Filed under: Website Evaluation
The question posed for this week is whether the sites before us deliver “the promise of digital history.” Quickly mentioning what digital history is meant to be is most easily understood as a scholarly work which could not be confinded in the traditional media of a book and utilize as much of the tools the internet has to offer.
The sites we wish to explore are The Difference Slavery Made, Images of the French Revolution, and (for my choice) Los Angeles and the Problem of Urban Historical Knowledge. Each a piece of digital scholarly work in a form similar to that of a journal article but offers much more to the reader. As Thomas and Ayers point out in their overview they were attepting to break out of the neat printed box and expose and greater exposure of the sources used to create it. Much of the Thomas/Ayers site takes the form of an ordinary article but offers a long list of “Evidence” taking the forms of maps, table, graphs, etc. that the reader can follow with the article or deduce their own interpretations of the data. Other digital accomplishments include links to synopsis and excerpts of others work such as James McPherson’s Ordeal by Fire.
The Censer and hunt site (Images of the French Revoltuion) Takes a different approach to the use of digital scholarship but also exposes how some things don’t necessarily have to change. The site offers several essays exploring Revolutionary images before the site’s image database creation. all of the articles are digitally updated usinganchors for citations so the reader can immediately jump to a footnote. Within these notes might contain a link to a broader, more in depth view of the source provided. Probably the most interesting addition is the online forum so the authors can add to their work or comment on someone elses. This is a practice I have come to recognize in journal articles of authors responding to criticism. But where as that process could take months, the online forum offers instant, real0time communtary on works of this kind.
In the last example of digital scholrship we see a site which clearly does not have the same kind of financial resources that the previous two do, but none the less still attempts to utilize what the web has to offer the reader. Los Angeles and the Problem of Urban Historical Knowledge struggles with the goal of assessing the claim of LA as “metonymic for the entire course of human history.” The site’s author Philip Ethington stresses the importance of maps and spacial issues, making the web an idea outlet for exposure of such analysis. Similar to the French Revolution and Slavery site, footnotes are linked for instantanious viewing. Links to maps and other evidence is placed throughout the essay. This form of digital history is ‘primative’ in comparison to the other sites but deserves recognition for its attempts at lofty goals. It is filled with digital images, both moving and interactive that cannot simply be printed on a page. Even if the site looks amateur it still falls well within the promise of digital history.
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