Category: May 18 Assignment

05/20/11

9/11 Archives

I personally like the concept behind the 9/11 digital archive, honoring and remembering the victims that died that day. I agree with Jonathan on many aspects, I like the idea that people can post memories about their experiences on 9/11, but I find it less sincere in some aspects when I see someone post a picture of themselves from a trip they took to New York 20 years ago in front of the towers and then saying I feel your pain. The fact is that unless they were in the area or knew someone who was in there on 9/11, you really can feel the way we did. Being in New York all my life, I personally don’t like the fact that Ground Zero has become a tourist site, I think that is just wrong. I do however like the fact that people care enough that they do post about it, I just wish there was a separate section they could do it in. I also like the fact that the archive is filtered enough for spam, which shows a genuine concern and passion about remembering those who died.

I think one thing the site could use is a digital memorial, such as the names and pictures of the people who died there that day. I think that those people should have their own section, and only friends and family of those people should be able to post there, perhaps directly under the pictures. I also think the photos should be organized into specific photo albums depending on what the pictures are about. Overall I really do like this site and I’m glad something like it exists.

05/18/11

September 11 Archieve

September 11 digital archive is a good way to show the events that happend on that day. I like that the website is a pretty much has anything you need to know about 9/11 from people’s personal stories. I didn’t like that the website is based only on personal opinions and does not talk about the facts, you can not find a good explanation of that event.

For the future historian, the website overall is good and useful. The site includes stories, images, emails, documents, sounds, and videos of 9/11. This site will help the future historian to include their personal information or image about the event. Also if they have questions,they can email them. So,i think the site is useful for them.

05/18/11

Big Brother FCC

 

 

 

Is it really even possible to regulate the internet?  Apparently it’s been attempted by the Federal Communications Commission back in 2010 to have the internet categorized as a telecommunication service instead of an information service provider.  Changing how it is labeled, changes the laws that it falls under and would finally change how it is administrated.  This would in effect would basically give the FCC a huge promotion in managing and supervising the internet.  This is an audio from NPR and the transcripts between Democratic Commissioner Micheal Copps and Bob Garfield, the disk jokey.

http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/12/24/02

 

In 1997 the US government passed the No Electronic Theft Act.  This enabled criminal prosecution of any person that was found guilty of illegally dispensing copies of pirated software.  This modified the previous law that did not carry the right to charge anyone, no matter how large the scale of  piracy, of a crime.  Ten years later, I still don’t really see the affect of this law except that the average person has just become more computer savvy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NET_Act

 

 

 

 

http://www.gallup.com/poll/123101/americans-likely-say-government-doing-too-much.aspx

This is just an article of how Americans are getting sick of all the new government regulations.

05/18/11

September 11 Archive

I think the September 11 Archive is a good place for finding information about September 11. When I first time entered the website, overall the site was simplicity and brevity. I think this is the strengths of the website. Also, this website provides diverse information about September 11, and everyone can contribute the source, which I think to be the weakness because we do not know which is true or false, but we still can get a lot of public voices about the topic. During the experience, I was like the special collections. There are some links really useful and having huge information in the special collections.

For the future historian, the website had a lot of primary sources and secondary sources about the event, so this will help the future historian gather information which includes stories, images, emails, documents, sounds, and videos of September 11. Overall, this website is useful and recommended for researching the event of September 11.

05/17/11

The September 11 Digital Archive

After going through the 9/11 Digital Archive website, I found it pretty easy to use. The moment I saw the homepage it looked very organized. When you read the homepage it gives you a brief description of the website. One strong point of the website is that it explains a few of the many tabs that they have on the website. To me the strongest point is the organization. If I wanted to fine stories, or images, instead of me having to go search all I have to do is click on the Browse tab. To be honest I don’t really think there is any weakness to the website. It has a lot of information that is well organized, the interface is very simple and easy to figure out, overall the website is easy to use.

For future historians the website can be very useful. By going through the website they can obviously learn about the history of 9/11 but they can also learn about the people. With the many stories on the website it can give historians information on how 9/11 affected the people. The website also has a vast amount of images, videos, facts, and many more to help historians learn about 9/11.

05/17/11

Digit-all Archive

From the first second that I went on the 9/11 website, I found it very simple to use. When you land on the homepage, you can see different bookmarks lined up horizontally on the top of the page. These bookmarks truly break down the different sections of the website. As one can see anybody is able to browse, research, or contribute to this site. This is definitely one of the strengths of this site. For example if I want to browse through hundreds of thousands of documents, I can simply click on the browse button. From there one is able to filter out what they want to see based on either images, email, stories, etc. The research portion of the website helps people research archives and other documents about 9/11. It makes everything very simple. Contributing is even easier than anything else! All you have to do is type up, or upload whatever you need to, and you submit it. It can literally take under a minute. Which other website runs like this! The simplicity and ease of the website are definitely its forte.

The simplicity only acts as a negative to people who require aesthetic pleasure from this website. It is very bland and boring, but that  might be the desired theme, since this website is about an extremely tragic event. The biggest negative about the website in my opinion is the validity of what it posted. I am not sure that everything that is posted is true. People are able to submit whatever they like, and I’m sure that if the website gets a complaint they will take something down. However, many stories may be factually incorrect. The search process is also subpar. When you search for certain thing such as ’23rd floor’ you must be very specific. If you write 23 then any result for ’23rd’ would not show up. This is a massive downside to this website, because it is nearly impossible to search through all of its documents. So, for example if one wanted to look for things on a specific floor, it would not be as easy as it seems. Lastly there has been minimal marketing in terms of getting this website to the public. Barely anybody has heard of this website, and that limits the amount of entries submitted to the blog.

In the future historians will know exactly what people thought about the event. They can learn about 9/11 from this website, as well as the public’s reaction. They might be able to view images, videos, audio recordings, email, stories, etc. This website truly makes it easy for anybody to learn about 9/11. Of course this story is told from the American point of view, but it does include numerous facts. Overall, the websites pros outweigh its cons, and this website should be considered a great accomplishment.

 

05/16/11

Assignment due 5/18

1) Read Foner, chapter 28
2) Visit the September 11 Digital Archive and contribute something to the collection.
3) Respond to this post with at least one substantial (2-3 paragraph) comment describing your experiences on the web site.  What are the strengths of the site?  The weaknesses?  What may future historians conclude about the events of 9/11 based on their use of the site as a resource?
4) Review the study guide and be ready with any questions at our last class on Wednesday.