This document summarizes a seminar on digital history and Ed Ayers' work developing open narrative and digital history projects. It discusses Ayers' 1993 book "The Promise of the New South" and its use of open narrative. It then summarizes Ayers' later digital history project "The Valley of the Shadow" and how it addressed some limitations of open narrative. Finally, it discusses another of Ayers' projects called "The Differences Slavery Made" and how it further developed narrative and database approaches to do digital history work.

1. Seminar 5 Ayers and the Promise of Digital History Introduction to the Digital Liberal Arts MDST 3703 / 7703Fall 2010

2. Business Comments need to be in by 5 on Mondays! Project meetings need to be completed by end of next week – let us know if you haven’t met Quiz 1can be found on the Collab site in the Resource tree. It will be visible after class.

3. Review The World Wide Web was the result of (at least) three histories – networks, hypertext, and community Other histories: personal computing (PCs and Macs), document management (SGML and XML), and rise of information-driven bureaucracies These subplots are opposites of the ones discussed Non-linear: WWW did not fulfill vision and expectations of hypertext theorists

4. Overview Today we move from the history of digital media to digital history . . . We are concerned with four broad questions: What is history and how best to describe it? What media forms can we use to narrate history? How can we describe and assess these forms? What are some of the themes that cross-cut the above?

5. Narrating History

8. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/apr/29/mcchrystal-afghanistan-powerpoint-slide#zoomed-picture

9. The Promise of the New South Ed Ayers, 1993

10. Open vs. Fixed Narrative What is open narrative? Why does Ayers propose it? What did critics say of TPOTNS? How does Ayers defend himself? Does the book have a thesis? Is Ayers’ task similar to that of the historian of the web? Are the periods connected?

11. Open Narrative Open narrative is not about being unsure of the facts On the contrary, it results from the control an excess of facts—”hyperempiricism” It’s purpose is to expose the complexity and irony of history, not the absence of historical truth

12. Away from Narrative :The Valley of the Shadow

13. What media form does Ayers develop after Promise?

14. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. (from Psalm 23)

15. “If hypertext sites were countries in a war, the Valley of the Shadow would be fighting with fighter jets and the Victorian Web would have slingshots” Ouch.

16. Backstory: IATH Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities http://www.iath.virginia.edu Established in 1992 Funded by IBM VOS one of two founding projects A demonstration project for IBM; pitched as "as a research library in a box, enabling students at places without a large archive to do the same kind of research as a professional historian."

17. How would you characterize this project as a work of new media? Is it a book?

18. The Library/Archive Metaphor

19. What does the site contain?

20. What’s in the Archive Content Thousands of primary sources Newpapers, letters, diaries, maps, images, gov docs Coverage Space: Augusta Co, VA and Frankln Co, PA Time: 1859 to 1870 “Value-added” Interfaces Search and browse Timelines Animations http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/MAPDEMO/Theater/TheTheater.html Resouces for using the site

21. How hypertextual is the site? How is “associative indexing” handled?

22. Site Structure Organized hierarchically Terminal nodes (lexia) not connected laterally No cross-site searching Minimal narrative

23. Does the site fulfill the goals of open narrative?

24. Criticism Worst of both worlds Neither random access nor rich narrative Exploits neither the potentials of a real library or a digital library Document-centric Subject matter remains buried in the documents It’s strength is in the integrity of the materials But criticized for being difficult to use Is it scholarship?

25. From Database to Narrative:The Differences Slavery Made

26. What problems was TDSM trying to solve?

27. Problems with VOS VOS has no argument; not scholarship per se Unclear how to use it, other than as a simple library

28. How were these problems addressed by Differences?

29. Narrative overlay References as links to lexia (Historiography and Evidence) Conventions of making citations

30. Site Content Narrative Summary of argument Points of analysis Historiography Secondary sources Annotated bibliographic references Evidence Primary sources Documents Tables (data) Maps

31. Site Structure Hierarchy with links Menu A: Introduction, Summary, Points, Methods Menu B: Evidence, Historiography, Tools Each menu item has sub-menus How does Differences connect to Valley?

32. Darnton’s Pyramid

33. Core TDSM “Prismatic” Structure VOS

34. Interface Design How is context established? Can you see items in-line? Can you compare items?

35. How hypertextual is the site? How is “associative indexing” handled?

36. Categories used to organize content in both Geography Politics Election of 1860 Political activtivists Economics Commerce Crops Labor Property Social structure Race Culture Religion Education (“school”) Urbanization (“Town Development”) Information and communications Replace with tags?

37. Criticisms Nothing inherently hypertextual about the site Thesis is not that complicated Modernity and slavery not opposites Why not put exhibits inline? Why not show points of comparison in context? Need for transclusion Why explain relationship in historiography? Why not create links or use tags?

38. Themes Exposing process From narrative to database to narrative Library vs. Book Could you do TDSM in WordPress?

39. Return to Afghan COINS PowerPoint . . .