Sheep or Irrelevance?

I was hesitant, at first, to join even more online social networks. It would be just something else to suck up my time and expose myself to the world, while hermiting on my couch. However, the more I explored, I realized these sites might take up more of my time, and my eyeballs will be even dryer at night from staring longer at the computer screen, but I will have been somewhat productive (at least more so than the hours spent mesmerized by cats and pie on Pinterest and Foodgawker every week).  Not only are these good research tools for images and videos but excellent modes of publicity, promotion, and providing access to a wider audience. While using Flickr, museums are able to engage the public, not only as patrons but also, as the National Maritime Museum in London proved, as curators. The more social media grows, the easier it is to connect with new patrons every day, as well as receive feedback. As Jim Richardson points out, Youtube is a two-way communication device. The museum can send out information, but the public can send information back. Not only can this feedback be useful to the museum as an assessment tool, but also as more advertisement. The videos, and comments people make could be used to promote the museum even more. Who needs to hire someone to create a video when visitors to the museum will make one for you on the spot with their smart phones, post it to social media where 500 of their friends will see it on their Newsfeed?

For personal use, photo storage and organization programs like Flickr, Picasa, and Google Plus are excellent for the photographs people collect for projects or family vacation. It is now okay to store the 1 million pictures of your family pet dressed in various Halloween costumes and the five photos of the museum exhibit you spent a month researching, writing and laying out during a summer internship, in the same place. Why? Because there is plenty of room on Flickr’s terabyte of storage for both, and Picasa will separate your personal life from your professional one by organizing your photos for you, let you edit them, and sync with your desktop through Google Plus (this is the age of the camera phone, no one has time to look at all of the pictures they take, much less organize and transfer them between devices and programs).

Google Plus is not only useful for photographs, but also for conducting business meetings or online video chats and interviews. Again, no need to separate the personal from professional because this social network is, according to Christina Warren “truly unlike anything available on other networks” and the Hangout feature is perfect for having business meetings or sharing pictures of the fancy dinner you made last night.

Social media is an important means to connect to customers and business associates, share ideas and resources, ask for help, and create interest. Public history is about presenting information to the people, helping them feel a connection, and involving them in the conversation. The two are inseparable. 

Roxanne "Roxie" Pulley, Social Media Victim  Enthusiast and Hat Model. Courtesy of my iPhone.

Wading In the Water

Based on our class discussion on Monday, and the links Dr. Cebula shared on the blog, I predict this class will be both liberating and frustrating. In our effort to define "Digital Storytelling" and the variety of descriptions we found online has demonstrated the flexibility of the medium, which seems to be lacking any sort of boundary. The "digital" part seems to be self-explanatory, however this is a digital world. Almost everything can be described by the adjective. All the links Dr. Cebula provided are examples of different types of digital stories on a variety of topics. We will have a lot of decisions to make, techniques to learn, and programs to explore. It is daunting to think of the possibilities. This is obviously a field not limited to public history, as shown through some of the links from Dr. Cebula. Each has their pros and cons, but might be a perfect fit for their context and message.

The first video was the most helpful because it provides some type of structure to help us focus the development of our projects. Having key elements to consider makes the process less overwhelming as well as providing guidance to create a clear and concise message to our audience. The Stony Brook website will probably be a widely used resource at first, but as we become more comfortable with our direction and requirements I hope this resource will be reduced to a reference.

The article on Brown University’s website is a reminder of the movement toward digital everything. If you are not a part of the digital world then it seems as if you might as well be irrelevant (an exaggeration perhaps). Not only does “going digital” mean streamlining, but also a wider audience. The idea of less work required to reach more people must sound like a good one to everyone.

The Spokane Historical site is a perfect example of digital storytelling. I didn’t realize there were so many around the country (two for my part of the country!). It will be interesting to explore these in-depth and find new ideas and inspiration that we can incorporate into our projects.

The scariest and most exciting part of a new adventure is getting started. Hopefully with these resources and examples, we will have some help wading into the ocean of digital storytelling, unless Dr. Cebula decides to go with the Sink or Swim approach (I hope not!). By the end of this class we should have the basic skills, knowledge of available tools, and confidence to use digital storytelling as a means of outreach and communication in whatever field we decide to pursue. 

(This was the result of the Sink or Swim approach.  http://crystalcomments.com/graphics/10/p/3/cat)