Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 15, No. 319.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
[1] From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi (39)
<tripathi@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
Subject: A web symposium on texts and technology
[2] From: NINCH-ANNOUNCE <david@ninch.org> (203)
Subject: Archiving September 11, 2001
[3] From: ubiquity <ubiquity@HQ.ACM.ORG> (29)
Subject: Ubiquity 2.32
[4] From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk> (15)
Subject: Collectors, Collections and Scholarly Culture
[5] From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk> (64)
Subject: funding, big science and scholarship
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 09:58:44 +0100
From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi
<tripathi@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
Subject: A web symposium on texts and technology
Dear Dr. Willard McCarty,
[This is a worth "web symposium on the impact of new information and
communication technologies on reading, writing and the diffusion of
knowledge." I would like to recommend each member of the Humanist List to
participate in the event. Thank you and best.-Arun]
========================================================================
text-e: Screens and networks: towards a new relationship with the written
word (October 2001-March 2002)
A virtual symposium on the Web, at www.text-e.org
Organized by the Bibliothque publique dinformation (BPI) - Centre
Pompidou, the Institut Jean Nicod (CNRS) and EURO-EDU
in association with GiantChair.com
Sponsored by UNESCO
New Information and Communication Technologies (NICT) are transforming our
world as radically as did the invention of the printing press. How will
this affect the written word and its uses in society? There may be no
immediate answers to these questions, but we can -and should- investigate
the issues involved.
In this context, the Bibliothque publique dinformation (BPI), the Institut
Jean Nicod (CNRS and EHESS), the non-profit organization EURO-EDU and
GiantChair, have decided to set up a virtual symposium in French, Italian
and English. Launched on October 15th, 2001, it will focus on the impact
of NITC on our relationship with information and the written word.
This international symposium should contribute to enriching current
debates about the emergence of hybrid tools of communication (e-books,
Internet and e-mail) and the social changes that accompany them. The
contributors papers will be published directly on the symposiums host
site, www.text-e.org and will be accessible from the BPIs main site
(www.bpi.fr). It will involve theorists and other professionals affected
by changes in their professional and personal lives brought about by
e-mail and the Internet, and it will examine the impact of these
technologies on reading, journalism, scholarship, libraries, archives,
literature and so on. The symposium will provide participants with a forum
for the discussion of all points of view.
Through this program, we aim at once to engage in a collective research
project, to enact the new relationship to the written word and to stage a
public event using Web-based communication. The result will be published
in book as well as in electronic format.
[material deleted]
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 10:04:31 +0100
From: NINCH-ANNOUNCE <david@ninch.org>
Subject: Archiving September 11, 2001
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
News on Networking Cultural Heritage Resources
from across the Community
October 16, 2001
Archiving September 11, 2001
http://September11.archive.org
* * *
How the Net Is Documenting a Watershed Moment
New York Times, October 15, 2001 By MATTHEW MIRAPAUL
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/15/arts/15ARTS.html?ex=1004190812&ei=1&en=2ae42345ae5682d6
>Approved-By: John.Chadwick@NAU.EDU
>Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 17:06:52 -0700
>Reply-To: Museum discussion list <MUSEUM-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
>>From: kmancuso@SC.EDU
>>Moment
>To: MUSEUM-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM
>Status:
>
>This article from NYTimes.com
>has been sent to you by kmancuso@sc.edu.
>
>How the Net Is Documenting a Watershed Moment
>October 15, 2001
>By MATTHEW MIRAPAUL
>
>As the nation's cultural institutions start to ponder what
>they will collect and preserve from the events of Sept. 11,
>the Internet is figuring largely in their strategies.
>
>Information from the Internet is being continually
>collected in a major undertaking spearheaded by the Library
>of Congress. A new Internet site, September11.archive.org,
>went online on Thursday and already contains more than
>500,000 Internet pages related to the terrorist attacks and
>the United States reprisals, ranging from daily news
>reports to personal memorials.
>
>In a separate initiative, an informal coalition of 33
>organizations led by the Museum of the City of New York and
>the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History,
>plans this week to begin using an online forum to discuss
>and coordinate the collection of Sept. 11 materials. The
>effort may eventually lead to a joint Internet site
>exhibiting digital versions of their artifacts.
>
>"Historians are very good at looking back, but looking
>forward is a little bit tough," said Robert R. Macdonald,
>director of the Museum of the City of New York. "We're
>trying to decide what we owe history. We have to come to
>some decision-making in terms of what should be collected."
>
>
>For Diane Kresh, the director of the Library of Congress's
>public- service collections, the Internet provides source
>materials that belong in the library, especially as a
>document of a watershed moment that is still occurring.
>"The Internet has become for many the public commons, a
>place where they can come together and talk," Ms. Kresh
>said. "And you continue having that interaction with other
>people long after you've stopped reading the daily news
>story or seeing the nightly newscast, so it has a kind of
>continuum experience that other media don't have."
>
>Every conceivable corner of the Internet is jammed with
>reactions to the attacks, and September11.archive.org is an
>attempt to corral the Net's wildly diverse contents into a
>central research repository. The project is a collaboration
>among the Library of Congress; the nonprofit Internet
>Archive, which is building a vast digital library at
>archive.org; and webArchivist.org, an academic research
>project financed by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
>
>The library's two partners began making digital copies of
>news sites and pertinent Internet pages within hours of the
>attacks. On Sept. 12 curators, reference specialists and
>language experts at the library drafted an initial list of
>150 sites that were to be archived regularly, a roster that
>has since grown to 1,100 entries. A form was also put on
>webArchivist .org so anyone could submit links.
>
>Now that the archive has opened, visitors can search its
>contents by date or a keyword like "tragedy." In addition
>to international news, local- government and personal
>tribute sites, the archive is likely to store pages from
>jihad-themed sites that have since been taken offline.
>Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, justified
>that potentially controversial decision: "What's the role
>of a library in a time like this? I think it's to be an
>unbiased sanctuary for real research."
>
>Although the archive is still being compiled, Mr. Kahle
>insisted that the site be opened now to the public. "What
>you will see is not what any librarians would smile at," he
>said. "The collection will have holes in it. One of the
>reasons to get it out there quickly is so people can say,
>`You're missing this.' "
>
>The creators of the archive are developing a "Webscape"
>feature that, by the end of the month, should enable
>visitors to assemble an annotated list of select pages -
>for instance, the most poignant fire department memorial
>sites - and share it with friends via e-mail. Steven M.
>Schneider, co-director of webArchivist.org and a
>political-science teacher at the SUNY Institute of
>Technology at Utica/Rome, said, "I think of the archive as
>a canvas, and I want to give people the tools to paint
>their impressions."
>
>Ms. Kresh said she did not know how much longer that
>archive data would be collected, but "at this point, there
>is no end in sight." And when the process is done, she
>said, the archive might reside in the library's "American
>Memory" collection of online historic resources at www.loc
>.gov, next to digitized copies of Sunday-school books and
>Civil War memorabilia. The library is also collecting oral
>histories of Sept. 11 on audio cassettes, but it has yet to
>decide whether those will be put online.
>
>Just who is collecting what is of great concern to Mr.
>Macdonald of the Museum of the City of New York. From
>mayoral papers to fliers of the missing, the artifacts from
>this event will be of potential interest to historians, he
>said, and "it would be unfortunate if museums, libraries
>and archives viewed this as a competition."
>
>In part to raise this issue, Mr. Macdonald and his
>Smithsonian counterparts met on Oct. 4 with 70
>representatives from history oriented organizations,
>including the New-York Historical Society, the New York
>City Fire Museum, the Municipal Archives and the Lower East
>Side Tenement Museum.
>
>With so many parties involved, the best medium for
>communication is the Net. An electronic mailing list is
>being set up so the players can trade notes.
>
>Although the electronic discussions will be private,
>excerpts are to be publicly posted on a soon-to-open
>Internet site, 911history.net. This site will also permit
>visitors to contribute artifacts.
>
>If all goes well, it is possible that the organizations
>will jointly produce, in time for the first anniversary of
>the attacks, an Internet site where their different
>collections can be communally exhibited.
>
>Both Mr. Macdonald and Ms. Kresh acknowledged that their
>endeavors provided a way to cope with the tragedy. Mr.
>Macdonald said the New York meeting with his peers was
>therapeutic, and Ms. Kresh said mounting the $100,000
>archiving project was "also a way to work through it
>emotionally and intellectually."
>
>David Silver, director of the Resource Center for
>Cyberculture Studies at the University of Washington, said:
>"As we go online more and more, elements of our everyday
>lives also go online. We see thousands of people waving
>flags in a park and we see protests, but a lot of this
>action is also online. It's important to capture this
>historical moment."
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/15/arts/15ARTS.html?ex=1004190812&ei=1&en=2ae42345ae5682d6
>
>
>
>HOW TO ADVERTISE
>---------------------------------
>For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters
>or other creative advertising opportunities with The
>New York Times on the Web, please contact Alyson
>Racer at alyson@nytimes.com or visit our online media
>kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo
>
>For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
>help@nytimes.com.
>
>Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
>
>=========================================================
>Important Subscriber Information:
>
>The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
>http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed
>information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail
>message to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com . The body of the message should
>read "help" (without the quotes).
>
>If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
>listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com . The body of the message should read
>"Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
--============================================================== NINCH-Announce is an announcement listserv, produced by the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH). The subjects of announcements are not the projects of NINCH, unless otherwise noted; neither does NINCH necessarily endorse the subjects of announcements. We attempt to credit all re-distributed news and announcements and appreciate reciprocal credit.
For questions, comments or requests to un-subscribe, contact the editor: <mailto:david@ninch.org> ============================================================== See and search back issues of NINCH-ANNOUNCE at <http://www.cni.org/Hforums/ninch-announce/>. ==============================================================
--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 10:05:22 +0100 From: ubiquity <ubiquity@HQ.ACM.ORG> Subject: Ubiquity 2.32
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ubiquity: A Web-based publication of the ACM Volume 2, Number 32, Week of October 15, 2001
In this issue:
Views --
What Would Justice Brandeis Say?
Institutions of higher education should help define technology limits and avoid further shrinking the realm of privacy. By Robert C. Heterick http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/r_heterick_4.html
Perfect Choice
Information age consumers are more interested in perfect choice than perfect competition. They want a wide product selection, choice in how they buy, and customization of products and services to fit their preferences. By Richard T. Watson http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/r_watson_2.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ubiquity welcomes the submissions of articles from everyone interested in the future of information technology. Everything published in Ubiquity is copyrighted 2001 by the ACM and the individual authors.
To submit feedback about ACM Ubiquity, contact ubiquity@acm.org. Technical problems: ubiquity@hq.acm.org.
For the full issue of ACM Ubiquity: <http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/>
To unsubscribe from the ACM Ubiquity Notification Service: please send an email to LISTSERV@ACM.ORG with the following message:
"SIGNOFF UBIQUITY" (no quotes).
You may also unsubscribe online, at <https://gosling.acm.org/ubiquity/> . This method allows you to unsubscribe if the address you are subscribed with is a forwarding alias.
An email confirming your removal will be sent to you by email.
--[4]------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 10:08:13 +0100 From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk> Subject: Collectors, Collections and Scholarly Culture
Dear Colleagues:
As I've probably said repeatedly and within living memory, publications of the American Council of Learned Societies are always worth the read. The latest in the Occasional Papers series, Collectors, Collections and Scholarly Culture, is no exception. It has three essays, (1) Anthony Grafton , Rare Book Collections in the Age of the Library Without Walls; (2) Deanna Marcum, The Library and the Scholar: A New Imperative for Partnership; (3) Jean Strouse, The Collector J. Pierpont Morgan. The publication is online, at <http://www.acls.org/op48-1.htm>.
Yours, WM
----- Dr Willard McCarty / Senior Lecturer / Centre for Computing in the Humanities / King's College London / Strand / London WC2R 2LS / U.K. / +44 (0)20 7848-2784 / ilex.cc.kcl.ac.uk/wlm/
--[5]------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 10:08:32 +0100 From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk> Subject: funding, big science and scholarship
Humanists will likely be interested in an article in the latest London Review of Books, Sheven Shapin, "Guests in the President's House", at <http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n20/shap2320.htm>. This is a review of Science, Money and Politics: Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion by Daniel Greenberg, on the American love-affair with science.
Shapin writes, "...like very many scientists, [Greenberg] is fiercely critical of many aspects of current financial, political and ethical arrangements bearing on the conduct of American science, arrangements which, if unchecked, have the capacity to undermine the integrity and authority of scientific knowledge.... The American scientific community has been lucky to have a critic who believes enough in the traditional 'right values of science' to worry that in its 'single-minded pursuit of more money' it is beginning to go 'down the path to becoming a toady of corporate power'....
"The idea that Government support for science depends on public understanding of scientific knowledge is not one that Greenberg can take seriously: 'the unfortunate, non-democratic truth is that science in the United States, and other nations, too, prospers in a state of disengagement from public understanding of the substance of science.' .... Greenberg suspects that what the 'public understanders' are really interested in increasing is not lay comprehension but lay wonder - a view shared by the occasional critical scientist. So the distinguished cancer researcher Maxine Singer warned in 1996 that 'public information about science is now, to a large extent, in the hands of institutional public-relations departments.' Advancing the cause of your next grant is not the same thing as enhancing public understanding: 'There is too much hype,' Singer said. 'Every gene that is discovered will lead to a cure for cancer....
"Finally, as scientific expertise is increasingly and almost invisibly integrated into a range of political and economic institutions, the independence of that expertise becomes problematic. This is part of what Greenberg means by 'ethical erosion'. Burned by Nixon's hostility, and by the consequences of an earlier foray into electoral politics when they organised publicly against Barry Goldwater, leaders of American science learned the costs of acquiring a political appearance. Presidential science advisers shifted from seeing themselves as free-acting representatives of the scientific community - 'speaking truth to power' - towards acknowledging their role as 'guests in the President's house', doing the bidding of whatever Administration they happened to serve, enlisting the scientific advice the President required to achieve whatever ends were agreed by prior political decision. Their playing the political game meant the effective muting of an independent voice and the neutering of a tradition of independent political activism going back to the postwar years, when large numbers of atomic scientists publicly opposed the arms race, arguing for international control of nuclear weapons, and (successfully) urging a test-ban. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which was the major platform for scientific opposition to the arms race, has seen its circulation shrink in recent years from 21,000 to 7000. As Greenberg sees it, everywhere in modern America, cash has compromised conscience. If you want to know the career of morality in contemporary science, just follow the money."
Not that in the humanities we have to worry about the consequences of being invited to the President's house or to Number 10 Downing Street. But perhaps the real danger is not in the amount so much as in the desire for funding and the compromises that follow from the attempt to be successful. Big Humanities may be a piker (OED, 3) in comparison to Big Science, but I cannot help feeling uneasy at what happens to the scholarship in a well funded project sold on its merits to those who care nothing for scholarship.
Comments?
Yours, WM
----- Dr Willard McCarty / Senior Lecturer / Centre for Computing in the Humanities / King's College London / Strand / London WC2R 2LS / U.K. / +44 (0)20 7848-2784 / ilex.cc.kcl.ac.uk/wlm/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Oct 17 2001 - 05:30:40 EDT