Creating Digital History » KaitMedley

Discussion 12/9

KaitMedley — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:33:16 +0000

In Clay Shirky’s keynote address at Smithsonian 2.0 he makes the point that we, as an online audience, rely on each other to dictate what is good or worth looking at. So what does this mean for online history sources who might not have the presence that juggernauts like wikipedia and youtube have? This also goes back to the case studies of public history websites that we looked at. What makes a history site reliable? How do you make a good site look good, without as we noticed publishing a book, journal article, etc.?

Search Engines as Political Tool

KaitMedley — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:19:28 +0000

CNN had an article today that I thought was interesting and relevant to our readings this week. It discusses the recent upset over the racist picture of Michelle Obama and search engines’ (mainly Google’s) role in it. I suppose it’s kind of an alternate perspective to the readings this week that offer guidance on how to be a top search result. Search engines have not only become an economic but also a political tool. What do you do when being a popular search result is working against you? What responsibilities do search engines have or should have in these situations?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/02/google.search.obama/index.html

Discussion Question 12/2

KaitMedley — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:57:18 +0000

The readings this week seem to put a fair amount of weight on adding meta tags to your site. As a frequent google user I do see how valuable it can be, if you are so lucky as to be indexed by google. How does one go about using meta tags and do they serve a function outside of search engines?

Discussion 11/11

KaitMedley — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:51:40 +0000

Based on the readings for class today and after describing more items, I’m still a little confused about using DCMI Type Vocabulary. I was able to identify, after visiting the website, which “type” to use for my item, but “Text” seems to undescriptive. I guess I’m used to using the Art and Architecture Thesaurus; is it acceptable to also include these terms, such as “correspondence”, in my dublin core description?

Technical Question

KaitMedley — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:35:22 +0000

Every time I try to connect to the server through Filezilla on my computer it takes a long time of retrying over and over again. All the information I enter is correct and eventually it connects but often after a long time. Is this a common problem, or am I doing something incorrectly?

Discussion Question 10/28

KaitMedley — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:19:58 +0000

With the readings this week, I of course began to think about how I will go about scanning paper documents for my archive. Since not all archives are able to scan documents for researchers and if they do they can often be more expensive, is it possible to scan copies of the documents? Will the quality still be good enough to use? If they’re not, would it be a good idea to include a transcription, especially for handwritten documents?

Discussion Question 10/21

KaitMedley — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:28:58 +0000

My question is pretty short probably not simple. From Dan Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig’s discussion section on “Getting Started: Text and Images,” I wonder what advantages there are to learning HTML instead of using an HTML “translator”?

Discussion 10/14

KaitMedley — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:39:07 +0000

Dan Cohen mentions in both the lecture on YouTube and the Journal of American History “Interchange” discussion the overwhelming abundance that digital-born records presents. He discusses techniques that can be developped to help researchers navigate these massive collections, but I wonder what this means from an archival perspective. Appraisal traditionally has been as much a matter of practicality and limited physical space as an intellectual process. When millions of emails can reside in one server, appraisal becomes more an intellectual necessity. How have archivists already begun to deal with this problem? Is it even practical for archivists to attempt to appraise such massive amounts of records?

The link to my bibliography from Zotero 2.0 is: http://www.zotero.org/kaitmedley/items/collection/1292525

Discussion 10/7

KaitMedley — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:06:14 +0000

The original purpose of copyright law, to protect new work and encourage creativity, seems to be getting farther and farther from the reality of copyright law in the late 20th and 21st centuries. Many copyrights are now held by the larger institutions, publishers, music labels, etc. who have the money and staff to produce works created by others. Now that the digital age allows so many people to publish their own work for free, how do we see the uses of copyright law changing? Is it possible that copyright law could return to the protection of the creator rather than the producer?

Discussion 9/30

KaitMedley — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:09:46 +0000

Earlier today I was listening to a book lecture online by Mary Beth Norton about the Salem Witch Trials, and for me I think it made clear both why collaboration is essential and why it may be such a challenge for historians to adopt. Norton by her own anecdotal admission had done days work of tedious research only to discover that someone had already done that exact work. The value of collaborative research is far to great to ignore. However, at the same time I think many academics would be much more hesitant to collaboratively create a single historical work. I do think there is a great difference between collaborating on research and collaborating toward an end product, as some of the readings elucidate. I wonder if we should put equal emphasis on both and if the former will lead to the latter.

Research Topic

KaitMedley — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:02:40 +0000

For this project I’ve decided to return to a topic I’ve worked on a little bit before and continues to interest me. I plan to look at Soldier Blogs: the arguments for and against them and how they’ve affected the historical record. As I do more research I’m sure what I find will take me in different directions so I’m looking forward to seeing where that goes. Soldier Blogs will I think be the major focus of my final project, but I would also like to provide a historical context of soldier correspondence over the years: how technology has changed the form of correspondence and the letters’ value as a historical resource. I’m also hoping with this project that I’ll be able to find some great primary resources.

The World Wide Web

KaitMedley — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:51:09 +0000

With the plethora of electronic documents created in this digital age I not only wonder about how archivists will cope with such abundance, but also who should be responsible for selecting what should be saved. Initially I assume archivists will deal with the appraisal of digital records but they may not be the only people who will have a hand in that decision. Here I am particularly thinking of internet websites and pages. Often the creators of websites are responsible for archiving their own material. However I find it confusing and troubling to think of the many sites that are not backed by an institution and do not own the server on which their material resides.

Rosenzweig points to this concern that in the world wide web things can disappear at any moment. Then is this the responsibility of the creator to find a more permanent resolution, the responsibility of companies such as DreamHost that loan space on servers, or the responsibility of archivists to find a unique way to save that data? The Internet Archive certainly took a huge first step with the Way Back Machine in trying to archive the internet. However, this has its own problems as some sites do not translate to new servers. This issue is much bigger than one single actor and collaboration seems to be the only answer but how and with whom?

And my delicious username is kaitmedley

Discussion Question

KaitMedley — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:34:21 +0000

Reading Friedman, I was especially struck by his discussion of Moore’s Law, especially as I began to recognize the numerous developments (twitter, iPhones, flickr, etc.) of the internet since the publishing of his book in 2005. It seems nearly impossible to predict where the internet will go next, and I wonder how museums and archives can not only keep up but become more visible in such a (as Sarah said) “fluid” medium. Many historical institutions have set up accounts on networking sites, but has this helped them find new audiences or have they gotten lost amongst the rabble?

Hello!

KaitMedley — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:18:17 +0000

My name is Kait Medley, and I am now starting my second year in the Public History and Archives Program. I received my BA in History from NYU where I studied a variety of topics as I find it difficult to pick favorites. I originally started this program with a greater interest in Public History and more experience with museum work. However, in the last year my interests have migrated toward archives, which luckily this program allows me to do. My knowledge of computers and the Internet appear to be on par with most everyone else in the class. I am excited to take this course and hopefully become more savy about how the internet can be used by members in the field of public history and for patrons of both archives and historical exhibits.