Some Neat Blogs...

I tried to finish up last weeks assignment by commenting on the blogs I found, however, I have discovered that my office computer does not like it when I comment. By that, I mean, my office computer will not load the comment page. Annoying.

So! I shall discuss these two blogs I found. The one I am most excited about is: THE HISTORY CHEF! This blog combines two of my loves in life: cooking and history. What this site does is very clever. it starts off with a famous character in history, such as George Washingtion. Then the blog tells a familiar or not-so-familiar story about that person, such as U.S. Grant's tendency to roll his bread into little "cannons" to fling at his children during family meals. Then the blog offers up a recipe of the story or of the time period translated to today (Cherry Pie, Rice Pudding, etc.) Finally, the blog gives you a "food fact"! It's either something silly and historical or nutritional. Check it out!!

The second blog I chose was out of topic. I wanted to see how a museum professional might set up a blog about museum work. However, every blog I found was discontinued or not a blog at all. The first I came across was: The working life of Museum of London. The title isn't catchy (but let's face it, after "THE HISTORY CHEF!" any title would look dull!) and the layout of the site reflects that. It's pretty plain and if you aren't interested in preservation techniques, I wouldn't recommend visiting. The site it very much geared towards professionals seeking situational advice. While this is fascinating and helpful to me or someone else who is interested in/working in the field, it's not snazzy or entertaining.

My overall critique should be pretty obvious. If not, I will reiterate it. I think entertainment and pizazz are important in creating a blog with the intention of reaching a lot of people. History is fun! Your blog should reflect that!

How the Washington & Jefferson College Website Changed Since 1997

I was amazed at how simple and plain the Washington & Jefferson College website was when it was first created in 1997. First of all, isn’t that a bit late in the “Internet boom” for a website to start up? I suppose W&J has always been a little old fashioned.

Despite being plain, at least the title of “Washington & Jefferson College” was read, which reflects what is now our school colors (black and red).

By 2000, you start to see some structure and links to information. Our school logo was in use in 2000, which is surprising to me given how freely UNCC has changed their logos over time. But, like I mentioned before, W&J has always been old fashioned and nostalgic.

I jumped ahead six years and found a very familiar-looking website! Finally, some normalcy that I can relate to! The background is read in 2006, which must mean that the people developing the website were doing more fancy tricks and such. The accents were black. And of course, out logo of Old Main is prominent.

In 2011, my last year at W&J, the red background faded to white and the body of the website was gray. Since I’ve been gone, I suppose the folks in IT got creative. I checked what the website looked like today (August 29, 2012) and the red background is gone! The traditional lettering of the logo was also gone! It’s replaces with calligraphy lettering with the school crest in the background. There is a lot more gray with red lettering.

I would say overall that the change has been significant and dramatic. The inclusion of color and more complicated links by the 2000s only took a few years to achieve. Since then, the site became more and more elaborate with shifting pictures of activities on campus, more news and events are listed, and far more detail has been put into the links, labels, photos, graphics, backgrounds, and even the logo!

If you would like to see for yourself, here is a link to the WayBack. Don’t worry, I already plugged in W&J’s website for you!

http://wayback.archive.org/web/19970701000000*/http://www.washjeff.edu/

Enjoy!

Resisting the Internet is Futile

I admit that I was reluctant to open myself up to the concept of online exhibitions being as good as or better than a physical exhibit in a museum (or anywhere else, for that matter). When I started reading for this week, I was particularly defensive when I opened Creating a Winning Online Exhibition.

The author, Martin R. Kalfatovic, made the point that 3D objects in online exhibits did not come across as well as they did in a physical exhibit. I thought, Well of course not! Physical exhibits give visitors a chance to be with an object of significance! You can’t mimic that online.

As I kept reading, however, my opinion shifted. I remembered the struggles that I faced during my internship this past summer. My boss, Annmarie, and I planned for and then set up a small fashion exhibit at the Cleveland County Mall. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, it was hard to adjust to such a limited space on a budget.

Our text was limited to one panel. The items we chose for display paired with labels had to tell the rest of the story. We were very proud of the exhibit we created, especially considering the limited budget and space. The downfall was that the items we chose were disconnected from one another and constructing a chronology of fashion for men and women from the late 19^th century into the mid 20^th century with four outfits and a dozen-odd accessories is just shy of impossible.

This reading opened my eyes to the limitless possibilities of this fashion exhibit on the Internet. Not only would we not be hindered by space, but we also could have chosen a lot more outfits to represent changing fashion into the 20^th century. We could have separated female fashions from male fashions in order for the audience to choose which fashion evolution to follow. The accessories might have been a category of their own as well. In addition, the story of changing fashion could have been constructed better and followed the various trends throughout the chronology. The possibilities are truly endless!

So while I still prefer to explore and create physical exhibits, I will remember this revelation years from now when I am making exhibits for a museum. Physical exhibits in museums and elsewhere do not have to be limited to exhibit spaces any longer. Visitors can see more, know more, explore more if Curators translate and expand their exhibits online.

This will bring an exhibit to people who cannot visit the museum, or become available to students. That’s the real purpose of museums: to reach and impact as many people as possible.

Researchers of the Future Will be Overwhelmed by Our Nonsense

I, like everyone I can think of (even my own mother!), spend time online. Often times it’s writing a status on Facebook, commenting on a new photograph, adding a new pin on Pinterest, sending an e-mail, or even buying a text book on Amazon. Every day I engage with the Internet and every day I am leaving a mark on the World Wide Web that will follow me for the rest of my life and beyond. It’s hard to remember that your every action and every word is recorded for eternity online. Stuart Fox’s “Digital Age Presents New Problems for Historians” reminded me of how public the Internet is.

One hundred or even two hundred years from today, a historian can look back on this blog post and study me—study this class! That is, of course, if he or she could track it down.

I think Fox has made some shocking predictions about the future of historians in this Digital Age. The way we approach subjects, such as the War of 1812, today will be completely different that how historians in the year 2212 look back on us in 2012. Historians will have to find a needle in a haystack. There will be too much information for historians exploring culture and society in 2012.

With these thousands—and even millions—of tweets, posts, comments, photographs, e-mails, and more, historians could write histories about people that today we would consider not worth remembering.

Everyone has a friend on Facebook that posts at least ten different statuses a day. The friend I am thinking of alerts her friends when she leaves the house, gets upset at a friend or stranger, makes food, feels bored, or goes to sleep. If Fox is correct (and I believe he makes some fascinating points) then people like this may be the subject of a social history, or even a biography.

It’s worth mentioning that the Internet will change more disciplines than just history. Sociology and psychology will also need to tap into Facebook and other social medias. They could answer questions such as “What percentage of the population in 2012 likes to vacuum?” by simply tapping into Facebook’s vast “liking” system.

Researchers of the distant future will have such a vast ocean of information that it is certain to be overwhelming.