under

surveillance

power & empowerment
in the social media archive

Ed Summers
MITH
ehs@pobox.com / @edsu
slides: http://bit.ly/under-surveillance

Silences enter the process of historical production at four crucial moments: the moment of fact creation (the making of sources); the moment of fact assembly (the making of archives); the moment of fact retrieval (the making of narratives); and the moment of retrospective significance (the making of history in the final instance).

Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Silencing the past: power and the production of history. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 1997.

History

Bouie, Jamelle. Protesters with signs in Ferguson. 2014.

[Untitled]. 2001. September 11 Digital Archive.

I'm not sure that this work would have resonated with people if it hadn't been for CHNM's work on the September 11 Digital Archive. The idea that the Web is an integral part of our understanding our cultural moment, and the work of history is something that the 9/11 Archive helped us realize as a community. Also, the idea that it is in momemnts of profound loss and destruction that we find the means to connect with each other to help build collective memory. An idea reminiscent of Rebecca Solnit's A Paradise Built in Hell. Omeka in particular is an important bit of plumbing in that realization. This is something that I'm going to return to near the end.

Richman, Talia. "Students, panelists discuss Ferguson at Town Hall meeting".
The Diamondback. December 3, 2014.

Common social media logo/profile/avatar for the formal Black Lives Matter organization. September 1, 2015.

Work

DocNow Advisory Board Meeting. August 22-23, 2016. St Louis, Missouri.

docnowteam.slack.com

            % twarc search blacklivesmatter > tweets.json
            

app.docnow.io

www.docnow.io/catalog

Challenges

Gellman, B. and Poitras, L. "U.S., British intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program." Washington Post. June 7, 2013.

Quinn, Zoe. Photograph of Zoe Quinn with camera, taken in 2014

Appraisal

The process of identifying materials offered to an archives that have sufficient value to be accessioned.

Appraisal in A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology. Society of American Archivists.

Gift Agreement between Twitter and the Library of Congress. April, 2010.