My research topic will be focused on the Tawana Brawley case. In 1987, Tawana Brawley, who at the time,was 15 years old disappeared and was discovered four days later. She was found in a garbage bag, covered in excrement and was in shock. Brawley alleges that for four days she was held captive by six white men who brutalized her. What proceeded after her discovery was a confusing spectacle played out in the public eye and fraught with racial tension. The drama was documented through newspaper and magazine articles, T.V. and radio programs, as well as an array of legal documents. Her case was eventually dismissed by a Grand Jury and her name has since become synonymous with false rape allegations. I would like to create a web site that documents the case and all related documents (print, radio and tv as well as court documents) and provides analysis for how the case impacted the local community as well as the the nation. In addition, I would like to also show just how much Tawana Brawley has become ingrained in our culture. Almost everyday her name is invoked in either a blog or article and I would to explore what she has come to represent in American culture.

David Levy’s article “No time to think: reflections on information technology and contemplative scholarship” intended to show how technology has directly caused a decrease in time for contemplation. Levy’s argument that we are giving up the ability to have thoughtful reflection in the face of technological advancement was intriguing but I found his article to be whiny and non-conclusive. In a way I totally agree with him, there is too much stuff and I think some of our assignments for this week are indicative of that. de.lio.ous., zotero, endnote, refwork…all are great tools, but they require so much administering. I have to sign up, verify  my email address, come up with a password, remember that password (and yes I know there are programs that will remember all my passwords, but I don’t trust them), and then after ALL of that, I have to figure out how to actually use them and apply them as I do my research. I can see where he is coming from and it raises an important question, when do things stop being helpful and just start being things (that get in the way)? However, the article fails because it assumes that all people think and work the same. Because Levy requires hours of quiet contemplation, so must I? He also seems to not understand the role of Professor/faculty member in a university. He writes “Teaching and advising students are extremeely time-consuming and demanding activities, as they have always been, but new technologies such as e-mail, by increasing the opportunities for online contact between faculty and students, have also increased student expectations that instructors should and will be avialble for consultation at all hours of the day and night, weekend included.” Students pay hundres of thousands of dollars in tutition to attend university, they pay his salary and most likely pay for his housing, tutition pays for his grants and research sabbaticals; being available to answer emails does not seem to extraordinary, however he fails to see that connection. And yet he contradicts himself by going on to say that it is the resposibility of faculty to “demonstrate and communicate the beauty and power of mature creative thought” to their students. Levy’s article argues that historically great ideas have happened because of a more simple approach to time, however, I think what we need to discern from this article is whether it is just David Levy that requires quiet time, or if historically, contemplative time has actually been critical to advancements.

Both Friedman and Bush’s articles discuss a positive trend in the history of technology; their work indicating that there is always an upward motion of progress concerning the development and evolution of technology. Bush’s article gives a “pre-internet/computer” perspective and is noteworthy in that its vision of the future of technology did happen. Bush extols the virtues of the use and manipulation of technology, but he doesn’t mention any negative aspects. While many of the innovations he mentions are groundbreaking for both their technological and cultural implications, often these advancements help to intimidate, denigrate, maim and kill people. He discusses photography saying “progress in photography is not going to stop.” But is it “progress” that we have created cameras that allow us to spy on anybody, take pictures that automatically upload to a public web page where anybody can see them without the owners consent? Don’t we need to take a further look at the implications of these “advancements?”

Hello – I am Nicole DeRise. This is my third year in the Public History and Archives program at GSAS, I go to school part-time and work full-time at the University. I am very interested in how the internet can be best utilized for historical content, especially how to organize information and how to best use programs for web design. For my internship project, I worked for the Village of Wappingers Falls to create a prototype web site that would showcase the industrial history of the Village. To create the prototype web site I used IWeb which was a very easy and usable program, however a bit limiting. I have also used Dreamweaver, which I found a bit more complicated and time consuming. Currently I am working on a historical documentation project regarding the Tawana Brawley Case and would like to formulate the project online.