HIST 381: Digital History

Chris Petersen Wiki Reflection

November 26, 2012 by michaelwinters

When I first came to Boise I was worried about what there was going to be to do for fun. Me being from Seattle and being a huge sports fan it was fun to go watch the Mariners, Seahawks, Washington Huskies, Kent Thunderbirds, and the Sonics when they were there. I didn’t know of anything besides the Boise State Football team. But when I went to the first game I was amazed. Boise does the best job I have ever seen in rallying behind there sports teams. I used to go to Seahawks games all the time when I was home and everyone says that the 12th man at Century Link is the best in football and rightfully so, but Seattle doesn’t support the Seahawks like Boise supports the football team here, I’ve never been around an atmosphere like this.

A big reason for why I chose the topic of Chris Petersen was because of how much he means to the city and how much support he gets. He deserves all of the credit he gets and all the money that he makes. Chris Petersen is one of the most successful coaches to ever coach at the Division I level. Week in and week out he prepares his team to go out and win and every home game. The best part about Coach Pete is the fact that every year the Alabama’s and LSU’s get the best players in the country. Coach Pete gets the bottom of the barrel and still competes and wins ten plus games a year. Each home game there are thousands of people who attend the football games because of what he does on the field that makes this University so successful. But the best part about Coach Pete is not what he does on the field; it’s what he does off the field that’s even more meaningful. He stresses the concept of “student-athletes”, you are a student first, then an athlete. He does so much for this community and he sets an example on and off the field.

When researching Chris Petersen it wasn’t too hard to find information about him or his path to being the head coach here at Boise State. The only tough part was trying to put together all of his coaching jobs and all of his awards. Coach Pete has received numerous awards throughout his career. It was tough trying to paraphrase and put in order all of his awards won as the Boise State coach. What I did to overcome these hurdles was to take my time and do a lot of research. I went through a couple of different websites and made sure each site was accurate then did my best to accurately organize all of coaching jobs and things he has done here in Boise.

While I was writing this article on Coach Pete I was very surprised that no one had written anything on him before me. The reason why it surprised me was because of Chris’s significant here in Boise. My thoughts when writing this piece that may become a large piece of Boise was that I hope this article is good enough for people to look at and not get mad at me. What I mean by that is how am I supposed to write an article about Chris Petersen that is supposed to be around 300-600 words. For all that he has done while at Boise State it was tough trying to write something in those few words. But with this article I did my best to give as much recognition and praise that I could in order for the people of Boise to read this and hopefully be proud of this article to call him our coach. One liability that I was worried about when writing this article was that I am not originally from Boise. So I don’t all there is to know about Chris Petersen and all he does for Boise. People from Boise probably know a lot more about him and have plenty of things to add when talking about the things that he does off the field. But the advantage of me writing this for the Boise Wiki is that I get to add my outsider’s point of view about how important Chris Petersen is to Boise. I have a different view than people who are from Idaho and I think I added my own point of view as to what he means and his significance to this community.

Some advice that I would give to future Boise Wiki contributors is that this can be a lot of fun. It was cool writing an article for all of the people in Boise to see and add to. If you find a topic that you like to write about and can provide information to support your article then I would definitely advise more people to contribute to the Boise Wiki. It was interesting to see all of the articles that have been written for the Boise Wiki and the more and more people contribute than the better I think the site will be. So overall make sure to write about something you like and be honest and research as much as you can and you should be fine.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Boise Bike Project Wiki Reflection

November 26, 2012 by Aaron Elfering

Boise has proven to one of the most interesting small cities I have ever visited, in part because of the many sub cultures that can be found here. I often describe Boise as small town big city because in living here, its easy to find elements of both environments, the good and the bad. Boise’s size and variety of environments makes it a perfect home for the more outdoors inclined as well as younger urbanite crowds. I believe that somewhere in the middle of these two groups is something that has a true claim to being part of the heart of Boise, the bicycle. Call it the Portlandia “Hipster” effect but especially over the past 5 years, Boise has become one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the U.S. and somewhere at the core of this influx of cyclery lies the Boise Bike Project.

The Boise Bike Project or BBP is inarguably Boise’s most important bicycle resource and serves thousands each year for just enough to keep themselves afloat. It is this kind of attitude that embodies Boise’s cycling community. I am far from Boise’s biggest cycling advocate being more of a car guy myself but after recently spending my fair share of time at the BBP putting together a road bike project of my own for practically nothing, I quickly realized how great of an operation it was and it felt more than appropriate to try and spread awareness about this hidden gem at the core of Boise’s grassroots cycling community.

I can honestly say that I didn’t have many technological difficulties with this project but the one or two that I did encounter were fairly frustrating. For starters, I was not the least bit amused when I realized that BoiseWiki.org and boise.localwiki.org were in fact, completely different pages but are seemingly run under the same leadership with generally the same format and information but do not communicate/interact with each other (I could also be completely misunderstanding the relationship between these sites). I began my wiki page on boisewiki.org after googling “Boise Wiki” seeing some familiar names and formats and accepting that I was using the correct site. Using MS Word for most of the meat of my project, I was able to paste my project in, do some simple styling editing using text and felt I had a pretty solid little page put together. It was after trying to get this page to pull up that I realized I ultimately created my own entirely new wiki solely for the BBP. Ultimately I did what any red blooded American male would do only after reaching the point of frustration, I consulted the directions…

As I should have observed before starting anything, I realized that I should have been using boise.localwiki.org. “No matter” I thought, “it looks like this site is, at its core, virtually identical to the last, I’ll just paste in what I’ve done and the end result should be much the same.” I was correct for the most part, but there was one glaring difference, the styling tools operated completely differently. While BoiseWiki.org used a more text oriented editing process, boise.localwiki.org used a GUI based editing process, which would seemingly be more user friendly. I say this in the most friendly way possible, I am not a fan of that interface, maybe I’m even more incompetent than I had previously realized but this tool seems to have more than its fair share of flaws. This doesn’t sound like much of an issue but I still was not ultimately able to style my page exactly how I would have liked. (/rant)

To be on the safe side I have left both articles in place and they can each be found on their separate respective Wiki pages here and here. This was not my first time writing a local piece on Boise but as strange as it might sound to say it, I always come away with a sentimental feeling after digging into small parts of our wonderful little city. The more and more research I did into the BBP, the more I was truly impressed with what the staff behind that organization has accomplished and how much groups like the Boise Bike Project really are an invaluable asset to our community and it feels great to know that I could help spread the word for them on some level and draw them much deserved attention. After checking out the DavisWiki and realizing its success, I have no doubt that Boise as a community is capable of developing an extremely comprehensive Wiki to rival the DavisWiki and it feels great to have participated in this sort of tangible project.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Boise Mexican Consulate Wiki Article—Reflection

November 26, 2012 by Anna Lopez

On a personal stance, I find Boise lacking in culture and diversity. As a Latin minority (Guatemalan to be exact), I don’t really see my ethnicity represented aside from the Hispanic markets or restaurants, and yet these restaurants come from a very specific country. I wanted to research something that was genuinely racial, in the sense that the organization represented a single demographic even if it wasn’t mine, and thus I came upon the Mexican Consulate. I had very little knowledge of the Mexican Consulate, aside from seeing the consul and his assistant at various events such as the Civil Liberties Symposium and the Casasola Photography Archives of the Mexican Revolution.

My technological frustrations were quite minimal. Thankfully, all the sources I used for the wiki article were already digitized, which made the production of the article quite efficient. I actually began my article on a word processor, to check for any typos or major grammatical issues, and then copy-pasted the text into the page I created for the article on the wiki site. It was difficult to organize the text and make it look ordered without being too overcrowded, so it took several times of copying, deleting, and pasting before everything was in place. Uploading a photo was probably the most difficult, because the wiki site was not recognizing the picture I was uploading. I actually gave up loading the picture for a while before I tried once again, and miraculously the photos were ready. I don’t know how I overcame that hurdle, but I’m taking it as a gift.

While I was originally hesitant of writing an article for a wiki site, I found the experience fun and enjoyable. Everyone has unique interests and wiki sites provide an outlet to vent those interests to everyone and anyone who may also be potentially interested. In regards to the Mexican Consulate, I had no prior knowledge of its conception and influence and found the information garnered rather interesting. The fact that the article is written to the general public made the assignment less stressful while still maintain an aura of historical credibility. With that being said, it was difficult to change my voice as I was writing for a public instead of scholars. It would be interesting to see what changes occur with the article I presented and hope to see alterations whether they be small or grandiose. I hope that other Latinos feel that there is a section, albeit small, about them as well, as they see the article and are able to contribute to it.

The liabilities of writing local history on a wiki are that people may find offense to the article I particularly wrote about. While I attempted to maintain an unbiased voice, I’m sure there are users who will change the article greatly to ensure Idaho does not sound as racist as some of the primary sources implicitly and explicitly reveal. Other editors may alter information without looking up sources or attaching references, which hurts the credibility of the article. While I definitely do not believe I am now an expert on the Mexican Consulate, I did try to base my information on historical sources. My concern is that contributors will attack the writer as opposed to finding other sources that can counteract the information presented.

To other wiki contributors of local history, I urge them to be as honest and thorough as possible. While wiki sites are not scholarly sources and should not be used as references for historical papers, people trust wiki sites and articles. As a future historian, I hope that what I read on Wikipedia, even if I never source the information, holds some relative truth. People read wiki articles all the time to gather quick information and if we are not providing accurate history, we are aiding societal ignorance. I think it is a great responsibility to write a wiki article, and as a responsibility it should not be taken lightly. But it can still be fun!

Filed Under: Wikis

Wiki Reflection (Bahnu Naimi)

November 25, 2012 by Bahnu Naimi

I chose to write about Castle Rock Reserve because it is a place I have been visiting for at least five years now. I often hike the trails and have spent a lot of time on top of Eagle Rock looking out over Boise, so the place has some personal significance to me. In addition, someone told me a long time ago that it used to be an Indian burial ground, and I was interested to know the truth and the tale behind such a statement.

The main technological frustration I experienced—if it counts as technological—is that there are not many sources on the history of Castle Rock and many of them say essentially the same thing. However, the sources varied enough that I was able to collect the pieces of information exclusive to each source, and create an article that incorporated them all. Also, I was unable to position the photos and the text of my Wiki article in the format I desired. I overcame this hurdle by simply accepting that people will get the point no matter where the photos are placed.

I think the idea of a large, collaborative history of Boise is genius. First of all, the fact that it is collaborative means there is a huge variety of different personalities deciding what things are important about Boise, and what is important to record about those things. For example, my first choice was Castle Rock Reserve because it is important to me, and then I chose what I thought was important for people to know about the place. Because so many people and their differing interests are involved, the history is and will become even more diverse as well as detailed. In addition, having so many people—who I assume are either from or living in Boise—collaborate to create a history is almost like having Boise write its own autobiography. Further, the histories we are collectively recording may very well be useful to people in the future studying our own time and place. If you think about it, a Wiki article is sort of like an average or mean of people’s opinions, thoughts and ideas. Collaborative writing will essentially give future historians a sample and view into the workings of this extensive group of people.

One advantage of writing local history on a Wiki is that it is easy. Anyone can do it, and therefore the information on the Wiki is more likely to be expanded upon. This however is also a liability. With such open access, validity of information is always an issue and must be questioned. Another advantage is that writing local history on a Wiki puts all the information in one, easily navigable place. If someone wanted to visit Boise or was considering moving here, all they would have to do is explore the Boise Wiki page and they would find tons of information straight from the people of Boise themselves.

I would advise future Boise Wiki contributors not to be discouraged if they find their topic has already been written about. First, if you see your topic on the list, click on the link! Some of the articles have barely any information and are simply waiting to be expanded. Second, write about something you care about; you will end up looking harder in your research and thus providing a more detailed article for the Wiki.

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Super awesome augmented reality graphic novel!

November 24, 2012 by Bahnu Naimi

It’s called Anomaly and it’s the longest graphic novel ever written, it is also the first to incorporate augmented reality. Since that is something we will be studying, and since this thing is REALLY cool, I thought I’d share.

Here’s a link to a trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS62s7nQk8Y

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Interesting Post, Thought I’d Share.

November 14, 2012 by Eric Schooley

An insightful post, from a rather funny writer, about creepiness, internet “anonymity,” and “free speech” in private forums.

WARNING: Explicit Language!

Here’s the link if you want to check out his site:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/10/16/gawker-reddit-free-speech-and-such/#wrap

Gawker, Reddit, Free Speech and Such

OCTOBER 16, 2012 BY JOHN SCALZI 69 COMMENTS

I’ve been watching with some interest the drama surrounding Gawker writer Adrian Chen revealing Reddit user/celeb/moderator/troll Violentacrez’s real life identity (Michael Brutsch), which among other things resulted in Brutsch losing his job, presumably because Brutsch’s employer was not 100% comfortable employing someone who spent his days moderating online forums with titles like “Chokeabitch” and bragged about the time his 19-year-old stepdaughter performed oral sex on him. It also resulted in Reddit globally banning links from Gawker (since rescinded, although forum moderators (“subredditors”) can choose to block links within their forums — and do), and various bannings due to discussion of the drama.

Wrapped up in all of this are various chest beatings about free speech and whether someone’s online anonymity is sacred, even if he is a creep, the culture of Reddit in particular and the Internet in general, and in a larger sense where the rights of one individual — say, a creepy middle-aged dude — begin to impinge on others — say, young women who don’t believe that merely being in public is an invitation to be sexually degraded. This is all interesting stuff, to be sure, and naturally I have a few thoughts on these topics. In no particular order:

1. The “free speech” aspect of this is largely nonsense. Reddit is not a public utility or a public square; it’s a privately owned space on the Internet. From a legal and (United States) constitutional point of view, people who post on Reddit have no “free speech” privileges; they have what speech privileges Reddit itself chooses to provide them, and to tolerate. Reddit chooses to tolerate creepiness and general obnoxiousness for reasons of its own, in other words, and not because there’s a legal or constitutional reason for it.

Personally speaking, when everything is boiled down to the marrow, I think the reason Reddit tolerates the creepy forums has to do with money more than anything else. Reddit allows all those creepy subreddits because its business model is built on memberships and visits, and the dudes who visit these subreddits are almost certainly enthusiastic members and visitors. This is a perfectly valid reason, in the sense of “valid” meaning “allowing people to be creepy isn’t inherently illegal, and we make money because of it, so we’ll let it happen.” But while it makes sense that the folks at Reddit are either actively or passively allowing “we’re making money allowing creeps to get their creep on” to be muddled with “we’re standing up for the principles of free speech,” it doesn’t mean anyone else needs be confused by this.

If someone bleats to you about any of this being a “free speech” issue, you can safely mark them as either ignorant or pernicious — probably ignorant, as the understanding of what “free speech” means in a constitutional sense here in the US is, shall we say, highly constrained in the general population. Additionally and independently, the sort of person who who says “free speech” when they mean “I like doing creepy things to other people without their consent and you can’t stop me so fuck you ha ha ha ha” is pretty clearly a mouth-breathing asshole who in the larger moral landscape deserves a bat across the bridge of the nose and probably knows it. Which is why — unsurprisingly — so many of them choose to be anonymous and/or use pseudonyms on Reddit while they get their creep on.

On the subject of anonymity:

2. Anonymity/pseudonymity is not inherently evil or wrong. Astute observers will note that on this very site I allow both anonymous and pseudonymous postings, because sometimes you want to say something you wouldn’t normally say with your name attached and/or because you have personal/business reasons to want not to have a trail of comments lead back to you. Perfectly reasonable and perfectly acceptable, and as I moderate this site pretty attentively, anyone who decides to use the cloak of anonymity to be an assbag will get their words malleted into oblivion in any event.

It’s not anonymity or pseudonymity that’s the issue. The issue is people being assholes while anonymous because they don’t believe it’s ever going to get back to them. This is a separate issue from anonymity/pseudonymity. Someone who is anonymous shouldn’t be assumed to be an assbag, any more than someone who uses their real name should be assumed to be a kind and decent human being. In both cases, it’s what they say that should be the guide.

However:

3. If at this point in Internet history you think you’re really anonymous/pseudonymous on the Internet, or that you have a right to anonymity/pseudonymity on the Internet, you’re kind of stupid. Yes, stupid, and there’s no other way to put it. I remember back in 1998 and people with pseudonymous online diaries freaking out because they ranted about a family member or boss online, and then that person found out, and as a result the diarist was fired and/or had very awkward Thanksgivings for several years. And you know what? Even back in 1998, when the Web was still reasonably new, while one could be sympathetic, in the back of the head there was alwayswell, what did you expect? It’s not that hard to find things out. Something will give you away sooner or later. Here in 2012, if you’re going to make an argument to me that anonymity truly exists on the Web, I’m going to want you to follow up with an explanation of how the Easter Bunny is riding unicorns on Mars with Kurt Cobain.

I find it difficult to believe that Redditors don’t understand that anonymity online is merely a facade; indeed it’s probably one of the reasons that revealing the identity of pseudonymous Redditors is looked on as such a huge betrayal. That said, anyone who goes to Reddit and truly believes that a site-standard ethos of “don’t reveal our members’ identities” fully protects them from being revealed or allows them to revel in obnoxious and/or creepy behavior without fear of discovery, they’re kind of dumb. I won’t say that they deserve what they get — maybe they do, maybe they don’t — but I will say they shouldn’t be terribly surprised.

Now, you might argue that someone has a right to pseudonymity or anonymity online, and depending on your argument, I might even agree with you (hint: such an argument doesn’t involve posting sexualized pictures of minors or the unconsenting). But I would also agree with you that it would be cool if the Mars rover beamed back a picture of Kurt and Peter Cottontail jamming on “Pennyroyal Tea” while their unicorns kept the time on tambourine. Back here in the real world, you should get used to the idea neither is happening soon.

Speaking of the real world:

4. Reddit is not the Internet, the Internet is not Reddit, and in neither place is one obliged to privilege anonymity/pseudonymity. It seems like a lot of the angst emanating from Reddit regarding this event is based on a presumed community standard of not outing anonymous or pseudonymous Reddit users. However, leaving aside the fact that this “community standard” is found neither in the Rules of Reddit nor its “Reddiquette” document, just because something is a community standard does not mean one is obliged to follow it in all ways at all times, and if the “community standard” is doing real harm or is being used as a shield to allow people to act badly without consequence, then it’s a reasonable question of whether this “standard” is to be allowed to stand unchallenged.

In any event, an argument that those outside the community are bound to its standards is a tough one to make outside of that community. Am I, John Scalzi, enjoined by Reddit “community standards” on my own site? Not in the least, and if anyone suggested I was, I would point and laugh at them. Am I when I am on Reddit, signed into my Reddit account (“Scalzi,” which, I would note, is not particularly anonymous/pseudonymous)? Well, I’m enjoined by the actual rules (seeing as I have no right to free speech as understood by the US Constitution while I am there), and generally would try to abide by established local practices. But there are rules and then there are guidelines, and I don’t need to believe that the latter has the force of the former.

In the case of Adrian Chen, the Gawker writer who revealed Violentacrez’s real-life identity, I think he’s perfectly justified in doing so. Whether certain denizens of Reddit like it or not, Chen was practicing journalism, and writing a story of a figure of note (and of notoriety) on one of the largest and most influential sites on the Internet. They may believe that Mr. Brutsch should have an expectation not to have his real life identity revealed on Gawker, but the question to ask here is “why?” Why should that be the expectation? How does an expectation of pseudonymity on a Web site logically extend to an expectation of pseudonymity in the real world? How does one who beats his chest for the right of free speech on a Web site (where in fact he has no free speech rights) and to have that right to free speech include the posting of pictures of women who did not consent to have their pictures taken or posted then turn around and criticize Gawker for pursuing an actually and legitimately constitutionally protected exercise of the free press, involving a man who has no legal or ethical presumption of anonymity or pseudonymity in the real world? How do you square one with the other? Well, you can’t, or at least I can’t; I have no doubt some of the folks at Reddit can guide that particular camel through the eye of the needle.

But they would be wrong. Mr. Brutsch’s actions are newsworthy, and it’s neither libel nor defamation for Gawker to correctly attribute his actions to him, whether or not he ever expected them to be attached to his real life identity. If they don’t think so, I heartily encourage them to take up a collection for Mr. Brutsch so he can sue Gawker. I know what the result would be, but I think the path to getting there might be instructive to some Redditors.

Or maybe (and hopefully) they already know they don’t have a legal or ethical leg to stand on, which is why they eventually fall back on well, this just isn’t done and then ban Gawker links on Reddit. Which, of course, is their right. That is, so long as the people actually running Reddit believe it is.

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