I would like to study the web site that is published for Alcatraz. During class I read through quite a bit of the site and it really held on to my attention. I think it would be interesting to be able to investigate about the layout and workings of the site, as well as learn something from a historical perspective. Thanks!
During our Calvino project where we linked our page to separate and for me often newly visited sites I considered the instability of internet media. However, I did not consider the historical repercussions until reading Roy Rosenzweig’s article on this subject. What kind of portrayal will be left of our cultural history? Similar to censoring a history book though actually devaluing and erasing certain representations of the spectrum of our experience. Though, I think these individual collections will fill in the holes like in other time periods. Unfortunately, these will only be preserved if there are physical and non web based archives as back-ups. I found this article very interesting, it was easier for me to relate this information to our studies. Many of the other readings while also entirely relatable did not grasp my attention quite as quickly.
In class today we discussed the several possible directions and ideas for our media analysis. It was very helpful to be given some time to explore the possible sites. However, I especially appreciated the list of sub-questions even though we had discussed the questions. It will help to have something to look at when deciphering the archives. Many of the archives I have looked at have been somewhat limited. So, I am veering toward the comparative analysis of a couple of sites. At this point I need a few more hours to explore my options. I will post my decision tommorrow.
-Jen-
Roy Rosenzweig made a statement that historians believe that it is the job of the archivist to preserve digital history. It is the responsibility for all individual to have input on preserving our digital history. If student and citizens alike are not made to understand the importance of saving these digital records a portion of history will be lost. He wrote that there was no separation in the work of a historian or a person titled archivist. The historian believed that it was their responsibility to preserve as well as research the past.
I perceived from Roy Rosenzweig’s article that it is of vital importance to preserve digital history. I believe that we need the collection of digital history for accurate assessment in the future. We have struggled to collect bit and pieces of the past but now, we have an opportunity to begin at the forefront of the Digital era and save the information without it being an after thought. Digital information is as much a part of history as great works of art, music, social events. The information saved to day may possible help in new frontier for tomorrow. If they are lost future generation will struggle trying to peace-together the information that it took ages to develop. We do need scholarly engagement to address the situation that we may provoke public action to preserve digital information because many minds working towards a common goal is less of a struggle.
With the abundance usage and reliance on internet material comes the problem of organizing and preserving the data as noted by Roy Rosenzwieg’s in "Scarcity or Abundance? Preserving the Past in a Digital Era". Rosenzwieg raised a genuine concern for historians and many other scholars such as librarians, curator, and archivist. There are disadvantages and advantages in preserving information in digital form. One of the disadvantages are the ephemeral quality of digital information. In under 50 years the form or instrument used to preserve the digital information may become obsolete in light of the rapid technological advancement. Another disadvantage is if there is one tiny problem or corruption with the diskes or files in which it is saved the entire work might be lost completely. Also there is the issue of who will continue to fund the continuation of the archive after the originator is gone? How can one assure that the site will continue to exist? There are many issue that arise with the idea of how best to deal with internet materials and abundance of things online, but with all the problems, Rosenzwieg argues that it is necessary to start an attempt to preserve the information. Even though he recognizes that it is impossible to create a flawless retainment of documents or the "perfect plan" of implementation, it is better to save some then none. The advantage about placing things on internet archive and digitizing materials is so that many people can access the infomation with more efficiency and convinence. Information can be made readily available to the public. There can be an availablity of numerous perspectives on one single issues that can complicate and enrich historical perspectives.
On a personal level, the essay brought to mind the idea of perserving emails. Emails are regarded as a quick form of memo and is not appear to be on the fore front of the need to put email in preservation as mentioned in Rosenzweig’s essay. Nonetheless, with the recent emergence of google email, the idea of the site is so that the users will have enough space in the mailbox so that they will not have the need to delete a single email. Also google brought the idea of facilitating searching mechanism through your emails. Just to think, many years in the future, instead of going through paper bound diaries and letters, people can find ways to access online journals and emails of an important character. If only there are ways to continue preserving emails sites and some ways to posthumously make public emails account in an archival forms.
I think the assigned article that we had to read brought up many good arguments about why ‘preserving the past’ digitally is - and isn’t - a good idea.
Many of us have probably run into the same problem with preserving content on the Internet - you may be working on a web page, writing an e-mail to a friend, writing a post for class - you click the button to transmit the information, and then find that the information did not go through, and everything that you had written is lost and unable to be retrieved. Web pages can be easily "lost" due to bad code, a bad server, a bad host…. numerous reasons, and all of the information stored on it is usually lost for good.
I can see why this author is worried about how we are increasingly turning towards the Internet to preserve our information and how unreliable the Internet is for storing information. Most pages are not backlogged, so if they are lost, they are lost forever.
I also found some valid arguments in his ideas about copyrights… it is easy to find information and "steal" it off the internet without giving the person proper credit. The Internet is just not as organized as literary sources such as books and magazines, and it is harder to cite information that you use off of there than from a book.
The material I looked at deepest on the American Memory website was a selection of spirituals. I have studied various spirituals with my vocal teacher. I looked through the scanned music of these pieces. Maybe I could actually use some of these pieces in my study of voice with him or pieces from another database like it! I actually found a piece called Deep River which I studied in the past on the archive. I like spirituals because they have a lot of "soul and depth" to them. I have found in my study of voice that opera can be overly zealous and fancy. There can be more emphasis in opera on vocal virtualosity than actually singing with heart.
After class, I hanged out with some friends. My friend Steve is a Masters of History student at Mason. We talked about in class about how historians use archives for research and study. Steve is living this currently in his Master’s studies. He and I talked about the use of google and databases. He talked about how there are other databases you can use besides google. He showed me one called Heritage West (http://www.cdpheritage.org/collection/heritageWest.cfm) and the "Internet Movie Archive" (http://www.archive.org/details/movies). We tried to get into the Prelinger Archives from the movie archive but had problems. There was maybe a problem at the server of the archives or a connnection problem with the DSL connection we had. Not everything at the National Archives or Library of Congress is digitized. Steve will be doing research at the National Archives. He told me at the National Archives that they let you take digital pictures of the material you are looking at. So, we went off and looked for a digital camera that night. We went to Target, Walmart, and Best Buy. He ended up not buying one that night and probably will borrow a friends for the weekend. Eventually, I think he will buy one. Well, that it’s for this posting. Time to get ready for a weekend of gluttony, drinking, and time with friends & family hehe….
Happy Turkey Weekend Everybody!
On the topic of American memory, I would have to agree with Jackie about it’s disorganization. Even after discussing the search engine in class I had trouble finding what I wanted to find. Although, i found the image format TIFF and it’s possible uses intriguing. It is a good idea to digitize these documents if only for preservation purposes. It is also nice to have access to these original images and enabled to utilize the enhanced information they allow.
The discussion we had for the project got me thinking but I’m still in abstract stages. It will take some investigation, I am thinking along the lines of film or photography archives. If anyone finds anything interesting or useful to get me thinking let me know! Either on here, in class or my email is jparker6@gmu.edu. Or even any interesting directional ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, and everyone have a great thanksgiving break!! -Jen-
I found the American Memory site to be interesting, but not all that user-friendly. Maybe it’s a work in progress. I tried to browse through the different categories (ex. War and Military, Women’s History) and found myself losing attention - there are so many links on this site bunched together that it is overwhelming. I was most surprised when I tried to research the Vietnam War and found that under "War and Military", there is no specific category for the Vietnam War, although it lists just about every other war that the United States has been involved in. It does, however, pull up some finds under the search engine query, but not too many. I was definitely disappointed to see this, especially since Vietnam is so recent - isn’t it more pertinant to the American history today than say, the Spanish-American War?
While I would probably find this site useful to search information on these various topics, I think that this doesn’t provide me with more, or better, information than I could find by using a Google search. The one good thing about this site is that it presents the information in an organized manner, and the site also provides you with its own search engine.
After watching Red vs Blue in class the other day, I have to say my interest was definetly awoken. Later that night I went home and watched some more episodes. Isn’t it ironic how movies became video games in the beginning, for example: Medal of Honor is a spin off of Saving Private Ryan and numerous Batman video games were made. This followed the trend of popular movies become sitcoms. But now the role has been reversed of video games becoming blockbuster movies. Here are few, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, and Doom. So it is only a matter of time before video games become sitcoms as well? NOT taking a stance on this, but how indoctrinated will today’s youth be with violence and gaming? Not a sermon, just a thought.