Obviously, I am a blogger. I blog about professional topics here, and I have a personal-anything-goes blog elsewhere (don't you wish you knew where?). Blogging is more important than it gets credit for. I think blogging is becoming increasingly important for everything from marketing to academic research. Blogging offers historians a chance to discuss history in a low-key, congenial way. It also offers us a chance to reach a wider audience than simply students forced to take our classes by university requirements or our fellow historians (because we all know we like to talk....A LOT...and not just about history).
Anthony Grafton, President of the American Historical Association, points out the sheer number of history-related blogs in his 2007 article "Clio and the Bloggers." Grafton notes the richness of both cultural and academic diversity available via history blogs. You can find blogs on everything from advice for grad students to serious academic research on the Civil War to mocking history (yes, really).
The variety of history blogs available is amazing, if not somewhat miraculous. As with anything, some of these blogs are excellent resources for historians and others are....well, just plain awful. I sometimes find I enjoy the amazingly bad blogs better than the good ones.
David Voelker, also of the AHA, recommends blogging for your students. Voelker argues that blogs open up communication and allow students the opportunity to think critically outside of class. He says because blog comments are essentially visible to the public and students are well aware their comments are public "their comments are more thoughtful and substantial than they usually are in walled-off online discussions." Essentially, blogs open the floor for discussion.
Grafton notes, "Historians often complain about their loss of intellectual and personal
community: the disappearance of books that interest historians in all
fields, the pervasive hyperactivity that makes it hard to find time to
have coffee with colleagues. It's all true—and yet, a visit to the
historical blogosphere shows that historians are crafting a new and
vital public space."
A space, I would argue, in which we actually become better historians. You learn more by teaching a subject to someone else than you learn doing anything else, and I think in many ways blogging is really just another form of teaching. Writing a blog is also, as Voelker notes, a learning activity. It exercises your brain, and whose brain couldn't use a little workout every now and then?
I truly believe if you take time to blog you won't regret it. I think you'll find there are numerous benefits to blogging, not the least of which is it's fun.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Painting a 1923 Bungalow
The first house I ever bought was a craftsman style bungalow built in 1900 by the foreman of a local cotton mill. I loved my home. It was big and open with tons of natural light, and lots of built-ins. I loved my window seats. They were simply fabulous. The previous owner had done all kinds of work on the house, and as a result I really didn't have much to do with what the inside looked like. There was no plaster to repair, and she'd painted the entire house top to bottom with expensive, designer paint literally days before I moved in. I loved the way it looked, but I secretly hated that there wasn't any work for me to do on it.
Fast forward a few years and I'm now living in my second home. It is also a craftsman style bungalow (what can I say? I love bungalows). This was one was built in 1923, and it needs a little more work. I've restored lots of historic homes, none of which were my own. This one, though, I'm getting to restore for myself. I can't wait to get started.
There are a few places where the plaster needs repair. I found this new product called Plaster Magic that somewhat simplifies the plaster repair process, and I am really looking forward to trying it out. There is a really nasty spot in the hallway that is bowed in and buckling out. I think it's going to be a pain in the butt to repair, but I love a challenge. I might post photos or video of the repair process if anyone expresses interest.
The plaster repair part, while challenging and interesting, is not the most fun piece of this restoration though. The paint is! Did you know Valspar has an entire line of National Trust for Historic Preservation approved paint colors? So do lots of other paint vendors, but Lowes carries Valspar and it is easier for me to get my hands on right now.
Here are the colors I've chosen for the front two rooms:
The green is for the walls and the cream color is for the trim. The colors do not translate well to the computer screen, and are much more vibrant in person. I'll post before and after photos next week.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Wiki-History?
In 2007 Dartmouth College somewhat famously instituted a no Wikipedia academic policy. After headed debate, Dartmouth faculty concluded that Wikipedia is not a credible academic source, and therefore should not be cited in academic papers by their students.
The Dartmouth College citation guide reads:
Many students begin their research using Wikipedia. Although Wikipedia may be useful in providing a general overview of a topic—helping you to get your bearings, be certain of facts, or define some basic terms—it is not scholarly. You will need to find academic sources for your research, since the scholarly conversation is not taking place on Wikipedia.
I am inclined to agree with Dartmouth. Take a look at the Wiki entry for the Protestant Reformation. Do you know anything about the Protestant Reformation? If not, how helpful is this entry? It begins with this information, "The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century [sic] schism within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other Protestants." Seems legit, right?
Well what if I told you that the Protestant Reformation actually began around 1250 CE? In his monograph The Age of Reform, Steven Ozment, McClean Professor of Ancient and Modern History at Harvard, argues the Protestant Reformation actually started in the 13th century--and most Religious Studies scholars agree with him.
What if I told you "Protestant" isn't one thing? It isn't, by the way. To grossly over simplify a complex issue, Protestant just means "not Catholic." Now how many different kinds of "not Catholic" churches can you think of off the top of your head? Probably a lot. There wasn't one reformation. The Protestant Reformation was actually a series of several mini-reformations.
Want to know something else that you're not getting from this entry? Martin Luther did not actually want people to stop being Catholic. Luther was a Catholic monk and he remained loyal to the Church right up until the day he died. He wanted the Church (capital C--big Church--THE one Church) to reform itself from the inside--to fix its own problems. He did not want people to start creating new kinds of churches or to turn away from the Church, big C, the one Church he really believed in. That was a somewhat unexpected consequence of his 95 Theses.
Now that's not the only issue with this entry. Click the view history tab. Here's a screen shot for you:
Now look at the third entry down. Do you see what was changed on September 25, 2012? User Shuipzv3 edited the entry to read "Martin Luther" where it had previously read "Martin Luther King Jr." So if you looked at the Wikipedia entry for Protestant Reformation just two days ago it would have told you that Martin Luther King, Jr. was responsible for the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther King, Jr. was obviously not even alive during the Protestant Reformation. Nor, by the way, was he from Germany. He was, however, Protestant, so I guess that's something.
I never use Wikipedia. NEVER. I know a lot of people say that and then use Wikipedia for a quick internet search on information, but I really don't ever use it. I suppose it could be a good starting point for research as many Wiki-entries do contain a list of references that could be useful. I, however, much prefer to find academic sources that I can trust to be reliable. I do turn to Google when I need quick, factual information. However, I use search parameters that will bring up educational sources. If I were going to Google the Protestant Reformation I would type in "Protestant Reformation + .edu OR .org" This kind of search usually makes it easier to locate academic sources on the net.
I wish you happy and intelligent internet searching, and I hope you'll be conscientious of the sources you choose to accept as valid and reliable.
The Dartmouth College citation guide reads:
Many students begin their research using Wikipedia. Although Wikipedia may be useful in providing a general overview of a topic—helping you to get your bearings, be certain of facts, or define some basic terms—it is not scholarly. You will need to find academic sources for your research, since the scholarly conversation is not taking place on Wikipedia.
I am inclined to agree with Dartmouth. Take a look at the Wiki entry for the Protestant Reformation. Do you know anything about the Protestant Reformation? If not, how helpful is this entry? It begins with this information, "The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century [sic] schism within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other Protestants." Seems legit, right?
Well what if I told you that the Protestant Reformation actually began around 1250 CE? In his monograph The Age of Reform, Steven Ozment, McClean Professor of Ancient and Modern History at Harvard, argues the Protestant Reformation actually started in the 13th century--and most Religious Studies scholars agree with him.
What if I told you "Protestant" isn't one thing? It isn't, by the way. To grossly over simplify a complex issue, Protestant just means "not Catholic." Now how many different kinds of "not Catholic" churches can you think of off the top of your head? Probably a lot. There wasn't one reformation. The Protestant Reformation was actually a series of several mini-reformations.
Want to know something else that you're not getting from this entry? Martin Luther did not actually want people to stop being Catholic. Luther was a Catholic monk and he remained loyal to the Church right up until the day he died. He wanted the Church (capital C--big Church--THE one Church) to reform itself from the inside--to fix its own problems. He did not want people to start creating new kinds of churches or to turn away from the Church, big C, the one Church he really believed in. That was a somewhat unexpected consequence of his 95 Theses.
Now that's not the only issue with this entry. Click the view history tab. Here's a screen shot for you:
Now look at the third entry down. Do you see what was changed on September 25, 2012? User Shuipzv3 edited the entry to read "Martin Luther" where it had previously read "Martin Luther King Jr." So if you looked at the Wikipedia entry for Protestant Reformation just two days ago it would have told you that Martin Luther King, Jr. was responsible for the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther King, Jr. was obviously not even alive during the Protestant Reformation. Nor, by the way, was he from Germany. He was, however, Protestant, so I guess that's something.
I never use Wikipedia. NEVER. I know a lot of people say that and then use Wikipedia for a quick internet search on information, but I really don't ever use it. I suppose it could be a good starting point for research as many Wiki-entries do contain a list of references that could be useful. I, however, much prefer to find academic sources that I can trust to be reliable. I do turn to Google when I need quick, factual information. However, I use search parameters that will bring up educational sources. If I were going to Google the Protestant Reformation I would type in "Protestant Reformation + .edu OR .org" This kind of search usually makes it easier to locate academic sources on the net.
I wish you happy and intelligent internet searching, and I hope you'll be conscientious of the sources you choose to accept as valid and reliable.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Introduction to the Public Domain
The "public domain" basically refers to anything that doesn't have intellectual property rights, which means that anyone can both access and publish it. In the U.S. something becomes part of the "public domain" when, for whatever reason, its intellectual property rights run out. The time it takes to become part of the public domain varies by item, and you should always do what you can to double check the intellectual property rights that may be associated with an item you wish to use online. Your reference librarian should be able to help you or at least point you in the right direction when determining your right to legally publish an image or object.
In general:
- Anything published before 1923 is part of the public domain.
- Anything published between 1923-1989 without a copyright is also part of the public domain.
- Most items published from 1978 through the present only become part of the public domain 70 years after the death of the author (who is an individual person and not a business entity).
- A work published under corporate authorship, meaning that it was created and/or commissioned for/by an organization and it is registered under that organization, becomes part of the public domain 95 years after the date of publication or 120 years after the date it was created, whichever of the two comes first.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Legal Mumbo Jumbo and History
This week we had to create group contracts for our digital history class. As a private historic preservation and social media consultant, I have some experience developing legal contracts. In my experience potential clients like consultants to be as specific as possible so they know exactly what they're getting for their money. It's nice if you can make the contract sound legal and professional, but as long as the contract contains good grammar and the necessary information, you're on the right track.
Creating contracts for a group project for a graduate class was really different though. First, we aren't getting paid for what we're doing so there was no section on fees or money owed. Believe me, when your income depends on consulting work that's the most important part of most contracts! Second, working with three other people to make a contract that basically outlines what each of us "promises" to do for this project took some navigation. Finally, trying to make sure we had covered every single thing necessary to ensure we all will end up with a good grade on both the contract and our final project required some serious thought and revision. But I'm really glad we did it. It helped our group solidify group and individual expectations, and creating this contract really eliminated any confusion that still lingered about who was doing what or why.
Our group is working on the Plaza-Midwood Project. We really want to illustrate the economic and cultural diversity of this beautiful neighborhood, while at the same time showing its transformation from a streetcar suburb to the cultural hub it is now. I'm working on the history and changes of PMW's churches and neighborhood events. One of my undergrad degrees is in Religious Studies and I have completed 24 credit hours of graduate course work in Religious Studies. As a result, I am really excited about learning more about the churches located in PMW and finding a way to show the world just how central to their community these churches were. I hope I will do a good job, and I hope the current ministers and members of these churches will work with me to share their history.
Creating contracts for a group project for a graduate class was really different though. First, we aren't getting paid for what we're doing so there was no section on fees or money owed. Believe me, when your income depends on consulting work that's the most important part of most contracts! Second, working with three other people to make a contract that basically outlines what each of us "promises" to do for this project took some navigation. Finally, trying to make sure we had covered every single thing necessary to ensure we all will end up with a good grade on both the contract and our final project required some serious thought and revision. But I'm really glad we did it. It helped our group solidify group and individual expectations, and creating this contract really eliminated any confusion that still lingered about who was doing what or why.
Our group is working on the Plaza-Midwood Project. We really want to illustrate the economic and cultural diversity of this beautiful neighborhood, while at the same time showing its transformation from a streetcar suburb to the cultural hub it is now. I'm working on the history and changes of PMW's churches and neighborhood events. One of my undergrad degrees is in Religious Studies and I have completed 24 credit hours of graduate course work in Religious Studies. As a result, I am really excited about learning more about the churches located in PMW and finding a way to show the world just how central to their community these churches were. I hope I will do a good job, and I hope the current ministers and members of these churches will work with me to share their history.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Hurricane Digital Memory Bank and Online Collections
As history collections become available online more and more people can view objects, photos, and documents that were previously only available to paying visitors of museums or scholars in academic libraries. It also, interestingly, often means that photos and artifacts kept in private homes are also sometimes available for public viewing on the internet.
This image, for instance, highlights the story of a college freshman stranded in her flooded dorm.
The Hurricane Digital Memory Bank is a partnership of several history and academic institutions including the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, the University of New Orleans, and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. Even digital history, then, often requires group work and works best when a lot of people (and therefore a lot of ideas) come together for something bigger than they are.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Geolocating Plaza Midwood
As many of you already know this blog began as a class project and as such many of its entries will be class assignments. The course this blog will document is a graduate level course in digital history. For the purposes of this particular class, my classmates and I have been separated into groups and we will be working on one major group project this semester. Each group will be creating an online exhibition using Omeka.
My group will be working on an online exhibition for the historic Plaza Midwood neighborhood of Charlotte, NC. Plaza Midwood, like most areas of Charlotte, has seen a great deal of transformation over the last decade. Documenting the changing face and culture of Plaza Midwood from its development in the 1920s until now is going to be both challenging and rewarding.
Omeka will allow us to utilize several ready-made plug-ins to create a user friendly website that will (hopefully) show the world Plaza Midwood's history and also its evolution from a streetcar suburb to a cultural hub. One of the Omeka plug-ins I think will prove very useful is something called Geolocation.
Geolocation typically refers to the identification of the real world geographic location of something digital like your cell phone. Four Square is a really good example of this technology. I'm not a big fan of this kind of geolocation because frankly I don't like people knowing where I am all the time.
Another kind of geolocation, though, is more broadly defined as digitally tracking the coordinates of a particular object. This plug-in will allow my group to upload a historic image of, say, the old Harris Market in Plaza Midwood and then input its address on a google map so that the image would appear on the map where it used to be located. We could then upload an image of what that exact location looks like now and users could visually interpret the transformation of the neighborhood overtime themselves. As it currently seems that the theme of our online exhibition is going to be transformation/change over time, this plug-in will obviously be incredibly useful to us. At least it will be if it works the way I think it will! Of course technology always involves a bit of trial and error, so I'll let you know how well this plug-in works for the purposes I intend to use it for later. Here's to hoping it won't require much trial and error on my part!
Obviously our online exhibition isn't ready yet (the semester just started), so in the mean time I'll leave you with a current screenshot of the google map of Plaza Midwood (click the image and it will get bigger so you can actually see it).
My group will be working on an online exhibition for the historic Plaza Midwood neighborhood of Charlotte, NC. Plaza Midwood, like most areas of Charlotte, has seen a great deal of transformation over the last decade. Documenting the changing face and culture of Plaza Midwood from its development in the 1920s until now is going to be both challenging and rewarding.
Omeka will allow us to utilize several ready-made plug-ins to create a user friendly website that will (hopefully) show the world Plaza Midwood's history and also its evolution from a streetcar suburb to a cultural hub. One of the Omeka plug-ins I think will prove very useful is something called Geolocation.
Geolocation typically refers to the identification of the real world geographic location of something digital like your cell phone. Four Square is a really good example of this technology. I'm not a big fan of this kind of geolocation because frankly I don't like people knowing where I am all the time.
Another kind of geolocation, though, is more broadly defined as digitally tracking the coordinates of a particular object. This plug-in will allow my group to upload a historic image of, say, the old Harris Market in Plaza Midwood and then input its address on a google map so that the image would appear on the map where it used to be located. We could then upload an image of what that exact location looks like now and users could visually interpret the transformation of the neighborhood overtime themselves. As it currently seems that the theme of our online exhibition is going to be transformation/change over time, this plug-in will obviously be incredibly useful to us. At least it will be if it works the way I think it will! Of course technology always involves a bit of trial and error, so I'll let you know how well this plug-in works for the purposes I intend to use it for later. Here's to hoping it won't require much trial and error on my part!
Obviously our online exhibition isn't ready yet (the semester just started), so in the mean time I'll leave you with a current screenshot of the google map of Plaza Midwood (click the image and it will get bigger so you can actually see it).
Thursday, August 30, 2012
The Evolution of Colonial Williamsburg's Website
This week in class we've been asked to utilize this really cool website called the Wayback Machine to analyze a website that contains historic content. Colonial Williamsburg was perhaps one of the first historic (cultural might be a better word) sites to create a webpage, and I thought it would be fun to see how their page has evolved over the years.
The first screenshot the Wayback Machine has of the Colonial Williamsburg (hereafter referred to as CW) website is from February 22, 1997. Though 1997 does not seem like that long ago to me, and perhaps that gives away my age, the internet has definitely improved by leaps and bounds since then. The 1997 CW website isn't very pretty. It has a beige backdrop spotted with a handful of links, under which a photo or graphic image hovers to add interest. The links include information for how to visit CW, archival resources CW offers, a calendar of events, and educational information for teachers. To give you an idea of the quality of graphic images in 1997, I tried to save the CW banner to my computer to add it to this blog and it would not allow me to do it because the file type isn't new enough and is not compatible with modern technology. Click the link at the beginning of this paragraph and check out the banner at the top of the page. You won't believe how much it changes over the years.
The next screenshot I selected was for June 12, 2004. In less than a decade this website has already evolved monumentally. The banner at the top is no longer as cartoonish, and the quality of the photos displayed on the website is vastly improved. Informative links are no longer scattered haphazardly all over the webpage. In 2004 links to visitor information including directions to the site and an events calendar can be found in the upper right hand corner. More links beneath the CW logo at the top of the page provide information for teachers ("Explore and Learn"), offer visitors the opportunity to "Shop" online, and provide information on CW "Publications." You can also change the language of the entire site from English to any one of seven other languages with just the click of a mouse. The 2004 CW website is much more sophisticated, appears cleaner and more professional, has better quality images, and provides more information than its earlier counterpart.
The final screenshot I selected is from July 26, 2011. It is the last screenshot available from the Wayback Machine. The image from 2011 looks very similar to today's website. You will notice the CW brand logo is exactly the same (except the phrase "That the future may learn from the past" has been added beneath it) and remains at the top of the webpage. There are still links in the upper right hand corner, and a new link for information on hotels has appeared. The website isn't as dark now, it's the familiar light blue anyone who has visited the CW site recently will recognize. There are new links on the vertical left hand side of the screen. Most interestingly perhaps is the link to view museum collections. Appearing horizontally along the bottom of the webpage are "popular" links which include links to information on historic trades, a blog, and even a webcam (technology not readily available in 1997 when our earliest screenshot was taken). You'll also notice that beneath those links are more links, these with graphic images, that will allow you to tour CW online and there is even a link for activities for children. Technology has evolved to become more interactive, and CW has taken full advantage of the interactive technologies available. Today's website is very similar.
Over time the CW website has changed as technology improved and new technologies, like webcams, became more readily available. The quality of images posted to the web has greatly improved over the last decade, and this is evident in examining the evolution of the CW website. The 1997 CW webpage may appear to be clunky and outdated to us now, but at the time it represented cutting edge technology and was anything but clunky. It will be interesting to see how I'll think my own blog looked in a decade. Technology moves and improves so quickly, and as historians we have to find a way to keep up with it.
The first screenshot the Wayback Machine has of the Colonial Williamsburg (hereafter referred to as CW) website is from February 22, 1997. Though 1997 does not seem like that long ago to me, and perhaps that gives away my age, the internet has definitely improved by leaps and bounds since then. The 1997 CW website isn't very pretty. It has a beige backdrop spotted with a handful of links, under which a photo or graphic image hovers to add interest. The links include information for how to visit CW, archival resources CW offers, a calendar of events, and educational information for teachers. To give you an idea of the quality of graphic images in 1997, I tried to save the CW banner to my computer to add it to this blog and it would not allow me to do it because the file type isn't new enough and is not compatible with modern technology. Click the link at the beginning of this paragraph and check out the banner at the top of the page. You won't believe how much it changes over the years.
The next screenshot I selected was for June 12, 2004. In less than a decade this website has already evolved monumentally. The banner at the top is no longer as cartoonish, and the quality of the photos displayed on the website is vastly improved. Informative links are no longer scattered haphazardly all over the webpage. In 2004 links to visitor information including directions to the site and an events calendar can be found in the upper right hand corner. More links beneath the CW logo at the top of the page provide information for teachers ("Explore and Learn"), offer visitors the opportunity to "Shop" online, and provide information on CW "Publications." You can also change the language of the entire site from English to any one of seven other languages with just the click of a mouse. The 2004 CW website is much more sophisticated, appears cleaner and more professional, has better quality images, and provides more information than its earlier counterpart.
The final screenshot I selected is from July 26, 2011. It is the last screenshot available from the Wayback Machine. The image from 2011 looks very similar to today's website. You will notice the CW brand logo is exactly the same (except the phrase "That the future may learn from the past" has been added beneath it) and remains at the top of the webpage. There are still links in the upper right hand corner, and a new link for information on hotels has appeared. The website isn't as dark now, it's the familiar light blue anyone who has visited the CW site recently will recognize. There are new links on the vertical left hand side of the screen. Most interestingly perhaps is the link to view museum collections. Appearing horizontally along the bottom of the webpage are "popular" links which include links to information on historic trades, a blog, and even a webcam (technology not readily available in 1997 when our earliest screenshot was taken). You'll also notice that beneath those links are more links, these with graphic images, that will allow you to tour CW online and there is even a link for activities for children. Technology has evolved to become more interactive, and CW has taken full advantage of the interactive technologies available. Today's website is very similar.
Over time the CW website has changed as technology improved and new technologies, like webcams, became more readily available. The quality of images posted to the web has greatly improved over the last decade, and this is evident in examining the evolution of the CW website. The 1997 CW webpage may appear to be clunky and outdated to us now, but at the time it represented cutting edge technology and was anything but clunky. It will be interesting to see how I'll think my own blog looked in a decade. Technology moves and improves so quickly, and as historians we have to find a way to keep up with it.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Defining Digital History
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| Image courtesy of GMU |
This term 'digital history' might seem a bit confusing, but not if you replace the word 'digital' with the phrase 'technology driven.' So what is digital history? It's a lot of things. Defining 'digital history' isn't any easier than defining 'history,' and any historian worth his salt can launch into an hour long lecture about just how impossible it is to really define 'history' anyway. So I'm going to attempt the impossible and try to tell you what digital history is.
First, digital history is technology driven. It is, for the purposes of this article, intrinsically tied to the world wide web. Digital history is history online, and as the title of this blog suggests, ongoing.
Of course history going digital means a slew of new problems for historians to consider. In Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web Daniel J. Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig try to address many of these issues. Stuart Fox of TechNewsDaily also points out some of the dilemmas historians in the digital age face. All three authors agree that one of the biggest problems to surmount is the vastness of the internet. Not only is there too much information for future historians to wade through, there is too much information out there to compete with.
History on the web needs to be accessible and searchable. Newer technologies are making that more possible now, but it's still a slippery slope to go down. Metadata, labels, and tags are increasingly important for information cataloged and/or placed on the internet. Finding the right words to use is often difficult, but I've found sticking to the basics and staying simple are usually the best bets for searchability. For instance, this article has the following labels: digital history, history online, technology, metadata, tags, labels, and internet humanities. So always label or tag historic information you put online, and test your tags by googling your internet projects using only your tags to see what comes up. Good luck traveling the history information superhighway. I hope you enjoy learning about digital history as much as I do.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Tweet Chats for Historians
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| Clip art courtesy of Hubspot Blog. |
Tweet chats can be hard to follow on twitter, so the easiest thing to do is probably to go to TweetChat, log in using your twitter handle and password, and then type in the pre-arranged tweet chat hashtag for the tweet chat you're wanting to participate in. It's as easy as that!
Now that you're ready to chat, I guess you probably need a tweet chat to participate in. There are a few good tweet chats for public historians out there, but not as many as I'd like to see. Here are some chats to get you started:
Historic Preservation
#builtheritage : This chat is sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and covers a wide variety of preservation related topics. To find out the date search twitter for #builtheritage and look at the recent tweets (you can also use these tweet chat hashtags to talk about preservation topics when there isn't a tweet chat going on). The next chat is September 5th at 4 PM EDT.
Museums and Social Media
#musesocial : This chat is all about how museums can use technology, especially social media, to their advantage. The next chat is actually today from 3-5 PM.
Non History/Museum Chats That Are Useful for Public Historians
#assnchat : The Association Chat is a chat for all different kinds of associations, and they discuss a lot of topics that are relevant for non-profit organizations. This chat takes place every Tuesday at 2 PM.
#citytalk : City Talk is a monthly tweet chat about urban issues and cities. I'm not sure when the next one is, but if you search it regularly they are bound to post a new date soon.
#eventprofs : This chat is for event planning professionals, and if you've ever worked for a Public History organization then you know you have to plan events sometimes. Many of their topics could prove useful for your next event. Check out the EventProfs website for the schedule of upcoming chats.
*If you moderate a history, public history, preservation, historic site or museum related tweet chat and your chat isn't on my list then please leave me a comment so I can add it. Thanks so much!
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Twitter for Historians and Public History Pros
Social media is becoming increasingly important as a means of communication and networking. Big name brands like Pepsi and Nike have already figured out the importance of sites like Twitter for maximizing sales and improving brand loyalties, but not-for-profit organizations have been somewhat slow to jump on the Twitter bandwagon. Historians, like me, usually prefer our manuscripts and conferences to social media--but that's changing and there are lots of ways we can utilize Twitter for professional growth.
TWITTER BASICS:
1. Getting Started: First you need to go to Twitter and set up your account. This part is pretty self explanatory. To create your twitter handle (your public profile name) I recommend using your real name, initials, job title, or some combination of all of those to make your account easy to find.
2. Privacy: Twitter does offer a privacy feature under account settings. You can choose to lock your account so only users you approve can view your tweets and follow you. I discourage using this feature. Twitter is a public social networking site and to get the most out of it you should really keep your account public. You can block spammers and anyone you do not wish to communicate with by clicking "block" next to the user's handle.
3. Tweeting: Click the white box in the upper left hand corner underneath your photo and twitter handle. Type your tweet and then click the blue 'tweet' button. Tweets are limited to 140 characters so pay attention to the character counter next to the blue 'tweet' button.
Use the @ symbol followed by user's handle to tweet directly to a particular user (example: to tweet directly to me you'd say @JennWelborn followed by your tweet).
If you would like to tweet to a particular user, but you would like that tweet to be visible to all of your followers insert a period in front of the at symbol (ex: .@JennWelborn).
4. Following: After you open your account and create your handle you are ready to connect with other users. You can search for organizations and people by name or email address in the search box. Click their name to see their profile, and then click "follow" to follow them. Once you're following someone all of their tweets will appear in your feed.
Your followers are users who have chosen to follow your account. The more you talk to people on twitter, the more followers you are likely to get.
5. Direct Messaging: If you are following someone and that user is also following you, you can have private conversations via direct messaging. Click on the little gray man's head in the upper right corner to bring up the drop down menu and then click 'direct messaging.' Click 'new message' and then type in the twitter handle for the user you'd like to message, and then type your message.
Using Hashtags to Connect
Twitter hashtags are a great place to start networking. So what is a hashtag? A hashtag is the pound sign plus text and it can be used to search twitter for specific conversations and topics (example: #hashtag typed into the search box would bring up all recent tweets containing hashtags about hashtags). Capitalization does not matter for hashtag use.
There are hashtags for just about everything. You can even make up your own hashtags.
Hashtags are also used for something called "tweet chats." My next post will be about tweet chats.
I have taken the time to compile a list of hashtags commonly used by historians, public historians, museums, historic sites, historic preservation pros, historic preservation agencies, archaeologists, and public history organizations.
Topical Hashtags for Historians:
#archives
#archaeology
#history
#histsci (for history of science)
#histmed (history of medicine)
#techhist
#envhist (environmental history)
#chinesehistory
#EuropeanHistory
#southernhistory
#ushistory
Hashtags for Public Historians:
#archives
#genealogy
#oralhistory
#preservation
#prestip
#histpres
#publichistory
#museums
Hashtags for Community and Conferences
#twitterstorians (popular hashtag for historians using twitter)
#aha2013 (AHA annual meeting hashtag)
#session122 (you can follow particular AHA meeting sessions by typing in the pound sign + session + the session number)
#THATcamp (popular AHA meeting hashtag--but it brings up non-history related stuff the rest of the year)
#NCPH (National Council of Public History Conference)
Hashtags for Digital History
#digitalhistory
#digitalhumanities
#dh (#dh does bring up non-history related tweets as well)
#dhdebates
If you notice that any history hashtags are missing please let me know so I can add it to the appropriate list.
TWITTER BASICS:
1. Getting Started: First you need to go to Twitter and set up your account. This part is pretty self explanatory. To create your twitter handle (your public profile name) I recommend using your real name, initials, job title, or some combination of all of those to make your account easy to find.
2. Privacy: Twitter does offer a privacy feature under account settings. You can choose to lock your account so only users you approve can view your tweets and follow you. I discourage using this feature. Twitter is a public social networking site and to get the most out of it you should really keep your account public. You can block spammers and anyone you do not wish to communicate with by clicking "block" next to the user's handle.
3. Tweeting: Click the white box in the upper left hand corner underneath your photo and twitter handle. Type your tweet and then click the blue 'tweet' button. Tweets are limited to 140 characters so pay attention to the character counter next to the blue 'tweet' button.
Use the @ symbol followed by user's handle to tweet directly to a particular user (example: to tweet directly to me you'd say @JennWelborn followed by your tweet).
If you would like to tweet to a particular user, but you would like that tweet to be visible to all of your followers insert a period in front of the at symbol (ex: .@JennWelborn).
4. Following: After you open your account and create your handle you are ready to connect with other users. You can search for organizations and people by name or email address in the search box. Click their name to see their profile, and then click "follow" to follow them. Once you're following someone all of their tweets will appear in your feed.
Your followers are users who have chosen to follow your account. The more you talk to people on twitter, the more followers you are likely to get.
5. Direct Messaging: If you are following someone and that user is also following you, you can have private conversations via direct messaging. Click on the little gray man's head in the upper right corner to bring up the drop down menu and then click 'direct messaging.' Click 'new message' and then type in the twitter handle for the user you'd like to message, and then type your message.
Using Hashtags to Connect
Twitter hashtags are a great place to start networking. So what is a hashtag? A hashtag is the pound sign plus text and it can be used to search twitter for specific conversations and topics (example: #hashtag typed into the search box would bring up all recent tweets containing hashtags about hashtags). Capitalization does not matter for hashtag use.
There are hashtags for just about everything. You can even make up your own hashtags.
Hashtags are also used for something called "tweet chats." My next post will be about tweet chats.
I have taken the time to compile a list of hashtags commonly used by historians, public historians, museums, historic sites, historic preservation pros, historic preservation agencies, archaeologists, and public history organizations.
Topical Hashtags for Historians:
#archives
#archaeology
#history
#histsci (for history of science)
#histmed (history of medicine)
#techhist
#envhist (environmental history)
#chinesehistory
#EuropeanHistory
#southernhistory
#ushistory
Hashtags for Public Historians:
#archives
#genealogy
#oralhistory
#preservation
#prestip
#histpres
#publichistory
#museums
Hashtags for Community and Conferences
#twitterstorians (popular hashtag for historians using twitter)
#aha2013 (AHA annual meeting hashtag)
#session122 (you can follow particular AHA meeting sessions by typing in the pound sign + session + the session number)
#THATcamp (popular AHA meeting hashtag--but it brings up non-history related stuff the rest of the year)
#NCPH (National Council of Public History Conference)
Hashtags for Digital History
#digitalhistory
#digitalhumanities
#dh (#dh does bring up non-history related tweets as well)
#dhdebates
If you notice that any history hashtags are missing please let me know so I can add it to the appropriate list.
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