For this exercise I chose to do an image overlay for the Thousand Islands, NY.  This region contains significant family history for me.  It is the area where my grandfather and his family grew up during the Great Depression.  My great aunt, my grandfather’s sister, had her eye on one of the islands for years and eventually purchased it.  When she passed away about 10 years ago, she left it to my father and our family.  Our little paradise “Shady Nook,” is still listed on Google Maps under it’s prior name “Holiday Island.”  The map overlay is a map of Alexandria Bay from 1903, reprinted in 1908.  Overall, the map matched up rather well.  Doing this exercise reinforced the idea that maps and charts vary greatly, and when utilizing these resources for purposes such as our digital history project, and that the resources we chose must best suit the purpose.

I highly enjoyed reading Thomas and Ayer’s “The Difference Slavery Made: A Close Analysis of Two American Communities.”  This article is an exemplary example of the benefits/limitations of digital history as well as how various techniques and methods are utilized to enhance the overall display and content.  In other words, they have put theory into practice. Thomas and Ayers used digitization to examine the role of slavery in the Civil War.  By digitizing they were able to evaluate various historical sources and combine them to evaluate the accuracy of historical accounts and draw new conclusions.

In the Presentation section of the website the authors discuss the background of digital history, noting key persons who impacted the movement in order to support why and how they approach digital history, and also the continuing challenges.  They provide useful information both those who create and those who utilize such pages, viewing digitization as a prism:

“We expect readers to turn its refracting light into new arrays of knowledge and material.”

Digitization as opposed to the old methods increases the ability of readers and scholars to get involved in the academic process.  Before digitization historical documents and textbooks were often filled with bias or inaccurate interpretations.  The ability to access and assess historical information digitally creates the possibility of easily comparing multiple sources and composing the information in a new way to draw new conclusions.  The author’s intellectual and methodical process is available to others to not only view, but involve themselves in the process.

Strengths of the website:

• establish intention, purpose, and credibility
• describes scientific method
• easy to use
• well organized
• working links
• charts, maps, and tables
• extensive metadata
• well cited

Almost anyone who knows how to use a computer is aware that issues exist with hackers and internet security, but nobody thinks it will happen to them.  What most people are not aware of is just how easy it is for other people to gain access to their personal information.  Mat Honan’s story calls our attention to the shortcomings, both of users and of companies, in internet security.

What I found especially concerning is that Amazon and Apple, two of the largest companies, have fallen short of the premiere service that is expected as such successful companies. I was especially surprised to see this from Apple.  Apple is known for it’s cutting edge technology and also for being less vulnerable to viruses.  It seems to me they should have spent more money doing research on how to improve the security of their programs and products.

In a world where everything is becoming more and more reliant on digital technology we must become more concerned with the risks associated. Mr. Honan was correct in his conclusion that it is both his fault and failure of such systems to maintain strong security systems.  It can be annoying to fill out numerous security questions, use different usernames and password for different logins, keep programs up to date, and remember all of this information.  I know I myself have been very lazy in keeping up with program updates and scans.  My former laptop actually almost broke down because of that.  After my mom’s friend worked on it he gave me a page he had written of instructions on what needed to be done and when to best maintain and protect my computer.

This week’s exercise asked us do a reflection on our personal security practices.  After reading Mat Mohan’s story, I honestly do not feel comfortable confessing my bad habits via blog.  There is no way I could be sure that someone else would not use these things as an advantage.  I will say that I went through George Mason’s computer security information and went through the steps on there to improve my computer’s security. Let’s just say after these readings I plan on making several technical and habitual changes.

The Archive Team is a project unlike any I have ever come across.  My initial reaction to this was that their practices could no way be legal.  However, the more I think about the Archive Team’s mission and process the more accepting I have become that this may not be such a bad thing.  From what I can tell the site does not legally violate any copyright laws.

The team begins saving files from websites that are about to shut down, but do not reproduce them until the website has been taken offline.  This seems to me the most significant factor in determining whether or not the project commits copyright infringement. When the site is taken offline the copyright laws no longer stands.  These archives consist of posts written directly by the site members/subscribers who are not personally protected by copyright if the forum is taken offline.  Copyright only protects forum itself from being reproduced.

Some individuals would feel this is an invasion of their personal work.  However, they do not realize the rights they have and do not have when posting on public forums.  This is one of the reason why understanding digital history (both ancient and modern) is so important.  People need to understand how it works, their rights, and the rights of others.

On the website’s homepage states that the goal of the site is to preserve the history which will be taken off the web.  They encourage others to become an active part of the project.  I love the idea of the community coming together in the digital world to preserve and create history.  This archive not only allows original works which are being threatened from being lost to continue to be viewed by others, but can be a great help for individuals who lose their own work if it is not backed up in another location when the forum is taken offline.

Note: I did a little research to see if there had been any copyright accusations thrown at the Archive team.  As far as I could tell, there were not legal accusations.

The Copyright Criminals documentary and The Amen Break recording are two useful tools for understanding what sampling is and how copyright comes into play in the sampling process.

The Amen Break video I found to be interesting in terms of content, but rather boring in presentation.  The video was dry, containing limited imagery and I felt the tone was rather monotone.  However, it may have been intended to be this way so that the audience was sure to listen to the message and not distracted by imagery.  It’s strengths lie in the number of songs referenced involving the “6 second clip” of the Amen Break over decades, the explanation of how sampling evolved, and the complications involved.  I found the following statement to be of great insight into the issue:

“To trace the history of the Amen Break is to trace the history of a brief period of time when it seemed digital tools offered a potentially unlimited amount of new forms of expression.  Where cultural production, at least musically, was full of possibilities by virtue of being able to freely appropriate from the musical past to make new combinations, thus new meanings.”

Copyright criminals tapped into this idea of created something new of something old to better suit the current generation.  It creates a type of nostalgia of what was great in the past in a modern way.  It was interesting to learn how sampling evolved and when/how copyright really became a huge concern.  I enjoyed listening to all of the experts talk about the issue of copyright, even if I did not agree with all of them.  One producer mentioned that sampling is cheap, lazy, and easy.  I think there is some truth to this, but not much.  This man comes from a background of instrumental music, naturally it is likely he frowns upon electronic music relying mainly on turn tables and samplers.  Some tracks could be considered cheap or lazy if they lack creativity or are not well executed.  However, I think to sample a track and make it your own to the point of an entirely new masterpiece which has a slim foundation of a sampled song is neither easy or lazy.  The amount of imagination and work required to master a sample and create a track of one’s own I feel is as much work as created an instrumental track, just the approach is different.

In fashion, music, and methods styles come and go.  For example, the resurface bell bottoms in the 1990s or skinny jeans in the last few years.  They are not quite the same as they once were- bell bottoms in the 90s tended to be not as wide, but resembled the same thing.  Music does the same thing by taking an old idea of sound and giving it a modern spin.  It makes no sense to me that reproducing someone’s entire song can get you in less trouble than using a 3 second segment.  I would have liked to know more detail about the legal process of copyright.  I do think that the original artists should receive credit for the sample, but the question becomes what should be considered copyright infringement?  A 3 second piece?  A segment that has been altered beyond recognition?  If it has been altered that much, is it still copyright?

The last thing I wanted to mention is that sampling does not always involve using other people’s music.  I visited a friend at Berklee School of Music in Boston who’s roommate had just gotten a sampler and we walked around the city just sampling random noises.  You can sample the sound of a door closing, a soda pop opening, or almost any sound.

If you’d like to see someone who combines sampling, layering, beat boxing, and the majority of his own material check out Beardyman.  All of his composition is done right in front of you and fascinating to watch.  He makes it look effortless, but I don’t think any of us could rightfully call it easy or lazy.

At first glance, I thought this assignment would be much more simple than it turned out to be.  My efforts, findings, and frustration are listed below.

1) An op-ed on a labor dispute involving public school teachers from before 1970

I began my search for this topic on JSTOR in the Advanced Search section.  I searched: teacher labor ~dispute AND public school, Narrow by –> Publication date –> To: 1970, Sort by: Relevance.

The search provided an overwhelming number of items. Many of the items came from publications such as law review, education reviews, education committees, or were summaries rather than op-ed pieces.  I had trouble figuring out if there was a way to narrow down the results to solely op-ed pieces, but found no clear answer.  Putting “Op-ed” in the search box left me with only one result.  I further adjusted the search through NARROW SEARCH BY DISCIPLINE AND/OR PUBLICATION TITLE: Education (only).  I received better results than I did previously, but still had to filter through the results to find what I was looking for.

An example of an item I found which satisfied the search was Albert Shenker’s 1969 piece “The Real Meaning of the New York City Teacher’s Strike.”  Shenker is a former school teacher who addresses his thoughts and criticism over the issue of “decentralization” of schools in New York.  He mentions specifically teacher strikes in 1958 and 1967 primarily over race and ethnicity.

2) The first documented use of solar power in the United States

I found this search to be the most challenging.  I started on JSTOR by searching “solar power” AND “United Sates,” narrow by oldest to newest.  After searching through pages and pages, I found very little.  I decided to do a Google search to get an idea of the time frame I should be looking for, and found 1904 to be a promising date.  I narrowed the search to start at 1850, and still found very little.  The only thing I really found was talk of solar research, no definite use of solar power in the United States.

Next I browsed ProQuest Historical Newspapers.  “First solar power use” came up as an  associated search.  Again, I sorted from oldest to newest.  I also narrowed the document type to include only articles, front page/cover stories, and general information. This time I found something! An article from 1903 from the Chicago Tribune entitled “Power From the Light of the Sun.” Which mentioned the success of a solar powered motor in Boston.

3) The best resource for the history of California ballot initiatives, including voting data

I found some results in ProGuest Statistical Insight by searching “California ballot initiatives.” I also narrowed it to list only results involving “California.” The California Office of the Secretary of State yielded the most valid results.  However, it did not provide the full document for viewing.

Searching the same under Books/Media on the GMU Library’s website yielded less promising results.

Next I browsed the databases by subject.  Govsearch looked promising, but the search boxes were not user friendly in terms of doing a basic search, and the specifics did not seem to fit what I wanted to search for.

Lastly, I browsed LexisNexis State Capital, which looked promising, but the database was currently unavailable. A problem I have run into several times while doing research for this course.

(Assignment given by Dan Cohen, Professor at George Mason University, Fall 2011)

Introduction

 Since the emergence of the World Wide Web several decades ago, technology has prospered significantly in terms of both purpose and efficiency.  For the purpose of this blog post and the week three requirements outlined as a part of George Mason University’s HIST390 course I will be focusing on how digital opportunity has contributed to our ability to preserve and explore history, and the pros and cons associated with this.

Preserving History

There are a variety of tools which available to convert a historical item from its original form into a digital representation.  Chapter 3 of Cohen and Rosenzwieg’s Digital History explains techniques and machinery used to covert text, audio, video, or images depend on the desired result, intention, resources, and budget.  Some of these tools include:

• Automatic sheet feeder
• Flatbed scanner
• Microfilm scanner
• Turntable
• VCR

My Research Experience

Researching historical events through digital archives and databases is something I didn’t experience until college.  I have taken classes at both James Madison University and George Mason University and have had the wonderful opportunity to access and familiarize myself with a range of databases accessible via student login on the University website.  Although tackling the online research databases was overwhelming at first, the University has done a good job of teaching me how to use it through practice for a variety of subjects.  I think it is amazing that students have access to such materials, which for the average person could cost any range of viewing of membership fees.

Prior to this course I had some experience with programs such as LexusNexus, Academic Search Complete, and JSTOR.  For this assignment I explored an archive I was less familiar with, ProQuest Historical Newspaper.   I decided to start my search my entering “CIA secrets” in the basic search box.  The search yielded 46,605 results, so it was time to narrow it down.  Taking a course on the anthropology of drugs last year motivated me to research a topic we discussed lightly, controversy of the CIA conducting experiments involving LSD.  Entering a search for “CIA LSD” yielded a fraction of results in comparison to the prior search.  Although there were hundreds to explore, they were much easier to sort through in terms of relevancy.  Practice in using such databases helps us to be more efficient researchers.  Such programs are becoming increasingly user friendly and accessible.  One of the issues we discussed in class is the question of authenticity.  I would like to learn more about the process these items must go through to be approved for online use.

Above is a screen capture taken from my search.  The image was saved in PNG format, which is somewhat hard to see. I tried saving the image as a JPEG, but when I attempted to upload the image it would stop at 58%.  This is an example of how formatting can affect the usefulness of digital items.  However, the primary point I hoped to make with this image is that databases use lists and sublists to assist users in conducting a more defined search.  On the right hand side of the page, the user can choose to narrow their results based on:

1. Publication type
2. Document type
3. Tags
4. Data base
5. Publication date

I entered this class knowing very little about how computers work on the inside.  I personally found this article rather difficult to comprehend.  I took very little out of it aside from the idea that computer systems, especially things such as word processing systems, should be designed to be more user friendly.  I was incredibly lost in the detail and logistics the types of programs, files, etc. which were described.  My confusion, however, seems testimony to the need for more simplistic systems.  The use of figures proved of little help- I would have liked to see the figures contain actual examples so that I could make the connections myself rather than relying on numbers.

Reading this publication nearly 50 years after it’s publication it is amazing to see how many of the ideas have been put into affect.  As I write this blog, I utilize many of the strategies outlined in the work. Some examples include:

• Cut, copy, and paste
• Draft, edit
• Duplicate, annotate
• Organize, rearrange
• Create lists

Nelson hit the nail on the head when he said: 

“Despite this file’s adaptability to complex purposes, it has the advantage of being conceptually very simple. Its structure is complete, closed, and unified as a concept. This is its psychological virtue. Its use can be easily taught to people who do not understand computers. We can use it to try out combinations that interest us, to make alternatives clear in their details and relationships, to keep track of developments as they occur, to sketch things we know, like or currently require; and it will stand by for modifications. It can be extended for all sorts of purposes, and implemented or incorporated in any pro- gramming language.”

In addition to this statement, Nelson speaks of the benefits of such systems in the realms of educational use.  Computer programming now allows virtually anyone with access to a computer the conduct research on topics- whether it is to do background research, publish one’s own, or continue where someone left off.  One can use these resources to prove, disprove, or build on prior theories or knowledge.  It provides access to a better understanding of that which we study, so that the same work need not be done twice, and so that we may advance through thought, theory, design, or practice.

Nelson’s mentions that what users see on a computer is seems rather simple, but what goes on beneath the surface is quite complex.  I am interested in learning more about the technicalities of how these things work, but also quite intimidated.  To be honest, it is hard to be motivated to learn the technicalities of something so complex which has been dumbed down enough to the point that the general public generally does not need to know what goes on underneath… but I am also excited.  In a day when technology continues to play an exceedingly important part, both for business and pleasure, it is time for us to get up to speed with the latest uses and capabilities.

It took me a day of reflecting after reading Vannevar Bush’s article “As We May Think” to truly appreciate it.  I made the mistake of not carefully looking at the article citation before reading it.  It was not until I was about a third of the way through that I realized the article surfaced before technology truly started to flourish.

1945 marked the end of World War II, a war which crucially facilitated the advancement of defense technology.  After speaking with my parents about the article and the time which it was written, I learned that the radar and the atomic bomb both emerged during the war. These technologies changed not only the face of war, but life as we know it.  Much of the technology we have today was originally driven by defense purposes but now is available for every day uses.

The article foreshadows the development of machinery and technology such as laptops, HD cameras and video equipment, digital databases, record keeping, accounting, credit cards, and much more.  It is amazing to think that such ideas have been in the making for decades before becoming a reality.

Bush mentions the convenience of having such resources available- the ability to save time, space, and manpower.  On the downside, he states how expensive it is to produce such technologies.  Decades later, we can see that the concept of supply and demand has come into play by driving the availability up and the cost down.  We see 8 year old children with their own cell phones, gaming systems, even iPads and laptops.  As with any new invention, these projects take a lot of time, resources, and funding to start up. However, once completed, can change the lives of many people for better or for worse.

I think there is something to be said about the fact that he mentions technologies and research are available to people who do not necessarily have enough understanding of the concepts to be able to use the to their full potential.  I think of the plethora of information and technology available to us it both a blessing and a curse.  The internet, television, and other devices expose us to all kinds of things.  Some people truly believe everything they read on the internet and do not consider the source, or further investigate the source.  I can say from personal experience that in doing research papers I have read articles to help support my point, but have not always done my research to the fullest extent in the sense of finding out more about the author and the validity, background, or context, of the citations used.

Technology has given us the benefit of having a ton of knowledge at our finger tips.  I feel that this drives some people to learn more, expand more, and create more.  But for others, it makes them lazy- stuck in from of the screen playing computer games, checking Facebook, and doing rather mindless activity.  Lastly, technology has made it possible for individuals to access their email, bank accounts, calendar, and books through a single device, but I still feel there is something to be said for the old fashioned way of doing things.  I have an iPad, laptop, smart phone, etc., but still print my articles or buy the hard copies of textbooks from home so I can write in the margins.  I feel I learn better that way.  I also still keep a date book aside from my phone.  Maybe it is because I am not “up-to-date” on how to effectively use the technology, but I think it is important not to rely wholeheartedly on these devices, because something could always backfire.