I've posted a copy of the blog I sent to History Matters below. If you haven't heard, this is a mass-blog that is going to be turned into a historical archive at the British Museum - cool.
The idea is for everyone to write a blog about what happened to them on Tuesday 17th October and how history might have affected them on that day. You can still submit a blog until 1st November at http://www.historymatters.org.uk/output/Page1.asp - do have a look if you haven't seen the press coverage.
Unfortunately I am banging on about websites again! After this post, I promise to diversify into pastures new. :-)
"Technology and history have hovered around me today while a crisis unfolded!
I’m building a website (as part of a post grad journalism course) about the regional press in the UK. Building the site has been tricky as I have little experience with techno-stuff and am not naturally gifted in the area. However, learning about how the British press is using new technology to communicate with readers has been fascinating. Blogging, citizen journalism and video journalism seem to be big talking points for the press at the moment.
I’m new to blogging and have only started in the last week or so. Despite being new and innovative, I think blogging has historical overtones. Writing diaries and letters are now often seen as lost arts, but blogging and email have opened up new ways of tapping into these traditional skills. The language of the net is also fun, vibrant and living. Shakespeare would be a blog-addict were he alive today.
All these thoughts about communication and language, past and future, faded in and out of my mind as I dealt with the biggest technical problem I’ve had while building the website. Pictures, links and just about everything else on the site stopped working, all made worse by the pressure of a looming deadline. I soldiered on trying to fix the problems for a few hours and eventually conceded defeat, imagining the worst.
However, back at home things improved quickly. A chat with my techno-whizz boyfriend had my website demons identified in no time (my boyfriend thinks I should write ‘daemons’ here as a techno-pun, but I’ve no idea what he’s on about…again!). A rogue forward-slash in front of all my links had been the problem. A tap of the back-space key and the site worked perfectly again! How had something so small caused so much stress and frustration? Thank goodness for people and their much needed input.
When times get tough, history has taught me to rely on those important people in my life who fix me and keep me smiling."
