Category: Academic

Writings, research, and findings that have to do with history, scholarship, and everything in my academic sphere of life.

A time machine…

Or a set of machines (appliances really) to take one back in time (at least mentally).

This post from William Turkel at Digital History Hacks about the history appliance was just down-right awesome.  How cool would it be, even if just in your browser or on your computer, to have everything (all types of media) display a certain time period or year.

What I thought was most interesting is the immersion effect this would have for historians. It would be a great way to see what was available at that time, what was not, what was popular, what was in the news… Pretty cool.

I'm alive… really, I am…

Not that anyone reads this with any regularity (made impossible by my irregular postings)….

I stumbled upon this cool video explaining “Web 2.0” from http://www.metagrrrl.com/ (I hate buzz words, and Web 2.0 is a huge bloated, overused, ugly buzz word. Oh well..)
Anyhow, it’s really cool…

(If it doesn’t show up, here’s the link.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

Notes from Kenny “A Carnival of Revolution”

A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe 1989

by Padraic Kenney

ISBN-10: 069111627X

Publisher: Princeton University Press; New Ed edition (August 11, 2003)

Intro:

Three common explanations for the fall of communism:

  1. Gorbachev inspired and encouraged change which provided the atmosphere for revolution.
  2. Economics – The communist economy was bankrupt and no longer able to support their facade. Mass emigration showed public disapproval. Some governments experimented with free-market economies even before their collapse.
  3. Intellectuals – Intellectual opposition ideas were cultivated from Western ideas and local tradition and culture. These ideas were disseminated widely and a great percentage of the population had access to them. This could be a reason for the non-violent revolutions.

Continue reading Notes from Kenny “A Carnival of Revolution”

Map research

GIS and Google:

GIS would be a bit complex for this project. It is mainly used for displaying geographic data (ie. population density, economic diversity, elevation changes, etc), rather than pinpointing an items’ location.  While GIS does make some really cool maps, it is beyond the scope and needs of this internship.

Google maps, on the other hand, are more in line with things we would like to do. There are already many similar applications found throughout the web. Some examples are “home grown” at CHNM, like the Hurricane Archive, and 911 archive.

The deciding factors will be the options that work best for our needs (which are outlined in a previous post).

Discussion of Stokes The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Why did communism fall?

Some points Mills and I discussed:

  • People were fed up with many aspects of life and began to support the dissidents.
  • Gorbachev began changes in the Soviet Union and allowed and encouraged changes in other communist countries.
  • Economic issues. All countries were in debt.
  • The government could no longer afford to support the fictional deal.
  • Regime supports the people with health care, housing, work, etc, and the people give up liberties. Once the basic needs were not being met, it was no longer worth living without liberties.
  • Reagan – noticed it was an economic issue and out spent the Soviets in the arms race.
  • Soviets and all countries just didn’t have he resources and money to support their ideals.

In regards to the website:

  • We talked about what kind of maps are available (GIS, Google, Flash).
  • Keep a national narrative.
  • Make the application personable. Users able to select their own sources and be able to view them geographically.
  • Also have sources which apply and are viewable under umbrella issues.
  • Students should have the ability to select their own sources and view those sources on a map.

First meeting

I met with Mills to discuss the scope and hope of the project. Basically, I’m going to try to create a map and timeline interface for the website and the objects. When a user of the site selects the objects, they’ll be able to view them on a map and timeline. The initial thought is to use Google Maps and the Similie Timeline.

Mills also gave me a couple of books to read to help me understand the history of the fall of communism.  I’ll meet with Mills a couple of more times to discuss the books, and many more times after that (I’m sure) to discuss the progress of the maps and timelines.

I’m excited for this project/internship. Not only does it complete my MA in History, but it’s a great way to combine my love of history and web stuff.  Usually I spend a lot of time on the web stuff, and not much on the history side of things. I’m hoping I’ll have time to focus on some historical analysis and interpretation too.

Paradigms of Humanities and Medicators

Dan Cohen has a description of a recent conference about the humanities and their use of modern technology. In the post he shows that the whole aspect of scholars in the humanities requires a paradigm shift, but also mentions another paradigm shift that happened in the field of medicine. This was the efforts of Dr. John Snow in London during the cholera outbreak in the mid nineteenth century.

Continue reading Paradigms of Humanities and Medicators