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Hey guys, my first attempt at my site, although I’m still working on getting the whole picture thing going. Just wanted to try this out.

Em’s Site

- I really appriciated this week’s reading in Digital History. There were several great chapters with really useful information about building a webpage. In the section on texts and images there was some good advice about considerations you should have before even beginning to build your site. For example, this section detailed the different types of software you could use when building your site. I really had no idea that so many options were available depending on your skill level and the needs of your site. I’m also looking forward to learning how to use Dreamweaver after reading about it in the book. While this section cleared up a couple of basic questions, it also got me thinking more about what I want to do with my site and which software will best serve my purposes. Does blackboard actually have a program that we can use to assist us in webdesign? Or is that just for posting syllabi and other textually based information?
- Another group of questions came to mind in the section entitled Serving your Website. Should I be using my blog space to make a site? Or should I use space provided by American University through blackboard? (actually, do we have a built in webpage space?) If I do use American’s space, for example, does it than disappear when I am no longer a student? There is definitely a concern about the life of my site which I guess will influence how it should be hosted. I also didn’t realize that my internet provider might give me webspace as well. It’s amazing how much space is available on the web for free, especially for users who intend to make only a small site. Owning your own server sounds like it could be an incredible headache.
- I can also see how you could get caught up in all the flashy technology and fun graphic stuff while building a site. (which is exactly what parts of this chapter warned against doing). I don’t even really know how to use most of the fun technology, but just reading the section on multimedia and discovering all the possibilities for a site makes me want to try all of it. Interactive maps of Pearl Harbor and 3D journeys through Egyptian tombs sound way more fun than simply typing in a few facts and posting a static picture. However, I’m sure it is incredibly complicated and time consuming. This could definitely lead to the possiblity of spending so much time on the media that the information on your site is mostly “fluff”. Media could, however, really contribute to the effectiveness of your website, especially if you do need to map out an event. I guess moderation is the key.

As a sidenote: I’m so proud of myself for inserting links into my blog!

Ok, here is the edited version of the image from the previous blog. I ran it through Adobe Photoshop and cleaned it up a little bit. It is cropped and I played around with the contrast and brightness. I also changed the color of the sky a little bit, to make it lighter and more blue.

This image is from the Black Forest in Freiburg, Germany. I visited there not too long ago and it was absolutely gorgeous. Anyway, it fits in with my proposed research/website idea involving my relative’s odyssey from Germany to the United States.

Ok, I have a digital picture that I played around with on Adobe Photo all ready to post, but unfortunately, it is stuck on my computer until my internet is up and running again. Sorry about the delay!

 But I can give you a little background….

I’m in the early stages of planning this web project, but I’m thinking about using a little family history as the basis for the site. I have a relative who was born in Germany prior to WWII. During the war, he was drafted into the German army and served on a U-boat. He managed to escape Germany and somehow traveled to the U.S. I’m not sure of the details, but it’s a familiar story that no one has really bothered to document. I’m thinking of using this story to create some sort of interactive/educational website intended for a younger audience. It may trace his journey, tying his narrative into a larger history. I’m not quite sure yet. I’ll need to interview him and a few other family members to see if this is really feasible.

Well, I am in the middle of experiencing the drawbacks to depending only on digital information. Although I love winter and I am thrilled with the snow, the storm unfortunately knocked out my internet. So now I’m working in the “business center” of my apartment complex, crammed in a small room, with about three computers and one of the most annoying individuals I’ve ever met. I apologize for any errors or incoherent thoughts in my blog. I’m typing as fast as possible….

 I can definitely relate to the concerns over the unreliability of technology. BACK UP YOUR INFORMATION is one of the best pieces of advice this book has given so far! Last year, I was halfway through a take-home exam when my computer froze and shut down. Needless to say, I had forgotten to save any of the work at that point. I now back up my work about every other line. On a larger scale, I could see how this could get tricky. It would take so much time, money and work to continuously back up an archive or website, especially one which changes on a relatively regular basis. This also brings up one of our favorite topics… those inappropriate comments on sites. Should you sort through a site/comments before backing up? This would take forever. So does this mean that the idiot comment on the Pearl Harbor site is preserved? Ugh!

The section on changing technology also resonated with me. Apparently, this  reading really applied to my personal life! Anyway, after our class discussions about the short life of CD’s and other storage information, I started worrying about little things, like all my papers or pictures I have stored on CD’s. I was pretty proud that I had thought to back up the stuff on my computer, never really thinking about the storage devices themselves. Changing technology is a whole other issue. What happens to all my stuff when CD’s are no longer compatible? Should I keep dumping onto new storage devices as they are released. Again, the concern of time and money! While my concerns are all on a small scale, I can’t imagine how stressful it must be to be in charge of entire digital archives.

I really enjoyed the Lifehacker website.  What a great way to organize and publicize all sorts of random information that people may want to access. The CiteULike link was really amazing and incredibly useful. I love that it is all online so you don’t need to install or pay for anything (unlike endnote). You are essentially creating a bibliography for yourself that is easily accessible from any computer anywhere in the world. The fact that citation details are added automatically is a huge timesaver as well.

I’m not entirely sure what my research topic will be for the end of the semester web project.  I’m really impressed with the ideas I’ve read about so far (i.e. Linda’s Chinatown project and Sarah’s Vietnam War research). After our discussion last week about collections, I really think it would be amazing to formulate a topic that involves collecting stories and memories, along with searching for other information. Right now, I’m tentatively playing with a few topics. One idea would involve recollections from the Great Depression. Another thought I had would involve rememberances from WWII. There are a few  problems with both ideas though. I’m worried they might be overdone. And both involve collecting stories from an older audience who may not use the internet, as Linda also mentioned in her post. Obviously they are both really broad ideas. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

First of all, did anyone else find themselves a little bit confused by this chapter? I found my eyes glazing over with all the references to GML, TEI, GIF, TIFF, etc. I understand the basic arguments and discussions about digitization.  Clearly, there are benefits and drawbacks when historians are addressing this topic.  I get that there are multiple methods of turning analog historical records into digital historical records.  But the detailed information about “Marking Up” the text or using a scanner vs. “the process known as OCR” really confuses me.  I’m hoping that we can really go over the terminology and the process of digitization in class.  I think I may understand all of this better if it is explained to me (and maybe demonstrated), rather than trying to understand based just on the reading.

I was intrigued by the first section of this chapter, which discussed the costs and benefits of digitizing the past.  I definitely appreciate the advantages of placing documents and materials online.  They are easier to locate and search, a benefit I certainly enjoy as a graduate student.  Additionally, they are much more accessible to a larger group of people and often include documents which are too fragile to handle in any other circumstance.  Yet there is still no replacement for visiting a library, or archive, and actually handling the material.  It’s all part of the “experience”.  While I don’t advocate wasting unnecessary time, the historian in me really enjoys looking at actual documents.  I think this is true of the general public in some ways as well.  People visit historic homes because there is something about being in the presence of original objects.  It transports you, in some sort of abstract way.  This same benefit is lost when original documents and materials are placed only in the digital form.  Although searching through digitization is much easier, is it worth the loss?

It’s interesting that even digitization is connected to the current political atmosphere.  The idea of outsourcing digitization projects seems like a pretty harmless decision.  I didn’t realize that even this work is often sent overseas to China or India, where the labor is cheap because the workers are paid next to nothing.  It’s funny; I would expect my computer support guy to be working in India these days…but I would never think that digitizing the documents for a historical website would be sent there too.

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 11^th 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.

Thought Number One:

In the Digital History book (specifically, the section entitled Mapping the Web) the authors make a great point about categorizing websites. Clearly, it’s not easy to attain a level of organization. However, the authors argue that this process forces web creators and authors to think about genres, or as Agre defines them in his article, “a particular sort of audience and a particular sort of activity”. Keeping in mind the genre is a great way to stay on track…historical information is only helpful if it is given with the proper audience in mind. In a way, it’s ironic that a medium intended to increase speed and efficiency of information gathering also causes an increase in deliberate actions and thought in some ways.

Thought Number Two:

I was really impressed with the web examples that we had to check out. First of all, they helped clarify what the authors of the Digital History book meant by dividing information into five main genres of history sites, which follow certain patterns. Clearly, it seems that these are broad categories, as many of the sites are used for multiple reasons. I also really wish that I would have had access to these sites when I was in grade school and high school. The Pearl Harbor site and the Valley of the Shadow are incredible resources for students. I don’t think I’ve ever really given much thought to how much potential the web has to revolutionize teaching methods. I wonder how extensively these sites are really used in the classroom however. Am I right in assuming that although the information is available, schools and teachers are often lagging far behind? And that many still find the web to be an unreliable source?

Thought Number Three:

Another great benefit to the web is that it allows access to many museum objects that just can’t fit in the building itself. For example, the Smithsonian site showcases a ton of artifacts, most of which are not available for public viewing. When we took a field trip to the Smithsonian last semester for our Public History class, we learned how much “stuff” the Smithsonian has in their possession, and how little of that is able to be contained within the museum. Websites provide a great way for the public to access these extra objects.