Dieter Stenger Clio Wired Tuesdays 7-10 GMU

Digital Skills: Podcasting

2006-12-06T13:05:00.000-05:00

If you look to your right, below the RSS feeds, I have linked two podcasts. It is news from the Global War on Terror. Sorry about the lame voice- I tried like hell to sound like the commentator at the evening parades at Marine Barracks.

I really like podcasting! The technical aspect is easy to master, provided you have a decent computer to record the narration. Neither of our home computers work, so I had to rely on another computer that had XP and the movie feature.

Web Audiences

2006-11-27T00:02:00.000-05:00

I will keep my comments brief for this week's reading assignments, considering they were VERY short (thank you), as I continued to labor over my final project website and proposal. The readings were completely appropriate and gave me ideas for additional fodder for the proposal.

In relation to my GWOT Archive website and building a web audience, I shall launch a publicity campaign that will focus, first and foremost, on connecting with a community, rather than individuals. In this morning's Sunday newspaper, the Fredericksburg Freelance Star, I read an article about a group of parents who are trying to cope with the death of their sons and daughters. Very carefully, I will approach this community and explain to them what my site seeks to accomplish: to honor the men and women that sacrificed their lives and paid the ultimate price. The GWOT Archive hopes to perpetuate their legacy through the perspectives of men and women Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, and Airmen, fighting the war on terror.

Below is a very weak publicity campaign I intended before I read the excerpt by Cohen and Rosenzweig, on how to build web audiences:

Audience

The GWOT Archive features U.S. troops. The intended audiences are all U.S. branches of the Armed Forces, including the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard, and the American public. International interest can be expected.

Audience Hierarchy:

1. Service members
2. Service member's next of kin
3. Service member's immediate family
4. Service member's extended family
5. Service member's unit members
6. Service member's coalition forces
7. Professional historians
8. General public

Reaching the Audience:

Service members are currently reached by word of mouth and through direct contact using email. In many cases, email addresses of potential service members can be obtained from official DOD news articles.

Here is what I will do after reading the article:

Rearrange the target audiences by moving service member's immediate and extended family to the top of the hierarchy and as a community. Following the family, I will place the general public in the number two spot, since I think most unit members and coalition forces would rather put this kind of stuff out of the minds. After letting these communities know that I exist and am interested in their opinions, I shall pursue the community of soldiers out there already writing their stories on both web and blog sites.

That's more than what I wanted to write for tonight and just the tip of the iceberg...

Free Culture, Liberation Technology, and Public Pathways Enrich History on the Web.

2006-11-20T23:52:00.000-05:00

The readings for this week were all very good. In my opinion, free access to information is the best route for the development and success of history on the net. I would like first to refer to Rozenzweig's article that brought out many emotions associated with my experiences in the museum world.

As the lead contracting officer representative for the 10 million dollar exhibit fabrication contract for the now open (10 Nov 2006) National Museum of the Marine Corps, the issues concerning Marine Corps and other related images selected for the exhibits brought out the evil surrounding Corbis and Getty. The exhibit designers were good people, but they lacked entirely the concept of conducting historical research outside the confines of the Internet. Despite their "Marine Corps consultant" who remains one of the leading historians in the field, his leadership did not surpass historical content. As a result, these armchair historians surfed the World Wide Web and found a wealth of resources at their fingertips. My guess is that they considered the task relatively easy and found all kinds of images that were then written into the 100% exhibits plan. The images that were readily accessible online gave them a false sense of availability. So, as the years seemed to pass by very quickly and the opening of the museum was less than twelve months away, it became time to provide the images to the exhibits fabrication contractor. Unfortunately, the images were behind a gate which only good money could buy. Did I mention that many of the images were official Marine Corps photographs? As crazy as it sounds, some government images could not be located in the National Archives and a hefty fee was paid for the license. Forget about perpetuity; we are talking about a one-time user fee not to exceed X number of years with no license for the use in brochures or other media outlets. OK- the guy behind Corbis is a genius- we all know that now.

I think Rosenzweig makes the best argument that access to all sources should be free, across the board. Proven alternative methods for raising the badly needed "existential" revenues are applied with success, such as the Open Book project at the National Academy Press (NAP). By putting most of their holdings online for free has raised sales. Michael Jensen, of NAP, said "free browsing, easy access, and researcher-friendly publication first, and sales second" is "much more in keeping with the role of a non-commercial publisher" and for doing "the most good for society as possible within the constraints of our money."

While Lawrence Lessig's refrain on the demise of creativity and innovation may not seem apropos to the situation with Corbis, I believe the control and restriction of information, especially in order to make money, is in fact our loss and less a free society. Rosenzweig hit the nail on the head when he said "'open sources' should be the slogan of academic and popular historians. Academics and enthusiasts created the web; we should not quickly or quietly cede it to giant corporations."

Digital Skills: Movie

2006-11-18T22:34:00.000-05:00

I wish I had more time for making the movie. Hah! That's only the tip of the iceberg. I wish I had more time for all my projects. To make matters worse, both my computer and my wife's computer (with Windows XP) are hopeless! We are living in the stone age. I have to make smoke signals to get online (kidding).

The movie making experience has potential but overall it was disappointing for a number of reasons. After starting over several times, I still couldn't edit the film strip well enough to make the timing of the intervals better. You will notice they are choppy. Moreover, the audio or commentary didn't work well either. I tried making commentary with music in the background. The last thing you want to hear is me talking more than necessary.

Anyway, tell me what you think...

Army Heritage Museum Virtual Website

2006-11-16T08:09:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to share a website that combines interactive elements to make an interesting presentation. Go to Exhibit #3 : "Forging Two Frontiers." What do you think?

Folksonomic Mobilization

2006-11-12T17:17:00.000-05:00

Putting the Public to Work for Your Museum Website

I think my title puts the readings for this week into perspective. Let's try and get the general public to do the arduous work your staff can't. The outlook is bleak, but many institutions continue to place a lot of faith in the democratization of museum website.

The idea of museum visitors on the Web submitting anecdotal snippets, related to certain artifacts, is rather appealing. It could fill many informational gaps in a collection, if that undocumented portion in storage is photographed and accessible on line. However, Federal DoD Museums typically display roughly 10% of a collection. Usually, that 10% consists of artifacts that are well documented and have substantial provenance- thus making them significant and display necessities. For example, a Marine at the Battle of Chosin captured the small Chinese brass bugle, used by troops of the North Korean People's Army to signal the attack. This artifact trumpets a wealth of provenance. Were the bugle part of a "virtual tour" of the new National Museum of the Marine Corps, the number of anecdotal accounts describing the ominous shrill that Marines heard proceeding and enemy attack would certainly enrich the history for that artifact. In reality, those items that lack information usually have not been photographed or even cataloged.

The only objection I had to the readings involved the idea of folksonomic mobilization. This catchy phrase sounds trendy, along with other web initiatives that really only benefit the profiteers. The general public is helping tag museum images for better Goggle-search-ability? How much meta-tag information could possibly be gathered for one photograph before the cost of server space exceeds its worthy? It probably isn't much, but thousands of photos would take up significant space. It sounds as a clever method for curators to eliminate a backlog of work at no cost to the institution!

Linda Hales' article in the Washington Post shows that getting the public to work for you is a slow process. It may not be as bad as drawing blood from a stone, but the results, similar to the initiative of the Gutenberg-e, suggest that esoteric and near-extinct subject matter and artifacts destined for life in storage may squander money.

Digital Skills: HTML, CSS, and Domain Registration and Hosting

2006-11-12T00:49:00.000-05:00

For my final project, I decided to use free space offered by Netfirms.com. I did not register my domain, however Netfirms is still hosting my site.

The site is at www.gwot.netfirms.com.

If you look closely on the page about women, each link to the individual women uses Javascript to format the new window that opens. I set the format to include only the title bar as opposed to all the other junk you get when you browse. At the bottom of the page you will notice more javascripting which closes the window.

If you look on the page for women and click on Major Carr, you will notice a neat little US Army Star attached to the pointer.

The site will be further developed and hopefully completed by the end of the course.

Digital Skills: Searching

2006-11-12T00:17:00.000-05:00

Working towards my final project, I conducted a "market survey" to determine what was already out there, in terms of primary or eyewitness accounts from American men and women fighting the war in Afghanistan or Iraq in digital archives. To my surprise, there isn't that much at all. Specifically, I was looking for

Searched Goggle using the following strings:

accounts from global war on terror: 3,160,000 hits. Most sites related to GWOT in general, but many were related to opening a website "account," bank accounts, etc.

"accounts from global war on terror": did not match any documents.

personal account "global war on terror": 277,000 hits

Most of the content on the web is basic commentary found on blog sites. Most often, these have a little bit of everything, to include news and a whole rang of other topics.

"soldier stories" AND "global war on terror": 332 hits

This brought me to government pages, general news, and anti-war blog sites.

"primary accounts" "global war on terror": 32

None of the above search strings provided very good results. Of the 32 listed URLs, none had ANY eyewitness accounts outside those from the POWs held at Gitmo Bay.

The search string "journal" and GWOT provided another several millions hits- at one point I found "milblogger", a website with thousands of active duty bloggers, but I did not find anything noteworthy.

The search criteria: (war diary) OIF, really paid off well but with 114,000 hits, whereas "war diary" OIF had 4,430 hits. Actually the former search offered much better material right at the top of the hit list.

I looked back at Mary Ellen Bates' article, “Internet Librarian: 30 Search Tips in 40 Minutes,” and tried the web search triangle using yahoo.com (worse results and I am generally opposed to using yahoo) and metacrawler.com that had great results! The number of hits for (war diary) OIF was 72 and "war diary" OIF netted 55. Not bad.

In closing, the results were rather weak and dissappointing but show that individual war diaries or eyewitness accounts are on the Internet. The key to the GWOT Archive will be meta-tagging the individual pages accurately. The title alone will require carefully targeted wording.

Gutenberg-e

2006-11-05T07:42:00.000-05:00

The reading for this week came close to considering many of the issues discussed thus far in the course. According to Patrick Manning, the publishing of electronic books "poses the question of whether graduate education should prepare new historians to focus on field-specific monographic research or on a wider range of professional responsibilities." The beat of this drum is familiar and in step with David Pace and our past discussion concerning the bridge between professional research and mediocre teaching practices. Pace postulates a solid argument on refining the skills of historians to teach, which is to be more emblematic of research with significant consequences that many historians are reluctant to embrace. Manning is yet another who advocates that historians should think outside the box of specialized training, research, and interpretation. His article discusses the review of eleven scholarly works in four distinct fields of history. It is a good example of "thinking outside the box" by considering questions on interpreting modern history as a whole.

The purpose of Gutenberg-e-books was to save the historical monograph, allow endangered historical fields to flourish, develop a business model for an electronic successor to the older university-press monograph, and for another broad campaign of developing electronic publication in the social sciences. At present, the high cost of producing new monographs electronically remains a slow and laborious process. I was not at all surprised to read about the chilling results of the project and that a reluctance to fund the continuation of the endeavor may spell its demise. Very few libraries have invested in a rudimentary purpose of the program- to publish works for which there is no interest. Indeed, enrollment in GMU's Clio Wired class may be in order. Our discussion last week struck at the heart of these issues in the face of budgetary restrictions: scan and publish the important stuff and deal with the less important later!

In closing, I think the excursion by historians into the realm of history on the Internet will continue at an unprecedented rate. However, as Manning pointed out, websites have yet to be seen as more than a supplement to the book.

Digital Skills Photos Manipulation and Javascripting

2006-11-01T22:43:00.000-05:00

I took a digital image of a painting from the US Army art collection, whih US Army forces captured when they overran Germany. The orginal painting, which is nearly life size, was painted on a stiff fiber board of some kind. In many cases, when the GIs discovered the paintings, they attempted to cut the canvases out of the frames with their M1 bayonets. Considering the paintings were on a hardened surface, you can imagine what the tip of a bayonet would do! Many paintings have deep gouges running along the interior edges of the frames!

The overall painting is on the left. The close-up on the far left has a serious blemish across the face on the left. On the right, the manipulated image corrected.

Fundamentals in Becoming Digital

2006-10-30T14:34:00.000-05:00

The reading assignment for this week was especially light and fun. I consider it to be fundamental reading for anyone considering doing work on the web, but also for applications at home, such as photograph storage, records in general, etc. If the article were not too long and scholarly, I would ask my wife to read it, if only to relieve myself of the never-ending hardship of recovering this, burning that, downloading here, and uploading there.

I felt I was nearly successful in trying to answer the question raised by Rosenzweig, regarding how to convert analog historical records to digital files. The only area where I really need some help was related to mark up and in the domain of audio and video applications. However, this too shall soon pass.

Markup certainly falls outside the boundaries of fundamentals. Speaking for myself, as a person interested in digital history, websites, and the like, I do not doubt Rosenzweig one bit (no pun intended) that the "journey to achieving the prescribed format will be long, treacherous, and expensive."

I foresee the greatest challenge for everyone is to maintain record and file accessibility. In terms of the industry, faster and better technologies, which are marketed as making our lives much more simple, often make life miserable. If you can't access your stuff, what good is it?
I don't feel there is a whole lot more I can say about scanning, TIFF picture formats, and wav files. The only over-arching advice I can give is "GET CABLE."

RSS Feeds

2006-10-24T13:20:00.000-05:00

I have added RSS feeds.

Final Project: GWOT

2006-10-23T10:19:00.000-05:00

My final project is a website or "portal" with the primary mission of collecting and preserving the history of the global war on terror (GWOT), as seen through the eyes of the men and women fighting the war. The GWOT shall consider the three-front war vis-a-vis their areas of operation in Afghanistan, Iraq, and here at home in the United States. I have a website that I have been working on, but it is not yet ready to go live...

Just This One Computer User Left Behind

2006-10-22T21:47:00.000-05:00

I thought the reading assignments for the week of 24 October were especially appropriate vis-à-vis the dichotomy of learning and teaching. We are in the midst of an introductory class that considers history on the Internet. A main objective is to learn how to harness the power of Internet and conduct more advanced web-based research. Not surprisingly, the seed has been planted early to more complex techniques of historical conveyance on the Internet, which involves theoretical and web-based applications. Despite my initial misgivings and resistance to accepting the "Rosenzweig challenge," to clean up the Internet of incorrect history, I neglected to inform you, of my social status as a husband, father, full-time federal employee, student, reader, hobbyist, commuter, etc. All that I am trying to say is that I have a full schedule, which does not permit me to grab the challenge by the horns, at least not right now. Meanwhile, I found these considerations especially interesting as they relate to the article by David Pace, "The Amateur in the Operating Room." His intent was to examine the efforts being made to bridge the gap between professional research and mediocre teaching practices. I believe Pace postulates a solid argument on refining the skills of historians to teach, which is to be more emblematic of research. The military provides basic instruction for instruction, and more so in the occupational skills of combat arms, such as tanks, artillery, and infantry. Good instruction will determine success on the battlefield. Issues such as ethnic background and social status have limited effects on morale, but many of the same issues that infiltrate the cohesiveness of a unit affect its ability to function in the field. Individuals in leadership positions, such as company commanders, platoon sergeants, and squad leaders are trained to learn details about the people under their charge. Often, this includes every aspect of person, a proverbial "history book" on each man or woman.

The article by T. Mills Kelly, "For Better or Worse," was insightful as well, which reinforced my own conviction that the Web is a common good. Especially interesting were the results of the studies that provide proof of the positive effects of the web on learning. Diversity! Diversity!

Finally, the article by Dan Cohen and Roy Rosenwzweig, "No Computer Left Behind," was a reminder of how much I still regret having to take the GRE test on 27 November. Isn't that one of those multiple-choice tests that only a computer can grade? I wish I had a cell phone to obtain the answer to some contemptuous math problem! I agree with the conclusion of the article 100 percent; if GMU insists that I take a GRE test, which a machine will grade, then I should be able to use a hand-held magical machine for the mathematical portion!

Lingua Franca and iPod History

2006-10-14T06:55:00.000-05:00

The reading assignments for this week woke up my imagination, even at 0600 in the morning! My initial thoughts concerning these applications were definitely negative, considering the first two articles that put me to sleep. However, despite the great number of ideas that ignited my imagination, I just do not think georeferencing and the use of maps on the Internet, in the broader sense of historical writing, can usurp publishing academic history found in a book. The big question I have is from what prospective should we (Clio Wired students) examine these issues? As end-users or service providers? My hunch is both, which would require more lengthy discussions. From both perspectives, the camaraderie here is publishing history in a more creative way.

The most tiresome article was by Michael Buckland and Lewis Lancaster, concerning the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI). I should have read that one last! This deals with promoting the sharing of data among researchers who emphasize the relationships between place, time, and topic in the study of culture and history, and to promote an international effort to transform humanities scholarship through the use of the digital environment to share data on the notions of place and time. For example, the use of Gazetteers allow for disambiguating place-names by associating them with latitude and longitude attributes, which in turn supports making maps to support time period directories and the creation of timelines.

Not more exciting was the Linda Hill's article on georeferencing in digital libraries concerns the application of georeferencing to various forms of information and the integration of geospatial description, searching, and analysis into digital library practices. It is the spatial literacy to interpret problems and their solutions in spatial terms in digital library applications. At the same time, she acknowledges that Geospatial access remains an underdeveloped capability due to its misunderstanding.

The article by Wade Roush on Lewis and Clark and David Rumsey was interesting, especially the skill which Clark applied to plot points on a map. In the end, prophet Rumsey sizes up all the nifty map scanning that is going on by, "What these location-based technologies are going to allow all of us to do is to become like explorers -- to make our own maps," says Rumsey. "And I think people are going to use that to build a whole new interpretation of our culture."

The article by the Associated Press about Podcasts and Colonial Williamsburg was nifty as well. I like the fact that cutting-edge technology has completely infiltrated a sacred American institution that works very hard (with exceptional results) to preserve one of the most essential places in American history. At least I can sleep more comfortable at night knowing that if I can't visit Williamsburg in person, or get on the Internet to visit their superb website, I can still get my dose of colonial history over an ipod or some other hand-held device.
Robert M. Schwartz's article, "Railways and Population Change in Industrializing England: An Introduction to Historical GIS," has the purpose of illustrating how the technology of Geographic Information Systems go hand in hand in the revisiting of old questions and charting new explorations. He uses GIS methods to examine the relationship between the development of the railway system and population change in industrializing England and Wales from 1851 to 1914, when the rail system reached its peak in geographic coverage. The Geography Department at Queen Mary and Westfield College in London created and continues to develop the Great Britain Historical Data Base, the largest and most advanced collections of historical GIS data in existence.

Conclusion: In response to Schwartz's article, I would argue that military historians such as myself are faced with the some of the same issues as social historians in their research to acquire “a sense of place” through the study of maps. This is especially relevant when opposing units move around on the battlefield. The application of GIS, at a tactical level, could provide great benefits to better understand how and why the interaction of combat an support units achieved victory or failure. This concept may also be of particular use to plot both maritime and aviation assets?

Wikis: Digital Skills Requirement

2006-10-13T21:48:00.000-05:00

IAW the course requirements RE digital skills, I contributed to a page on Wikipedia. The experience was pleasing, whereby the actual process of editing the scanty profile of a historic personality was very simple, but also empowering. Against my own wishes, I have arrived at the very edge of Rosenzweig's pit. And I think I am going to fall in! His dictum included a personal obligation for me to correct or provide information that I covet. It took me one hour and 45 minutes to edit the piece. I was optomistic that it would NOT take that long, but who am I kidding, except maybe myself?! I must confess that it felt good and I have plans to continue- especially since the coverage on the general subject is less than noteworthy. Here is the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_von_Frundsberg

DS

The Launch Occurred Without Me

2006-10-01T22:47:00.000-05:00

I feel like an astronaut who overslept and made it to the launch-pad just in time to watch the space shuttle lift off without me. But wait a minute- I just want to read books, take my own notes, and then package it all together and let you read a version of history according to Dieter Stenger! Unfortunately, it is no longer that simple. The assigned readings for this week WERE of particular interest to me, considering I have all these great plans for my upcoming website, which includes a database. Dan Cohen's article on application programming interface (API) appears to be a "no brainer" and theoretically sound. However, I am not a programmer and I have had absolutely kein bißchen (zero) experience with APIs. I am positive that ways of searching and pulling together disparate data by way of APIs is an already fulfilling fact of life. If I had the time to cobble together an API, I would begin right away!

The reality is above my head. Cohen stresses that the world of APIs is a grass-roots and third-party development. It fosters a wide range of esoteric micro-applications, which computer scientists are developing and are insanely unique but also very helpful in areas never imagined possible. Does that mean I can do it? I hope so, but I am happy just knowing what's available to me. I believe APIs should be available to historians, but don't ask me to make you one (at least not right now). I do not believe that historians of a specific niche will be able to tackle this 1000-pound gorilla, but hopefully they will understand how to use APIs and what they offer, especially when considering interoperability.

Paul Miller's article on interoperability was convincing enough that I too should have one. One what? I plan on releasing all the data I have accumulated over the years about the European theater during World War II. Perhaps someone will data-mine enough of my data that I can buy it in a books store with someone else's name on it. I would very much like to join the growing trend toward openness, maximize the value, and reuse potential of information under my control. Again, I believe these ideas are geared less to the individual micro-historian, but rather government agencies and big business.

The article by Lee, " Working With Remix Culture", and Semantic Humanities on Digital Humanities (the latter should be renamed to "Embrace the Chaos of Knowledge"), was far more encouraging, especially when the latter discussed how to help others, by releasing data, rather than asking users to help you. Even more interesting was the material concerning forms, another gorilla I hope to pin to the floor. I realize now, more than ever, how far behind I am and the road ahead of me.

Circuit Overload

2006-09-25T13:38:00.000-05:00

I think my god-given processing unit (brain) is already overloaded with information as I process this week's readings.

Generally speaking, the vast amounts of information available to USERS are mind boggling. I would suspect that databases, of every sort and scope, populate some dark corner of the Internet: an untapped keg of information. So how do you tap that keg of information? Lyman’s “Executive Summary of How Much Information” underscores this unprecedented and growing phenomenon. In dealing with this incredible explosion of information, which needs to be of some use to the end-user, Bates' provides solutions in he article, "Internet Librarian: 30 Search Tips in 40 Minutes," which is just the tip of the iceberg.

Ironically, Turkel provides additional tips that are consistent with my current method of reading, in terms of completing a 375-page book in five days. Recall, if you will, the two-week old comments by the gentleman to the left of the obstructive column in the room (sorry, don't know the name!), which Turkel echoes by stating, "Another (student) became very discouraged by the thought that he would spend a decade writing a book that some other grad student would process in an hour and a half."

Cohen's tips on databases and how to narrow search criteria are fine and dandy, but his article, and those of others, point to a far greater dilemma: access. We debated the same issue before and read Rosenzweig's material that emphasized the importance of "access." Even though I have had a computer for ten + years and I have self-taught myself how to write programs, develop websites, etc., I am NOT a computer programmer! This stuff is really hard! I tried like hell to figure out CSS and begin work on my GWOT website- but I am lost!

SAS said it best in his blog, Too Much Information! What good is all the information if I can't obtain it- or a lousy second-rate rendition provided by some spider bot? Herein lay the essence of the debate as it relates to using the power of the Internet and traditional methods of research. I would be more inclined to trust the latter, but I guess it depends on your own preferences.

Murray's Worst Critic: I am Not Sure I Got the Point.

2006-09-18T22:26:00.000-05:00

Response to reading of Janet H. Murray, "Harbingers of the Holodeck."

I am pro-cyber history and enjoy the habitually painful art of creating websites to provide various kinds of intellectual stimulation for the public. HTML, my newfound interest in CSS, Wikipedia, and other forms of technology are truly fascinating. In my opinion, opening the lines of communication to self-proclaimed historians with no formal training, in the long run, will benefit everyone on the planet. What I forgot to mention in my last post, which was a comment in response to Greenberg's post RE: Wikipedia, is that I am more apt to use Wikipedia for my own good, but not necessarily ready to commit myself to support my on theory. This may sound selfish, but I am not at a point in my life where I have the luxury of spending countless hours on the computer. Maybe after I have completed the program at GMU and my kids are married, or I quite my job, then I could focus all my attention on correcting bogus strings on the Internet. However, I predict I would get even less sleep than now!

This brings me to my point regarding the reading. I thoroughly enjoyed the multiform movies "Back to the Future" and "Groundhog Day." The technique of telling a story with multiple endings is definitely neat, and I was really thrown for loop when McFly sees himself at the mall, doing the same thing but five minutes later. That was bizarre! Unfortunately, I took "Back to the Future" for what it was worth; very clever, imaginative, and thought provoking film writing. I have to part with Murray, who considers the "… impetus behind the growth of multiform story is the dizzying physics of the twentieth century, which told us that our common perceptions of time and space are not the absolute truths we had been assuming them to be." Am I missing something, or am I expected to read between the lines? Grain of salt, maybe?

The technique of the active audience is interesting as well. Once again, the point I made earlier about time, of which I have little, made me wonder who these people are that spend hours and hours on the Internet, dreaming up "their own stories" and changing the plots for sitcoms, New York City cops, and the Spock and Capt Kirk lover deal! "Textual poaching?" Are there a lot of middle-aged single people out there with computers? To further my position, Murray mentions the popularity of Multi-User Domains or MUDs where, "Every day, and particularly every night, thousands of people forsake real life (RL) and meet in virtual space "in character" (IC) to play out stories based on favorite books, movies, or television shows." Not me.

I recently took my five year-old daughter to the Smithsonian's IMAX at the Natural History Museum. We saw the 3-D wild animal movie that was absolutely fantastic. Two thumbs up! I must say that I think Murray is over the top when she says she is uncomfortable during 3-D moments because the photography puts her in a virtual world, which she then wants to enter autonomously, and do her own thing. I enjoy reading Rosenzweig's material because I can use it to improve something. I am very sorry, but Murray's material doesn't do anything for me.

Dieter

Review Website Marines Dot Com

2006-09-11T21:29:00.000-05:00

Devil Dogs,

The website I selected, www.Marines.com, is not "historical" per say, however it does contain intrinsic historic components that help achieve the best recruiting website currently available online. I should mention that my gung-ho and biased experience will be, more than likely, completely different from the experience of others.

My first emotions were excitement and joy. The technical review "behind the scenes" inspired awe (source code). The multi-media presentation is of such high-caliber, it literally takes one breath away. I am positive this website would make Harry S. Truman turn over in his grave. As the thirty-third President of the United States from 1945-1953, Truman unsuccessfully tried to abolish the Marine Corps after World War II. According to Truman, the Marine Corps has "... a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's." I have not studied Stalinist methods for recruiting, but I doubt they are based on persuasive imagery or imagination. The Marines.com website basically captivates the viewer by controlling their imagination through the carefully choreographed use of film, sound, images, and narrative.

The site is full of snap and pop. It is clean, crisp, and full of action. It nears the experience of going to an action movie or playing a video game; precisely hitting the intended high school audience and feeding them what they devour. The navigation is a master piece of simplicity. Anything too complicated might turn a prospective enlistee away!

As far as the technical composition, the source file reveals the following components:
The pages use JSP, defined as a specification that uses applications to generate Web pages that feature dynamic content. Javascript controls many portions of the window or browser, and CSS or Cascading Style Sheets, operate by formatting the content of the page. Many components of the CSS-page are loaded and remain visible throughout other pages deeper in the site, such as the navigation bar and background image (EGA). By using CSS and flash, I am not altogether sure how the individual components are manipulated to create a dynamic page. I do not believe a database is in use, as most of the information is minimal at best. The historical aspects of the site provide larger amounts of information that relate to weapons, equipment, training, deployments, and Marine Corps life in general, however the need to retrieve information from databases is not necessary.

Semper Fi. Dieter.

Navy Museum Lunchtime Seminar: The Blog of War

2006-09-06T11:42:00.000-05:00

I thought this to be apropos for our class- and the GWOT.

Thursday, September 14, 2006, 12:00 noon:

Lunchtime Lecture and Book Signing with the author of Blog of War, Matthew Currier Burdern

In Blog of War, author Matthew Burden presents selections from some of the best of the military blogs, the purest account of the many voices of this war. This is the first real-time history of a war, a history written even as the war continues. It offers a glimpse into the full range of military experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, from the decision to enlist right through to homecoming. Blog of War provides an uncensored, intimate, and authentic version of life in the war zone. Dozens of voices come together in a wartime choir that conveys better than any second-hand account what it is like to serve on the front lines today.

Commentary for Reading Assignment:

2006-09-04T21:22:00.000-05:00

Cohen, Dan and Roy Rosenzweig. Digital History.

As far as the whole concept of disseminating history on the Internet is concerned , I am definitely in opposition to Gertrude Himmelfarb and the Marxist info-historian David Noble. I am a cyber-punk; a youngster, inexperienced, insignificant, and presumptuous. I think this is a good definition for me since I have never taken any legitimate computer classes, but I am doing exactly that which is described in the reading. Everything I know about the use of a "confuser" or "devil box" is self-taught. I love new things and ideas and I love to trail blaze. I believe that an open mind, and the ability to think outside the box, will go a lot further in a professional career. I am a Federal employee with the Department of Defense, and I see that most historians and museum professionals know only the basics, such as word processing and the use of email. To that end, I am not sure if more IT training is really necessary. After all, IT departments are set up for people, who have limited skills in computer applications, such as historians. I know a little about websites, but if my boss had the option of contracting someone to design and run a historic website, using Flash with awesome graphics, etc., do you think he would rather save the money and have the Cyber-Punk design it? Don't hold your breath. You probably wouldn't, but the Marine Corps would, at least in part. I should mention that I sought out such responsibilities, rather than live with an obtuse website with no dynamics.

The only real issue I have with history and the use of computers is the industry itself. The computer scientist Michael Lesk forgot to mention the effects of the industry on everything people write, say, perform, or photograph, saved on a single disc, or "pie in the sky." The typewriter may be timeless, but upgrades or changes in software and hardware make accessibility a huge issue for many. New versions of applications and completely new programs require that you constantly upgrade. When will I ever have a system that won't need upgrading? I am using Photoshop 6.0. I have Flash, but that is already three years old. I cannot remember what version of Dreamweaver I am using. The point I am trying to make is that eventually all the digitized history and images, stored on compact discs, will not work without a new system. I have experienced that problem over and over. My first real history project, an Army War College battle study of the Battle of Saint Vith in the Ardennes, sits on a 3.5" floppy disc, which MS Word can't read. So what good is it? Well, you learn from your mistakes by paying attention to the industry and convert your old documents into a readable format.

For me to take a position on the various aspects of digital history would take all night. To keep you from falling asleep, I will hit on one issue that I believe lies at the center of the debate: credibility. I think digital history, whether produced by a professional or a novice, provides for a greater understanding of a given subject matter. A trained historian in a particular field should be able to detect nonsense, based on the source of the information. It is the historian's responsibility to check out the sources if there is ever any question about credibility. That can be hard, but necessary.

See you tomorrow!

r/s
Dieter

2006-09-04T07:17:00.000-05:00

Fellow students,

This is my new blog page that I adopted because my other idea wasn't working- GWOT and Clio. I don't think I am ADHD, but my wife says I am. I guess I am going too fast.

Anyway, I looked at SaS's De-Constructing History and found his page works well. My shift from Wordpress to Blogger was to familiarize myself with more than one application. I will maintain the GWOT, but the posts and material from our Clio Wired class just doesn't fit with GWOT. What and where I am going I just don't know right now...

Dieter