The Long And Winding Road: Final Thoughts

                This project is definitely one of the most fun projects that I have ever worked on, and it was also the most challenging. My process was not the most efficient, but it ended up working well for me. I started off by going to the archives in the Carolina Room at the Main Public Library Branch and seeing which stations had gained the most local press, not just in terms of popularity but also in terms of community involvement and overall programming impact. After collecting that information, I went in search of music recordings from live performances on those popular stations because I figured that these recordings could help me delve further into other live performances as well as material played by the music staff on air. I did find a recording of The Golden Gate Quartet and that made it on to our exhibit. Following that, my research went in the direction of looking at the role that these stations played in the community, especially in terms of music and catering to specific audiences. That said, researching radio is a challenging process because most of its aural history is not preserved on the internet and it is frustrating not being able to find full recordings or transcripts from significant interviews or performances. That said, news articles and photos are a rich source for learning about the role that the stations played in the community.

 In the view of community radio developers, community radio stations often “serve as the most trusted agent in town that brings change.” Community radio plays a vital role in building vibrant communities, in mobilizing groups to action by informing and empowering citizens, in giving voice to the marginalized groups of society, and in bringing community needs to the attention of local and even national governments. The scope of the actual and potential impact of community radio is wide-ranging, many agree, as are the challenges associated with community radio development. Community radio activists who have seen both the benefits and the difficulties of community radio claim that the donor community does not fully recognize the wide-ranging benefits of community radio in development and thus fail to respond to the challenges of this media sector.

                Our group worked well together, which made face-to-face meetings quite enjoyable and a refreshing change from the usual group projects where one person takes over and everyone else just sits by the wayside. While we did not stick as closely to the schedule as we would have liked, I thought that everyone stuck to the tasks that we decided on at the beginning of the semester. In addition to that, these tasks were done well, making a strong final product. Most of the tasks that we had assigned ourselves to complete were done later in the semester than we had originally intended to, creating something of a time crunch right at the end, at least for me. I can only speak for my own individual experience, but I had difficulty getting started and then following through with what was outlined on the group contract. As someone who has never worked in the field of digital history before, I think that I was in shock when I finally buckled down and really started doing serious research and analyzing possible parts of my sections of the exhibit. In my classes I was interested in a balance between  learning technical skills and making progress on a group project over the course of the semester.  The members of our group chose and edited their own sections, created their own inventory of digital items, and built their own exhibits. The upside is that we were able to jump right in on our own digital projects by the time we had our basic planning done. The downside is that we didn’t get to experience that process of installation. It also meant that when some groups were dissatisfied with the Omeka template choices, they didn’t have the skill set themselves to create new ones. Still, by not having the option to create our own installations, I found that our group was able to concentrate more on building a structure and content base for the projects. That said, we were mostly concerned with presenting interesting and accurate information than with creating the best exhibit on Omeka. While we did want an attractive end product, the main concern was making our passion for the topic jump off the screen. Our group then decided that each of us should be responsible for ensuring the success of a particular portion of the exhibit building process.  Ian Pasquini is very tech savvy and so he was in charge of the website itself, as well as contemporary music venues.  Reggie Rucker was in charge of African American venues and the timeline, a task that he volunteered to do right at the very end.  Tina Wright is incredibly organized and works in Special Collections at UNC Charlotte, so she was a logical choice to do research on the older music venues of Charlotte since that category was the most obscure. I was in charge of researching music radio in Charlotte and I also entered in all of the bibliographical information.  

We were all able to locate ten significant/relevant artifacts for each section, scan those items and then upload those images to the Omeka website, and answer many questions without outside assistance. However, Google and email were our most useful tools.  The creation of our exhibit was very much an experience in trial and error. We’ve also communicated frequently throughout this process, and also kept one another alerted of any issues that arose. However, we also felt free to go in the direction that was fitted to the direction of our individual research processes.  Our project went more smoothly than I could have ever anticipated, and the topics that we chose to research were interesting and lent themselves well to in-depth archival research. Everyone in the group was driven to work hard and the final product is representative of everyone’s hard work.

Express Yourself: How is writing for the web different from other styles of writing?

Writing for the web is quite different from writing for other mediums and audiences, but in what ways is it different? According to Yahoo! Style Guide, "start strong, stay strong" is one of the key things for quality writing for the web, among many other things:

Proofreading
This in an incredibly important step because doing so makes the page appear more professional and therefore more reliable. Simply put, an error-free body of work makes reading more enjoyable. I can say from experience that reading a page that is full of grammar and spelling errors is quite stressful and can even make the message useless. Even though spelling and grammar are crucial in all types of writing, it is especially important online because it truly is what makes the page work and what will make the message more polished and, quite frankly, more believable. In email as in web pages, nothing is more annoying than misleading links and inconsistent language, so even matters that are external or seem minor have major effects on website credibility and traffic.

Sentence Structure
Here, the most important thing to remember is to use clear and simple language, not buzzwords that only people in the field will understand. The simpler the better when it comes to phrasing as well because it is so much easier to read and absorb material that is to the point. The sentences also need to be strong and condensed in order to get the maximum amount of information across while not using unnecessary words. Basically, it is important to remove fluff words. Can you identify the fluff words in this paragraph?

Online Readability
Essentially, a readable page includes straightforward language, clean design, and simple sentence structures. These days, people look at a page and instantly decide if it is worth taking the time to read it or not. The page must be tailored to all kinds of audience members in the international community. Furthermore, a text-heavy page is not the better page, so people need a certain balance of text, pictures, and videos. The formatting helps the reader figure out what is key information, making the page easier to navigate. The average attention span is very short nowadays, so you only have a matter of seconds to interest your reader!

Audience
While quantitative data (demographics, etc) is important to compile, I think that qualitative data is more important because that is what will ultimately register with each viewer. This will define the audience from the get-go as well. Main question: What is the purpose of your page? To entertain? To educate? To offer products or services? The page will need to answer this question and will need to adapt to ever-changing needs and wants.

Voice
Clear, simple words are key in making the page easy to read regardless of the viewer and will help to create a more friendly voice. A less formal voice is also more welcoming, along with sentences that are not complex/long. Short, compact paragraphs are the best bet for structure, especially if you are trying to develop a voice that moves across cultures.

Mobile Text and Font
It is important to make it clear what page the reader is on and what click on certain buttons will take them to; it is frustrating to be lost within a small or large website. Having a mobile version of a website is increasingly important, and that format must show that you have those users in mind as well.

According to "The Writer's Diet" (http://www.writersdiet.com/WT.php), my style of writing is not best suited to the web. I tend to use a great deal of adjectives and adverbs and my sentences tend to be more complex than what is usually seen. This does not mean that my writing is bad; it simply means that I need to adapt my writing style to what the internet audience needs and wants out of a web page. It will take practice, but I think that I can learn what I need to do to make my writing internet-ready.

The Search for History: Research on the Web

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU8DcBF-qo4
This talk explores what data in the internet language codes can do for problems in human languages such as understanding, translation, information extraction, and inference. Peter Norvig came to Google from NASA in 2001 because he believed that that's where the data was, and he found that this search engine had a promising future. Despite the fact that technology has grown by leaps and bounds, Google remains one of the top corporations in the world. Google has gone places that were never dreamed of in the past. Norvig states that the way to make progress in Artificial Intelligence is to have more data, and the whole world is absolutely swimming in data. If you don't have good data, you won't make progress in terms of user-friendly tools, just with fancy algorithms and equations. The question at 46:00 got me very interested. The person asked if Google was going to offer any services for fighting spam.This was interesting to me because spam is still a very prevalent problem in the massive online universe. This discussion was fascinating in that it touched on a topic that I am not familiar with and therefore do not know much about. As a rather bookish person, the example involving data and probability relating back to Sherlock Holmes, while quite brief, was helpful to me because that helped the following mathematical and technological examples become more digestible and therefore more relevant.

http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march06/cohen/03cohen.html
Databases such as Google seem  like common sense in today's technology-oriented word, but the Syllabus Finder tool that Daniel Cohen built followed something like this logic: a web page that contains many key words is extremely likely to be a result. The users of this specialized search engine enter key words in a search box, and the software then delivers the results. In short, if you simply ran some queries manually on the Google home page, you would not find as many syllabi as through the Syllabus Finder, nor would you see the additional information the specialized search engine provides. Articles such as this that discuss  the organization of digital materials are incredibly relevant to digital historians because search-enabled databases are central to research and compilation. This explanation is extraordinarily detailed and it is easy to get bogged down in the specifics, but at the same time, such an explanation is necessary because the internal workings are important to know for operation and use.

http://digitalhistoryhacks.blogspot.com/2006/10/searching-for-history.html
I was quite frankly baffled by this article because of all the technical language, but one thing that it does do really well is break down search terms and what those terms inform the search engine. I learned that search terms are key in developing databases that are geared towards historians and history enthusiasts. Understanding people is key to online development, which is a totally new thought. Technology is seen as something that is used by humans but does not have a human touch. However, this article demonstrates that people need to be understood in order to make any kind of use out of internet resources.

You Say You Want a Revolution? Twitter Educates the World

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/20/the_revolution_will_be_tweeted

An Examination of "The Revolution Will Be Tweeted" by Blake Hounshell for Foreign Policy Magazine

This article does not refer directly to classroom education, but I think that many of the points mentioned by the author in reference to the Arab Spring can be connected back to the classroom and how information is communicated. Internet culture is not nearly as prevalent in Egypt as it is in the United States, and so those who were Tweeting during the revolution had an entirely different mindset than Tweeters in America might have had: they are Tweeting out of a feeling of obligation rather than just as a pastime of sorts. This is not to say that Americans use Twitter as a pastime, but it makes sense to assume that activists' Tweets might be more "meaningful" in a place where they aren't as numerous.

I think that this article builds a strong case for teaching critical thinking and learning to see multiple sides of a given issue. Thanks to Twitter and other social media outlets, people from all over the world are becoming connected and it is so important to educate people to become global citizens, not just citizens of their home country. The Arab Spring Revolutions were talked about all over the world, on Twitter and elsewhere, which goes to show that Twitter is a powerful force when harnessed in the right way. As Hounshell discusses, Twitter is quite an "intimate space" that can have the power to truly change things when people use their voices to discuss what's going on. In terms of education, this idea gives students the chance to put themselves in a different mindset and think critically about the world through the lens of countless disciplines. The Arab Spring will be in history textbooks in the future, and it would be awesome to leave behind a legacy of global thinkers and doers that are average people, not just people on the higher rungs of society.

Digital History: AHA Perspectives

In May 2007, I was almost a Senior in high school and the American Historical Association published an edition of their journal "Perspectives" that included a series of articles on the impact that technology was having on the field of history and how people study it. The topics range from archival education to an innovative curriculum for world history. I chose to examine two of the articles to see what I could learn about the relationship between history and technology, at least as it was seen five years ago.
Here is the link to the webpage so that you can follow along if you would like: http://www.historians.org/Perspectives/issues/2007/0705/index.cfm

World History for Us All: An Innovative World History Curriculum by Ross E. Dunn
I have always considered world history one of the most interesting classes offered in most college history departments, but they are also one of the most difficult to teach. This article addresses these challenges, especially in terms of teaching students about larger concepts, such as the development of religions or the accomplishments of the Silk Road. Since 2001, a national team of history educators have been developing a program called World History for Us All, a model curriculum for world history classes in middle and high schools that aim to provide teachers with a centralized web-based resource that seeks to innovate how world history is taught. It is often taught as a boring series of events that have no apparent connection to each other. 

It is developed on the idea that people in general have a history that needs to be explored and that classroom world history suitable for the 21st century must pay attention to broad changes and international links, which are becoming more important than ever. History is not simply a series of events and dates, and it is incredibly important that students understand the complexity of ideas and events throughout the world's history. Educators should prepare students who can critically interpret history and appreciate world cultures in their past and present forms.

Note: This project is a collaboration between San Diego State University and UCLA's National Center for History in the Schools.

Strange Facts in the History Classroom: Or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Wiki(pedia)
by Christopher Miller

Wikipedia. What words come to your mind when you read that word? Poorly written and sparsely sourced articles? Incorrect or inappropriate information? Miller doesn't see it that way; he designed an "experiment" with Wikipedia to help his students see that written history is not always one hundred percent true and is essentially created. Miller's main goal was to expose students to the idea that historical knowledge is created. Miller sums up the issues that this experiment presented best: "On one side, we had academic historians claiming that their expertise gave their interpretations weight. On the other, we had the Wikipedia advocates who claimed that the "wisdom of the crowds" would ensure the accuracy and veracity of Wikipedia's information." As a student of history, I can say that the ability to discern the best resources is a skill that is not easily obtained and takes a great deal of trial and error. In high school, I was taught that Wikipedia is not the place to go for information at any time, not just in terms of writing academic papers. I agree with Miller when he discusses the need for students to expand their methods of thinking.

Examining Wikipedia: History and Discussion Tabs

In the most basic of terms, Wikipedia generally does not have a "good" reputation as an academic resource. This is because the site used to allow users to edit their pages, which naturally invites people to enter in incorrect information for the sake of humor. Reading a page filled with untrue statements is extraordinarily frustrating. However, one of the upsides of Wikipedia is that each page contains internally linked tabs, two of which are labeled "History" and "Discussion". I chose to examine four separate pages dealing with quite broad topics, as I think that they have the greatest chance of spawning all sorts of discussions in many different areas of the topic.

French Revolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution)
The French Revolution is a controversial topic full of differing ideologies and causes, ranging from very radical to quite reactionary. The discussion section this page shows the complicated nature of language within topics such as highly charged political/social revolutions. There are multiple comment threads dealing with the issue of language and the danger of placing labels on things that don't necessarily need labels. One danger with topics like this is that they can get very emotional.
Most of the "History" section is full of contributions, mostly changing analysis to straight history and clarifying the terms. Frankly, this section on most Wikipedia pages are very confusing, with lots of back and forth in terms of revising points and getting the sources properly cited. With a topic like the French Revolution, it is easy to go off in many different directions, and so everyone has to work together to make the page as cohesive as possible.

Digital History (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_history)
This page is not as controversial as the overview of the events of the French Revolution, which could possibly mean that it attracts more scholars than members of the general public. Pages that receive lots of feedback from the general public should not looked down upon, I am simply noting a difference that I have seen on Wikipedia. This page was last modified on January 25, 2011, which is a sign that this page does not get as much traffic as others. I think that this is worth noting since digital history is a growing field and it would make sense that this particular page would be undergoing many revisions. There is a note at the top of the "Discussions" page that states that Wikipedia is making a concentrated effort to improve its coverage of historical topics.
This page has been in existence since March 2008, making it relatively young. It only has eight entries in the "History" section, most of which have to do with minor edits and questions of terminology. What do you think is causing this "lag" in information? I find it interesting that this page has not received more contributors.

Impressionism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism)
I decided to include Impressionism is my survey because it was a cultural and social movement that did not have much impact on politics in terms of changing policies. One interesting discussion thread that I found had to do with the legacies of Impressionist artists such as Cezanne and Van Gogh. This is a crucial point because people need to have something with which to wrap up a discussion because otherwise the discussion has very little meaning or context to the present. There is very little in the way of debate on this page, possibly because art is seen as "soft" and not seen as an intellectual pursuit by some people. Art is a part of history, and this particular page on Wikipedia treats it as a source of knowledge. I just find it curious that there is so little in the way of actual discussion.
This page has been in operation since July 2002, making it a page that has seen many uses and revisions. Most of these revisions have been done with respect to individual participants in the Impressionist movement and the ideas that existed within and after the movement. I suppose that art is something that is hard to discuss in a somewhat restricted digital area, but these contributions nevertheless provide some social context that illuminates the Impressionist art world.

Marie Antoinette (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette)
I selected this page not only because of its interesting subject, but also because biographies are some of the most interesting to explore in terms of the changes that are made over time, especially if the person lived a very long time ago. There are very strict terms on this page to ensure quality information and answers to people's questions, in addition to this page being a part of Wikipedia's efforts to improve the quality of their biographies. This page is a candidate to become a featured article, making quality and clarity all the more important. One of the key discussion threads on this page concerns sources and whether or not the writers have relied too much on Antonia Fraser's biography of Marie Antoinette. Relying on one source limits the scope of the work, no matter how good the source is. Marie Antoinette is one of those figures in history that is almost always controversial in some form or another, so it is good that this article is as cohesive and neutral as it can be.
There is much mythology surrounding the life and rule of Marie Antoinette that it becomes difficult to separate fact from fiction. This is precisely what the discussion threads on this article deal with: separating the fanciful from the real. One such example is the classic "Let them eat cake" statement and whether or not she actually said that. It is exciting to see those types of debates still happening in the digital realm.

Signed to the Label: Our Charlotte Music Exhibit Group Contract

One of the assignments for the Digital History class is to create an online exhibit on a given topic within Charlotte history. My group is doing the history of Charlotte's music venues and the types of music that were showcased throughout the years, from approximately the 1930s up through the 1990s. Even though this sounds quite broad, it really is very narrow compared to what we started with. The Mission Statement was not too much of a challenge since the goals were quite clear, but we also had to consider what the specific goals were, not just teaching visitors about Charlotte music venues and their heritage.

Scope and depth were two of our main challenges, since there is so much interesting and compelling material to work with. The Carolina Room at the Uptown Library (http://www.cmlibrary.org/locations/maincarolina.asp) has a fantastic array of music resources, from books to original vinyl records. The only downside to all of these resources is narrowing them down. At first, we were going to organize the exhibit by era or decade. The trouble with that is that so many styles fit into each era and there would be too much cramped into each section. Eventually, we decided to organize it by venue so that visitors would be able to consider each venue its own time.

The milestones were also a challenge but it was not one that was an inconvenience. If anything, it helped us focus and really think about where we wanted our exhibit to go and the order in which to accomplish that. Certainly, more things take more time than others, but some things have to be done in order to move on to the next step. For example, each venue needs to be identified before the search for pictures can commence.

In conclusion, designing an online exhibit, both in terms of content and organization, is extraordinarily difficult. Trying to make sure that our group had covered everything necessary to ensure that the contract will indeed be useful. However, I do think that our hard work will be worth it since our topic is interesting to the whole group and there are tons of resources!