Wikiproblems

The week we were asked to look at Wikipedia pages that contain historical content and discuss what we see.  For this assignment I really wanted to look at pages about large topics that often spawn heated debates.  Therefore I chose The Civil War, The Holocaust, and just to spice it up...Marxism. (fun).  All of the topics are commonly debated over because of people's different views, whether it political, religious, or social.  Often the readers of Wikipedia misunderstand its purpose, which is to state the facts without any biases, and for wider topics to have an overview explaining the particular topic without much detail.  For these topics, this is a very difficult task for the contributing writers because there are so many causes, results, and interpretations of these topics.

The first sentence of the Civil War page states that it is sometimes called the "War Between the States", which was changed from the original which said that it was sometimes referred to "The War of Northern Aggression".  That in itself can cause biases which lean toward sympathy toward Southern States with the North being the "bad guy".  For someone who is just learning about the Civil War, details like this can help form opinions toward one side or the other, which may not always be correct.  Although it is hard for opinions of the writer to sneak in, it is their job to try their best to be unbiased, and unfortunately the nature of Wikipedia lets anyone change and write about a specific topic.

The next site was the Holocaust, which is a much more sensitive topic.  One of the main criticisms I noticed on the discussion page was whether to use the term Nazi-Germany or just Germany.  In my own opinion it should remain Nazi-Germany simply because it was the Nazi-run government who implemented the mass murders that occurred at the time, not necessarily the Germany nation as a whole.  However, with Wikipedia, there is not room for such discussions and interpretations because it is an "encyclopedia", not a monograph or peer reviewed book or journal.  Large topics such as the Holocaust and the Civil War cannot be researched in depths through outlets like Wikipedia because that is simply not its purpose.

I saved the best for last which was the Wikipedia page on Marxism.  I have to say that the discussion page on this topic had the most heated and controversial debates over what the page should include or not include.  I had to giggle when I saw that even before you scroll to the discussions, there were all kinds of disclaimers about the page such as "Discussions on this page often lead to previous arguments being restated", "Marxism is part of the selected content on the Communism Portal, which means that it was selected as a high quality Communism-related article", This is a controversial historical topic that may be disputed.", and "This is not a forum for general discussion of Marxism. Any such comments may be removed or refactored."  These disclaimers must be posted on a page such as this because of the highly heated debates that it causes.  The term Marxism or Marxists has been used too liberally throughout recent U.S. politics that the true definition is often times disputed by someone who thinks it may be something else.  Also, if that person chooses they can change and edit the entry to their own liking.  However, Wikipedia does police these changes rather thoroughly, there may be people who view the page before it is corrected.
In conclusion, Wikipedia is great if you are leisurely wanting to learn the ins and outs of a particular topic, but for academic use and research, Wikipedia is no where near what needs to be studied.  Often times the citations are not even from credible sources, so to me, it should not even been considered as any type or research aid.

Omeka and Road Trip!

I don't know about everyone else but I am certainly glad we will be attending the Omeka workshop tonight.  I have played around with it a little bit, however I know that there are a lot more ways that will make our website fun and visually pleasing that I have yet to discover.  It seems like Omeka is a great way for people with little skill and a small budget can create their own websites for things they are interested in.  Especially in the case of history an online exhibits, it is interesting to see how others view and interpret history.  The items people choose to exhibit and how those items are explained says volumes about the historian who published the work.
On another note...I have plans to visit the library again today and dig more into the archives that are available.  Also, I am planning a road trip around Charlotte next week to find some of the buildings that are still standing that were designed by CC Hook.  From what I hear some of these buildings are completely run down and in total disrepair, especially the train stations.  But on the flip side, I also have heard that some stations on the outskirts of Charlotte have been completely restored and are standing proud and beautiful, a testament to an earlier time and place.  I will keep posting to let everyone know how the trip went, even if at times I might be disappointed at the state of the buildings.  Can wait to check it out!

Building My Charlotte

I am very excited to begin work on my group's online exhibit "Building My Charlotte".  This exhibit will be all about architecture in Charlotte featuring extraordinary architects of the early 1900's.  My particular architect, Charles Christian Hook, not only designed houses, but many commercial use buildings including train stations, garages, and fire stations.  He also designed the famous Carolina Theater and the first Charlotte city hall.  His designs have more of a Gothic influence, added character to these everyday buildings.  He was also a very interesting person which I will delve into at a later date.  I was fortunate to run into a former master student in special collections who actually used CC Hook in his Master Thesis.  He gave be tons of information on who to talk to a where to go for more research.  It was awesome running into to someone with such a wealth of information to offer me, which will no doubt help with my part of our project.
With our group contract, I am confident that we will exceed our goal at making this project fun and interesting for people to look at.  Two other architects are going to be featured as well as a social aspect showing Mary Boyer's architectural postcards featuring some of these architects designs.  Each member is responsible for at least ten items in the exhibit, which will no doubt, be exceeded which the wealth of information in the library.  Thanks to Jill, we have set up a vigorous timeline of milestones we need to reach throughout the semesters, allow us to develop the exhibit in a smooth and timely manner.
I am thrilled to have such great teammates who are just as invested in this project as I am.  I know we will turn out a wonderful project that will appeal to many people interested in Charlotte's architectural history.

Finding Family

After scanning through the different suggested websites, I decided to delve into www.footnote.com or www.fold3.com.  This site was very interesting because it allows for someone to look through different records for family members that served in the military.  Although the usability is not the smoothest, I was able to find both of my grandfathers who served during WWII and my uncle's name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

To me this was awesome because I was able to relate and see my family remembered and documented. Although this site follows along the same lines as Ancestry.com, fold3 is focused around military personnel and their families.  The website houses many digitized military records, non-military censuses, newspapers, diaries, and photos.  It also has a browsing function so you do not have to visit the site with specific names and locations, you can just peruse the different records it has available.  Fold3.com also offers records back to the Revolutionary War and has a collection of non-military records.  For those searching for information on family members that served the military, this is the site to visit. The site allows people to set up online memorials for servicemen and women, allowing them to be remembered on the web.  These aspects may be similar to other ancestry sites, however it offers people the chance for their loved ones to be honored for their military service. 
A couple of downfalls to this site is that some records you have to pay to see, and the search results can be overwhelming if you do not have a lot of information on the person.  However, the site is a gem in a sea of sites and anyone interested in military history would greatly enjoy exploring it.

Geolocation is Great!

After checking out Omeka,(omeka.org/), which will be the tool used to build my teams online exhibit, I noticed that it offers many different plugins that will help enhance our exhibit and make it more interesting for visitors to explore.  My team and I are doing an exhibit on architecture in the Charlotte area, more specifically focusing on different examples of architecture that one would be surprised to find in a North Carolina city.  This is especially true because Charlotte loves to tear down the old and build new. (no offense) 
But back to the point, while exploring Omeka I noticed it has a plugin that will fit right in to our exhibit which is Geolocation.  This plugin will allow my team and I to map out the different locations of buildings throughout the city, allowing people to easily find and see where the buildings are located.  This tool will be vital to the appearance and useability of our exhibit.  Hopefully, we will be able to use this plugin so people can explore our online exhibit at their leisure and virtually travel to these unique locations.