Center for Digital Discourse and Culture

We are pleased to announce that our April 16 Archive has been successfully upgraded to the current version of the Omeka platform. Developed by George Mason University's Center for History and New Media, in partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society, Omeka is a next-generation online display platform for museums, historical societies, scholars, collectors, educators, and more. The April 16 Archive was running on a pre-release version of Omeka for more than a year, so we are pleased to be on the current version. In addition to improving the site layout and adding some new features, all of our nearly 1900 digital objects have been transferred to the new archive. We hope you will consider visiting the archive, and perhaps even contribute to it.

The spring 2008 issue of the New River Journal has recently been published. The Journal, the oldest literary journal devoted to digital writing, was last year selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in its Internet Archive, a recognition both of the journal’s lasting value and a guarantee that all issues will be available for as long, at least, as the Library of Congress is in existence.

The New River Journal has for the last three semesters been student-edited under the guidance of Ed Falco, the journal’s founding editor (and recent NEA fellow). This semester marked the first time three students have been involved, with editing duties split between Carrie Meadows, Lauren Jensen, and Weston Cutter, each of whom are MFA students in the English Department at Virginia Tech.

One year ago today we launched the April 16 Archive. Since then, the archive has expanded to include well over 1700 digital objects. To date we have recorded more than 23,000 visits to the site and over 170,000 page views. On the one-year anniversary of the tragedy, we recorded nearly a thousand visits to the site. In coming months, we will be adding many more objects related to the one-year anniversary of the tragedy, creating a new archive of thousands of newspaper front-pages related to the the events and aftermath of April 16, and upgrading to the newest version of the Omeka platform. In the meantime we hope you will visit the archive and share your files and stories. And if you would like assistance with archiving a large collection, please contact us at admin@april16archive.org.

The Center for Digital Discourse and Culture (CDDC) at Virginia Tech is pleased to announce the launch of Arts, Culture, and Civil Society (ACCS). This online archive of syllabi, e-prints, web links, and other digital resources is intended to serve as a starting point for students and scholars who are exploring the arts, culture, and civil society in their courses and/or research. These major topic areas are related to many important theoretical concerns for contemporary social criticism, political theory, and cultural policy-making. The collected materials span a wide range of disciplines, analytical frameworks, and locations. Topics range from the nature of current-day urban formations, nation-states, and local communities to the analysis of power, modernity, and discourse as related to the arts.

We are pleased to announce that our April 16 Archive now includes more than 1500 digital objects, moving us closer to our goal of 2000 objects by the summer of 2008. Recent additions include numerous materials related to the tragedy at NIU, including photos from from the February 18 candlelight vigil held here at Virginia Tech. We also continue to archive college media coverage of April 16, all of which is accessible via our Collections page. And for ongoing media coverage about the archive, visit our News page.

We are pleased to announce that the CDDC is providing web hosting and maintenance for Fifth-Estate-Online. This "International Journal of Radical Mass Media Criticism" publishes peer-reviewed academic articles, as well as commentaries, book reviews, and multimedia galleries. Since its launch in 2005, the journal and its contributors have been examining the role and power of mass media, both in historical and contemporary terms. Fifth-Estate-Online is a timely and welcome addition to our Center's holdings, and we invite everyone to visit - and perhaps even contribute to - this fine online journal.

The CDDC is pleased to serve as a consponsor for the second annual STS Frontiers Lecture. Prof. Siva Vaidhyanathan of the University of Virginia will be speaking on "The Googlization of Everything: Life in an Algorithmic Age." The presentation is scheduled for 4 PM on Friday, February 1, 2008 in 3100 Torgersen Hall. The event is free and open to the public. For an abstract of the talk, see this news item from the university libraries or this poster from STS.

"As Learning Inquiry starts it second year of publication we are sending out a call for participation in our ongoing attempt to create a transdiciplinary forum to engage the widest variety of perspectives on learning. We're looking for articles and special issues that push the boundaries and include new perspectives, but also take the opportunity to share research and experiences from particular locations of inquiry to a larger audience." For additional information, see cfp: Learning Inquiry or http://learning-inquiry.info/.

The CDDC is pleased to note the release of the Fall 2007 issue of the New River journal of digital writing and art. With hosting and technical support provided by the CDDC, this leading-edge journal is edited and published by faculty and staff affiliated with Virginia Tech's Department of English and MFA Creative Writing program. Congratulations to Managing Editor Lauren Goldstein and Editor Ed Falco for an issue that features many fine examples of new media innovation and creativity from seven contributors.

The December 2007 issue of First Monday is out, and it includes a number of noteworthy articles. Roger Clarke's discussion of "The cost profiles of alternative approaches to journal publishing" is required reading for those interested in the economics of journal publishing. And a piece by Sue Thomas, et al., titled "Transliteracy: Crossing divides" will likely appeal to many educators and educational researchers.