Chapter 1:
In this chapter Cohen and Rosenweig go into detail about the history of the inception of digital websites. Many points they make about early history websites are interesting. Much of what they describe about browsers, such as netscape and yahoo, I can relate to. A large part of how I researched historical interest came from categorized catalogs on the Internet. I am especially familiar with Nicholas Pioch and the web museum; I have frequented this site many times in the past. Going back to the site I am amused by the simplicity of the site, imagery and text this site contains. The site has not been updated to include all the bells and whistles of newer historical sites; the site is still fairly easy to navigate. The novices of the early Internet created simplistic history sites, which in its self spurred a need for others such as historians, universities and archival libraries to produce sites with large libraries, rich in primary documentation and resources.
Chapter 2:
This chapter introduces the reader to the Internet as a highly structured set of machines. It breaks down the transfer of webpage’s through HTML. By providing examples of HTML code (tag <1>), the reader can examine the difference between various coding (0s and 1s) and software applications. The author makes a point of explaining that the technological logistics of building a digital website should not be the primary concern for the creator. It is best to focus on a clear sense for purpose for your site and once you have established this move on to technical questions, such as server and software. This chapter also addresses website servers and how they function as part of the project you are creating. It breaks down cost, purpose and ease of using specific servers and programes such as ISP.
Chapter 3:
Breaks down analog data verses digital formats. The differences and purpose for this transition is from a personal preference and need to keep up with technology. Analog is an authentic representation of data (i.e. vinyl audio recordings) as apposed to digital format, which is a precise and flawless representation of data transfer rewritten in a programming code of 0s and 1s. By transferring analog to digital it preserves data that may be declining in its quality. The main argument about transition from analog to digital is how to handle the storage or disposal of analog sound and images. Digitizing does have drawbacks, which include lost of information through transfer and cost incurred when working on large projects. Solutions to digitization include mark up, this process allows for machine readability while controlling the lost of material through transfer. Other solutions involve linking pages with machine readable text proofread for humans. This allows for re-use of the same information for the purpose of breaking down a search in to categories, such as footnotes of captions for a specific work. By explains the origins of mark-ups the author allows for the reader to understand the mark-ups process easier and apply it to. This chapter also makes clear the process used for making text digital. Scanning being the preferred method. The most helpful portion of this chapter was explaining the digital image process and audio process, which in the past has left me overwhelmed.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Review 2 Los Angeles and the problems of urban historical knowledge
The introduction to this digital website is clear and concise. The format which Philip Ethington used to create this website, offers the viewer a straightforward historiography of the urban development of Los Angeles and its surrounding boroughs. Ethington stops to ask the question how can one authenticate the growth of an urban area from its beginings to its future. Much of the research he has done represents his findings through essay's, photography, maps and historical models available from archives.
The map images and essays work together to form a synopsis of Los Angeles during the start of its urbanization origins. The components of each section work well together. Ethington has strives to make his argument and prove his point implicitly from the aspects of technology. There are no sections that do not encompass a proportion of the whole aspect of the website.
The site can be studied as a whole or users may utilize the areas that piratical interest them and still grasp the concept of the material presented to its audience. The sites aim is to sort out the theme of Los Angeles’s as a historical metropolis and what makes it so unique as compared to other metropolis.
Ethington points out the daunting task he took on by putting together his argument. Encompassing all of L.A.'s vast urban history was overwhelming, and required Ethington to collaborate with various other historians to put together this site. Urban history changes quickly and it is hard to record each moment and trend that passes through urban society.
This site was created to bring a new form of representation to historical attributes of Los Angeles’s. Finding history in existing artifacts presented genuine sources of knowledge for Ethington. Scaled down models of the city of Los Angeles, provided evidence of renewal and the destruction of historical neighborhoods in L.A.
Walter Benjamin and Eduardo Cadava, historians that have contributed to Ethingtons’s site, have interesting theories and ideas about historgraphy and photography. By placing the space foremost and not representing ourselves, but understanding and grasping the history of space the photograph. By applying this theory when constructing a digital history website helps to brings perspective and purpose to the site. Reconstructing history through photographic sources can aid when trying to collaborating dates and events as well as other historical details. By recreating the past through photography one creates a porthole to the past.
Limitations, which Ethington met with while creating this site, were not being able to use “frames” which is a common way to organize web sites. Ethington did not view this as a obstruction, instead he feels it made the site more “simple and elegant.” The drawbacks that he did face were the laborious hours spent manually setting links. He laid out his directories in a hierarchical tree organization by a major categories menu bar. His labor, research, collaboration and vision worked out well. A novice or pro can easily navigate the site.
The map images and essays work together to form a synopsis of Los Angeles during the start of its urbanization origins. The components of each section work well together. Ethington has strives to make his argument and prove his point implicitly from the aspects of technology. There are no sections that do not encompass a proportion of the whole aspect of the website.
The site can be studied as a whole or users may utilize the areas that piratical interest them and still grasp the concept of the material presented to its audience. The sites aim is to sort out the theme of Los Angeles’s as a historical metropolis and what makes it so unique as compared to other metropolis.
Ethington points out the daunting task he took on by putting together his argument. Encompassing all of L.A.'s vast urban history was overwhelming, and required Ethington to collaborate with various other historians to put together this site. Urban history changes quickly and it is hard to record each moment and trend that passes through urban society.
This site was created to bring a new form of representation to historical attributes of Los Angeles’s. Finding history in existing artifacts presented genuine sources of knowledge for Ethington. Scaled down models of the city of Los Angeles, provided evidence of renewal and the destruction of historical neighborhoods in L.A.
Walter Benjamin and Eduardo Cadava, historians that have contributed to Ethingtons’s site, have interesting theories and ideas about historgraphy and photography. By placing the space foremost and not representing ourselves, but understanding and grasping the history of space the photograph. By applying this theory when constructing a digital history website helps to brings perspective and purpose to the site. Reconstructing history through photographic sources can aid when trying to collaborating dates and events as well as other historical details. By recreating the past through photography one creates a porthole to the past.
Limitations, which Ethington met with while creating this site, were not being able to use “frames” which is a common way to organize web sites. Ethington did not view this as a obstruction, instead he feels it made the site more “simple and elegant.” The drawbacks that he did face were the laborious hours spent manually setting links. He laid out his directories in a hierarchical tree organization by a major categories menu bar. His labor, research, collaboration and vision worked out well. A novice or pro can easily navigate the site.
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