Join the Editor's Circle

Tomorrow Thursday Carolyn Harris, "the royal historian," and I (not so royalist, shall we say), are doing a webinar with Mark Reid, editor of Canada's History. We will be discussing our articles from the current issue of the magazine, hers reflecting on Queen Elizabeth II's history with Canada, mine, "Royal Dissent," talking about the challenges -- and opportunities -- we will face in abolishing the monarchy in Canada. I think we will have fun.

Carolyn Harris

Sorry, you are not invited. This podcast webinar series is for members of "The Editor's Circle"  -- that is, people who give generously to support the magazine and its works.  

Of course, you could join the Editor's Circle with a few clicks -- and get this premium content.

A lot of previously presented Canada's History material is available in podcast form.  Just not this one, not yet.

Wikipedia doesn't know everything?

Doing a little thing on oil and Alberta, I checked Wikipedia for a couple of details about Eric Harvie, founder of the Glenbow Museum and the original Alberta oil zillionaire, who acquired most of the province's subsurface rights during the Depression and cashed in bigtime upon the Leduc strike of 1947. What comes up:

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. Please search for Eric Harvie in Wikipedia to check for alternative titles or spellings.

I had thought Wikipedia had something on everything by now.

That starts me wondering how many other Canadian topics Wikipedia has not yet covered. Anyone? Okay I'm not there either, tho' 13 other Christopher Moores (!)are, but that's a different order of magnitude.

Oral History goes Digital

Concordia University's Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (who knew?) in Montreal is developing a new, free, open-source software thingee for the archiving and annotating of oral histories in both audio and video form. It is also intended to provide access to such materials and to assist communication between those who create them.

The software, called Stories Matter, will not be available until 2009, but the blog associated with it, also called Stories Matter, is live and welcoming visitors and comments.

Worth noting: Canadian Mysteries

Do people do "interactive history"? The "Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History" website, one of the more successful web enterprises in the field of Canadian history, recently announced the launch of several new episodes. The additions complete its package of twelve interest-provoking problems in Canadian history. If there's an audience for history on the web, this should be one of the hits.

Canadian Mysteries launched in 1997, making it primordial in web history. It has continued to add new funders and new contributors, until half the universities and history departments in Canada seem to have a stake in it. Its mysteries range from the location of Vinland to the death of diplomat Herbert Norman. They cast a pretty wide net, in fact: exploration, slavery, First Nations, biography, immigration, social history, murder... And to my eye, the site is handsomely designed, cleverly conceived, and often well-written (though needing a little updating here and there, having been written in pieces over the years by many hands).

The project's reputation still seems -- judging by its "reviews" page-- inside the academy more than beyond, which seems too bad, given its pitch to younger readers and school classes. Worth a look.