Born Digital: Collecting History Online

I have to agree with Cohen that online digital collecting has really taken off. I like his example of the UK project for D-Day and the narratives of Caribbean migrants because this project has been particularly useful to me in completing my family history project. In particular, the UK National Archives have published invaluable British Plantation Slave Registers 1812-1834 that have provided me with information on my 6th great grandmother who was born in African and transported to a Barbados Plantation sometime between 1757 and 1800. Another way the internet has benefited my historical research is in the area of collected photographs of people in my family that I never would have known existed. I now have photographs of ggg-Aunts and ggg-Uncles that were born in the 1870s. Rare finds for families born into slavery. The internet is a fast and efficient way to connect people and it opens avenues for sharing, whether it be narratives or photos or vital records or other historically important artifacts. Yes, there are risks in the electronic medium, but the benefits far outweigh those risks. There are storage magnates like Iron Mountain who ensure that should there be a disaster, your information would be stored in a backup facility and be available for retrieval. On the individual level, I know that there are some of the items I’ve received from strangers/family members that were one of a kind until they met me on the internet and shared a copy. Now we know that the information, photos and artifacts now live in at least two places. Bottom line is, there is no turning back.

Evolution, Intelligent Design, Climate Change,

This posting is in response to the article Evolution, Intelligent Design, Climate Change…while I won’t respond to the individual sections, I am in total agreement with the writer. The bottom line is that the evolution of books and other printed matter has been hastened into an ecosystem that is now controlled by the digital species. As a user of electronic age matter, I can’t be more satisfied with the ease of access to any number of once hidden works. While I understand the frustrations of those who have invested enormous amounts of time and energy to the books and other older forms – it is not too late for them to jump on board – the train is not stopping but you can slow it down by paying attention to the change in the wind.

There are professors in universities who are using Moodle applications but still require student to submit assignments using paper and hard copy. This is pervasive enough to determine that we still have our feet in both worlds.

The day will come however, when we will for the sake of paper and the environment have no excuse for continued use of trees. Our environment will have new issues to tackle i.e., the hazard of total dependence on eletronics.

The article related to photographs and the doctoring of such by unscrupulous people or jokers – not only does our new ecosystem create digital possibilities, but as they as created, they must also have answers to the possible negative consequences of these inventions. Using coding to recognize whether a photo has been doctored is once such remedy. It give us reassurances that not only are we creating, we are also proactively working on ways to prevent fraud and abuse.

The Long Taitt – Changing Scholarship

This was a very enlightening and informative reading. While I enjoy the long tail in my personal and professional life, I had no idea that this was a technology induced marketing strategy that gives voice to countless creative and other works that might be otherwise drowned out by mass marketing and the so called “hits”.

I was born overseas and sometimes crave some of my culture. There was a time when that would require paying a visit home, but now I can simply turn to an online radio station, peruse library catalogues around the world, order a film through netflix, or download from one of the online providers.

With America becoming more and more multicultural and adhering to salad bowl rather than the melting pot, this technology will have its challenges and advantages. Throughout the world, access to American values and culture is available at click, in American access to values and culture brought in reduces pressure on groups to assimilate.

Just my perspective on how this technology can change our national philosophies.

I appreciate learning how things work and what actually drives our behavior and thinking in consumer markets. Clearly few control what choices are available to the masses, at least used to. Now consumers have the opportunity to by pass the mass marketers for a more inclusive type of shopping in this “long tail” sector.

Digital History 2,4,appendix

I have always wanted to explore web design, however it has been placed on the backburner because most of what I do today can be accomplished by simply paying to be on a website that someone else had created alreaddy, albeit with an annual fee.

The readings would be most immediately useful to someone contemplating created a web design, but also to those who want an understanding of what goes into building an effective website, that is custom designed for its audience and purpose.

The ten mistakes for an academic site were not surprising. They encompass a wide range of effective presentation tips. For example many powerpoint presentations contain far too much text – the rule no more than 6 lines per slide and please, please don’t read the slide. Same concept here.

Professionally designed webpages that utilize the services of graphic designers and other experts, like good advertising, can draw people in so I believe it is very important that these experts be consulted.

History specific webpages for academia is different than those that target a general audience, i.e., museums, historic sites, etc. Anything that will be used to enhance the heritage tourism market must contain a certain amount of market appeal i.e., color, interactive, informative.

Web design is costly, hence the use of skilled volunteers would be save money.

Dense text as a mistake was duly noted. Many of our class readings are online and are text heavy. Now I know why I struggle to get through the ready, especially the 50 pager.

On “Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism” By Jaron Lanier

The points Mr. Lanier make here appear designed to trouble us about an encroaching artificial intellience that threatens to eliminate the human voice behind ideas and information. He talks about inaccuracies in posted information on the web and criticizes Wikipedia for listing him as a film maker. In fact, I would arguit didn’t say he was a good film maker, so where’s the inaccuracy. Much of the article seemed make the case for the case that we risk being extremist by accting the strategies for sites like Wikipedia that depend on collective theories knowledge acquisition, when it s better to value the individual contributor. It sounds as if there is fear of our culture accepting a cyber version “mob mentality” which can lead to chaos. I actually enjoy th eextreme examples i.e., laws being rewritten wiki style, but with the right proceses in place could be worked out to to bring order.

Mr. Lanier appears very clever and knowledgeable from a technical perspective. His article definitely makes one think about whether there are sufficient controls in place to ensure that the human content remains a part of how we make decisions and how we communicate in general. Machines lack as he says the voice and the sensitivity we we rely on in human interaction to make effective judgments. I do feel like I need to read the article again and again. There is a lot there to absorb.

Tag some useful sources

Delicious and Flickr would not meet my research needs at this time. However I admit that I need further experimentation to get the gist of the tools. I have never used bookmarkng, but like to be able to use “favorites” to mark sites I pay repeat visits.”Google” rarely fails me as a research tool. What exciting about the online reference tool is the idea of collaboratively mixing URLs on a particular topic which allows me to efortlessly grow my resources. Beyond that, I’m waiting for the next opportunity to try Delicious and flickr. As I go to these sites and create accounts, I can’t help thinking about the “Big Brother is Watching” theory, but the thoughts are fleeting.

Dan Cohen, “Professors, Start Your Blogs”

Educators need to be at the forefront when it comes to new technologies and tools for learning and exchanging ideas. No time for holding on to old traditions because those traditions will die a hard death if the student body finds them outdated and tired. Therefore, I agree that Professors ought to, at the very least, least be able to say “I have tried it, here are the pros and cons as I see it relative to my classes, and I am open to you, the students, and colleagues perspectives and experiences”.

I agree with Cohen that like any other tool, one has to be discriminating. The presence of Professors on blogs would give more legitimacy to the content readers access and will in fact make the blog world a better place. Beside that many of the concerns that come up with new technology are often resolved within a short time, so professors should keep checking for improvements. I like what Cohen said about the immense reach that blogs would provide for a particular topic that professor might have expertise in. Responses could come from other experts and interested parties in the field and just make the topic all the more interesting and enlightening. The cyber world is a place of immense possibilities that should more than outweigh those things we have to fear.

The bottomline is that educators must, by example, demonstrate a love for life long learning and for new ways of teaching, learning and sharing ideas and information.

Digital History

The Digital age is a powerful force in many professional, academic and personal lives today. For the historical researcher, nothing can replace the look and feel of a primary source, true. However, the digital age allows the researcher to transcends distance, space and and time in ways that were once unimaginabe. For those researchers whose introduction to research is digital, there’s no going back. They will have a hard time accepting more traditional methods of research. This will then push vendors and consumers to quickly respond to this reality.

Google Books is in a haste to digitize in spite of alleged “quality” issues. No doubt their decisions are based on the new business “metric” = “number of hits”.

Get on board, there’s no turning back.

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I’d like to blog about the healthcare summit  just wrapped up under President Obama’s leadership.  It was a good strategy because I came away very educated on the issues that the two parties need to bridge in order to generate real reform and help the working poor in particular access a minimum standard of coverage and care.

That I am able to share my experience in such an instantaneous manner speaks to the power of the digital age.  I no longer have to depend just on memory as I can document and distribute my observations and experiences at the click of a mouse.  Who can now claim that memory fails, I will have several thousands of people witness this process and validate what I am saying.