technology

John Updike's Disks

This Chronicle article examines the challenges faced in all of our human archives - what to do with all of the digital records of our existence. We're struggling with this on the ACERA committee on the federal record level but it impacts us down to teach individual. I kept a journal that was actually too detailed through my late teenage years but the record of my life for more than the last decade are the emails I've sent to my friend I met via H-Net online that have been authored in more than one email program. I've purposely stayed away from Outlook and Outlook Express because of the viruses. But I'm not sure anyone will ever be able to open my Pegasus Mail (if there is any one out there that would ever want to, that is . . . ) The article explores the work taking place at the University of Maryland's Institute for Technology in the Humanities. Furthermore, the author asserts how important for us to know how a particular individual did their writing since it's often no longer comparing and contrasting the rough drafts. With modern writers, how many ideas are on their first generation Blackberry we would already have trouble accessing? We keep records in so many different places, how will we reconcile and understand these multiple inputs? On another front, I'm enjoying a crisp spring day before it rains on the Easter Bunny.

Simpler technology: photography and the presidency

The New York Times has a retrospective of the outgoing presidential administration that worth's a look.

Wikipedia and Obama

Northwest Larry has an excellent post about the "activities" surrounding the Obama wikipedia entry on inauguration day. The history of the history is continuing to take place faster and faster . . .

Revolution, Facebook Style

The New York Times Magazine has an article exploring a political use of Facebook in the Middle East.

"see the website, buy the book"

The New York Times had an article about the role that companion websites play in promoting books.

Inaugural Word Clouds

The New York Times posted an interesting word cloud analysis of inaugural speeches throughout history. You can check it out here. (free subscription may be rquired)

Design Matters

Dan Cohen takes an insightful look at the issue of the importance of design to effective communication.

Digital Humanities Conferences in June 2009

George Mason University and the Center for History and New Media are once again hosting THAT camp and are "aligning" it with the Digital Humanities 2009 conference at the University of Maryland. More information about both can be found here.

2008 election results and maps and technology

Interesting use of technology and, as the author points out, it's important to note that it's not a causal effect but, instead, correlational.

Google and out-of-print books

This is certainly good news - especially for those of us who are history types . .