Comments on: Privatizing Holocaust History?

By: Amalia Levi

Amalia Levi — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:27:11 +0000

Why try to “temper” sharing and tagging with the pretext of “caution and sensitivity towards victims and their memory”?
60 years after WWII, abusive comments, rather than being offensive to the memory of the victims, tell more about the person that posts.
Imagine the mash-up quality of such comments for the historian studying, say, the geography of hatred today (but then I guess, one would be accused of being racist)…
Looking forward to the un-conference at USHMM.

Amalia

By: Briefly Noted for November 2, 2009

Briefly Noted for November 2, 2009 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:31:00 +0000

[...] it has entered into with Footnote.com. Written partially in response to some poorly thought out comments here at Found History, ArchivesNext provides (as usual) a well considered, well balanced discussion of the issues at [...]

By: Briefly Noted for October 12, 2009

Briefly Noted for October 12, 2009 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:30:25 +0000

[...] or implicity support, the “social contracts created by them.” Written partially in response to some worries I voiced about Footnote.com’s use of social media in connection with its NARA Holocaust collection, [...]

By: Kate Theimer

Kate Theimer — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:08:02 +0000

Sorry for the delay, but I just put up a post that responds, in part, to Tom’s concerns about the possibility of the posted Holocaust documents becoming the target of abuse: http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=533

Also, in the next few days I should have a post up on the general topic of NARA’s digitization partnerships, including an official statement from NARA about their plans. Hoping to get that one up soon!

Kate

By: Jim Cassedy

Jim Cassedy — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:01:54 +0000

I apologize if I am perhaps belaboring this discussion. I really do not need to have anything added. But there is some slight possibility that concerned citizens might approve the placing of NARA records about the Holocaust on Footnote.com. http://tinyurl.com/yg8bmxm – just saying.

By: Jim Cassedy

Jim Cassedy — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:32:19 +0000

Although I am one to use declaratory sentences without any regards for factual accuracy myself from time to time, I think the remarks by Larry are a major league example (Go Twins). Given the ongoing millions being spent on ERA, with the resulting technical infrastructure, I would not be too cynical about NARA’s ability to host publically much of what is on the .com’s, and something like images of the 1940 census schedules.

By: Tom Scheinfeldt

Tom Scheinfeldt — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:43:13 +0000

Dynamite! Looking forward to meeting you, Chris.

By: Chris Willis

Chris Willis — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:41:05 +0000

I look forward to participating in the conference and sharing what we’ve learned about how people behave and interact with the millions of documents we’ve put up so far.

By: Tom Scheinfeldt

Tom Scheinfeldt — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:29:52 +0000

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. Though I’m always going to be partial to open access projects, I take Chris’s point that Footnote’s efforts are offering access to these documents to many, many more people than have ever had it before. That is undoubtedly a good thing. At the same time, like Kate, I’m unconvinced that NARA will do anything to provide expanded, truly open access to these materials when they are finally able to do so. It could be, as Larry says, NARA wasn’t going to do anything with them anyway. But as ever in times of tight budgets, having the excuse of saying “well, they’re already up at Footnote.com” makes that an unfortunate fait accompli.

As for the social media issue, I didn’t mean to suggest Footnote was being cavalier in its strategy and I’m glad to see there haven’t been any abuses. But it only takes one ugly remark with an issue as sensitive as this, and so I’d love to hear about Footnote’s plans to deal with it if it happens. I certainly don’t want to add to anybody’s busy travel schedule, but maybe Footnote would want to send someone to the Conscience Un-conference to discuss the tensions between open and appropriate discussion around issues of conscience in the social media space. With its unique public face, Footnote would undoubtedly have important insights to bring the event. I’m also looking forward to Kate’s additional thoughts on the matter at ArchivesNext.

By: Larry Cebula

Larry Cebula — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:59:30 +0000

Look guys, NARA is never going to do this. Not ever. They are not going to scan their own documents, they are not going to put them online (let alone with as slick and useable an interface as Footnote.com), they aren’t going to do it. And when Footnote does give them digital copies of the scanned docs on a silver platter, NARA is not going to do anything with those either. This is just the fact of the matter.

So in this imperfect world, Footnote is doing a vast perfect service by scanning these documents, putting them online in a terrific usable interface, and charging a fairly modest fee for access. (I would like to see more modest institutional pricing however.)