For another non-profit, I’ve started to play with a “constituent relationship manager” package, the FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) civiCRM. So far it looks interesting. The standalone version is tied to OpenID, and I couldn’t make it work in the local sandbox, but the version embedded in Joomla seems to work. They say the Drupal version is better integrated. Stay tuned for a more thorough look.
jay
Wired.com posted a note about Hypercities, an ambitious project at UCLA funded by a Macarthur grant. Hypercities has digitized and scaled a large number of historic and current maps of several cities around the world. Maps can be overlayed in multiple layers on Google Earth, allowing the user to make their own combinations of data. I want to learn more and see how the SIA might be more engaged in the project.
http://hypercities.com/
jay
Nope, not THAT SIA, but Survey of Industrial Archeology in Nova Scotia, an ambitious, community driven site that seeks to document the industrial heritage of the Province of Nova Scotia. I’m trying to learn more about it, but a quick visit looks to be very interesting. I really like the community aspects of it, but am curious about workflow and quality assurance. Cloudy vision about this sort of thing for the SIA…
Hmmm,
jay
In April, the National Trust for Historic for Historic Preservation issued its annual list of the Eleven Most Endangered Historic Sites. The SIA had previously been asked to support two of these sites, the Memorial Bridge btw Portsmouth, NH and Kittery, ME, and the Ames Shovel Shops in North Easton, MA, which we did through the Historic Preservation Committee reviewing the requests and having our President, Mary Habstritt, draft a letter in support. The process, created in 2007, allows a timely, considered response in which the SIA can review and endorse significant industrial heritage preservation activities. I’m pleased that these sites made the list, though that’s a dubious honor, as they are still very much in danger, and worthy of continuing efforts to preserve them. I’m also happy that the SIA was able to respond to the requests of the organizations supporting the preservation of these sites in a timely way, but with careful review and internal comment. Can’t win ‘em all, but this is an important role for the SIA.
Got a chance to stop by an on-going dig at Heinlenville (the third?) San Jose Chinatown, that also fostered the growth of Japantown. This is the second year of work on the site, which was preserved by the City turning the site into the main vehicle garage etc and paving over all the cool stuff, saving it for work in the last two years. This was a destination at SIA2008, though the 2008 dig completed a few weeks before we came to see it. COOL!
Pix and links to follow…
We’re about four months into the experiment with eNews for the SIA, and have gotten a good response. Signup off the SIA home page.
In response to member suggestions, I’ve gone ahead and set up SIA groups on facebook and linkedin. These are experimental, but it’s free, so what the heck.
I’m even tweeting as jaym3
Dunno the long term future of these efforts, but I hope that they enable us to reach out to new members and friends.
jay
At the Board Meeting in Chattanooga we voted to proceed ahead with the member email project. Experiments conducted in June and July showed that the web-based system offered by Constant Contact was easy to use and met our needs quite well. You can sign up using the form on knightsia.org There will be a similar signup form at the main SIA web site by mid-November.
This is an opt-in, value-added program. You need to opt-in by signing up. It does not replace any of our current publications, but adds value through more timely information and supplemental materials.
It’s still an experiment, so constructive comments are welcomed.
jay
Grrr, I was cleaning up the Augean Stables, aka my office, and some equally cluttered computer files, and stumbled across not one but THREE different places where somebody I’ve had dealings with listed us as the “Society OF Industrial Archeology” Too late to correct them now, but I’ll be more aggessive and careful to correct in the future.
It’s all about branding…
jay
My friends at the Computer History Museum pointed me at the page from CAM about their Green Museums Initiative. Many SIA members have associations with museums. As folks concerned about preserving our industrial past, we should also show concern about our future, and getting your favorite museum to be more green is a great project. I’m on the GreenStep team at CHM, and it’s been very interesting to see the impact of even simple steps.
Go GREEN!
jay
There is an odd temporal coincidence that I hit while working on SIA 2008, but haven’t written about. It’s the year 1956 that ties together several different threads from SIA 2008. (No, don’t bother calling Scully…)
In 1956, Fairchild Semiconductor was founded by former employees of Schockley Semiconductor who balked at William Schockley’s management. (He called them “The Traitorous Eight”, which stuck, they were amused…) A huge chunk of the semiconductor industry was founded by “Fairchildren”, folks who had worked at Fairchild and went on to start their own companies. We drove by several of them, and stopped at the Intel museum.
In 1956 IBM shipped the first disk drive, invented by Rey Johnson and a team of researchers at 99 Notre Dame in San Jose. The Computer History Museum has one of these RAMAC disk drives in a restoration shop. Many of the SIA 2008 tours departed on paths close to 99 Notre Dame, and the site was a Treasure Hunt stop.
In 1956 Malcom McLean converted a WWII T2 Tanker into the first container ship. I don’t know where that ship, recristened the IDEAL-X, was built, but T2’s were built at Bay Area shipyards like the Kaiser complex in Richmond. Container ships now dominate shipping. Our visit to the Port of Oakland put folks right next to the Hanjin Lines container port.
If only I could find a 1956 connection for the Over the Hill tour!
jay