Year: 2011

02/5/11

His-story

David Blight’s book, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, sounds extremely intriguing. He offers another view to the Civil War, and brings in the impact of African Americans. When we learn about the Civil War in school we are told a certain story, a story that usually omits certain truths. By reading this book one would gain a whole new prospective of our history. This book helps bring to light the power of written history, and the fact that history is just one person’s perspective about what happened at a certain time. No matter who is telling the event there will always be some bias. Everybody would benefit from reading such a book, because it shows us that what we learnt in the past might not be true. We all know that every person has his side of the story, and that when you put both sides together you usually get a story close to the real one. By bringing in the importance of African American’s in the Civil War we begin to learn about our history from a different lens.

An even that has many different viewpoints around the world is the United States’ bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. America and Japan each have a different memory of this event. In America’s mind they were just retaliating to the horrible attack at Pearl Harbor. America was minding their own business, and out of nowhere Japan decided to bomb our naval base. In the Japanese minds America is evil. They went too far, and it was uncalled for. They unleashed the first nuclear weapon, and they responded much harsher than they should have. These different viewpoints over the same event are obviously politically motivated. America wants to show that they are right, and that they were defending their homeland. On the other hand, Japan wants to show that America is a malevolent country, and that what they did has no justification.

02/4/11

Truth of a Nation

The voice of David Blight in the book Race and Reunion:The CIvil War in American Memory sparks certain interests in the history of the civil war because he attempts to uncover the truth to what many people try to leave behind. Many people seem to believe that slavery was not a big enough problem to have caused the division in such a powerful country. A number of people took enormous amounts of actions to make things right; some even risking their lives. Among those individuals were African Americans and those who were trying to aid in their emancipation. Blight does not overlook the heroism taken by African Americans during the Civil War. In fact, this is his central theme. Their roles ranged from fleeing from captivity in large numbers to fighting in the war for their freedom. Indeed slavery was the central problem and the cause; therefore Blight is able to bring this to the forefront in a tasteful manner and give credit to those forgotten.

Everyone would benefit from reading this book because we all should know the truth about what occurred in the past. In this day and age, people have a tendency to forget events as time moves on. Politics aids in this lack of memory by showing favoritism to certain races in America, predominately the white population. A prime example in this time was the event of Hurricane Katrina. This event was remembered in different ways by many people. The truth behind this devastating time was that aid took a long time to reach New Orleans because it was mostly populated by African Americans. Although some people would want to argue that the conditions were horrible therefore other plans had to be thought up in order for help to get into the state; others may argue that the president of the country was unaware of what was going on in the country he was running and there was no plan thought up in case of emergencies. Until this day, New Orleans is still not repaired to the beautiful lively area it once was; still leaving many African Americans homeless and forgotten.The book review sheds light on the fact that American History is very significant and all of the what may seem to be small details should be recognized because such events as Hurricane Katrina which happened many years after the Civil War will continue to occur and certain people will continue to be forgotten or left behind.

02/2/11

Assignment due 2/7

1) You are responsible for previous assignments, even if you are just joining the class.  See the “Assignments” tab on the course site for assignment details.

2) Read the book review at http://www.ericfoner.com/reviews/030401nytimes.html

3) Write a 1-2 paragraph post in response to the Eric Foner book review.  Give your post a unique title, and answer the following questions:
a) Does the David Blight book sound interesting to you?  Why or why not?  Who might benefit from reading it?
b) What does the book review tell you about the importance of historical memory?
c) Can you think of another example (in American or world history) of a shared experience that is remembered in many different ways?
d) Are the different memories politically motivated?

02/2/11

Cave Art, Papyrus, Paper, Books, Photography, Press, Television, Internet, Youtube, Twitter, WikiLeaks – one trend

From the historical point of view all the forms of new technology that help to pass on more information to the following generations are STRICTLY a positive thing. Just like the emergence of paper, then books and literature,  then photography, then press, then cinema, then television – each added a new crucial dimension of historical data  and helped us, posterior generation, to better understand and visualize our history.  Similarly the emergence of electronic databases, internet, twitter, wikileaks, youtube will help following generations to understand and assess their history and bear tremendous anthropological value.

So I think it is a very bright decision on the part of the US government to archive all public tweets. Likewise, the emergence of wikileaks is a good thing for us in the long run. All  the talks about privacy concerns are a natural reaction of humans to resist additional transparency,  which has always been the case.  And as always the pressure for more transparency will overcome the resistance, and will take its own, as it produces more understanding, more accountability, more integrity, more efficiency, more justice, more happiness for the mankind in the long run.

02/2/11

bang bang!

The evolution of the process in which we record history has been changing consistently throughout the centuries. As a society we have come from stone slabs to virtual systems that can practically think for themselves.  Historical evidence and events can now be stored faster, more organized and in an easily accessible manner.  New technology allows data basis to record information that without this technology would be impossible to even gather ( i.e. seismograms).  I think Luke makes a good  point “As anyone who’s done serious archival work before knows, you spend a whole lot of time digging through irrelevant material to find the gem that’ll be the center of your fourth chapter.”  I’m not even remotely sure how a twitter archive in the Library of Congress will help or even appeal to my future great grandchildren but hey, if we have the technology and space, why not?

WikeLeaks I feel is a very controversial way to obtain ‘evidence’ that you will later allow you to formulate your own opinion.  I do feel it is essential to the American people that they have a sense of comfort in having an outside source (that of besides government issued information) of documentation.  I also feel that it needs to be taken with a grain of salt.  K.C. Johnson states, “The WikiLeaks documents give at best an incomplete picture of recent U.S. foreign policy, and at worst will yield an inaccurate one.”  My only worries about this is that later historians will have flawed information, but then again history is always written by the victors.

02/2/11

Can History be Trusted?

History was written by people in power for all times, to see from a macroscopic perspective that things recorded in history are not necessarily to be the truth. Everything used to be written in paper and stored physically in library or some other places. There is no doubt that our history is selective. However for the last decades, due to the new technology, recording history seems to be easier than ever. All of news and posts can be archived electronically without limitations. This will give historians a way to archive a wider selection of current events and make a better vivid history. Billions of tweets will be archived at the Library of Congress, people’s random thoughts are now even in the history! For the most important part, if everything is archived through the internet, regulations can’t fully control what will be appear in the history. So now historians have all sources to create history which can be trusted!

Might not be too far form now, not only our tweets but everything we’ve done thought the internet will be archived. It is hard to imagine that our Facebook status, emails, and all our private information will someday be a part of history.  Historians can be overwhelmed by the humongous amount of information. And it rises another issue to historians, how to use these evidence? Are these all true?

02/2/11

When we become the past…

Internet is like Times Square.  People go online to shop, to socialize.  Social networks are just like clubs.  There are millions of people doing different activities online in every minutes.  It is difficult to keep personal information private because there is no law enforcement to protect the information.   The best way to protect the personal information is not to post too much personal information online.  According to the document, the government is taking records of people activities online for future reference.  Many people are worried about their privacy in future.  As I have stated, any information posted online should be expected to be view by others regardless of present or future.

Yesterday is our history.  Time is not waiting for us.  So as technology will not wait for us.  From radio to portable computers, technology has surpasses human working capacity in efficiency.  Everyday living is completely different from the past and future is definitely different from now.  Soon enough, everyone in this generation will become the history and study by the future historians.  It is very person’s option for leaving their information for the future.  Internet is just public.  People has the option to leave their trace behind for others to see.  Freedom is on people’s hand to control.  In this case, government is just like a recorder.

02/2/11

History and Transparency

Are we in a world of too much transparency, or too little has always been the question people have argued and debated. It seems like people like to pick and choose what they would like to know more about and what they would not like to get public. Many individuals preach privacy and the right to privacy as something which should be upheld and maintained for the sake of citizens, but why do we still seek transparency in issues where national security is involved? These issues time and time again are questioned and debated and there never seems to be a solution or one set decision on what should be done. Reading these two articles “Archiving Tweets” and “WikiLeaks and the Historical Community,” made this opinion of mine even stronger?

When it comes to our personal lives, we prefer and expect to have our privacy, but if we as individuals are comfortable enough to update every breathing second of our lives on social websites like twitter-we should not be concerned about the decison of Library of Congress’s to digitally archive public tweets. In today’s date, most individuals are machine driven, or technology driven. We always have access to the internet and social networking websited like twitter and facebook on our laptops, desktops and even cell phones!  We are constantly seen walking down streets balancing our walk and our typing speed on blackberry phone keypads. If this is the case, then it may certainly be a wise decision to record the behavior of humans and how they maintain a craze to have their voice heard and get noticed via these meduims of socialization. Historians may in fact come across a lot of jergen and incomprehensible tweets, but I would certainly agree with one of the commentators on the “Archiving Tweets” article, somewhere or another historians will find what they are looking for.

History is not something which remains constant and neither are the means in the way history is both taught and studied and read. If this is the case then technology has already started making the process for both historians and students different. We have more means of doing research and collecting data then we may have ever had before, in addition the ability to archive public human activity on the net, could help conclude on many other things concerning perhaphs human activity, performance, sociology and politics. The wikileaks incident dumped many government classified documents out in the public, whether this should be a national security concern within itself is very important to realize. Where do we find the balance between openness and secretcy? Who makes these decisions? Well I wish there was an easier way to find the answers to questions like these, however, incidents like these which happen once in a while do nothing to aid in answering these questions. I would have to agree with the author, K.C. Johnson, document dumps like this one only complicate the situation even more.

02/2/11

Technological Advantages

Observing past cultures based on what has been left behind by civilizations of past generations has been the bread and butter of modern day historians. By examining hieroglyphics, clothing, jewelry, and many more artifacts that have been uncovered, historians are able to learn more about these extinct societies and show how their traditions and culture has influenced ours.

The article “Archiving Tweets” By Lauren explained how the tweets of millions of people are being recorded and archived in the library of congress. This article raise’s the provocative questions of whether the idea of storing people’s tweets a good idea or not and what would be the purpose of it. In the article Luke defended the idea of recording tweets in order for our future historians to learn about our present day culture through our daily posts. I agree with Luke’s stand point that tweets should be recorded because even though the information recorded now about a man’s “failed attempt to make a toasted tomato sandwich” does not seem like much to us, that post connected with many other post may help historians a century down the line learn more about society in the early 21’st century.

02/2/11

How do you know me? Haha I follow you on Twitter

Technology is the dominating and yet damning factor in our time. It is responsible for our advancement as a civilization, the laid back lifestyle many lead and the primary source of information, whether that be for social or corporate matters. With this new technology comes new ways of gathering information on individuals. On twitter.com you may “follow” people of interest and stay up to date on their every typed out thought, regardless of the value of the information. The Library of Congress now records this information, and I think future historians may find both useful and useless information while studying these archives. For example any type of information, no matter how seemingly random, has a great deal of value under the right circumstances. Let’s say that 35 years from now a political science historian wants to search information on the issues of current times, they can view the recorded feed of a white house official and gather information. Let’s say a psychologist 35 years from now is studying relationships in the past, now that break up with your girlfriend is a primary source for their book. Information is always valuable if not now, then at some future point, even if at the time it seems to be a waste. If you think about it, Twitter is actually a time/date chronicled database of our thoughts, feelings, opinions and beliefs for the world to see. It is the digital file cabinet with “last name/ first name” that defines us.

In the case of WikiLeaks, information that was classified found its way out to the public, thus raising questions as to what we can actually believe that our government is feeding us. Examples given in the article reference the situation regarding, “the Gulf Arab states want forceful action against Iran”. While it has been a widely know thought, we have been told that the situation was more of an escalated dispute, with WikiLeaks, it’s confirmed that this situation is more of a harbinger of war type scenario. Future historians can review the way we, in the present time, react to learning about this information. They can then connect our thoughts, such as those posted on twitter, to how we may have actually reacted. Historians may also view the release of these documents as groundbreaking, and see the political aspect of how the government kept themselves together during these times.

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Technology is the dominating and yet damning factor in our time. It is responsible for our advancement as a civilization, the laid back lifestyle many lead and the primary source of information, whether that be for social or corporate matters. With this new technology comes new ways of gathering information on individuals. On twitter.com you may “follow” people of interest and stay up to date on their every typed out thought, regardless of the value of the information. The Library of Congress now records this information, and I think future historians may find both useful and useless information while studying these archives. For example any type of information, no matter how seemingly random, has a great deal of value under the right circumstances. Let’s say that 35 years from now a political science historian wants to search information on the issues of current times, they can view the recorded feed of a white house official and gather information. Let’s say a psychologist 35 years from now is studying relationships in the past, now that break up with your girlfriend is a primary source for their book. Information is always valuable if not now, then at some future point, even if at the time it seems to be a waste. If you think about it, Twitter is actually a time/date chronicled database of our thoughts, feelings, opinions and beliefs for the world to see. It is the digital file cabinet with “last name/ first name” that defines us.

In the case of Wikileaks, information that was classified found its way out to the public, thus raising questions as to what we can actually believe that our government is feeding us. Examples given in the article reference the situation regarding, “the Gulf Arab states want forceful action against Iran”. While it has been a widely know thought, we have been told that the situation was more of an escalted dispute, with wikileaks, it’s confirmed that this situation is more of a harbinger of war type scenario. Future historians can review the way we, in the present time, react to learning about this information. They can then connect our thoughts, such as those posted on twitter, to how we may have actually reacted. Historians may also view the release of these documents as groundbreaking, and see the political aspect of how the government kept themselves together during these times.

02/2/11

Your “NO PRIVACY” Afterlife

Back in the day, when there was no computer or any other technologies, historians had to collect the historic facts from the words of people or the heritage that has been preserved. Recently, the Library of Congress claims that they would “digitally archive every public tweet.”(Lauren) That means whatever you have post on Twitter, including pictures, videos, status, comments, will all be archived digitally in the Library of Congress. Like what Lauren mentions in his or her article “Archiving Tweets”, Twitter processes more than 50 million tweets every day, with the total numbering in the billions. Now the future historians will not need to dig through textbooks, all they have to do is to look at what the Library of Congress have digitally archived.

In the future, due to our new technology, historians will probably just get the information from the Library of Congress, and see what us, this generations have done. It is very different from the past. I remember for Chinese history, historians usually have to walk door to door to interview people who have been through any historic events. But since now, the Library of Congress has declared to archive digitally every public tweet; it is easier for future historians to get the information.

However, is everything on the Twitter relevant and true? Not really, and people will have NO PRIVACY at all. K.C. Johnson asks the question “How does the United States Government store its secrets? In shoeboxes?” If everything we have done will be observed by the government, then what about the secrets of the government, who will know the inside stories?  Finally, not only that we do not have our own privacy, it is also irrelevant to collect facts from Twitter.

02/2/11

Where’s The Line?

I do not see the point of archiving the billions of tweets on twitter in the library of congress.  If the intention is for historical purposes I would contend  that billions of tweets are too much to sift through to be historically relevant. Historians already have enough trouble sifting through the surplus of information out there.  It would be much more productive not logging the tweets themselves but rather the trending topics.  With the trending topics you can keep track of what the hot button issues of the times are. Seeing what the most searched topics are on search engines would also be a suitable tool for historians. Blog posts and things of that nature are much more formidable tools for historians and are all meant to be publicized.

My biggest problem with this though is the privacy issue.  Not so much so about the tweets but about where it made lead.  This could be the start of a troubling trend.  It seems like the government time and time again moves the line governing privacy closer and closer into our personal space.  This is the first step in a process that’s sure to get worse. We should learn from the Allie’s mistake in world war 2 and stop Hitler at Munich. We need to draw a line.

Line in the Sand

02/2/11

from the “deep” to “shallow”

The Library sees Twitter as a “technology change” in the way we communicate. Nowadays, technology as the primary productive force, advanced technology has brought many benefits to the people; the generation of Internet as well as a large scale to be used in human daily life, it greatly expanded the free space of activities and also brought more freedom and get rid of natural constraints. Online social networks such as Facebook, Aim, Msn, Twitter, and etc are currently very popular, however these modern platforms are supposed to provide services that bring people closer together but I believe it is actually doing the opposite due to how easily it is to utilize instant messaging services to chat instead of having a conversation face to face and sending an emoticon instead of a real smile or even a hug. I strongly believe that in-person experiences are far more memorable than anything a computer screen can deliver.  Nevertheless the emergence of the Internet does help expand the dimension of freedom of human behavior, developing human’s great potential; bring to mankind a far-reaching change.
I agree with some people that say this generation is doomed from the “deep” to “shallow” generation; this generation is the generation of the information revolution Oliver Twist; this generation is taking the last memory of life without the Internet generation.

02/2/11

Breaking Tweets: The New Media

We all have been historians in one way or another, researching data for a paper we need to write for history class, or any class for that matter. It was only just a decade ago when I had to go to a public library to look for old newpaper clippings. I remember vividly how I had to go to this one specific library that comprises Periodicals. Looking back at it now, I am very envious of future generations that could now gather much more information with just a few simple clicks.

There are no other time in the past where finding information would be as easy as today. Information travels as fast as a few seconds for your post to be updated on the web. The social media Twitter is the living proof to this testimony. In 2009, when Tiger Woods’ car crashed, the information was already being tweeted on Twitter for over 45 minutes before it even appeared on CNN or ESPN, which are consider the worldwide leaders in news in their respective fields. Twitter changes the way we live and how we access information. Twitter is only a valuable tool demonstrated by how the users chooses to ulitilize it.

Although there are a lot of debates on the issue about how the Library of Congress is archiving every public tweets, how the future historians choose to use these information determines the relevance and significance of this decision. I agreed that there are alot of irrelevant posts on twitter, but the value of this information as a whole is the challege that future historians face.

02/2/11

There is no “everyone” in PRIVACY, or is there?

We’ve come a long way from the strenuous and tedious handwritten recordings on paper. Entering the 21st century, the Internet era has completely taken over. The technology of computers and other electronics has not only become tools to enhance productivity but has become the way we live. People are constantly on the Internet looking for data, whether it is  information to help them on their project to even information on social networking sites to see what their friends new status is. Whatever it is you’re looking for, the Internet probably offers it. This is a huge step forward in information gathering. It helps not only everyday people but as well as historians whom are always sifting through loads of information. With that comes consequences as well. The access to information has become so easily attained that people have become reliant on technology and the Internet. People become mind boggled when something unexpected happens: like their phone running out of batteries. Also people do not appreciate the information attained when generations before people would die (exaggerated) for these information.

In addition, another issue rises. With sites like Twitter and Wikileaks being archived, people may feel that our privacy is taken away from us. Ultimately, that is the case. There really are no secrets on the Internet. Once it is posted on the Internet, there is no way of taking it back. With that, people need to start screening what they post if they don’t want their secrets being found. Nonetheless, the Internet still is a great aspect to our future.

02/2/11

tools for future

Since people invented computer, the speed of gathering information have go beyond people’s conceivability. It becomes easier for historians to gather information of historical evidence from internet and database than before. The article, Archiving Tweets by Lauren says that the library of congress digitally archive every public tweets. I think it is a good ways to historian search online. People may concern that is huge among of data need to process every day. However, it is not a problem because each piece of tweets can be valuable historical evidences for future. Therefore, Twitter leaves a valuable property for our future generation.
The other article is talking about Wiki Leak. Wiki Leaks dumps a lot of documents which have hidden by political interest. I personally believe that it is not right to hide things that happen around us. History is belong to human, so everyone should have right to know it. Wiki Leaks not only exposes historical documents to us, but also illuminate there are incalculable documents that we need to explore. As a result, Wiki Leaks can be alarm to prevent government hiding history.

02/2/11

Privacy….What Privacy?!

Uncle Sam must be out of his mind! He reads my emails, listens to my phone conversations and now he wants to record my Twitter post????

The government regulates almost every aspect of our lives in one way or another. Isn’t that enough? Twitter is a place where people vent, share useless information about everything and nothing, and what they are doing at the moment. Twitter for the most part is public and almost anyone can view a person’s tweet unless its private, which don’t happen often. Just cause one is willing to share a tweet like ” I am watching Zack and Cody !”  with the twitter world that does not mean they want a historian from the year 3000 reading it ! What happens on Twitter in 2011 stay on Twitter in 2011!

Technology keeps on developing and changing. This (forever being renewed) technology is providing evidence for future historians about our way of life during this present time in ways that we couldn’t even begin to imagine ten years ago. Its cool for current historians to find unique meaningful messages on walls of caves or tombs and other artifacts from centuries ago. Too bad for future historians it will be less cool because instead they will find an archive full of twitter messages stating what a person had for breakfast and “failed tomato sandwiches”. Thats not exactly the way I want the future to learn about the present.

TWEETS AS HISTORICAL EVIDENCE : FAIL !

Mind Your Business Uncle Sam !

02/2/11

Zeitgeist

At this fast pace of twenty first century, with the technology boom and the ubiquity of the internet, unprecedented paths have and are being trodden to sweep modern society by its feet.  Technology have changed the world  in almost every category in the past decades, from the way we  communicate to the way we commute. Nothing is bared, not even the way history is made and recorded!

Now a days one doesn’t have to raise a flag in revolution to make history, but just post a tweet on it and you might have millions on your side to join your cause! Also with the news of Library Congress’s decision to record every tweet made, it will provide historians another outlet to data mine for significant events to record it in their books  for our posterity. One might also be concerned about the privacy issue that the social media sites like Twitter might have, but it reminds me of a saying “If you want to keep a secret, you have to keep it from yourself”, I think its something we’ll just have to adjust to and be mindful of what we do online.

02/2/11

Hello Big Brother

Ever since the creation of technology, society has never looked back. We are so relient on techonological uses that society has all but lost the ability to think and function on our own.

Though it has been very helpful in our progression of life for it has given us the ability to “archive” our everyday lives. Cave walls, dirt, and maybe eventually even paper, is no longer needed to help document history. It is a great advancement and helpful to historians down the line who want to look back and be able to show history without having to dig through pounds of fragile artifacts.

In “Archiving  Tweets”  this sentence by Luke, “I believe (strongly) that control over the life of user-generated content should lie permanently with the user.”,is my thoughts exactly on the whole situation. I do not feel comfortable knowing that what I am writing on my personal blog is being archived in someone’s library. I am very big on being private. Its bad enough people have found ways to turn technology into ways to hack into the lives of others and destroy them but now we also have to worry about the government, historians, jobs, etc. To me there really is no “freedom of speech” so to say if we have to worry about when can I say what and who is watching and judging my thoughts.

Continue reading →

02/2/11

Historians are going to read our tweets? Seriously?

With the advent of a new technology as powerful and influential as the internet, many aspects of our lives will certainly change. In fact, many aspects of our social lives and daily routines have already changed by the rise of social network like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace. As always, the government will take action in accordance to our new social behaviors. Out of the many possible changes that they might take, archiving Tweets in the library of congress was definitely beyond many people’s imagination.

Okay, we have many questions with regard to this act. What is the benefit of filing Tweets? What is the downside? And is it cost-efficient to store a constant growing data base for indefinitely long? Well, as a result of this act, a massive amount of data and opinions from our common citizens will become available to historians and statisticians. Historians will then be able generate opinions and reach conclusions from a huge number of primary sources. This archive of daily comments of our common citizens is definitely powerful, geographically widespread, diverse, and enormous. Since twitters do record all sorts of events, our future historians will have no trouble in obtaining information on the public’s reaction to any events and any changes, whether they’re political, social, or economical.

Unfortunately, we might have huge issues if the historians use such system. This huge archive will share some of the same problems as the article on Wikileak had mentioned. The first problem would be: can the archive represent the general opinion? Realistically speaking, we probably do not have an optimistic answer for this question. Reading tweets that are focused on a certain issue is equivalent to extracting a specific population of people out of the whole. Without a doubt, not all Americans tweet, and not all twitters are prone to tweet about certain topics because many will choose to stay silent. Moreover, even for those who have tweeted, they would had probably wrote about 1 sentence of random thought on the topic; they would probably not bother to write an essay to completely express their thoughts on the issue. Due to all the reasons above, taking account of the tweets on the internet would be equivalent to recording the one random thought of the people who tweet and decide to tweet. Under such conditions, our archive of tweets would provide questionable contents and inaccurate reflection of our society. Many people’s voice would not be heard, and for those that are heard, their opinions have a high chance of being incomplete, inaccurate, and thus insignificant.

As such, allowing future historians to write their papers based on this archive might not be a great thing for the sake of recording and educating the next generation. This change in history-recording may not be going to the right direction. And let’s not forget about the costs. Is it beneficial to keep an enormous and constantly growing database of selective and incomplete opinions? Well, there could be other uses for such database. If America were a totalitarian state, this archive could become a handy tool to blacklist the citizens with anti-government views.