Personal Recollections & How do We Store and Retrieve Tet Project Data

[Deering, Brian R.]

All

 

Tom raises some great issues. These are things that I ponder when pondering other ponderables.

 

 

Personal Letters, Diaries, Photos, and Recollections

I too think that the experiences of an event's participants are extraordinarily valuable. And I agree that  WE  should collect and hold those kinds of records when they are available to us. However, Texas Tech is running a program entitled  "The Vietnam Center and Archive "  (http://vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamarchive/) whose purpose is to "...preserve the record of individuals and provide greater understanding of their experiences." My thinking was that we don't want to repeat work that has already been done or get this effort poiinted in a direction where we're competing with another project, especially one at another school. We, Texas Tech and our project, should do complimentary and not duplicative work.

 

In our collection efforts WE should not shy away from the expereinces of individuals by any means. We should collect their information, store it in our archives, and make it as available as the rest of the data we collect. Perhaps we want to share what the Tet Project collects in the way of personal experiences with The Vietnam Center. Perhaps we don't. I haven't put much pondering time onto that issue yet. Texas Tech does, however, copyright the experiences they collect, which limits free reuse, and it appears from the site that The Vietnam Center actively interviews people.

 

Until just now I hadn't really percolated about the idea of active interviews.  They sound ok to me.

 

What do other people think? And by "what do other people think," I'm not asking for a volunteer nor will anyone who speaks in favour of the active interviews be 'volunteered" later.

 

Things that further wrinkle my already crinkled thought patterns are: What are the ramifications of collecting live interviews? Should they be structured with pre-determined questions? Should the interviews be open ended, not constrained by predetermined questions, and reliant upon the skills of the interviewer to guide the inertviewee? What is required to do active interviews? Do we have, or can we find, the volunteers with the skills to conduct interviews? Of course, a lot of this comes back to the scope of the project. Are personal recollections, photos, letters, diaries, etc. things WE (the collective) feel should be in scope? It seems that at least Tom is. So this thread should remain active until WE start scoping!

 

Relational Database (Db)

I suppose that in its broadest sense, this is a question about storage. How do WE store the data, and of course how do WE retrieve the data. There are many technologies, some of which are open-source and therefore really affordable, that store and retrieve digital and textual information. And each has its strengths and weaknesses. My experience has been that databases work well for storing and searching for information and are also useful for collating, sorting, counting, and some statistical work but I don't think I've seen a good browsing application for a database. And, databases do not allow for the rich kind of linking between records unless the link can be established based upon fielded data and even a relationship can be established the factors that made the relationship  that perhaps html documents do. Html documents are great for rendering graphics, text, tables, and boxes in a single document but the html code is not intuitive. Also, since nothing in html documents is 'fielded," as is the case with a Db, it's impossible to generate the rich kinds of reports and crosstab analyses that a database does so well. Text documents are good for browsing and running text searches but suffer from the same frailties as do html documents.

 

I think storage is a lot like a swirling vortex of uncertainty. We've got to start this conversation at the periphery and as WE swirl about feeling the tug from the center we gather information about alternatives, get a better understanding of what our data might look like, what our customer(s) might require, the experience WE wish to create for our customer and stuff like that.

 

Regardless of the decision the collective comes to remember that since WE are in charge WE can always change it to meet our needs. In fact, I predict that regardless of the scope WE define in the next few months it will not look or sound like the scope in five years.

 

So, I leave the collective with a few things to ruminate:

• What are your thoughts on collecting personal histories?
• What experiences have people had with research tools?
• What should we include in the scope of The Tet Project?

 

And, please share your thoughts with the collective as you go!!!!

 

Thanx

 

Brian

 

---

From: tet_p...@googlegroups.com [mailto:tet_p...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Tom Downs
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 3:43 PM
To: tet_p...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Tet Project] Re: Update

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.

 

---

From: Deering, Brian R. [mailto:bdee...@mitre.org]
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 12:11 PM
To: tet_p...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Tet Project] Update

 

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?