The first time I heard about Fort Boise Military Cemetery, I was told it was haunted. Around the time I had two friends that were interested in the cemetery. One that had watched too many episodes of ghost hunters and one that didn’t believe in anything of the sorts. I suppose I fell in the middle somewhere. The first time we tried to visit the location we couldn’t find it and ended up just going on a hike through the foothills instead. When we did find it however we were shocked at how small the cemetery was. It makes sense that some of the readings I did on the assignment called it Boise’s forgotten cemetery. I found the site http://ada.idgenweb.org/ftboise/ftboise.htm to be incredibly interesting to my research on the topic because it was essentially digital history. The site is hoping to gather enough information to create an online database for those buried there. As it is now there are numerous unmarked graves. One thing I couldn’t find concrete information on was whether the location is a military family cemetery or just a veterans cemetery. I almost feel that the story has been exaggerated so the haunted stories can be more dramatized. The story about seeing ghost children wouldn’t be as popular if there wasn’t also stories of children being buried there as well. There was a lot of information that I never even knew about the location before this assignment so I really liked researching something that I had personally experienced. I had also never heard of a cemetery being moved from one location to another, that was very interesting to me as well. I will admit that finding information about the cemetery was a little difficult because most of the information online has to do with the cite being haunted. There is a picture someone took claiming they captured an apparition at this site if anyone is interested http://www.idahohauntings.com/Stories/Cottonwood_Cemetery/Cottonwood_Cemetery.htm. In the times that I visited the location I never saw anything spooky, besides the regular spooky that all cemeteries are.
JFK Reloaded, Adam Frickey
JFK Reloaded
http://www.fileplanet.com/192027/190000/fileinfo/JFK-Reloaded-v1.1-(Free-Game)
JFK reloaded is a first person shooter in which the player attempts to assassinate JFK .
The creators of JFK reloaded released this realistic shooter on the 41st Anniversary of the JFK assassination amid a storm of understandable backlash. The creators however claim that the game was not intended to be offensive but instead created the eerie simulation in an attempt to educate the public and debunk assassination conspiracies surrounding that fateful day. In order to accomplish their educational agenda the game places you, the shooter, in the exact location where Oswald stood and challenges you to re-create his three shots. The closer you get to replicating those three shots the higher score out of 1000 you receive. In theory the game presents an interesting and controversial concept, and presents it in a user friendly way, it allows the general public to investigate a very divided topic and generate their own opinions.
For the most part the majority of the games I discovered online were historically based but didn’t seem to really try and impart any knowledge on the players. The majority just had small tidbits of historical fact (tank names, places, time frames for example) but for the most part they were intended to entertain as opposed to educate.
Boise Wiki Article – Reflection
Although my topic is probably the most macabre of our class’s articles, I believe writing and publishing it on the Boise Wiki is a service to fellow Boiseans. There are too many extravagant myths surrounding what happened at 805 Linden and I want people to be able to access the truth as easily as they can access those myths. I first encountered the “Murder House” stories as a sophomore in college, soon after moving to Boise, by one of my friends. I love mysteries and took on the challenge of uncovering the truth by first speaking with an old boss of mine, a retired police officer who worked the case. Ever since then I have been rather interested in sharing the truth of the “Murder House” with other Boiseans. Given the task of writing an article for the Boise Wiki, I thought this writing on this subject would make a perfect piece.
Since I could not really cite my discussions with my old boss, I first searched for Idaho Statesman articles written soon after the actual murder took place. Alas, I could not find any articles on the online Statesman database (offered through Albertson’s Library) and did not want to spend hours scanning through microfilm. After some more in-depth online searches I was able to find a few good sources—a more recent online article by KATU (channel 2 news) and the original court document related to Daniel Rogers case (the murderer). These two digital/digitized documents offered the facts I needed to write a truthful account of the murder that took place at 805 Linden.
As I have explained, I wrote my article using facts about the murder, and I hope that my accompanying Wiki post remains factual. I would love to see my article grow, with fellow writers posting more photos and expanding the account I have given. However, as with any editable online article, I am afraid that others may not be as concerned with the truth as I am. I would hate to see my article become one of the extravagant urban legends that already occupy much of the online space pertaining to this murder case. Hopefully fellow writers will consider their sources before editing my article, and hopefully any personal future editing will be simple enough so that I can manage the factualness of my article. Further, writing about such gruesome events as the murder at 805 Linden in an online Wiki format will most likely bring outsiders (foreigners to Boise and the surrounding area) who enjoy reading and elaborating on murder stories. Hopefully, since my sources come from websites with open accessibility, those foreign readers—and possibly writers—will take the time to access similar (factual) sources.
In order to create an interesting, but concise, Wiki article I had to account for only the most important details of my subject, which took some time during editing. For future Wiki contributors I would advise that editing an article before posting it is probably the most important step!
Officers’ Memorial on Boise Wiki
Idaho Peace Officers’ Memorial by Ryan Regis
The Idaho Peace Officers’ Memorial is a special place where friends, family, officers, and those who wish to pay their respects for the men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice to help enforce and protect our freedoms that we have today. The memorial is found in Meridian, Idaho on the property of the Idaho State Police facility. The memorial is small in many elements but holds great volume in its message. I have found the appreciation for peace officers is low and almost non-existent in Idaho as well as most of the nation. I hope to change that and help others understand and know of the greatness and significance that it holds.
I chose this memorial site to be an important addition to Boise Wiki for a few reasons. As mentioned above, I think that the appreciation for law enforcement is almost non-existent in this state. New York holds great parades, ceremonies, and summer events for the family to help raise awareness to the men and women in blue. Here in Idaho, have see a memorial and have heard of a run or park event in Nampa annually. I have never actually seen the events or any advertisements to raise community interest. So I hope that my page will do just that.
I also hold a great passion in law enforcement and hope to continue my career after I have graduated. Most officers are seen as those bullies that pull you over or ticket you; not all officers are like that. Officers put their life on the line everyday and help to ensure that our rights are not oppressed or people are safe or being safe within any and almost all environments you can find yourself into. Regardless of the good or bad experiences that one has had with the law, is it really too much to ask for a little awareness about their job and what good they do for everyone?
With this start, this small blog and a few pictures of a memorial of the fallen I feel that it can become something big. I think that throughout the years, many people will start to understand and appreciate this work that comes with the badge. To see any addition for any source enhancing this page would really put a smile on my face. I welcome all to contribute to this page and add as much information as one possibly can. No matter how small the article or how small the picture, I really hope it helps everyone within the Boise community and those around to help increase this awareness and sell the compassion to those who appreciate warriors in their life.
Some advice that I will offer to those who want to be Boise Wiki contributors, I would say do your homework. Get involved with the project and don’t just visit a location you want to write about. I would suggest becoming a part of what you are writing about. Meet the people who run the location or contribute to the location itself. People are inspired by kind words and stories. It can be anything from a laundry mat to a memorial. Tell your story about how well the place is and the people that go there. When the public hears about the good environment, the good news will go viral and spread from one person to another uncontrollably, but it has to be believable. Any one can say that this memorial means a lot to some people and can be pretty in certain seasons, but more will be drawn to your location if you tell them the people you encountered, the history of the site, and the stories that were shared. Sell the story and don’t just show someone a place of interest, become involved and sell the site through stories. History is written by winners, those who are victorious with his or her involvement in a particular experience and its location. I challenge all contributors to write history about your own victory and the experiences that can come with it.
https://boise.localwiki.org/Idaho_Peace_Officers%27_Memorial
Boise Wiki Article – Linden Murder House
If you have lived in Boise, especially southeast Boise, for a considerable amount of time you have most likely heard of the “Murder House”. Linden Street in southeast Boise, off the I-84 exit 54, is mostly a beautiful tree-lined street with well-kept homes—except for the house at the corner of Linden and Leadville. The house, a large craftsman style built in 1910, is the subject of many grandiose urban legends. There are legends of a crazed murderer who killed and dismembered numerous people in the house. A myth of the house being a fraternity house for Boise State University, with fraternity members telling of disembodied blood dripping from the basement walls. Also, a ghost story of a female apparition in 19th century clothes staring out the window at night. There is no evidence that 805 Linden was ever used by Boise State University as a fraternity house. The ghost story is a matter of personal belief, but the first rumor mentioned does have some truth to it.
Regardless of the rumors, the truth of what happened at 805 Linden Street is probably one of Boise’s most grotesque murders. Court documents state that on the night of June 30, 1987 an altercation broke out between three men: Preston Murr, Daron Cox, and Daniel Rodgers—the owner of 805 Linden. Preston Murr was shot in the shoulder as a result of the altercation. Attempting to flee, Murr ran to nearby homes and pleaded at the doors for help, but before anyone opened their door Rogers and Cox retrieved Murr and dragged him back into Rogers’s house. Once inside, Murr was fatally shot by a bullet to the brain. Soon after the shooting a nearby neighbor—an owner of a house Murr ran to for help—phoned police and reported the suspicious activity, however the police did not respond promptly and the neighbor went to bed.
Having murdered Murr, Rogers and Cox dismembered his body and placed the pieces into plastic bags. The bags were then placed into the trunk of a car and Rogers and Cox drove to Brownlee Reservoir, near Weiser, Idaho, to dump the body parts. The remaining evidence—gloves and the plastic bags—was thrown into a dumpster behind a Meridian, Idaho convenience store.
In the morning police responded—after a second call by the concerned neighbor—and discovered bloodstains on the street and several neighboring doors. Police then attempted to contact residents inside 805 Linden, but after no response they received a search warrant and discovered the crime scene. Cox and Rogers were apprehended and charged with murder. After complying with police and giving a detailed account of the incident, Cox was given a lesser sentence—accomplice to murder—of which he served six years. Rogers, being found guilty of murder, is currently serving a fixed life sentence at the Idaho Correctional Center; he was denied parole most recently in 2005.
So, Rogers is not a crazed killer who chopped up numerous victims in his basement. Blood does not spontaneously drip from the walls inside the house. And the accounts of a ghostly woman in the front window are unverifiable. It seems that this house—despite extravagant urban legends—is just the house at 805 Linden, where one of Boise’s most gruesome murders occurred in the summer of 1987.
Boise Music Scene Reflection
Boise is an up and coming contributor to the music scene in the Northwest. Local shows of emerging artists take place weekly, and it is not commonly known. Large artists have began touring the city, and Treefort Music Festival has influenced this. Treefort was strategically scheduled to take place in March due to the large amount of touring by artists worldwide. March is the month of South by Southwest, In Austin Texas. South by Southwest is one of the most popular underground music festivals in the world. Boise is becoming a hub for traveling musicians, between their location and Austin. This time period allotted Boise to book shows that wouldn’t travel through otherwise. The city of Boise is developing a passion for the arts, so the music scene seemed like a perfect topic to write about on the Boise Wiki. I chose to write about the newly formed annual Treefort Music Festival that began in March 2012. Technically, writing the wiki was not a challenge. However, I did struggle embedding a photo correctly. The Boise wiki website is easy to navigate and very simple. I like the simplicity of adding to the Boise Wiki. I think that it will provide easier access to individuals that would be interested in adding to the wiki.
I did struggle for information on my subject. The Treefort Music Festival is a newly formed festival, with the second year taking place in March of 2013. Information was not plentiful because of the newness of the festival. It was also a struggle because the festival is more of an underground music scene movement, rather than a heavily broadcasted festival like the Boise Music Festival. However, I was able to find enough information on Treefort Music Festival through the direct websites, and a contributor, Drew Lorona. I also found more information about the supporters of Treefort through the Duck Club website.
I think writing very large pieces of collaborative history for Boise is amazing. This website could become a hub for travelers, musicians, and other people interested in Boise. I am very interested in the arts of Boise, and I think the Boise wiki is something that would only benefit the artistic scene that is currently growing in the area. Boise is growing rapidly, and because of that growth, many different projects are also developing. The importance of collaborations such as Treefort Music Festival and the Trey McIntyre project can be easily seen and promoted through a website that has a historical collaboration, such as the Boise wiki. This type of information is crucial for a city that is developing rapidly, and it will help attract and create business for many people. It also helps people understand the history of their society. The Basque, for example, is something widely known about Boise, but it is not simply put. The Boise wiki allows people to see broad information on this culture rapidly. It also allows for other information to be researched beyond one category.
A disadvantage to a wiki article is that is always evolving and strong bias can be seen, but I think that adds to the flavor of the website. There is an unofficial checks and balances because articles can always be altered, so bias’s cannot be too overbearing, or they will be changed. Overall, I think this sort of project is a win win. It promotes local business, arts, movements, and the understanding of Boise’s very own history. I hope as this wiki grows, people continue to contribute. I hope as the wiki grows, and Treefort Music Festival continues through the second year, more people will contribute to such a fun local display of the arts. I will continue to write more as more information becomes available for the Treefort Music Festival.
Storytelling in Games
Is your Boise wiki article an orphan? (If so, fix it!)
Questions for discussion:
1. In what ways large and small, as explained by Bryan Alexander, do games use stories? Which of these methods might prove most useful to historians designing games? How might the age of the player (K-6 students versus older players, for example) affect the game designer’s selection of storytelling methods?
2. How do players continue these stories, or expand the story-world of the games, outside of games? How does such participation expand the learning opportunities for players interested in exploring an historical era?
3. Imagine that you have been asked to design a game about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire for classroom use by eighth through twelfth graders. Students should emerge from the game with an understanding of what caused the quake and fire, what residents’ and officials’ initial reactions to were to the disaster, and how San Francisco and other large American cities changed their planning and development as a result of the catastrophe.
- How would you meet these learning outcomes through a game?
- How much of this information would you provide through exposition in the game, how much of this information would you have available in the game for students to “discover” through quests (or other gameplay), and how much of it would students have to use outside resources to solve? (So, for example, in early versions of Where in the World in Carmen San Diego?, players had to look up information (outside of the game) on currency, flags, etc. to figure out where Carmen San Diego was hiding. In some more current games, players can find gameplay “secrets” planted by the game developer on the internet.)
- Which methods of ensuring players learn such content do you find most or least appealing, and why?
- If you were to design a version of this game for adult gamers and you wanted to preserve the learning outcomes, how might you change the design of the game, and why?
4. Search the web for information about digital games (broadly defined) that draw significantly on historical events. After doing a brief survey of games in this category, choose one game, and in the comments of this post, leave a link to information about the game, then answer these questions:
- Who is the intended audience for this game? How can you tell?
- What storytelling devices do these games appear to use?
- What role does history play in the game?
- How much historical knowledge must players acquire to successfully complete the game? Do they acquire that knowledge through playing the game, or does the game expect the players to develop some of that knowledge elsewhere?
- Are players using social media or developing secondary resources to improve their gameplay?
- Did your search turn up a lot of games in this category? If so, did you note any trends? If you didn’t find a lot of games, what do you think accounts for their relative lack of popularity?
Jon Agnew Reflection
History 381: Digital History
Fall 2012
Jon Agnew
25-November-2012
I really enjoyed this assignment. At first I was nervous – like always – because I was not quite sure about how to write “good” wiki contributions. The largest concern was the language. I have lost myself quite a few times in the depths of Wikipedia, jumping from hyperlink to hyperlink. One thing I have noticed is that the pages that are trafficked the most, share common characteristics in how they are written. Some example characteristics in the writing are neutrality in tone, being written in the third person, and lacking a bias. These were hard characteristics to exemplify when writing my own contribution – as I will explain later.
I am now going to take up the issue of topic choice. After Philip Browning talked to our class about the project, I immediately wanted to choose a topic that was something food related. Food related contributions seemed quite prevalent when first looking through the wiki. I felt that the utility of the wiki – as it is not very large – was specific in nature. It appeared to me that food was that nature. There are numerous food related wiki contributions and I wanted to create a new food related page so that it would be useful to the current and future users of the wiki. I then started thinking about my favorite restaurants. I even wrote a list. When looking through the wiki, I noticed that most of my favorite places to eat had preexisting wiki contributions. With the exception of Tango’s Empanadas – which is an Argentine restaurant with great food and great service.
A couple of days later I was wandering the depths of Wikipedia. On my expedition I stumbled across the University of Oregon’s page. Something I found surprising on Oregon’s Wikipedia page was a contribution about their speech and debate team. Immediately I knew that I should write about the Talkin’ Broncos. This is something I am a part of and I feel needs to be recognized by my fellow Boiseans. Forensics is such a great activity and anything to increase its visibility is splendid in my book. So, I asked my coach if I could write on this topic. She gave me the go ahead. And alas, I wrote the article. Afterwards, I asked her to read it over. I wanted to make sure the information was accurate and that the content was ok to publish. She gave me the second go ahead. And alas, I published the article. This brought me great pleasure. I had never posted anything to any wiki. I have surfed many wikis and forums, yet never – not even once – posted. I was so excited about my contribution. I still am. Like honestly, this assignment was awesome. The main reason why, reminds me of something that I heard at a strip club once. “You can look but you can’t touch”. This statement used to describe, quite intimately, my relationship with the numerous wikis and forums I surf. But after this assignment I finally got to touch. Being forced to sign up, read the rules, and educate oneself on the etiquette and ways of wiki contributions is something every college student should be forced to do. I finally made an account for a college debate wikicaselist, reddit, and Wikipedia. My future with wiki contributions looks bright. I have already decided two topics for the extra credit contributions – Tango’s Empanadas & Peter Cennarussa.
One last thing I would like to reflect on is adapting my writing and language to wiki style contributions. As mentioned prior, neutrality and bias are important characteristics of said wiki style contributions. I wanted to make sure that my close affiliation with the speech and debate team did not compromise my wiki contribution. When writing the Talkin’ Broncos blurb I tried to maintain neutrality throughout the whole article. This was difficult to do. I continually wanted to use the words “we”, “I”, “our” or “us”. One way I minimized these words was to edit my blurb multiple times. I not only had my coach read it over, but also my debate partner, and myself – multiple times. When they read it through, I mentioned neutrality and third person as important things to look for; both my peers and I had third person language in mind when reading through the article.
However, I did notice the difficulty in not sounding biased when I was writing about something I was a part of. Not just the word choice, but the tone and content. For example, the earliest draft of my contribution had the clause “The BSU speech and debate team is competitive at a national caliber”. This was a statement I felt was contingent on the reader’s opinion or background knowledge of national forensics competition. I then recollected back to my logic class where the argument was made, that contingent statements require implicit assumptions. And those implicit assumptions were made because of my bias. So, I edited out statements that appeared to be contingently true in nature. Another example of bias, which I did not edit out – whereas the statement did not appear contingent – was the sentence “The last two years BSU has placed in the top five, without even attending the tournament”. After writing and then reflecting on this statement I felt it appeared pompous and somewhat pretentious. But after recollecting back to logic class, I asked myself is their qualitative and quantitative evidence that explicitly makes the case that “The last two years BSU has placed in the top five, without even attending the tournament”? My answer was a definite yes. This meant the statement was not contingent. And thus it did not have implicit assumptions. So I kept this sentence in my final write up.
Essentially, I found it difficult to write wiki style contributions. I felt that if wikis are supposed to resemble encyclopedias. And encyclopedias do not write about themselves. Then writing about the speech and debate team would be difficult to do if I was trying to replicate encyclopedia style writing. Nonetheless, I felt I did a good job in exemplifying these difficult characteristics and I’m very proud of my work.
Wiki Article Reflection
By Nicole Bare Kinney
I wrote my Boise Wiki article on animals at the Idaho State Historical Museum. I realized pretty quickly that I would have to think outside the box to find a subject that had not already been done. Most basic Boise attractions are covered in the Wiki, which is a good thing. I also had to find something about which I knew a substantial amount, and something about which I could easily access more information. The history museum was a natural choice because I am there a lot for work. I really like the stuffed animals at the museum and people are constantly asking if we still have the two-headed calf, so I chose to focus on that aspect of the museum.
One of the first challenges I faced was making sure that I could write about a slightly funny topic in a respectful but engaging way. I hope I struck that balance. Another challenge that arose quickly was the issue of taking photos. I emailed Sarah Phillips, one of the curators, and since the museum allows guests to take photos at the museum, I did not have to jump through any hoops to be able to post photos online. That was a real relief, and I was not expecting it to be that easy. The biggest problem I experienced was that I was not able to change my title after I started the article. I really want to change it to “Taxidermy at the Idaho State Historical Museum” because “taxidermied” is not a word. This was really frustrating for me. A final challenge was balancing professionalism in my writing with making my article interesting. I am not used to this type of writing so it took me several drafts to find a balance with which I was satisfied.
I tried to find good examples of this in other articles, but I found there to be a real spectrum of writing quality on the wiki. Some articles were really dry, some were not well written, and some were quite excellent. I think this is one of the main liabilities of writing a local history on a Wiki. The goal is to make an engaging, interesting, and informative website, but when the editors cannot totally and completely control what gets posted, this becomes a difficult goal to achieve. Another main liability is, obviously, accuracy. Anyone can write what they want. However, the fact that anyone can edit the page also means that if someone writes something inaccurate, another person can potentially catch that and correct it. In contrast, if an author or journalist writes something inaccurate, readers can complain all they want but they cannot do anything about it.
Overall, I enjoyed this assignment, and I think if I were to continue contributing to the Wiki I would learn from this assignment and could probably do a better job next time. I would at least make sure I liked my title before posting my article. After doing this assignment I decided that a local Wiki is a good asset to a city. If the overall goal is complete professionalism and accuracy, a Wiki will not achieve that, but it is a great tool to give people a feel for a city and a way to spark interest in the history of a city.
Ellie’s Digital Identity
Elizabeth Couchum Digital Identity Paper
In doing this project, Creating a Digital Identity, I was more than overwhelmed because I honestly didn’t know what I was doing. I decided to approach this paper as a blog since eventually, I will have to create a blog sometime during this process. In one month’s time, I will go from having only two social sites to having way more sites than I ever thought I would have.
Creating a Digital Identity
November 12, 2012
Discovery of a Digital Presence First thing that I did was to have Corey, a classmate from my Digital History class, Google me to see what or if anything there was about me on the Internet. Corey found my Pinterest site, but there was nothing else to be found. This was good news to me. I never wanted to have a digital presence. I have two social media websites, Facebook and Pinterest. For Corey not to find a digital presence for me means I have a lot of work to do.
Building a Digital Identity
In order to have a digital identity, I had to do was to sign up for Twitter, Word Press, LinkedIn, and Google + based on the recommendation of Dr. Brooks. Having these websites were daunting since I never had any real interest in social media. Choosing a domain name was easy, I just used my email address because it was easy for me to remember. Twitter was the first social site I created. At a workshop that I attended a few weeks ago, I sat at a table with several women and one of the women had a Twitter account. After I told her about this assignment, she helped me create a Twitter account and showed me how to follow other people or just things I liked.
After I had created other accounts on all of the sites I mentioned and now I am trying to link all of them. I was able to link Word Press and Twitter to my LinkedIn. Linking my Google+ to anything was proving to be a challenge. I am unsure of what Google+ actually does. I haven’t figured this site out yet at the time I am writing this. When I tried to link Google+ to LinkedIn, I was entering in my e-mail address. This was allowing people who might want to look at this site to go straight in my e-mails. I knew that this was not right. After a few bad attempts, I reached out for help. A friend came over and was able to link Google+ to LinkedIn and was able to show me what I did wrong. I have also found apps for all these social sites and downloaded them to my iPad. My hope is that once I get everything entered to these sites on the Internet and linked to each other, I may be able to work straight off my iPad wall.
Academia.edu? To use this site or not?
Today in class, Dr. Brooks talked to us about this assignment and answered a few questions, which was good since I had quite a few questions. I learned that if there is a reason why we are not going to use one of the social media sites that was mentioned in class, we should do a write-up of the reason why. So my main question has been, what is adademia.edu? Not knowing what this is, I searched Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academia.edu and found out that it is “a platform for academics to share research papers, monitor impacts, and follow research in a particular field.” I have decided that this particular social media site is not one I will be utilizing for several reasons, I do not plan on going into the academia world at all. However, I understand plans could change. I don’t write enough papers to put it online. At the moment, I am not a part of any graduate program. I am not doing any real work in research that I do not feel comfortable in sharing with anyone except for my teacher and classmates. I do not believe that this site will be of any use to me at this moment in time.
Objectives for online identity
My main goal has always been not to have a digital presence.I have always had a lock down on my Facebook page, I don’t have a lot of friends. It is less than 150 friends. On Facebook, I try to be positive and uplifting and don’t share a whole lot of personal stuff. I say my funny little things or my plans for the day, and share news items and photos. So, my main thing over the past week is to question what I want to share about myself? Who do I want to on these sites? Over the past weekend, I ventured onto LinkedIn and entered my education and places I worked. Is that too much? Who can see that? I did find a button so I can have control of who sees any information about me. That makes me feel somewhat better. Now that I have my sites, my main objective now is to write a blog of things that would interest me.
Current professional goals
Do I have any current professional goals? I think I have a lot of long term goals. At the moment, I am not working. I am taking a course at BSU because I want to go into another direction from the one I was on for a couple of years. I have been testing the waters so to speak to see if this was the right path I should be on. So far I have to say it has been encouraging. My goal and my dream is to utilize my office skills and fascination of research and Native American history all into one. One goal or dream is to create a Native American Cultural Center. In other words, my current goal is to learn as much as I can in order to put this long term goal/dream into place. I would like to work somewhere I would be able to learn how to do this. The problem is of course is my experience. I need either experience and/or the education to do this. So, I guess the next step is to find the right “audience” for my websites and figure out how to make these sites work in my favor to make all of this work.
November 18, 2012
Over the weekend, I have managed to connect all my social sites: Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, and WordPress all together. In my settings for each site, I managed to figure out how show my WordPress and my Twitter updates in Facebook. Since I am still unsure how I want to use my Twitter, I set my Twitter status that shows up in Facebook to be seen by only me. The opposite is with WordPress, all my friends in Facebook not only can see my blog, but are able to click the link and go straight into my WordPress site. Last night, I actually made my first real blog. I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to write about at first. I wanted to ease into it. With a help of a good friend, I decided to write about the holidays and my childhood memories. Little by little, day by day, I will ease into talking about my grandparents and my memories of them growing up and what I learned from them and the rest of my family about the Native American heritage that they left behind.
November 21, 2012
Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, and WordPress
I have now all of these social media sites and over this past week, I have learned how each of them works if I didn’t know before. I also have learned how they all work together. I have learned how to tweet mainly on my page, I am not sure how to tweet on other pages that I like. I am still unsure what the “hashtag” or “#” and the “@” sign mean and how to work them so not really sure if I am using them correctly. My Twitter and Facebook are linked, however, I have set my Twitter to be seen only by me on Facebook. I am still unsure about Tweeting and if I want any of my tweets to be seen by any of my Facebook friends. I have also made a few blogs in WordPress. Since I have linked my WordPress to my Facebook and Twitter pages, my friends on my Facebook can see the link to blog and are allowed to click the link and go straight into my blog. The same can be said for Twitter.
Professional needs and goals….
Right now, my goal is to make more contacts on my social sites. I haven’t figured out how to do that. Eventually, I will figure it all out. My professional goals at the moment are none. However, in the future, I hope to have quite a few followers who are interested in history especially in Native American history. Also, I hope to create a professional circle of those who are in administration and research.
November 24, 2012
Feedback
Thanks to my classmate, Molly, who looked at my social sites that I created over the past month, I was given some really good feedback. Based on Molly’s recommendation, I made changes to my blog. I was able to figure out how to change the name of my WordPress blog. I originally had the title of my blog as my sign-in name, and I also changed my tagline on the About page. I didn’t realize that I should add information to the About page. That was very helpful. Also based on Molly’s suggestion, who indicated that she didn’t see my links to my LinkedIn and Google+ on my WordPress blog, I went back in to see what I did wrong. I worked on that so hard, I thought I had all my links visible and her recommending that I should link my other sites was not something I wanted to hear. I worked on it some more and I believe I now have it.
Since I added my Google+ to my blog, I realized that I should fix my Google+ up a little more and have some information about myself instead of just pictures that I like. After finding the edit visibility link on Google, I was able to add some information. I also added more pictures of history and things that I like that I felt represented myself. After looking at Molly’s WordPress blog and her feedback, I have learned that I have a long way to go to have everything come together and have everything look professional. I also learned that even when you think you are done, you really aren’t done. Things are always changing.
Plan for Sustainability
I need a plan on how to make “friends” on LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, and WordPress. On my LinkedIn site, I plan to keep it updated as I get a job and take more classes. I am pretty excited that I have more than four followers on LinkedIn. Google+ is a site that I am really trying to figure out. I have managed to edit my personal information and I only have three friends there, but that’s ok. I haven’t put my Google+ site the way I think it needs to be yet. After I do, I plan to invite my Facebook friends to be on this site. I now think I have a handle on Google+ and what it does. Lately, my goal on Twitter is just to “like” what I am interested in, like Pinterest. I have been trying to figure it out. My goal is to reach out to more people who are interested in the same things that I am. As of now, I only have four people who are my “friends”. Another goal is to make my blogs more interesting that people would like to read. I need to focus my WordPress blogs on my Native American heritage. My plan is to write more about my grandparents on my dad’s side. I have so many memories of them both and I want to share that with my friends.
November 25, 2012
What I learned from Feedback Over the past month
I learned that creating a digital identity is not easy. Also, learning what your own link for each site is challenging. I learned after my feedback from Molly that even if you think you did something or created something, it may not come out as you had hoped and that you need to go back and try again. Great to have a second pair of eyes. I still have a lot of work to do, but in a month, I have come a long way in social media. I learned that choosing what to share about yourself online is difficult, perception is everything. A person doesn’t want to appear as a dud but also doesn’t want to have a persona that is so wildly out there or they share everything there is to know about themselves, no one would want to get to know the real person. My goal was to be able to create a digital identity and over the past month the goal has changed into having a low key identity that grows and change as I do in real life. The real life and the digital life don’t have to totally mirror one another, but they can be closely related.
November 26, 2012
Last night was a nightmare. I went into my WordPress blog to add a few buttons for my Twitter and Google+ pages. I ended up deleting a few pages and had to start all over again. I decided that since I was to start over, to change the theme of my blog. I decided at the last minute to also add in Goodreads, a site that catalogs the books that I have been reading. Creating a button for Goodreads was almost as difficult as figuring out Google+. In the end though, my WordPress blog page looks almost professional. I also decided to allow my tweets be seen by the public in order to have a Twitter button on my page. This process was exhausting but a fantastic learning experience. I can now say….. I have a digital identity.
My links are as shown:
WordPress = http://elizamay52site.wordpress.com
LinkedIn = http://www.linkedin.com/pub/elizabeth-couchum/5b/928/b88
Twitter = http://twitter.com/e_506_couc
Google+ = https://plus.google.com/app/basic/113103309308313243969/about