Old Sturbridge Village Shaping Up — I have spent more time at Old Sturbridge Village, which is two towns over from where I grew up, than at any other museum I haven’t worked at. So I’m very happy to see that its attendance and finances appear to be improving after a very rough decade forContinue reading “Briefly Noted for March 30, 2010”
iPads and irResponsibility
Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania has announced it will give every full-time student a new Apple iPad upon arrival in the fall. This seems remarkably irresponsible to me. In a time of scant resources, does it really make sense to commit hundreds of thousands of dollars to a device very few people have ever evenContinue reading “iPads and irResponsibility”
Briefly Noted for March 26, 2010
Personalized URL Shorteners (Suggestions for CHNM?) — @sebchan explains how the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney started rolling its own tiny URLs using Yourls. Powerhouse employees can now shorten links to Powerhouse blog posts, exhibits, and collection items for easy Tweeting or inclusion on gallery labels. Any ideas for a good tiny domain for CHNM?
"Soft" [money] is not a four-letter word
I will be the first to say that I have been, and continue to be, extremely lucky. As I explained in an earlier post, I have managed to strike a workable employment model somewhere between tenured professor and transient post-doc, expendable adjunct, or subservient staffer, a more or less happy “third way” that provides relative security, creative opportunity, andContinue reading “"Soft" [money] is not a four-letter word”
Briefly Noted for March 23, 2010
Omeka-Powered Digital Amherst Recognized by ALA — The American Library Association’s (ALA’s) Program on America’s Libraries for the 21st Century has recognized Digital Amherst with one of three awards for best use of cutting-edge technology. A project of the Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts, Digital Amherst is a collaborative Omeka-powered website celebrating the town’s 250thContinue reading “Briefly Noted for March 23, 2010”
Support for Regional THATCamps
In 2008, CHNM created THATCamp—The Humanities and Technology Camp—a yearly user-generated “unconference.” Organized on a shoestring and driven by participant interests, the new style of academic conference attracted a wide range of interest, and it spawned numerous locally-organized regional THATCamps in 2009, including recent events in Austin, TX, Pullman, WA, Columbus, OH, Los Angeles, CA,Continue reading “Support for Regional THATCamps”
Things of History, History of Things
I have just started listening to an new podcast from the BBC, A History of the World in 100 Objects, written and narrated by Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum. Aside from the obvious reductionism and the occasionally irritating interstitials (lots of ambient chanting and pan flute music), the show is excellent, taking oneContinue reading “Things of History, History of Things”
Digital Humanities at NCPH
The digital humanities are well represented this week at the National Council for Public History annual meeting in Portland, Oregon. By my count, fully nine of the approximately ninety sessions, workshops, working groups, and posters are either entirely or partially dedicated to the web and other digital outlets for public history. This equals the nineContinue reading “Digital Humanities at NCPH”
Briefly Noted for March 4, 2010
Facebook, Google, Apple: Patents Gone Wild — The last ten days or so have seen a flurry of suspect behavior by large technology companies, their intellectual property lawyers, and the United States Patent Office. First, Facebook secured a patent for “dynamically providing a news feed,” which has likely caused some consternation among the folks atContinue reading “Briefly Noted for March 4, 2010”
Briefly Noted for March 2, 2010
YouTube dropping IE6 support — At more than a week old, I suppose this doesn’t qualify as breaking news, but it’s still big news. According to Ars Technica, YouTube will cease to support Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 beginning March 13, 2010—that’s right, less than two weeks from today. To the delight of CHNM’s web developers,Continue reading “Briefly Noted for March 2, 2010”
