Activism or Insight?

January 13, 2005 at 8:51 am · Filed under politics

Someone once said that the only thing we learn from the past is that we don’t learn anything from the past. The wisdom inherent in this statement is that history (and historians) don’t have any particular power and the people that are in the driving seat are often people that are inimical to the past.

The past doesn’t provide us with solutions to contemporary problems. It provides us with insight, context, and perspective but solutions are developed when we need them. The problem is that every generation thinks that they are facing the greatest challenges ever faced by any generation. This is the problem, not the solution.

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Hugh Martin on Blogs and Vlogs

January 12, 2005 at 12:09 pm · Filed under media

Hugh Martin, former editor of theage.com.au and Age Journalist has written an interesting article in today’s Age about how ‘citizen reporters’ get the news out first. His thesis is based on the reporting of the Tsnami in the Indian Ocean. His article reminds me of the archive of ‘citizen reporting’ that was constructed at the Centre for History and New Media at George Mason University after the S11 attacks on the United States.

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