It’s true. All in all, it’s supposed to take over a DECADE to finish this behemoth and I applaud the editors for their hard work.
What am I talking about [link]?
The encyclopedia is a massive project of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Four employees in Charlottesville are laboring to create the online reference, with most articles written by experts at colleges and universities. It follows a nationwide trend in online state encyclopedias, which counters the massive popularity of Wikipedia, the general online encyclopedia that is not always reliable or authoritative….
Middle school teachers will get to test driveâ the online Encyclopedia Virginia this summer, but the general public [i.e. the tax payers] may not see it until 2009…The General Assembly will get a sneak peek in February, Gibson said, so they can see what the state’s money is going toward.”…The entire reference is expected to take more than a decade.
There is a small preview here.
I’m not gonna lie… I’m a little worried about historical societies, especially after the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society decided that the former “Hysterical Society” blog was “tasteless.” [read more]
Ok, people, maybe the whole history light needs to be re-addressed in a more constructive light. Monticello is having problems, local historian bloggers are branded as “tasteless,” the Virginia Encyclopedia is behind closed doors. Why all of these problems?
HISTORY IS COOL!
If you are involved in a historic society, why are you so closed and old fashioned about things? Don’t you want people to hear the snarky history stories, don’t you want them to debate your version of Virginia history and don’t you want to find new ways to reach new audiences? I understand that Wikipedia has its problems, but if you have four people working fulltime for over 10 years, couldn’t you do a pretty good job with an open encyclopedia model?
I’d love to hear from the society about why they didn’t go the wiki way with their history books. Does anyone know someone there?
Popularity: 12% [?]
Tagged as: Albemarle County, Central Virginia, Charlottesville, Encycopedia, Government, Gripes, History, Questions, Virginia

oo, forgot to spellcheck.. fixed now
History is soooo, like 5 years ago.
I thought it was news and gossip, not history and gossip…
/carp
The news and gossip of today is the history of tomorrow…
oh SNAP!
obadiah spittle so the news of history and gossip of today is the history of tomorrow which we’re gossiping about now so we can make history later… right?
/feels like he’s taking the SAT…. melon ball : bike seat = old strawberry : __________
damn second tag error today… my bad.
:Elephant’s scrotum
Dang, what did you get, like a 1480?
I read that google is going to release its own sort of wikipedia type thing where the writers actually get credited. That’s sort of a happy medium between the VFH method which decries wikipedia’s lack of authority and, well, wikipedia’s lack of authority. There are a lot of well-educated people that write for wikipedia and false information and malicious alterations are changed almost immediately. But since you still don’t know who is writing and what their qualifications are, it can’t be seen as an academically reliable source, even though, in actuality, it is mostly reliable.
I myself work in the digital humanities field and the “old school” types do sometimes seem unnecessarily combative to new ideas and new modes of the dissemination of information.
i totally just quit my job. i know, i know, this has nothing to do with anything, but i thought i’d put it out there………….
i read somewhere that websites hire people.
WTF HH…. why???? Do you have something else?
HH: Did you get sick of Mas? Went there tonight and it sucked!
Is HH CM?
(ei ei o)
i think hh is cm.
Thtop… thou art thpoiling things by outing one of uth.
LILITH…THEY ARE BEING BAD
good morning loves!
shaddup - if I want the world to know that Happyhooker is really Claude Monet, there’s nothing you can do about it!
nope, i’m not CM,and no,i don’t REALLY have anything else lined up. though i do have some promising leads. i just could not take it anymore. THE STRESS IS KILLING ME!!!!
Weel good for HH. Now you no excuse not to come to the Caroline gathering on Saturday. And that goes for you too Oy. (Check your dang e-mail everyone)
The VFH is notoriously behind the times. I know Wikipedia can have its issues, but let’s face it, even “legitimate” authors/historians have debates among themselves/ with others about the legitimacy of their facts, claims, and perspectives - allowing debate seems more healthy than the old-school, top-down approach of “authoritative” dictatorial information…
Ten years? Really? So, by then, it’s going to be even MORE outmoded…!!! EYE ROLL.
when/where on saturday?
e-mail silmosyrup on gmail
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