HIST 390-001 The Digital Past Fall 2013

I attended one of the events during Open Access Week about the future of libraries and Wikipedia. Jake Orlowitz, recipient of a Wikimedia Foundation Individual Engagement Grant, spoke about "The Wikipedia Library." The Wikipedia Library was a new project he founded in 2012 for the goal of connecting Wikipedia editors with the reliable information sources they need. In the first part of his presentation, he discussed much of what wikipedia is and how it is run. He basically summed up much of what most people don't know about wikipedia and a lot of assumptions that people make about how unreliable information on wikipedia is. Then he went on to discuss more about the wikipedia library and how it would benefit wikipedia editors with vital current reliable sources that they need to do their work. I thought the presentation given by the presenter was very informative and interesting. I learned more about wikipedia and how its more useful than I thought. The most interesting point he raised during his presentation were the benefits of the Wikipedia Library. The thought of connecting university libraries with the wikipedia library will present students and many others information that is reliable and easy to access. Many scholarly articles and information from databases we usually have to pay for will be available for universities to provide students at a much lower cost.

Thanks, Rebecca. I'll add 5 points to your Exam 2 grade.

Good tips on how to improve your presentation.

NY times article about developing nations and access to affordable technology for schools.

These are different app for computers that will help you concentrate on your work rather than being on sites that you shouldn't be. Currently I am using the StayFocused chrome extension to block certain sites when I am working.

The presentation on the first computer worm on Monday made me want to check out other cases of major computer viruses.

This web site, Rebel Mouse, allows you to post things from all the social media you like to use on one homepage that you can create and edit.

although this isn't a full on article, it does provide a snap shot of what many people think regarding sexism on the internet. It ranges from ignore it to yes this is a serious issue.

Although you should probably look a bit more into specific numbers, these facts are fascinating! For example, percentage of facebook users around the entire world and link to the very first website.

This is a very informative web page that gives details about the copyright law when it comes to downloading music.

An interesting article from the Fashion & Style section of the New York Times about how the internet has changed the concept and attitudes of R.S.V.P viewed by people. With the modern R.S.V.P, the ability for a host or event producer to painlessly publicize his or her event to many people has replaced the meaning of a social contract.

This article shows the traffic before and after the whole NSA scandal to Google and DuckDuckGo. It gives visual representation to prove that while traffic did go up on DuckDuckGo, it in no way came close to competing with Google.

This is an article on the DMCA, so it may shine some light on my presentation yesterday on Pinterest and the copyright laws! It is also an interesting read and very informative!

An interesting article about Reed Hastings and how he came up with the idea of Netflix.

"Fire in the Scanning Center" is a great caption for a photo. Glad no one was hurt, and that the Internet Archive continues to operate.

More on Robert Tappan Morris, plus a comparison to Aaron Swartz (whom a few of you know about). Swartz was charged in 2011 or 2012 (I forget which) under the same law Morris was, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and committed suicide in January.

We all know the acronyms "lol" and "lmao" and sometimes just use "haha." This article explores how people from other countries express laughter over the Internet.

A nice little video from A New Zealand library explaining the difference between a search engine and a database. I noticed a bit of confusion about this on exam 2.

This is the video of Postel's induction to the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012