2. ABOUT
• Created 10 years ago and one of the first to join
social media.
• The website stopped being updated in the summer
of 2004 but they still take submissions.
• The goal is to create a permanent record for what
happened on September 11, 2001.
5. WEAKNESSES
• To view a video you need to download the original
media first.
• Most of the stories shared are ones that talk about
what they were doing when the attack happened
– they weren’t actually there.
7. SCHOLARLY PRIMATIVES
• In John Unsworth’s article, “Scholarly Primitives,” he
argues that all scholarship uses the same basic
tools: discovering, annotating, comparing, referring,
sampling, illustrating, and representing.
8. HOW IS IT RELATED TO DIGITAL
HUMANITIES?
• The archive digitally collects and shares what users
submit to them.
• It’s also part of a bigger historical project.
Editor's Notes
- This website is considered social media because it allows users all over the world to submit their stories, images, emails, voicemails, documents and videos with others. People are able to connect and relate to one another and get a better understanding of what happened on Sept. 11th.
Over the years the website has had some updates. This is what the website looked like before. As you can see there’s a lot of white space and text. The picture at the top is small and the about section is very short. I think all this text might scare the viewer away and if they decide to look around they probably won’t even read all that stuff.
This is after. I’m not sure when the updates happened. As you can see on this version the picture is much bigger and every time you view the website the picture is different. That’s something I like about the newer version. The about section is much longer but I think it’s more informative than the previous version. I like how it tells you the numbers and what the website is here to provide. There’s much less white space and the links are much neater. The layout and design are very simple and it’s easy to navigate; this makes it easy for anyone of any age group to use the site. Many of us were too young to really understand what was happening on this day and I think this website helps us understand things more and get a sense of really how drastic and insane everything was.
So, I just mentioned a few strengths to the site. These are some things I don’t like about it.- Even though most people can relate to what others were doing I think it would be interesting to hear about more stories from people who were there when the events were happening.
I didn’t find this picture on the site; I saw it on Facebook this year on September 11th. It’s a photograph by Patrick Witty and he was there when the planes were hitting the twin towers. I find this picture very moving because usually everyone takes pictures of the events happening – not the reactions. He posted this picture because he still doesn’t know the names of the people in the photograph and he was asking people to share it so maybe they would see this picture.
The Sept. 11th Digital Archive uses many of these. For example, it allows you to discover new things about Sept. 11th and view many medias. People are able to compare their stories. The website successfully illustrates what happened on that day and it represents our country and how it has changed since.
To me, digital humanities means anything digital that allows people to learn and connect with others. So many things can fall under this definition and everyone’s definition is different. - It allows people to digitally learn about what happened on that day and share their stories and other media with others all over the world. Because it is part of social media, not only is it part of a bigger historical project, it’s also part of digital humanities.
