Assignment #2

For this assignment I examined four history websites, the Valley Project, the History Channel site, DoHistory, and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Each has a slightly different design philosophy which reflects a different approach to history on the web.

The Valley Project provides by far the most in-depth examination of the historical record; it has a narrower focus than the others, archiving records from two communities during the Civil War to serve as a case study of small town America (both North and South) before, during and after the war. The Project’s impressive visual index offers visitors easy access to groups of documents (from newspaper clippings to photographs, political cartoons, searchable census and war records, and personal letters and diaries) from the various time periods in the two counties. This digital archive contains a wealth of historical information, worthy of closer examination. However, although the site is easy to peruse, the volume of information is such that it cannot be taken in quickly or on one visit. Unless a user was looking for specific statistics or records, the site’s search engine, and specifically the high numbers of hits returned on general key words such as “Antietam,” “Gettysburg” or “1862” could quickly prove to be overwhelming.

The History Channel represents again a broader and more general overview of historical topics. Unlike the Valley Project this site featured a significant number of advertisements from sponsors. Centrally displayed is an inset displaying upcoming new shows on the television channel. The most popular content on the site is showcased along the left hand side of the screen in a scrolling toolbar. Also prominently featured is merchandising for popular History Channel programs as DVD sets. The site attempts to make itself “interactive” with users through a QuickPoll and a ‘Today’ option along the top toolbar linking to This Day in History. Visitors are invited to subscribe to an RSS feed for this function, providing a day-to-day trivia byte clearly aimed at attracting repeat visits. While the ads and design are somewhat garish, I think that the consumer-oriented approach as well as the daily updated content might well hold the interest of viewers to return.

DoHistory returns to the narrow, case-study formula, but this time instead of showcasing an entire community or comparing two counties to one another, it focuses on a single individual: Martha Ballard. Martha was a midwife, whose diary recorded more important information about her than any official documents. Apparently her diary is unique for its completeness, and the site is dedicated to teaching about Martha by allowing users to page through her diary and view digitized images of pages in her handwriting. Other sections of the site teach about the importance of primary source documents in historical research, and link to other websites for further reading on research methods. Overall this is a fairly dry presentation, probably geared towards scholars and history students already interested in this kind of approach to “active” history. I personally cannot see the life of a midwife as being exciting enough to draw non-specialists back to the site for further reading, and the links section is sprawling and poorly organized.

Last but not least was the Smithsonian site. Fittingly for a museum, the website serves as an online resource for those planning to visit the museum, and includes links to exhibitions and collections and educator tools. It also links to online exhibitions, although these lead to descriptive pages which link again to specific exhibition pages. Most useful on the site for prospective visitors are the upcoming events and programs, and potentially also the museum news. Since the museum is currently closed, the website probably is not experiencing as high traffic as it otherwise would.

Hopefully you'll unfriend me now

What's with the cryptic title? is what I'm sure at least one of the people who've been forced to view my blog post (probably through facebook, ironically) is thinking. Well, I've been seeing some people's blog posts, in facebook. Now I understand people want to get more exposure for themselves - but I also don't care about other people's blogs. Especially the self-righteous academic kinds, of which I've seen too many. The absolute last thing I want to do is read about yours when I'm just checking facebook, which for the record is a dumb utility and I only use it because my friends have bought into it so much that I'm literally forced to.

Well, guess what people? You crossed the line into my private spaces, you raised my ire - now you have to deal with the same thing showing up on your screen. Now it's your news feed clogged with a stupid blog post. How about that, huh? You're not the only one who knows how to import dumb posts from your blog. I can do it too. And I can bet I'm going to get just as many people clicking on my Super-Amazing Terrific Blog as your haughty, clever, academic BS blog. Now that this blogger's figured out how to spam your facebook with assignments for his HIST-332 class, there will be no stopping me from effortlessly annoying you while you peruse your mindless feeds, checking to see who's broken up with whom and if your room mate still desperately misses her goldfish. If I were you, I'd take some corrective action. I think you know what I mean.

Assignment #1

I followed the Counter-Terrorism Blog last week, which is a site I visit fairly frequently for news and developments about terrorist groups and activities around the world. According to their own “About” page, the CTB’s target audience is “policymakers in Congress and the Executive Branch, as well as serious students” and the blog aims to provide overnight, real-time news, discussions of long-term trends in counter-terrorism, discussions about international and US law as it pertains to counter-terrorism, and also to act as a gateway to seminars, hearings and other events relevant to the field.

The contributing experts to the CTB are credible sources: academics who have published work, investigative journalists who have distinguished themselves in topics pertinent to security studies, and experts who were former members of the US intelligence community or private security firms. The posts on the blog are written to inform readers, however it can be difficult to follow if the post’s author does not provide enough background, as is sometimes the case. The blog writes to an informed audience as well, keeping readers up to date with new developments. The blog is updated very frequently, usually multiple times a day by different contributors, although lulls in the news cycle can sometimes produce a day or several days lapse in new or important content. Content usually consists of text, although pictures and links to videos are semi-frequent. Each contributor’s post usually also links back to a website of their own, if they have one. In general, the posts are well written, although there are occasional typographical errors by certain contributors. A few posts sometimes read as though English were not the writer’s first language.

The CTB is funded by the Counter-Terrorism Foundation, which was set up to provide resources and money to the Blog and to its contributing experts. This allows for experts to be “embedded” in other countries with or without the US military, allowing the Blog to provide accurate and on location stories from the front lines of Afghanistan and Iraq, although the Blog is not limited to covering those two countries and in fact focuses much of its time on North Africa and Southeast Asia.

Introductory Post

Hello! I'm Rich, and welcome to my Super-Amazing Terrific HIST-332 Blog created especially for the course "History in the Digital Age." Since there is no assignment yet the effect of this post is to take up space and to test font colors while I setup the custom template I want to use - because a Super-Amazing Terrific blog has to be special. It can't just be any old template slapped together. It has to be crafted, with love and care. And free time that could be better spent working on my Major Seminar.

Also I was disappointed nobody knew what Penny-Arcade was, so I had to link to it. Be warned, if you don't like video games, webcomics and/or filthy language it's probably not for you.

This is going to be a fun course.