Overwhelming Data Mining

    I am a everyday user of search engines like Google. I use it to look up movie times, recipes, and I always use it to start off my research on projects but I never really put much thought in the importance of such a tool. The actual work that goes into searching millions of websites and databases can cause anyone a headache.
    There is an extreme about of variables that go into how a search engine mines through every individual piece of information out there. It takes in consideration the chance of misspellings and all the ways a researcher can search a topic like U.S. History or American History or History of the United States. The programmers and programs have to take in account how people think and how they expect their information to be presented to them.
    Aside from the scientific programming of mining data, a relationship forms between history and the immediate present. At any moment we can search an issue or topic and because there is an extensive about of organizing based on a classification of words, letters, and numbers, we can access information that may have been lost over time but now can be read at any computer across the world.
    I will admit I am completely lost when it comes to understanding the detail and science that goes into data mining for search engines. But I am forever grateful for the easy accessibility that it offers.

Twitter: Making Education more of Conversation

     In the article How will Twitter revolutionize academic research and teaching, the positive aspects of social media are described as active listening in an academic conversation. In the article the author talks about how when someone in academia uses Twitter for educational purposes they are no longer standing at a podium in front of a lecture hall but more at an equal level like in a seminar room. It discusses how Twitter followers are automatically an active participant that (hopefully) want to add to the conversation and can easily do so with the ease of the reply button. With active participants come constant and genuine feedback that help not only the "tweeter" but all those who follow them. Twitter offers opportunities to anyone willing to click the follow button and according to the article " can lead to an ethical shift towards active efforts for engaging new audiences and widening participation beyond the ivory tower walls" that most people regard as higher education.
     Although I am slow on the uptake of Twitter, I do see the mass potential it offers to have an immediate conversation with a million people all across the globe. It gives people an informal way to conduct research, form thought, and suggest theories. What is great about Twitter is that it is a two way street of information. I can read what other people are thinking and on the rare occasion that I have something to say, I have the perfect audience already waiting to be involved and participate.

The Ups and Downs of a New Relationship

    History and technology are not two things, that in the past, have necessarily belonged together. However, in this new age of digital media it seems only fitting that the two have a long-lasting relationship. With a relationship so new, the bad tends to come with the good.
    In Talking Shop with the "Gutenberg-es", recent recipients of the Gutenberg-e award discuss the ups and downs of being published in an e-book format. It is difficult for new historians to get published and this award offers them a chance to publish their works in electronic form. Although electronic resources are a growing legitimate source, some winners still felt being published didn't feel real without that hard copy in hand. Others felt as though their work would be easily accessible to scholars around the world. When dealing with such a relatively new media, it seems as though the preconceived negative notion of e-books is hard to forget. I think to offer historians an opportunity to get their work and ideas out to the public should only be seen as a great perk of history and technology's new relationship.
    I also looked at  H-Net: Digital Discussion for Historians, which highlights the strengths of technology and history working together. I just recently learned of H-Net and can not believe I went so long without using it! Its an online resource for historians, that has 180,000 subscribers that contribute to 181 separate discussion networks. The availability of ideas and concepts are literally at your finger tips. I can not imagine a researcher not being able to find something of use with 181 different discussion topics. H-Net helps to post announcements and news that historians would find useful. Maybe I am still in the beginning stages of love with this website, but I can't seem to find a flaw with history and technology converging in this case.
    I think that the misconceptions of e-books will fade as the field of digital media strengthens and with every new technological advance the historians will doubt its contributions like a never ending cycle. Regardless we are benefiting from the accessibility of information that this relationship of new technology and history has to offer.