Blog Post 11: Project Ideas for Visual Historiography

As touched on in my last posting, it is so much harder to practice digital history than it is to read about it. I think what makes it so difficult is the multitude of directions you can go in visualizing a theme - but choosing one method that is perfect for that theme is another story. 

In looking through the sample topics, I am very drawn toward the Promises and Perils of Digital History and the disadvantage of proprietary software. I feel like a bulk of what we have read centers around the profession's growth, and with that, it is impossible to ignore the advantages and challenges that permeate digital history - from the openness of accessibility to the failure of technology. One thing we have noted in class is the obsolescence of Flash, which rendered many, many digital projects unusable. If I were to need to get specific, I wonder if tracing the demise of Flash projects, and perhaps other widely used software within digital history, would provide insight into the much larger narrative theme of technology within the field. Digital history relies on technology, which is ever-changing. We are constantly upgrading, and I have my doubts that we will create "perfect" software that will never be replaced or moved to obsolescence. What implications would this have for future digital history projects?

I am going to attempt to use the ASSERT model to lay the groundwork for my (very tentative) visualization of technology and obsolescence within the field.

Ask a question: 

How pertinent is the issue of technological and software obsolescence to the field of digital history?

Search for evidence to support the question: 

“University of Virginia Library Digital Curation Services,” Digital Curation Services, accessed September 12, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20141010164712/http://www.digitalcurationservices.org/sustaining-digital-scholarship/valley-of-the-shadow/.

Mentions problems of technological change that affected the usability of a digital project.

Cohen, Daniel J. and Roy Rosenzweig. “Promises and Perils of Digital History”. George Mason University, 2006.

Mentions preserving digital history and preventing the loss of your work.

Structure that information to answer the question:

If I were to research and collect examples of various obsolete/unusable digital history projects, I could present some sort of graph or chart.

Envision ways to answer the question using data:

I am thinking of something that shows a project's length of work and research, length of being live on the internet, and then the time that the project became unusable due to software/technological obsolescence. If there are a lot of projects, this would prove that technology presents a meaty peril to digital historians.

Represent the data in a compelling visualization:

In showing the lifespan of projects, I feel like maybe a timeline like this could work.

Here, we could see how long these projects lasted. Monographs and print history arguably last forever, while digital history faces a special problem in relying on technology in an age where it is always changing.

Tell a meaningful story using the evidence to answer the question:

With technology changing frequently and consistently, the need to preserve and back up digital history projects is integral - there are several digital history projects unusable because of these issues.