Update

[Deering, Brian R.]

Good morning all!

 

I wanted to update everyone on our project status.

 

The Tet Project is ongoing! Sometimes things move faster than other times. Sometimes real life rears its ugliness and requires ongoing attention.

 

When Fred and I first started talking about the Tet Project we knew we wanted it to be open, honest, and collaborative! Lots of people have lots of really good minds that produce lots of really great thoughts and ideas. We didn't, and still don't, have a model or blueprint for this project.

 

Fred and I also wanted "we" to mean all of us! All of us who are connected to this project. Not just Fred and I, but all of us who are on the project. Therefore, understand that when "we" is used it includes you as well! Your input is valuable and unique to your background and experience. This project is not about what Fred and I want or expect. It's about what we as a collective decide we want the project to be. This means of course that as the composition of "we" changes the scope and direction of this project could change as well.

 

The immediate scope of the Tet Project is to prepare a scholarly briefing on the 2-12's Tet efforts, to be presented at Whittier College, Whittier, CA during the fourth week of October. That briefing will likely be modified and enhanced and then presented to a different group of people at Whittier College sometime around the the start of Tet in January which is also the 40th anniversary of the start of the Tet Offensive.

 

Once we're past the October briefing we will focus on better defining this project. I had laid out a series of steps back in June about how I thought this effort should proceed. They were then, and still are, suggestions!

1. We scope this effort so we know where the boundaries of effort are. We make this a brainstorming activity where we assume unlimited resources.
2. We do a loose work break down and assess the level of effort required for the various tasks.
3. We determine the tasks required to achieve the minimum acceptable outcomes.
4. We determine project feasibility given the minimum level of effort required and available resources.
5. Execute the plan.
6. Bask in the glory of a well done project.
7. Receive the inevitable and innumerable accolades.
8. Depart on the world-wide speaking circuit and explain to the "others" how we did this.

In the early weeks of the Tet Project Fred and I did some "possibilities" exercises. A few that I remember are:

1. Keeping our images, data, documents and what not in a Wiki that is available on the Web.
2. Allow other Tet researchers to post their information to the Wiki.
3. Encourage those with first-hand Tet Offensive knowledge to contribute to the Wiki.
4. Making the Tet Project data available for other researchers.
5. Creating a electronic "Tet Offensive Research Center" like thingy at Whittier.
6. Capturing and analyzing 1st Cav. documents other than INTSUMS
7. Capturing and analyzing similar documents from other Army entities.
8. Capturing and analyzing similar documents from other military branches.
9. Capturing and analyzing Congressional and Presidential documents.

But, remember, the Tet Project will be what we, the collective, decide that it will be.

 

Please give some thought about where you would like to see this project go and how you would like to see this project unfold. And when you think, think freely and assume unlimited resources. At some point in the planning process we'll need to weigh the availablity of resources against our inflated expectations but for now, don't let that constrain your thoughts. Think BIG.

 

Fred and I encourage you to use this list as a forum to share and discuss your ideas with the collective!

 

Who will start the ball rolling?

[Tom Downs]

The most valuable data for historians are the notes, letters, diaries, photos and personal recollections of the participants in an event. Helping to create a template for those contributions would be helpful, especially suggestions on photo format. Because the documents going into this system have to be digital, the system requirements would have to be clear and understandable for the individuals submitting them.

Perhaps a relational data base of these types of contributions could be built over time.

 

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