Digital History (and cats).

Citizendium takes a different approach to the idea of an open encyclopedia on the internet. Larry Sanger, a co-founder of Wikipedia, began the project because of his value on experts as well as the general public. Citizendium combines elements of Wikipedia with ideas about scholarship. Those who edit articles (which is everybody) publish under their real names.  The articles that are published can also be edited by the users, even if they were not the primary author.  In addition, another project, Eduzendium provides opportunities for undergraduates to compose and edit articles for the site. Unlike Wikipedia, Citizendium approves its articles. As of Feburary 20, 2010, there were 121 expert approved articles and 13,201 articles with approval pending. This method lends credibility to the encyclopedia because of the extensive review process which can fact check and constantly edit to improve the quality. A disadvantage of this method is the amount of time needed to review the articles. Wikipedia has substantially more articles than Citizendium. The quality of some of these articles suffers though because of the lack of a review process. In addition, the entries on Wikipedia cover a large array of topics including popular culture, like television shows and movies. It can be argued that Citizendium emphasizes quality then quantity, while Wikipedia focuses on quantity first, and quality second. Each project has pros and cons, but they both provide an example of how information can be disseminated through the internet to a wider audience. Hopefully, in the future, more databases like JSTOR will be open to anyone who has a desire to learn.

Many of the programs and applications introduced in this class are new to me, like delicious and zotero. However, Google Books is one resource that I have used very often. When I first began using it, only a very limited number of older works were available, but recently newer works can be viewed. Although Google Books does not provide the whole book, the preview is enough to provide some basic information about the book especially concerning the argument of the author. In “Google Books: What’s Not to Like?” Robert Townsend voiced some of his concerns about Google Books. He identified three areas of concern: poor scan quality, “faulty metadata” or incorrect identifying information, and public domain/copyright issues. It has been two years since this article was written and Google still has many issues with copyright. (For example, see “Justice Dept. Criticizes Latest Google Book Deal”). The conflict over copyright is probably going to be the major issue that Google Books and other similar programs  have to deal with. The problems with scanning and information are easily solved through both technology and greater oversight. Copyright, however, is a legal issue that cannot be solved as easily. It would be interesting to see a new overview of Google Books to see if they addressed the issues and if there are any new problems.
Two themes are emerging from the readings for this class. One theme emphasizes the need for people, especially academics, to embrace digital technology in research and classrooms. The second theme focuses on the need for restraint. The incorporation of digital technology is not viewed as necessarily bad, but it advocates the use of caution. It would be interesting to see how other fields not usually associated with computers/technology approach this topic.

“The Promise of Digital History”  and Marshall Poe‘s “Fighting Bad History with Good, or, Why Historians Must Get on the Web Now” both address the same problems that many of the other previous readings have discussed. (For example, see Dan Cohen, “Professors, Start your blogs”).  It seems the major concern of those writing about digital history is the way to get more scholars involved. Poe outlines a number of different methods to get professional historians involved with history online. One suggestions is to make work presented online count towards hiring and tenure practices. For those who spent a lot of time and energy on a major online project, it should be counted towards job qualifications, especially if it contributes to the scholarship on the subject. I think many people are cautious of counting digital work because of the fear that work of that nature would become mandatory. If people can get over that fear, the field of history can expand. Digital history provides a new way to practice historical scholarship. The field could attract those who have a passion for both computers and history. By expanding the field to be more inclusive, the history field could be invigorated.

I am really excited to began using this program. It was super easy to sign up because I could use my yahoo! account details. Delicious is going to help me tremendously. For past research, I bookmarked links to articles, reviews, etc. It was always difficult, however, to view the bookmarks in an easy and clear way. This program solves that problem, especially with the Firefox add on.

Although Janet H. Murray’s Hamlet on the Holodeck reveals new insight on storytelling and computers, it is hampered by the fact that it was published in 2000, ten years ago. Murray examined the influence of digital media, including the internet, on the development of storytelling. She looked at people who participate in role-playing (MUD and LARP), many of whom were computer programmers. She explored how narratives changed with the internet and computer from a linear story to something much more complex. She wrote “a linear medium cannot represent the simultaneity of processing that goes on in the brain–the mixture of language and image, the imitation of diverging possibilities that we experience as free will” (281). In her conclusion, she ventured to make some predictions on the future of narratives on both television on the internet. This is the most interesting part because her predictions can be compared to the present state of the digital media.
Her prediction of “the marriage between the television set and the computer” (253) can be seen today. People can watch television shows on the internet now through sites like Hulu. Televisions are no longer necessary to keep up to date on the latest shows. In addition, many shows combine both mediums to create a more interactive story telling device. One example is LOST on ABC. The show is only one part of the story telling experience. Find815 was a game where fans of the show could participate in the search for Oceanic 815, the plane that crashed on the mysterious Island. Also, the story told in LOST is not linear. It jumps around between multiple characters, locations, and years. This is only one example of how the viewing experience has changed from a more traditional narrative to something very different. In only ten years, much has changed. How much will this viewing experience change in another ten years? How will the narrative story change? What will the affect be on other media as well, like books and music? How will these changes affect those in academia?

In “Professors, Start Your Blogs,” Dan Cohen addressed some of the common misconceptions about blogs. In addition, he showed how blogs could be beneficial for those in academic fields, especially as a place to develop ideas and receive feedback. For me, however, blogs create another concern. For many people, blogs and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are places where people share their thoughts, feelings, and other everyday things of their lives, sort of like a diary. This is where my concerns and hesitations about blogs come in.
For researchers, diaries can provide a substantial amount information about peoples’ everyday lives during different eras. They provide insight to the mundane as well as the exciting. For those in the future (say 3000), what record of our everyday lives will we leave? Many of the things today are digital (like blogs), but what if in 1000 years, for some reason, there are no computers or no way to access digital information? Will those future researchers be able to study our time? What will they know about our everyday lives? On the other hand, however, blogs could be some of the best resources ever for those in the future. I mean, you could know what people cooked (Chez Pim), the kind of stuff people liked to put on their cats (Stuff on my Cat), what life on a cattle ranch was like (Pioneer Woman), and even the musings of a twenty something graduate student. Just like anything else in life, blogs have both a positive and a negative side.

I CANNOT BELIEVE GAGA LOST.

Ok, so I accidentally deleted my first post. I have no idea how I did that, but whatever. So here’s a quite summary of the post that was deleted:

Reason for blog: to address works concerning the theory and practice of digital history, as well as to post pictures of cats.

Some info about me: first year graduate student majoring in US History

LIKES: wine, cats, reading books, traveling, colonial history of the United States, trashy tv shows, laughing, dance parties, Lady Gaga.

and that’s about it for now. More coming soon.