy test as traumatic that it was clear this very individual experience of taking the tests and getting the results had a major impact on their lives. But I was also trying to figure out their motivation for sharing the stories - was it cathartic or a way of forming a virtual bond of sisterhood with other women who experienced a similar event? Or was it a way to demonstrate their bravery at having “survived” such an experience, especially those women who were not planning to have a baby at that time?
January 31st, 2006 at 1:06 am
I’m inclined to think that the discussion boards (for both the 9-11 and Thin Blue Line) are both catharsis and support group. Posting on a discussion board (and to strangers) gives people a chance to discuss ideas and feeling they may not be comfortable discussing in real life. Having a chance to share a story — no matter the format — can sometimes help people realize how much imact a moment/experience/memory had on them and they may therefore share far more information than they would under “normal” circumstances.
January 31st, 2006 at 12:13 pm
I agree that it seems the stories on both 9/11 and Thin Blue Line are both catharsis and support group. But aren’t they an attempt at historical research as well? It seems the cathartic/support concept draws people into contributing their own stories, but I would be more interested in seeing how historians use these voices to directly inform their research/writing.
January 31st, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Agre’s article resonates in many ways with this weeks reading entitled Digital History. Defining an audienc in some ways is very similar to definging or creating an online community. In both instances you cater your site, blog, or discussion board to the wants or expectations of the group in question.