Comments on: State of the military historioblogosphere, March 2007 http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007 Airpower and British society, 1908-1941 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:36:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Investigations of a Dog » Start As You Mean To Go On http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-77700 Investigations of a Dog » Start As You Mean To Go On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:52:12 +0000 http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/#comment-77700 [...] a poisoned chalice - my Technorati rating went right down after I got into Brett Holman’s top 5 military history blogs! Expectations might have been raised at a time when I’m not posting much. But it might also [...] [...] a poisoned chalice - my Technorati rating went right down after I got into Brett Holman’s top 5 military history blogs! Expectations might have been raised at a time when I’m not posting much. But it might also [...]

]]> By: Airminded · State of the military historioblogosphere, September 2007 http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-60490 Airminded · State of the military historioblogosphere, September 2007 Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:52:39 +0000 http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/#comment-60490 [...] months ago, I used Cliopatria’s list of history blogs to assess the state of the military portion of the historioblogosphere. My original plan was to do this every year, but because things move fast online I’ll update [...] [...] months ago, I used Cliopatria’s list of history blogs to assess the state of the military portion of the historioblogosphere. My original plan was to do this every year, but because things move fast online I’ll update [...]

]]> By: Airminded · The inaugural Military History Carnival … http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-45977 Airminded · The inaugural Military History Carnival … Thu, 12 Apr 2007 17:11:53 +0000 http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/#comment-45977 [...] of “military history”; since only about a fifth of the blogs included were in the survey of the military historioblogosphere I did less than a month ago, I’d say he’s succeeded in that brilliantly! Social [...] [...] of “military history”; since only about a fifth of the blogs included were in the survey of the military historioblogosphere I did less than a month ago, I’d say he’s succeeded in that brilliantly! Social [...]

]]> By: Brett Holman http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-42234 Brett Holman Thu, 22 Mar 2007 06:53:15 +0000 http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/#comment-42234 True, but there's always that useful category 'Other' for all the problem cases :) Sorry, I hope I didn't sound dismissive of your work or anything like that -- I'm just thinking out loud, really. I guess the best thing is, as you say, for people to suggest new blogs in the comments at the Cliopatria blogroll. Re: the CT wiki -- yes, that's what I had in mind as a model (though I don't think it's suitable for Cliopatria's purposes because it's only academic blogs) -- the ultimate advantage would to let the "wisdom of crowds" maintain and order the lists. True, there are currently no sub-categories within the history section, but there's no reason why there can't be; in fact, the possibility is explicitly mentioned in the <a href="http://www.academicblogs.net/wiki/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions#Where_do_I_put_cross-disciplinary_blogs.3F" rel="nofollow">FAQ</a>: <blockquote>Can new discipline pages be added? Yes, as bloggers in these disciplines emerge. But they should be genuine self-standing disciplines. You shouldn't, for example, expect to have a separate page with a link from the main page for medieval history or for comparative politics. These are sub-disciplines, but they aren't disciplines in their own right. Of course, if you want to write a wiki page with a list of medieval historians, and add it to the Internal Resources for history you should by all means do so. </blockquote> That hasn't happened, at least not yet, and I think the reason is the same one I mentioned in my comment: there is not yet the userbase at the academic wiki to make it viable, so the alternative lists would likely end up being maintained by the one person (or not at all). I guess one could try to organise a team of volunteers to look after the areas they know best ... I've just noticed that I don't link directly to either the Cliopatria blogroll or the CT wiki in my sidebar, I should fix that. True, but there's always that useful category 'Other' for all the problem cases :) Sorry, I hope I didn't sound dismissive of your work or anything like that -- I'm just thinking out loud, really. I guess the best thing is, as you say, for people to suggest new blogs in the comments at the Cliopatria blogroll.

Re: the CT wiki -- yes, that's what I had in mind as a model (though I don't think it's suitable for Cliopatria's purposes because it's only academic blogs) -- the ultimate advantage would to let the "wisdom of crowds" maintain and order the lists. True, there are currently no sub-categories within the history section, but there's no reason why there can't be; in fact, the possibility is explicitly mentioned in the FAQ:

Can new discipline pages be added?

Yes, as bloggers in these disciplines emerge. But they should be genuine self-standing disciplines. You shouldn't, for example, expect to have a separate page with a link from the main page for medieval history or for comparative politics. These are sub-disciplines, but they aren't disciplines in their own right. Of course, if you want to write a wiki page with a list of medieval historians, and add it to the Internal Resources for history you should by all means do so.

That hasn't happened, at least not yet, and I think the reason is the same one I mentioned in my comment: there is not yet the userbase at the academic wiki to make it viable, so the alternative lists would likely end up being maintained by the one person (or not at all). I guess one could try to organise a team of volunteers to look after the areas they know best ...

I've just noticed that I don't link directly to either the Cliopatria blogroll or the CT wiki in my sidebar, I should fix that.

]]> By: Ralph Luker http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-42089 Ralph Luker Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:38:04 +0000 http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/#comment-42089 Crooked Timber set up an academic blogroll as a wiki. It has a history subsection. No sub-categories within history. Frankly, it's a huge time commitment to maintain the one History Blogroll that Cliopatria has. I can't make the time commitment to maintain a second, period-only categories, blogroll. Even if we tried to do it, there are a very large number of history blogs (including most digital history, most academic lives, most Non-English Language, most Other, etc.) that just can't be periodized Crooked Timber set up an academic blogroll as a wiki. It has a history subsection. No sub-categories within history.
Frankly, it's a huge time commitment to maintain the one History Blogroll that Cliopatria has. I can't make the time commitment to maintain a second, period-only categories, blogroll. Even if we tried to do it, there are a very large number of history blogs (including most digital history, most academic lives, most Non-English Language, most Other, etc.) that just can't be periodized

]]> By: Brett Holman http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-42037 Brett Holman Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:25:24 +0000 http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/#comment-42037 I agree Ralph, no categories at all, while having the virtue of simplicity, would not be an improvement in the least! One idea I had was that perhaps the blogroll could be split into two lists, with the same blogs on each: one would be ordered by period, the other by subject/theme. It would be a bit more work, and it's a bit less accesible perhaps. And it wouldn't entirely solve the category problem (especially for the subject list), but it would cut it down considerably. Another approach might be a wiki, and let the users maintain it -- but consistency would be difficult to maintain, and without a large number of users it probably wouldn't work. Incidentally, just to illustrate the flakiness of Technorati rankings, Airminded's went down after I wrote this post (even though I had a new blog link to me), and I noticed that the About.com blog has another 7 links to a different URL, so if they had been included with the default ranking, it would certainly be well ahead of me. Oh well, 'tis better than nothing. I could have used the TTLB rankings I suppose. I agree Ralph, no categories at all, while having the virtue of simplicity, would not be an improvement in the least! One idea I had was that perhaps the blogroll could be split into two lists, with the same blogs on each: one would be ordered by period, the other by subject/theme. It would be a bit more work, and it's a bit less accesible perhaps. And it wouldn't entirely solve the category problem (especially for the subject list), but it would cut it down considerably.

Another approach might be a wiki, and let the users maintain it -- but consistency would be difficult to maintain, and without a large number of users it probably wouldn't work.

Incidentally, just to illustrate the flakiness of Technorati rankings, Airminded's went down after I wrote this post (even though I had a new blog link to me), and I noticed that the About.com blog has another 7 links to a different URL, so if they had been included with the default ranking, it would certainly be well ahead of me. Oh well, 'tis better than nothing. I could have used the TTLB rankings I suppose.

]]> By: Ralph Luker http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-41945 Ralph Luker Mon, 19 Mar 2007 21:51:00 +0000 http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/#comment-41945 Brett and Gavin, Thanks for these reflections about Cliopatria's History Blogroll. As you can imagine, it's become a pretty big job just trying to keep it updated. You are certainly correct that categorizing blogs is problemmatic. The alternative is no categories -- and a single, long list of 700 blogs would probably be useful to no one. We've got to do problemmatic calls all the time. Does Medieval Warfare Blog go in Premodern, where it currently is, or Wars & Warriors? Does News for Medievalists go in News & Links or in Premodern, where I'll probably put it? The Primarily Non-English Language Blogs have sometimes complained that they are all segregated together -- but frankly I don't have the language skills to comfortably scatter them elsewhere and, this way, at least, Spanish speakers can more readily find them. Thanks for mentioning HIRW -- this is the first time it's come to my attention. And that's the point that I'd stress to you. Trying to keep track of hundreds of history blogs of all sorts is a big job and you can, as Brett has, help us out by recommending in comments at the History Blogroll those that you know of but we haven't yet found. That would be a big help. Brett and Gavin, Thanks for these reflections about Cliopatria's History Blogroll. As you can imagine, it's become a pretty big job just trying to keep it updated. You are certainly correct that categorizing blogs is problemmatic. The alternative is no categories -- and a single, long list of 700 blogs would probably be useful to no one. We've got to do problemmatic calls all the time. Does Medieval Warfare Blog go in Premodern, where it currently is, or Wars & Warriors? Does News for Medievalists go in News & Links or in Premodern, where I'll probably put it? The Primarily Non-English Language Blogs have sometimes complained that they are all segregated together -- but frankly I don't have the language skills to comfortably scatter them elsewhere and, this way, at least, Spanish speakers can more readily find them. Thanks for mentioning HIRW -- this is the first time it's come to my attention. And that's the point that I'd stress to you. Trying to keep track of hundreds of history blogs of all sorts is a big job and you can, as Brett has, help us out by recommending in comments at the History Blogroll those that you know of but we haven't yet found. That would be a big help.

]]> By: Investigations of a Dog » Earned In Blood http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-41926 Investigations of a Dog » Earned In Blood Mon, 19 Mar 2007 16:22:35 +0000 http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/#comment-41926 [...] at Airminded has produced statistical evidence to show that Investigations of a Dog is the third most popular [...] [...] at Airminded has produced statistical evidence to show that Investigations of a Dog is the third most popular [...]

]]> By: Brett Holman http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-41844 Brett Holman Sun, 18 Mar 2007 23:58:12 +0000 http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/#comment-41844 Alan: Actually, there's just the one blog in the 21st century category, but that's partly because I (and I think Cliopatria too) share your concerns about whether milblogs/warblogs count as history. Some of the 'None' categories include blogs which mostly talk about the GWOT, but it's more politics or opinion than history. But I think a good case can be made for the sole exception, <a href="http://marinehistorian.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Marine Historian</a>, the blog of a history teacher and Marine reservist who has just returned from deployment in Iraq, where his assignment was actually as a Marine historian. Certainly it can be debated whether contemporary history is possible, etc, but I'm inclined to agree with Cliopatria on this one. Good point about the purpose or functionality of a blog. I thought about trying to classify that but it was too hard -- a survey would probably be better for that sort of thing. Gavin: Yeah, I would also differ with Cliopatria over some of their choices (and HIRW is one of them). But to be fair, it isn't always easy to ambiguously classify a blog as one thing or the other, especially since most blogs are one thing AND the other. Airminded could just as well go into the 'Modern History' category, for example. Or maybe 'Regional Histories' or maybe 'Digital History, Science & Technology'. I (and Cliopatria) classify <a href="http://dictatorshipoftheair.com/browse/avia-corner/" rel="nofollow">The Avia-Corner</a> as military history, but maybe it's more history of technology. And so on. Perhaps it would be possible to use the Cliopatria list as a seed, see which blogs they link to most (on the assumption that military history blogs are most likely to link to other military history blogs) and construct a more comprehensive list out of that ... Alan:

Actually, there's just the one blog in the 21st century category, but that's partly because I (and I think Cliopatria too) share your concerns about whether milblogs/warblogs count as history. Some of the 'None' categories include blogs which mostly talk about the GWOT, but it's more politics or opinion than history. But I think a good case can be made for the sole exception, Marine Historian, the blog of a history teacher and Marine reservist who has just returned from deployment in Iraq, where his assignment was actually as a Marine historian. Certainly it can be debated whether contemporary history is possible, etc, but I'm inclined to agree with Cliopatria on this one.

Good point about the purpose or functionality of a blog. I thought about trying to classify that but it was too hard -- a survey would probably be better for that sort of thing.

Gavin:

Yeah, I would also differ with Cliopatria over some of their choices (and HIRW is one of them). But to be fair, it isn't always easy to ambiguously classify a blog as one thing or the other, especially since most blogs are one thing AND the other. Airminded could just as well go into the 'Modern History' category, for example. Or maybe 'Regional Histories' or maybe 'Digital History, Science & Technology'. I (and Cliopatria) classify The Avia-Corner as military history, but maybe it's more history of technology. And so on.

Perhaps it would be possible to use the Cliopatria list as a seed, see which blogs they link to most (on the assumption that military history blogs are most likely to link to other military history blogs) and construct a more comprehensive list out of that ...

]]> By: Gavin Robinson http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-41808 Gavin Robinson Sun, 18 Mar 2007 18:20:17 +0000 http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/#comment-41808 This is all really interesting and useful. I think Cliopatria's definition of military history blogs is very narrow and classifies a lot of relevant stuff as something else. For example, <a href="http://howitreallywas.typepad.com/how_it_really_was/" rel="nofollow">How It Really Was</a> meets my definition of military history, because it's entirely about the aftermath and effects of World War 2. It seems quite arbitrary to leave that out and put Airminded in, when you're mostly writing not about the war itself but what people thought it was going to be like. Again that's well within my definition but why is it more about "Wars and Warriors" than HIRW is? Anyway, the Military History Carnival will be much more diverse than the Cliopatria blogroll. At least a third of the posts in the history carnival I hosted in January could be included in a broad definition of military, even though I wasn't trying to give it a military bias, and I doubt that anyone thought that war was over-represented. I'm wondering if Cliopatria are reluctant to classify a blog as military history unless they can't classify it as anything else. I can see how some people might not be comfortable with the label, but I'd rather reclaim it than reject it. This is all really interesting and useful. I think Cliopatria's definition of military history blogs is very narrow and classifies a lot of relevant stuff as something else. For example, How It Really Was meets my definition of military history, because it's entirely about the aftermath and effects of World War 2. It seems quite arbitrary to leave that out and put Airminded in, when you're mostly writing not about the war itself but what people thought it was going to be like. Again that's well within my definition but why is it more about "Wars and Warriors" than HIRW is?

Anyway, the Military History Carnival will be much more diverse than the Cliopatria blogroll. At least a third of the posts in the history carnival I hosted in January could be included in a broad definition of military, even though I wasn't trying to give it a military bias, and I doubt that anyone thought that war was over-represented. I'm wondering if Cliopatria are reluctant to classify a blog as military history unless they can't classify it as anything else. I can see how some people might not be comfortable with the label, but I'd rather reclaim it than reject it.

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