SILENT SENTINELS
May 4, 2009
Initial Thoughts
Working on this site has certainly expanded my perspective on the web in general. How it works, what methodologies currently exist for interaction in web-based ‘communities.’ Bringing this to the field of History and an academic community with already established methods of interaction obviously poses significant difficulties, not least of which is adoption. Despite these difficulties, it is encouraging that a university, and certain leaders within it, have taken steps towards encouraging, rather than discouraging, adoption of web-based interaction and argumentation. While David and my site will not be left in the Web for viewing I think the lessons we have learned while struggling with the process of creative decision-making in a more visual environment will be useful for us in future projects.
Process of Teamwork
The division of labor between David and I was certainly an area of initial thought. David came in to the arrangement with all of the content in one form or another as he is already a professional historian for the NRO, and I came in with a definite interest and fascination with the process of actually putting out a finished website.
The way it turned out could not have been more ideal. Given the structure of the assignments, as the semester went along David and I would meet and hash out things like: what will be the architecture of the site, what colors/images to use, typography, etc.
David chose the initial theme for WordPress, Fusion, which we hacked to create our current site. We simplified or removed alot of the blog functionality which the Fusion creators certainly intended by our theme, but I think a simple navigation fits the main goal of our site: to provide basic information and historical explication of what is currently unclassified in American reconaissance.
Site:
Well, here it is (drumroll please):
Everyone feel free to leave us your thoughts! Keep in mind while interacting with the Timeline that there are only a few dates which have content associated with them.
Thanks for a great semester and all the input!
Thanks for your comments!
I like your site too…the name, the stars, etc. Obviously a lot of thought and teamwork went into it, and looks great!
Two things I noticed in looking at your website: 1) The timeline never came up for me – didn’t see it at all, and; 2) One of the photos (located in the section with individual photos) does not show up either. It could be that it’s not on your FTP or the coding is incorrect.