A site note - and the future of Endangered Durham
Today I'm publishing my long-in-the-works post on Trinity College / East Campus; I've worked to collect the photos for it, scan newspaper accounts, research, edit, etc. gradually over a period of a two years - with a great deal more attention over the past two months. It's an interesting piece to write - as I first came to Durham in 1988 to attend Duke, it's interesting how my own perspective has changed on both Durham and Duke. Architecturally, when I came to Duke, I found West Campus a beautiful place, and East Campus a bland afterthought. Now, I find the history, the array of buildings, the evolution, and urban proximity of East Campus wonderfully appealing. West - not so much.
Given that this post has a culmination sort of feeling, I thought it was a good time to post my thoughts on the future of Endangered Durham; the use of Blogger and the blog format long ago became very clumsy for what has developed into a large historic archive. As I've mentioned to many people, the archive aspect of the site should mean an entry from 3 years ago has just as much salience as one from 3 days ago in a search engine's results. Unfortunately, it is not so. I'm disappointed to have people ask me to please write about something that I wrote about 3 years ago - only because that means that they couldn't easily find it.
I plan to work over the next few months to create the next version of Endangered Durham - ED 2.0, if you will - which I hope will develop into the kind of interface that not only reduces the frustrations with the current limitations of Blogger, but allows the content and its users to take full advantage of the technology available - from better mapping and georeferencing to user-generated content, to far more robust search capabilities and more.
My goal, in short, is to have ED 2.0 be a model for a modern historic architectural archive - one that can potentially be replicated in other endangered places. I hope to create something that can be sustained and renewed beyond my ability to do so alone. I have never sought any remuneration for my costs related to Endangered Durham and related talks, etc., but this may be a rather expensive endeavor. I don't know what it will cost, but - pending the outcome of some grants - I may be asking you in the next few months whether you are willing/able to make any financial or in-kind contribution to the web development costs for said archive. I hope to work out an arrangement soon to make said contributions tax-deductible.
Thank you, as always, for your ongoing readership - and especially for your interest in and love for the history of Durham and its landscape.
- Gary
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16 comments:
Regarding the future, have you talked with the ibiblio folks? http://ibiblio.org/faq/
They host 'Documenting the American South' and many other high quality collections. http://docsouth.unc.edu/
They might be interested in collaborating with you to develop that new model model for modern historic architectural archives. They might also have channels to funding sources ;-) . (Regardless, I'll contribute.)
Gary, thanks for all your hard work on this site -- it's definitely a bright spot in my RSS reader every morning. Thanks for keeping the hidden history of Durham alive for us.
Just a note to say thank you for all your work on this site. It's not just an entertaining blog, but a real service to the community. I'm sure lots of readers feel the same way and would be more than willing to pitch in to ensure that ED can maintain (and upgrade) its online presence. Just let us know what you need! :)
Gary, thank you for continuing to make time to devote to this very important resource. I look forward to ED 2.0 and opportunities to support you in bringing it to fruition.
You have the gratitude of the community for what you've accomplished here, Gary. Hearty congrats on a wonderful culmination today -- and well-deserved period of R&R.
I know you've given much thought to what the future holds for ED 2.0. Folks in Durham has come to love their jolt of Endangered Durham in the morning and many will stand in support of your efforts.
I'm happy to offer any technical expertise on setting up the site. I'm a ways out of this kind of work by now, but I still remember a few things...
Gary, good luck with the transition to a new platform. I really enjoy your amazing research and excellent writing. You have created an incredible catalog of history for Durham. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I will look forward to the next iteration, and keep me posted on how I can help it come to fruition!
Bravo!
As long as it continues to be here, I'll keep reading.
Let us know how to contribute.
Maybe a Paypal account?
Seth
Gary - I would be willing to discuss helping out, either financially, through web hosting support, or otherwise. Please feel free to contact me directly to discuss: gabesdroid (at) gmail (dot) com .
did you see this
video?
Preservation NC looks forward to helping out as you proceed!
This blog is very significant Gary. Keep me posted on the underwriting model you select.
Gary,
A newer more flexible platform makes a lot of sense. Whenever I try to describe ED to people, I say "It's sort of a blog, but it's really more of an archive. But then again..."
Thank you so much for what you do here. I now see my city in completely different terms: it is now richer, fuller, more 4-dimensional.
I've always thought that ED should be in wiki format (perhaps in addition to the blog, if some readers are more comfortable with that format than with wikis). Are you considering this as an option? If so, I would be happy to volunteer any technical help needed.
If you're not sure what the benefits would be, I can give you a quick summary.
(I run the htyp.org wiki, which includes some pretty extensive pages on the Durham area.)
I look forward to new and exciting things in ED 2.0--but I can only begin to imagine how significant an undertaking this will be, in both time and money. I would certainly be willing to donate and as the response here indicates, so will many others--it's hard to underestimate the value of your work to each of us and to the community as a whole.
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