So I’ve been doing the readings for Tuesday, and I’ve enjoyed them. First of all, after reading “from Babel to Knowledge,” I want H-Bot, an example of QA technology. This would easily let me answer factual questions online, like, “When was Lincoln assassinated.” It’s a nice little took I can use myself, or if I become a teacher, I could have my students use for their homework or studying for tests. Love it. In fact, It’s bookmarked on my netbook for schoolwork. Awesome
Ok, secondly, I enjoyed the website “The Differences Slavery Made.” This is a great website. It has sections outlining the main arguments that the authors are trying to make when comparing the counties of Franklin, PA and Augusta, VA. But then it offers all the evidence they used in digital format, including drawings, maps, letters, diaries, etc. If it cites a newspaper article, then the website has a link to the article so you can look for yourself. The site also lumps the evidence in categories, like commerce, crops, campaign of 1860, property, race, religion, and town development, all to show the differences and similarities of these two counties. All of this allows the reader to decide for himself where and how he will analyze their evidence they present. It’s not like a book where you go in one direction to the finish, in this website, you take your own path to analyze the evidence. I loved it.
Oh, and my last bit. I also loved Wordle. Word clouds are fun. I plugged in the entire text from a paper I’m writing right now in History 711 on the media’s portrayal of the Nez Perce War, an Indian conflict in Montana and Idaho in 1877, and I got to see the words that were used the most and had the greatest weight in my paper. I wasn’t surprised to see the results, but it was an interesting way to look at my writing from another angle. Plus, I can print off my pretty word cloud. So Yeah, I liked it.
So no snarkiness from me this week. I liked all three of these. I haven’t Read the book and accompanying article yet, but I’ll let you all know what I think of them by the end of the weekend.
