Future of Jstor

IMproPRieTies has posted a very interesting article on the future of Jstor.

I say make it free for all but I would.

Wiki Archive

Gavin Robinson has written as great post about UK National Archives’ Your Archives.

He says:

First the good points. The scope of the wiki is much bigger than I was expecting. I thought it would only include PRO holdings, but it actually covers the National Register of Archives too, which effectively means that the site can include any archives in the UK. This is the first sign that the merger of the PRO and NRA to form the National Archives is having some tangible benefits – I previously suspected that it was just vacuous rebranding but Your Archives promises to prove me wrong. This is a particularly important benefit because there isn’t necessarily much logic to which repository documents end up in, especially older documents. For example, the records of the Parliamentarian Ordnance Office, which were a major source for my work on saddles, are split between the PRO, the British Library, the Bodleian Library, and the Museum of London. Even the ones at the PRO are illogically split between SP28 and various WO classes rather than being kept together. As far as I know, the best guide to these sources is an appendix of my unpublished PhD thesis, which is hardly ideal

However, the thrust of the blog post is the limiting activity the PRO has set on the wiki.

For me it shows the PRO just doesn’t get the internet. Information is their business. In fact they are in many ways the custodians of information, protecting it from all but the worthy. Yet the internet has changed this. The PRO could play a very important role to play in the development of historical information on the intent. The potential for digitalisation projects and co-ordination of research efforts is almost limitless. However, they must first stop seeing themselves as protectors of the information and begin to realise that they are in fact distributors.

Facebook Military History Network

OK – I have blogged about it and moaned to just about anyone who will listen. You know my mantra by now.

‘The internet has changed the world’

‘Its all about building communities and networks’

Well its time to try something a bit different.

I have set up a Facebook network called Military History.

Facebook is straight forward. You register an account and then join the network. This then brings everyone together in a large network. Facebook has all the facilities you would expect – forum, pictures, comments etc.

However, the point of the exercise is to see if we can try and build a community of dedicated online military historians.

So I need your support with this. Go and register, join the community and then blog it!

Sacked for blogging

Andy Frayn pointed out the following article:

Staff see red over online policing
Phil Baty and Tony Tysome
Published: 18 May 2007
Staff face dismissal for criticising their employers in chatrooms and blogs, report Phil Baty and Tony Tysome.

Academics’ internet activity is increasingly being “spied on” by managers, it was claimed this week after a lecturer at Wolverhampton University was sacked for making a series of allegations online.

Union leaders and academic freedom campaigners argued this week that lecturers and researchers must be free to criticise their managers and to discuss their jobs without fear of reprisal.

But university marketing chiefs warned that online activities such as blogs and web forums are increasingly being monitored by universities keen to protect their reputation.

The debate was sparked by the case of Sal Fiore, a senior lecturer in computing at Wolverhampton. An investigation by The Times Higher has established that he was sacked on grounds of gross misconduct last month following a series of e-mails.

Evidence against him included a posting he had made to a discussion forum in which he named Wolverhampton in association with general bullying allegations.

Dr Fiore had also contributed to a blog for bullied academics – bulliedacademics.blogspot.com – where academics this week complained that they were under surveillance.

One said that managers use postings “to ‘get’ their targets on some violation of university policy”. Another said that bosses were “snooping around, looking for ‘evidence'”.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said:

“Academics should not be made to feel that any comment they make may be picked up by some sort of university spy team and used against them.”

Peter Reader, director of marketing and communications at Bath University, said that there was “huge interest” in such websites and that universities were beginning to monitor them.

Wolverhampton confirmed that Dr Fiore’s dismissal related to a number of incidents. Geoff Hurd, deputy vice-chancellor, said: “No member of staff has been, or ever will be, dismissed for exercising their right to freedom of speech.”

http://www.thes.co.uk/current_edition/story.aspx?story_id=2036693

I have two things to say:

1. Never blog/email/post anything your wouldn’t be prepared to say in public,
2. The response of the university is of no surprise. Universities are unaware of the power of the internet. They relate free democratic speech with negative reactions. If the university was superb, if it strived to offer the best possible academic experience and if they were truly proud of their institutions – they would be falling over themselves to encourage people to blog.

The Perfect History Site

I am working on a couple of new posts that develop my ideas of how history can be best presented on the web.

This follows on from this post (amongst others).

Here are my random thought on a perfect history site:

Ability to create my own ‘section’ which contains my profile and ability to up load work,

Ability to link my section to others with similar interests,

Ability to search sections to find ‘interesting’ information and profiles,

Ability to find and contact other historians with a similar interest to my own,

Ability to search on a topic (military history) and find all relevant pages within the site etc,

List of history Jobs

Books, films and games – reviews and discounts when buying,

Lists of conferences I might like to attend,

Daily updates via email or RSS

Free articles on interesting subjects,

Afghanistan campaign medal

There are few scholarly works on the subject of the Victoria Cross. In fact, beyond the Evolution of the Victoria Cross, most studies concentrate on biographical information or collections of citations. These are of little value to a serious historian.

My research has shown that the origins of the VC can be traced back to two major sources. The first is the system of awards seen in India during the 19^th century. In essence, these set a precedent for awarding soldiers for individual actions. The second major developmental area is that of the campaign medal. The most influential medal being the Waterloo Medal, which was presented in the wake of the battle of Waterloo (1815). It was given to all those involved, but since the general army lists were used to determine just who should receive the medal; both combatants and non-combatants were rewarded. This went someway to later devaluing the medal as the British public struggled to separate the ideas of battlefield involvement and battlefield gallantry.

However, a precedent had been set with soldiers being awarded publically for military actions. This was a system that was beyond, and independent to, the existing system of monetary award, brevet promotions and honorific titles.

I am currently reading Saul David’s Victoria’s Wars in which he addresses conflicts between 1837 and 1861. Though he lacks the sophistication of other Empire writers, such as Niall Ferguson, his pragmatic approach does yield rewards. At the end of his section regarding the first Afghan War (1839-1842), he writes the following about Queen Victoria’s response to the war:

‘She [Queen Victoria] also gave permission for her own troops to wear the Afghanistan campaign medals that Lord Ellenborough had had struck fro the Indian Army. Active service medals were, at the time, extremely rare. A Waterloo Medal has been struck in 1816 and a Peninsular Medal would be, retrospectively, in 1846. Thanks to the example set by the HEIC in 1842, campaign medals with battle bars would become the norm. Yet the queen could not help feeling, or so she told Peel, that it would have been more appropriate if the Afghan Medal had come from herself and not from the governor-general of India.’

This quote demonstrates two important points.

The first is the cross fertilisation with the privately owned Indian Army. Though unproved, much circumstantial evidence suggests that, the manner in which Indian Army soldier were rewarded acted as a blueprint for the Victoria Cross.

The second is the growing need to recognise the actions of individual soldiers. The highly public campaign medal offered a chance for overt recognition of the soldier’s sacrifice. Since the publication of soldier’s letters during the Crimean war, the image of the British soldier had begun to soften, changing from Wellington’s ‘scum’ towards warrior heroes defending the frontiers of the Empire.

In my view, the reaction to the disastrous first Afghan War went some way to setting the foundations for later changes in the British gallantry Award system and the eventual introduction of the Victoria Cross.

Military History Carnival #2

Welcome to the second Military History Carnival.

I have tried to follow Gavin Robinsons‘ excellent lead by choosing posts that are not only fascinating but also represent the broad spectrum of topics covered by the remit of ‘military history’. In compiling this Carnival I have been struck by the international nature of the many blogs and I hope my selection will go some way to proving that the internet truly extends beyond physical borders.

Blogging what is it good for?

Over the past few weeks a debate (argument!) has sprung up regarding the importance of blogging as a tool for military historians. It is best summarised by Dan Todman at Trench Fever and Dr Esther MacCallum-Stewart at Break of Day in the Trenches.

The debate revolved around the growing importance of the internet as a tool for spreading ideas and it was generally agreed that history blogging is in a pretty healthy state. In fact, it turned out that you bloggers are a creative lot. This is shown clearly at Lifeasdaddy, where Bob Meade has used his blog to showcase a series of rare photographs of a Royal Navy midget submarine taken in Subic Bay, Philippines during World War II. Whilst, at English Russia you can see a set of more modern photos examining structures scattered in the forests around St. Petersburg and Kronstadt island which were used in the World War 1 and 2.

However, some bloggers have been even more adventurous. Steamboats are Ruining Everything has used Google Maps to look more closely at the devastation caused during the Chechen Wars in Grozny, Chechnya. Blog4History has written about the importance of digitalising historical records and MyHistoryNotes is promoting his favourite blogs through a ‘H-List’.

State of Military History

Despite military history being a rapidly growing part of the history blogosphere, the role of the subject our universities is not so healthy. Professor Mark Grimsley argues that military history in US academic institutions is slowly being sidelined. Yet, for Ross Mahoney the situation in the UK is far more positive.

All around the world.

The international flavour of the blogs submitted for this months Carnival has left me feeling as though I have been on a cheap, yet fascinating trip around the world.

It all started in the UK with Elizabeth Chadwick and a re-enactment Anglo Saxon life. This was quickly followed by a trip up north to Memorabilia Antonina to learn all about Hadrian’s Wall and its link to George Bush’s planned fence along the US-Mexican border. I had time for a quick stop off with Gavin Robinson for a pleasant chat about English Civil War cavalry tactics and before meeting with George Simmers at Great War Fiction to discuss why people in 1914/15 were so eager to believe and disseminate atrocity stories?

A hop across the pond to America led me to King’s Chronicles who was talking about the Battle of Hampton Roads and the duel between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. Once in the US, I found that ex-presidents were all the rage with Britannica Blog discussing Ronald Reagan’s role in today’s ideas about combating terror, spreading democracy, and making the world “less nuclear”, and Thoughts on Military History was asking why President Truman decided to use the atomic bomb. I love a good battlefield trip and Behind AotW convinced me that the battlefield Visitor’s Center at Antietam was a ‘must visit.’ Whilst in that neck of the woods, I dropped in on The 48th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry who told me of a many, many years’ long mystery that was recently solved. My packed schedule left me time to visit Brain Blogger to find out whether war is a psychosis and learn about the meaning of Jamestown from the Dougout.

From the US it was a long haul to the Far East with stops at China, Korea and Japan. Here I learned about African mercenaries fighting alongside Ming troops during the Imjin Wars and Chinese airpower from Frog in a Well. I ended my visit by viewing a bound sketchbook containing a series of 36 pencil and watercolour sketches drawn by Commander Mervyn Scott Lindslay whilst a prisoner of the Japanese, which was being displayed at BibliOdyssey.

I then had time for a quick stop off at India to discover some interesting facts about the Battle of Khajwa from Horse and Sword, before a jump to Russia to get involved in an interesting discussion between the Rhine River and Oxblog about whether Stalin and the Soviet people should get most of the laurels for victory in World War Two?

Next stop was back into Europe, with a quick visit to Switzerland with Strange Maps before moving onto to Spain to meet up with Airminded who looked closely at the bombing of Guernica on its 70^th anniversary. From Spain it was a short but interesting journey to France. Here I learned of The Cannon’s Mouth’s recent trip to the WW1 battlefields. However, it was France’s more distant past that took my fancy, with You’re History guiding me through the Papal Crusade against the Languedoc Cathars and A Commonplace Book offering me an insight into the limited number of ways an edge blow can be effective against plate armor.

My trip left me feeling all Dr Who! So, a journey in time was in order.

Firstly, it was off to ancient Greece to find out how the book Watership Down reminded Tacithydra of the night attack of the Athenians on the Syracusans. Before finally returning to the future (or was it the past?) to discover Paleo-Future’s gigantic robots.

Exhausted but happy, this just leaves me to thank you for reading this issue of the Military History Carnival.

The May issue will take place on 17th June at Behind Antietam on the Web.

Submissions can be e-mailed to $bdowney$@$aotw$.$org$ (but remove the dollar signs!) or use the submission form here.

Last Chance

Sunday will see me hosting the latest issue of the Military History. There’s still time to send submissions to $gary$@$breathinghistory$.$com$ (but remove the dollar signs!) or use the Military History Carnival submission form.

History Blogging

As the debate regarding the importance of history blogging gathers speed I thought I would list of few of the most recent posts:

Trench Fever
Great War Fiction
Investigations of a Dog
Break of Day in the Trenches

In addition to blogging about blogging (if you see what I mean) I approached a few papers and magazines with a suggestion for a print piece about history blogging. This is a reply I received from a fairly popular UK history magazine:

Thanks for this. Like everyone else, I am about to start writing one on
our website. But to be honest I don’t see a big community of historians
blogging in Britain (other than geneaologists). Until they do, and until
there is a story about things that have happened in the world of history
that wouldn’t have happened if no-one had been blogging, I’ll hang fire.

Time to Blog

Gavin at Investigations of a Dog has written a retrospective post about his experience of blogging. In this he raises a number of important issues, not least being the impact that blogging can have on a potential employer. However, I want to latch on to another point he makes, when he suggests that many lecturers lack the time to blog regularly.

To me the time argument is just an excuse. The internet is the single most important change in historical studies, since the printing press. The democratising effect of the web, means that we are seeing an influx in readily available material that was previously archived. This in turn is releasing a hoard of amateur historians.

The problem faced by academic community is that many of these amateur historians are vocal but have little, if any, training in traditional methods of research and writing. If left alone, we will see a slow build up of valuable but diverse and uncontrolled research material leaking into the public domain. If this massive resource is to be tapped, some level of control needs to be applied.

In my view, it is the role of the universities to educate these new types of historian. Though this presents a huge challenge. The new bread of historian will have neither the inclination or physical ability to attend a traditional university course. I believe that control will be brought about through the development of networks and communities, with university lecturers forming an integral controlling factor . They will act as a ‘listening post’ and a ‘voice of reason’ in the fragmented network of research groups.

So, lecturers must blog more. Blogging is the start, it provides a visible rallying point for developing communities. They must get involved in networks and communities beyond the traditional university driven avenues.

It is a priority.

H List

My History Notes is try to get a ‘H-List’ up and running.

I like this approach and think anything that promotes other blogs is a good thing.

Why don’t more lecturers blog?

The internet has changed the way people interact. In today’s society the development of networks and communities are an essential part of promoting ideas.

This brings to mind an important question:

Why don’t more history lecturers write regular blogs?

Here’s my thoughts:

1. They don’t realise the power of the internet.
2. They are intimidated by the technology.
3. They are unaware of the technology and its latent power.

If lectures are aware of the technology and it’s power, then maybe it’s one of these reasons:

1. They are worried that by blogging their ideas they will give away precious information.
2. The idea of opening themselves to unlimited interaction is intimidating.
3. They simply have nothing to say.

Whatever the reason, the situation needs to change. If History is to develop and more forward, universities need to recognise that an information revolution has occurred. Introducing a few online courses isn’t enough. They need to develop interactive networks and open ended networks.

Changing role of universities

The internet is changing the world.

There I said it…

The internet is also changing the way history is consumed – learned, read and recorded . The way I see it is that historians have two choices. We can cross our fingers, shut our eyes and pray the inevitable changes will go our way. Alternatively we can manipulate the change in a way that benefits us all.

Let me give you an example.

Universities.

These are the bastions of modern historical thought. Yet they are based on an antiquated system that is all ready outdated. Take the example of military history. This is a field of history that sells thousands of books each years. Yet, teaching positions in universities are declining. Why? If people will pay money to read books, surly they will pay money to study the subject!

Universities rely on an elitist approach to historical study. They train historians to examine records accessible only to the privileged. The historian then draws conclusions. These conclusions are debated and the other university historians decide whether they like them or not. The results are presented in papers, printed in journals and published in books. If the general public are lucky these ideas might filter down into a documentary or readable book.

But this system is no longer effective.

The intent has changed it.

The first big shift is in the digitalisation of historical records. Over the past years the process of digitalising records has progressed at an ever increasing pace. Archives all over the world are placing previously inaccessible records onto the internet. Add to this Google’s unstoppable digitalisation of out of “copyright” books and you can see the direction the world is heading. In addition, we are seeing private individuals collecting, collating and digitalising their own records. Records that would otherwise have remained inaccessible.

The second big shift is in communication. The old system of discussion, journals and conferences is quickly becoming redundant. The internet lets people talk and communicate and historians must listen. Ideas can now be floated globally, discussions can be held internationally and conclusions can be drawn universally.

So I am predicting the end of universities?

No – far from it.

I am suggesting that the role of universities is far more important then it has ever been. Democratisation of information brings with it problems. The fact that anyone can access the freely available historical information, leaves the system open to abuse. Those who are able to shout the loudest or emotionally stimulate the most people, will be heard the most often. The role of universities will be to provide an corner stone for debate. The process of thinking will not change, just the way ideas are presented. Historians will need to interact with the world more , they will need to be heard. Blogs, emails, Web pages, MySpace, YouTude etc are all the tools of the new historian.

Finally, I feel the way universities teach history much change.

Here are two examples:

1. The role of the internet must be taught to all students. In addition, internet technology must become part of the fabric of day to day teaching. Online tutors, blogs, instant messaging are just a few examples.
2. A new breed of course is needed. As lay-historians become more empowered they will develop a requirement to learn basic research and historical skills. However, these people will be remote and unwilling to join the tradition university system. For this reason, a new short term, user friendly, community based, online teaching environment is required to offer traditional skills in a newly packaged format.

Digitalisation

Yesterday Blog 4 History: American History & Civil War History posted about the importance of digitalisation for the future of the web. He talked about the role of online resources for remotely located historians. He also highlighted an important point regarding individual bloggers digitalising and publishing their own work.

Also yesterday Gavin Robinson posted this comment in response to this post.

He said:

’…people need to do more small scale experiments with a wider variety of techniques rather than doing nothing or jumping into a major project without trying all the options.’

Well, Blog 4 History’s latest project Soldier Studies is a great example of both the democratisation of the web and ‘small scale experiments.’ He has developed a site that acts as an important archive for digitalised material relating to the American Civil War.

For me this type of project is the future of history on the web. However, I believe that as internet historians we must push to develop a level of communication beyond these projects. We must work hard to stabilise and develop network links and wider communities. Only by doing this can we attempt to develop a system in which information collected by sites such as Soldier Studies can be correctly assimilated in to a wider context.

History Blogs: a new dawn

In the past year history blogs have exploded. You only have to look at the History News Network Blogroll to see this. Readers interested in history have a wealth of well written and entertaining blogs to keep them happy. The subjects of these blogs cover all aspects of history from the big subjects such as the First world War, down to the minuet such as Historical Cases of Dying Bees.

Whenever the media talk about blogs, they tend to paint them as a passing fad with little impact beyond their small readership. This is clearly incorrect. A fact illustrated by the recent shooting at Virginia Tech, where a picture of the gunman was posted on a blog hours after the shooting and days before the police released his identity.

For me, history blogs represent a new and exciting avenue for historical thought. They provide a free and democratic tool, that can be utilised by anyone, to post on any subject that feel worthy of their time.

This democracy has resulted in a wide range of blogs. As a good historian I have tried to group these into three distinct types. Academic blogs, written mostly by professionally trained historians that address history from a more historiographical view point. These often concentrate on the argument, above the detail. Enthusiastic blogs, written by historical enthusiasts. These bloggers tend to highly knowledgeable about a single aspect of history, they may or may not be historically trained but they are often written for the sheer joy of the subject. These blogs focus on ‘facts’ rather than interpretation and argument. The final type is Personal blogs. These tend to be blogs about subjects other then history, that often drift in to the subject with occasional posts.

At first sight it seems that the history blog community is fragmented and unconnected. In a way this is true. However, I feel that a number of trends tie the history blogs together. The fist is simply passion. History blogs are consistently passionate about their corner of history, happily blogging regularly to an unseen audience. The second is knowledge. Almost exclusively history blogs contain accurate details and content. The third is a wish to spread knowledge. Very few bloggers are making money from their blogs and this means that it is the sheer enjoyment of spreading knowledge that is a key motivator of many history bloggers.

This finally brings me to the point of this post. Our community is fragmented but it needn’t be. History blogs represent one the most important developments in the historical community in recent years. If we are able to control and harness the wealth of information that exists, then blogging provides a tool to publish levels of historical detail that was previously impossible.

Traditional avenues of historical publishing are limiting. Conferences, journals and books are great, they have their place. They provide a solid base of peer reviewed historical data and more importantly historical argument. Yet, by their nature they are elitist and limiting. Despite many efforts, they alienate the amateur historian, who though not necessarily historically trained, still possess the skills and intelligence to carry out valuable and detailed historical research. It’s this type of historian, who the traditional system ignores. Their research is often niche and commercially unviable. Yet, the blog allows them to find a valuable voice.

I am suggesting that all and sundry should post their half baked historical views?

Yes.

Defiantly, yes.

YES.

Well, no.

I am suggesting that blogs offer an avenue for amateur historians to present their carefully researched knowledge. This doesn’t remove the need for a higher level of historical discipline to carefully sift, review and assimilate this knowledge. Instead, the blog provides another stream of information that can be plumbed into the existing system.

So this is my vision.

A historical community in which the amateur historian can have a valid and valuable voice.

The question remains – how do we get there?

The answer is I am not sure.

What I do know is that it requires networks and communities. Communities are the key. It requires utilisation of web 2.0 sites. It requires a network to be centred through blogs but extended into other applications such as MySpace, Flikr, newsgroups and more. Some historians are trying this (Gavin Robinson recently published pictures of his family during WW1 at Flickr), but it needs more control and thought.

In the short term I suggest that all history bloggers should follow these three rules. This will help to strengthen the existing community links and encourage new bloggers.

1. Comment more! Comments are the life blood of the blogging community. They encourage writers to write, whilst offering footprints back to other like minded blogs. Go one try it! Start by leaving a comment here – its not painful I promise.
2. Cross post. If you see a post that you really enjoy, mention it in your blog, this way it extends the web of links connecting blogs.
3. Get involved with projects such as carnivals. These collective exercises are superb at bringing communities together.

Rant over – Happy blogging.