Cool Things Open Durham Can Do 2: People are Buildings Too!

When I've gotten myself involved in various debates over land use and preservation, one of the stock soundbites of people used by folks annoyed by my opposition to their bulldozing has been "he cares about buildings more than people." While I admit to a certain guilty enjoyment of post-apocolyptic sci-fi, I actually do care about people. And to prove it, people have equal standing with buildings on Open Durham.

In all seriousness, I've always been interested in telling, sometimes re-telling, the history of Durham through the framework of its architecture. Most history books, and even history websites are organized within some broad geographic framework, but then subdivide history into social subcategories +/- chronology. (I.e., "The War Years")

In doing so, I've often written somewhat detailed biography in the context of, say, someone's house or primary place of business. But what I've hoped to accomplish with Open Durham is to give people and businesses a page that can define the distinct history of that business, but then let that page link in with each house or building that the person or business has been associated with.

To create a business or person post, follow the same initial steps outlined in the first installment (Cool Things Open Durham Can Do 1: Roll Yer Own,) but click on Business or Person, as appropriate, rather than Building. The options are a lot smaller for Business and Person. Before someone (I'm looking east of Alston) seizes on that as renewed proof of my misanthropy, I'll say that it would be great to have the 'index cards' etc. in Business and People too - let's call that a fundraising opportunity.

You can upload pictures and information to the "Body" section and save your entry. Once approved, it will appear on the site. Now, once you create a building, you can associate a Business or Person with that building.

Here's an entry for Julian Carr (note that the the people and business entries are very sparse or non-existent at this juncture.)



I've added a picture and a very abbreviated biography (truncated prior to the full hagiographic blossom.) Note the list on the right - which are all of the Building posts in which I've linked to Julian Carr. So you can, in looking for more information about particular individual, see the scope of their architectural 'web' at a glance, and drill down for more information about those places. You can also 'map a person' and see this geographically represented. More on this in CTODCD 4: Cartographic Cornucopia.

Businesses work similarly, and this solves a problem that I've not been able to resolve on Endangered Durham - how to tell the story of a business that has moved three or four times. Do I repeat the story of the business in each place? Not anymore - you can see each place Hall-Wynne, or Budd Piper , or Scarborough and Hargett, etc. has been located with a click on the business page.

One open question for me, and you, is whether there is a 'standard' regarding what people or businesses merit inclusion in Open Durham. I want the data to be comprehensive on the one hand - geographic genealogy seems very cool to me, but I don't want this to veer into advertisement/self-promotion for its own sake - i.e., present day people and places should reach some level of public figure-ness or businesses should have some cultural relevance or staying power. But that's a blurry line, and I think we'll just take it as it comes. Right now, I'll just be happy that people want to contribute content!