How to Connect Global Communities Online Around History

How to Connect Global Communities Online Around History

  • AJ- Purpose to build a platform/ find some way that they can learn from one another
    • Presently working on project about Frederick Douglas for Bicentennial events
    • Trying to figure out how social media platforms work together
    • How does this work behaviorally? Do you need a website before you have a social media presence, or can you build presence on social media
  • Patrick- there is a paradoxical trap worried about
    • All of these sites and groups would be in their own solis and starting another one runs the danger of creating more of the same trap
    • Looking at aggregation tools, making it all about the aggregation
    • To make sure the primary mission is doing the aggregating, not adding another site.
  • AJ- original idea is aggregation
    • Other people said they needed to have an event that this will take off
    • Place the reading in a place where passersby will stop and be able to take part in the meeting
    • Hopefully, the one event will interest others, ways to combine
    • Are there specific places for aggregation
  • Patrick
    • Zotero can be used for aggregation, maybe create a Zotero group where, when people see these events, they can share them.
  • Jen
    • The issue with the platform can depend on who you want to reach
  • David
    • Finding some way of you not having to do that labor or going out and finding these events
    • Building a site that has some time of form capability (possibly wordpress)
    • A place for “Do you have a or know of a Douglas event? Enter it here”
    • No Anthologize
    • Press Forward as a platform
    • WordPress is decent at RSS
  • Patrick
    • The utility of facebook/twitter is to make people aware of and get them to the aggregator site
  • Jen
    • Platform infrastructure, but also the reason why they should contribute.
      • A newsletter, other things to keep people informed and share the information.
  • AJ- what an RSS feed is? Is it similar to a google alert?
  • David
    • Need to manually set up the sites you want to monitor and what you want to know what its for
  • Patrick
    • Press Forward manages these feeds.
      • Helps you sort through the different information in the site.
    • RSS is a format for machine readable versions of a website
      • Sharing content that the machines can do in the background
  • Jen- what is the overall strategy
  • AJ
    • Success would be our project emerging as the place of aggregation for all things Douglas.
    • Create a group of Douglas interest
    • Hoping that is we can establish a beachhead so that when you do Douglas everything
  • Jen- is GW putting funds into it to help sustain?
  • AJ- no, but there is a possibility
    • There was a lot of interest, but the kind of “call me when you get something starting?”
  • Jen- do you want to bring people who know and want to connect Douglas more tightly or reach out to people who don’t know much about Douglas?
  • AJ- I wanted to do both
    • The more of the site has thing happening in different places, the larger the audience it can draw.
    • Way for Douglas interest people to see what other Douglas interest people are doing.
    • Black Lives Matter was a way of connecting people who combined and movement building through smart use of Twitter and other virtual connectors.
  • David
    • Lincoln Bicentennial Committee may be a more useful connection to Douglas bicentennial
  • AJ
    • Lincoln Bicentennial Commission was created by the president, had government funding and support.
    • Douglas is a reputation washer
      • People want to be involved, but may do other things in Douglas’s name.
      • Doesn’t want to go to the politicians yet
    • Thought “when I have an ask that big layers of government can do that we can’t do, then we will ask them”
    • If we are the education people, the park service, etc., the politician would come to us as the people to partner with.
    • Lincoln was defined by government sponsorship and private money, my vision is a democratic ones.
      • People have said that they will provide money if they can control the site.
      • Wanted to build something to be that people would provide funding, but be one of many.
  • Jen
    • This is a maintenance issue.
    • Reach out to teachers, state historical groups, just so they know about it, even if they can’t fund it.
    • It’s one thing to build it, but it’s another to have people coming back to it.
  • AJ
    • Has some networks with the Smithsonian, Parks Service, etc.
    • It’s the order of steps, don’t know how this will be maintained
    • This is the first phase
    • Had hoped that as we become the place where you can find the event information, then the people who fund them will support.
  • Patrick- the resources are more about people then the money
  • David
    • Thinking of this infrastructure, decide what you want to do best, the one goal
      • If the goal is to be the aggregator, focus on that, to connect the people doing these events and the people who want to participate.
  • AJ
    • That was the idea, names the “Douglas Bicentennial Community,” but hasn’t used the word “aggregation”
  • Patrick
    • Community says to me that it’s about connections and conversation
    • Aggregator say that you provide and combine the information
    • “What’s the one thing?” is super important because you can slip back in forth in what you want to do.  
    • The aggregation can be the first demonstration of usefulness, then maybe build on around the edges can bring in the communication.
  • AJ
    • Wants to pull in the art angle
    • There are lots of other groups doing the education work, i thought bringing them together to show that Douglas is bigger than the classroom.
    • This could serve the teaching mission, what the past has to teach the present
    • Wants to showcase Douglas’s presence and how it lives on.
      • Sees these goals at combined and not separated.
    • Most things that people see will be either partisan or for-profit, that or a million tiny things that are harder for people to learn about
  • Jen
    • recommendation is to design a beachhead to allow people to find you
    • get started with the open materials
    • can always change it
  • AJ
    • Has the website, but it’s password protected because it looks like a third grader built it and was afraid that the website would not look like a viable place
      • Interns presently working on making it better
    • Will be pitching again to the DC Douglas Interest
  • Patrick
    • It’s going to be a while that you are on the first page of google results
    • If you open it, people won’t really be finding it, except google.
      • By opening it, it allows google to become familiar with the content and things so they come up on search engine people.
  • Jen
    • Build your ally base (state humanities, smaller groups)
    • Do a soft launch, so other people can possible help.
  • David
    • Talk to ASLH, who is an aggregator of the smaller places, and they could probably help.
      • Seems that you are focused on the smaller, local historical societies.
      • Smithsonian and Parks Service doesn’t need the extra exposure.
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