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.