One of the themes we’ve consistently been discussing is the idea of a Community of Practice when it comes to digital humanities and scholarship. I guess one thing about moving scholarship to the internet means that there is definitely room for more people to come in and engage with us and our projects. That can be both a good thing and a bad thing- we open ourselves up for internet trolls and criticism, feedback we may not agree with, and more- but it also means that we can ask other digital scholars about problems we may encounter and discuss our experiences so people can learn from them.
Where do I see myself in this? Well, fun fact, I like to give hot takes about issues I have with things. Complaining is part of my modus operandi, but when you give me a chance to sit and lay out my thoughts via text (much like a blog post!), I can make it sound pretty. Also, I believe that criticizing things when you’re still learning about it advocates for fixing problems that held you back when you were still climbing the learning curve. I also find that new eyes who see a problem often can see a solution, while people who are in the middle of it are too jaded to see the solution. Don’t underestimate amateurs- they often see things you don’t. Julia commented at the PALa that even the pros learn along with us. If we break something, everyone learns how to fix it together. That’s what makes it fun!
I don’t know if I made any connections outside of Gettysburg or really in Gettysburg either. We’ll find out as things go on, mainly because I’m fully aware I’m super unobservant. I did get some Twitter followers though, but how much they care about my politics and shitposts- which might warrant an unfollow (and honestly I can’t blame them)? Good question.
R.C. mentioned during the workshop that we need to be comfortable with our online persona, but the people who follow an undergrad’s account know by now what they’re getting into. I’m comfortable with my online persona- I like my snark and memes, and I feel much more confident in that online persona like most people hiding behind a screen do. While it does reflect my internal monologue sometimes, I like to think I make some decent points once in a while. I like discussion about this as well, and discussion does head down the path of generic internet discourse complete with insult hurling. Look at political scientist Ian Bremmer’s twitter. He has this tweet pinned:
If you're not following some people you dislike, you're doing it wrong.
I'm happy to help.
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) November 24, 2016
I’ve read his book and I don’t necessarily agree with all points he makes, but I think discussion and debate can reach conclusions about problems (digital scholarship falls under that point) even though we’ve never met. I followed people on Twitter (and got followers back) from the PALa workshop, and I didn’t interact with them at all. I haven’t engaged in any discussion yet, but I’m sure I’ll find some reason to do that.
Side note: I also have a super diverse audience who came looking for different things- some want politics, others want memes, a few want indie music commentary, many are just my friends and internet friends. That’s okay, but that kinda explains why I jump around a lot. That may not be for everyone, but it’s easier than jumping on four different accounts. As if I don’t do that enough:
Now that that tangent is over, back to the criticism part I mentioned earlier- I met with Professor Egan (someone who’s helped me greatly with the art part of my project) and she commented on how a previous digital project from last year regarding art and art history was met with criticism despite her hard work to make it accurate. I responded to that comment by saying that criticism isn’t from ill intentions or designed to make you feel bad- the best you can do is learn from it, fix it if it’s merited, or engage in discussions to see if you can meet at least a compromise. I think this is mainly because different people have different learning experiences, and again, digital scholarship provides a platform to reach those compromises a lot faster than they used to be.
Good lord I went overboard on this post. Sorry for the rambling.
-Britt
