So far, with my project, I have created an outline of how I want the website to look and how people can and will navigate the site. I have begun adding images, videos, and audio to the site and am looking for more. I have created different collections to divide the items to make navigation easier for users looking for specific items. There will also be a section dedicated to the contributions that users give. I have also created four exhibits for the site. The Historical Background is divided into four sections, each containing cited historical information. There will be a page with information on the Arizona Memorial. Finally, I have a section with further reading and information that will give users different sources and websites should they want to learn more. There will also be a link to this section in the other exhibits. I have also set up the contribution page, but I still need to set the terms and conditions for contributing.

I have a couple of challenges that I will work on this next week. The first challenge is the historical information that will be included on the site. I have begun to start reading the sources I have collected for research. However, the challenge is deciding on what information I want to include. I must be limited in what information is included, but I must also provide enough to satisfy different users. The second challenge is just time management. I am working on this project while also taking another class and with work on top of that. I will figure out how to divide my time between the project, my other class, and work so I don’t overwhelm myself and give each the required time.

After completing the readings for this module and thinking more about my project, I realized that I needed to revise my personas slightly. Below are my now-revised personas.

Persona 1: Primary Target Audience

Name: Anthony Sutherland

Demographic:

• Age: 35
• Gender: Male
• From: Sacramento, California
• Education: BA and MA in Economics
• Job: Financial analyst
• Income: $75,000

Descriptive Title: The Cautious Visitor

Quote: “I like to do my research before visiting a site”

A Day in a Life:

Anthony is a financial analyst for a company in Sacramento, California. Most of his time is spent working with little time left for himself. With this, he is picky about what he chooses to do with the small amount of free time he has for himself each week. Usually, when he has the choice, he chooses to spend that time outdoors, especially at national parks.  He says California, and the neighboring states, gives him plenty of opportunities to spend his time outdoors and national parks. However, before deciding what to do, he conducts research online. He wants to ensure he can get the most out of a place before he throws away his extra time. He also likes to learn more about other parks he can’t visit based on his work schedule. He likes websites that can give him information contained at the site without him visiting.

End Goal: Anthony wants a website that can give him historical or scientific information so he can either decide whether or not to visit or learn more about a site he can’t visit in person.

Persona 2: Secondary Target Audience

Name: Layla West

Demographic:

• Age: 42
• Gender: Female
• From: New Orleans, Louisiana
• Education: BA and MA in History, MA in Museum Studies
• Job: Educator at the World War II Museum in New Orleans
• Income: $55,000

Descriptive Title: The Lifelong World War II Historian

Quote: “World War II is one of the most fascinating moments in history. I’m always looking to learn more about it.”

A Day in the Life:

Layla is an educator at the World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her job consists of helping create exhibits, lesson plans, and programs at the museum. These responsibilities require her to know about the history of the topic or topics she and her team are focused on. While she does use physical forms of scholarship, she mostly turns to digital forms to conduct her research. She especially takes advantage of websites that use different media forms to tell a topic’s history. She feels that physical forms of scholarship that lack these different forms are not as engaging as these digital sources. She thinks that websites from the National Park Service and the Library of Congress provide the most valuable sources for research. However, she finds it takes a lot of time to gather the sources from the different websites. She likes to take advantage of websites that contain many sources and material she needs for her research all in one place.

End Goal: Layla would like a website that contains much of the material on a topic’s history.

On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese Empire attacked Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii. Many lives were lost that day as the Japanese destroyed American military planes and ships. The day after, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan and enter World War II. That moment served as one of the turning points of the war. In 1962, the government built a memorial to commemorate the attack on Pearl Harbor. Named after one of the ships destroyed during the attack, the USS Arizona Memorial is visited by many people each year wanting to learn more and pay respects. When people visit memorials, they think about the event and their feelings. Their thoughts then add to the ever-growing remembrance and scholarship of the memorialized event. The digital public history project will focus on this remembrance and thoughts about a historical event commemorated by the USS Arizona Memorial. The project hopes to answer how people who visit the USS Arizona Memorial feel and think about the event, what happened afterward, and how that affects and changes how they remember it. With this in mind, the project will include sources and items from different points of view. It will include commentary from visitors on their thoughts and a way for them to contribute to the project. There will also be historical background sources for people who have not visited the memorial, giving them the opportunity and accessibility to contribute to the project.

            The presentation of the project will be through an Omeka website with the contribution plugin installed to allow users to share their thoughts on the memorial and the event. Other plugins include CSV Import, Docs Viewer, Embed Codes, Exhibit Builder, and Simple Pages. The website will also have different forms of media to increase accessibility, including documents, photos, audio recordings, and videos. These items will provide information about the memorial and remembrance, including historical background about the event and World War II. For example, one of the items is a video of Japanese Americans sharing their experience after the attack and during the war, providing both background on remembrance and history. Another source showcases a transcript of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech, providing historical background and serving as a way for people to garner their own ideas and thoughts about the event and memorial. Those contributions will be added to scholarship about the event and the memorial as people contribute.

            The project will focus on two groups, one primary and the other secondary. The primary audience is those contributing to the project with their thoughts on the attack, the events afterward, and the memorial. The project’s main purpose is to discover how memorials serve as a way for people to remember an event in history and how people remember both the main event and the events that happened afterward. The material provided also helps those who have not visited the memorial learn and think about the memorial and the events. The hope is that they, too, can provide their own understanding of the history and the memorial even though they cannot visit the historical site or have not. The secondary audience is historians or those interested in the event’s history or the war. The website also provides historical background while including sources that focus on the memorial and remembrance. The project will also include scholarship sources for further research. Historians can use the project as a research tool, and those interested in the history can use it to learn more about the events. While the project’s primary purpose is for people to contribute, it will also provide historical background for other users interested in the event and memorial.