Collecting and Preserving Digital History

A handful of images made into a slideshow, through Flickr.
Here's a map for your viewing pleasures...


Reading Reaction 4.

In this chapter of Cohen and Rosenzweig we really get an idea of the intended audience in their writing, which is not necessarily restricted to a certain age, rather a certain section of internet users with lower levels of proficiency on the web. The writers explain, “It can involve more technical hurdles than a simple history website; legal and ethical concerns, such as invasion of privacy and the ownership of contributed materials; and skills, like the marketing techniques we discussed in Chapter 5, that are unfamiliar to most historians.” It’s historians that the authors are singling out. Even though the authors are bringing up important issues that arise, it is reiterating a familiar theme in Public History, that being the historian is behind on the technological advancements, sort of stuck in their old ways. For such historians, the authors point out that the use of the internet is a likely supplement to the way they’ve always been doing their work, orally passing it on through lectures and discussions. That is where I differ in opinion, because the internet provides a number of ways to present history to the vast audience on the web. Videos, audio recordings, and images are very useful in relaying history, and these formats can be put together tastefully and with more appeal depending on the historian’s understanding of the format.

Don't be left in the dust...

Moving on in the readings, the section on preserving digital history gave way to some personal reflection on how I have somewhat of a season for when I back files up. I make sure to back up all my files on my external hard drive before finals week and before any large paper is due to ensure my security from a laptop dropping. Who’s to say that the external hard drives will not accidentally get dropped, or spilled on? The authors talk about how backing files up is not a difficult task, and that we should “store copies in more than one place, for example, at home and in your office, or in a safe-deposit box at your bank and your desk drawer.” If we were to be working with large websites circulating massive amounts of data we would probably be working with the method of mirroring, which is the copying of data to other computers, constantly backing the files up.

At least your lovely cup is still in tact... You didn't need those files anyways.

At first, I understood the Flickr Commons project to be a page where many institutions would share old images of which they did not have sufficient information on. The institutions post pictures up to the Flickr site and anybody is allowed and encouraged to comment any information they may have on that image. After examining how and when I would use it, I discovered it could be a useful tool in doing research, as well as getting all sorts of people involved in the online discussions about a variety of historical topics. This is a great example of the public and digital world coming together and working hand in hand with many historical societies.

Not a Genius

I was just reminded of this clip at the beginning of one of my favorite films...

Design and Audience.

     Cohen and Rosenzweig point out an interesting fact about how the average internet user does not normally take the time to explore most web pages they visit, which can be a frustration bit of information for the person who took the time to create the site. “Sometimes coming to a web page directly from another site (rather than the parent site’s home page), the surfer engages in disoriented stumbling rather than rational, linear touring.” Point being, the site should be presented with a simple and easily understood layout if it is to be used as a tool, like many historic websites are intended to be. We later read that simple does not always mean appealing, and so historians are often looking for a middle ground between the functionality of a simple layout and the visual appeal of a site that stands out with its aesthetics. Structuring the website as well as naming the website URL is what should mostly take after an approach that favors simplicity and clarity. When I think of a site that has done a great job of mixing simplicity with aesthetic, The Cool Hunter comes to mind. Yes, I understand that the content is not history related, but it definitely conveys the message of a well presented website. You’ll notice that the site is laid out similarly to a blog site, in that it is primarily vertical, yet it provides many tabs along the sides that are very simple to read and do not clash with the rest of the colors of the site.

     When considering the intended audience of the website, Cohen and Rosenzweig make some useful suggestions that may seem like they are overlapping with the structuring of the site, but what they suggest here is intended to keep a certain group of people returning to your website. Forums or discussion boards are mentioned as methods to keep the site lively and to keep people coming back. One thing that I don’t enjoy about forum discussions or comment boards on most sites is because these discussion boards tend place everyone on a level playing field in terms of the topic under discussion. Too often do I run into people writing about an issue that they have no  proper education in, which is frustrating because they normally do not respect your opposition to what they say. In any case (rant completed), the forum boards are certainly a great way to encourage people to return, as the authors pointed out, as well as having the visitors sign up for an RSS feed or registering their email addresses for updates.

And Old Bailey gets a makeover...

V for Vendetta [2005] from sekerli on Vimeo.

Some of the players of digital history

        When Cohen and Rosenzweig talk about the possibilities and transition of taking on a digital platform, they begin with a very fundamental, and seemingly obvious difference. Books, the dominant format of historical information, have an advantage over some forms of the up and coming digital formats. “After a book page is printed, or diary entry recorded, it is “fixed” (to use the U.S. Copyright Office’s favorite word) in a form that will likely survive for generations.” This is emphasized for the sake of contrasting it against the digital ways, such as web pages, which the reading goes on to say is in danger of getting deleted, or altered in someway. Accessibility is another issue when it comes to books and websites, one which works in favor of digital. Continuing on, the authors give advice on website and domain naming depending on the host that you have. Site names could be used effectively if they correspond to the contents of the site, in this way, the researcher can quickly access your site through the common use of search engines like Google or Yahoo. 

     Continuing with the theme of accessibility, Spiro, the author of another of our readings at Digital Scholarship in the Humanities writes at length about open access and introduces us to a couple of the key players today in digital history. Among the methods of research historians have access to, the free online research site, Zotero (which I like to think of as the sort of Facebook for historians) is mentioned in this article as hugely popular among the students and faculty of author’s institution. Spiro reports that Zotero was being sued by another site that offered open access, EndNote, but had failed to have substantial accusations against them, which may end up hurting EndNote more than if they had not pursued the lawsuit. 

     Both Digital History and Digital Scholarship in the Humanities provide excellent insight in the development of digital history, its positive aspects and the issues that are yet to be corrected when going digital.


And meanwhile in France...

I pulled this little masterpiece off of the Exploring the French Revolution site, which was linked by the Center for History and New Media site.


The Center for History and New Media, at George Mason University is an extremely attractive site in terms of how simple the site is presented. The CHNM site contains some of the most popular names in the digital history field. 

Reading Reaction no.1

    The concept of digital history has been tricky for me to explain to people who ask, considering it hasn’t been on the general public’s radar for very long. One of the later readings assigned this week from the New York Times captured it in a way that put it into some context, stating that it’s best understood as a part of an “Umbrella term covering a wide range of activities, from online preservation and digital mapping to data mining and the use of geographic information systems.” 

    One of the major concerns with digital history seems to be coming from within the historian community. There are those still resisting a transition to digitizing collections and simply opposed to the ideas of having history on anything other than the pages of a book, or behind glass at a museum. As another assigned article points out, The National Steinbeck Center, containing large amounts of artifacts from John Steinbeck’s life, is one of these unfortunate cases with no intention of digitizing their collections. To this the author warns, “Items left behind in nondigital form, scholars and archivists say, are in danger of disappearing from the collective cultural memory.” 

        There certainly is a real danger historians face in not getting on board with the movement to digital. Not only the possibility of disappearing from the public’s memory, but the missed opportunity to advance a field to a more streamlined way of operating, where historians can easily interact and share with other historians and other professionals in the humanities. It seems rather ironic that the way of doing history, the research and even the publishing methods to an extent, have become somewhat outdated, in a way, it has become a relic.

Thanks, and see you soon.

Practice Post No.2

"Heavy duty letters, they are."


Here's what I enjoy doing and drinking. The folks at Intelligentsia know how it's done.

Espresso, Intelligentsia from The D4D on Vimeo.

Enjoy.

Practice Post No.1

Here's a picture that I took in Paris in early September 2010. This was taken in front of the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur, in Montmartre, but facing the city and the Eiffel Tower.

I really enjoy the lighting and hues that were captured, as well as the other rooftops that were in the way. For some reason, this particular photo reminds me of the Disney's Aristocats. Let me know what you think of it!