10 fall 2009
y Carole Meyersillustration by Christiane BeauregardIt hardly seems possible that we started surfing the World Wide Web in 1992. Or that ten short years ago, wireless networks started showing upin our homes and universities. Indeed, the degree of transformation wrought by the “networked revolution” has been so quick and so completeas to render the idea of an unconnected student almost unimaginable.It is against this rush of technological change that <strong>Emory</strong> <strong>College</strong> has had to develop its online philosophy, which could be briefly stated as:Technology exists to enhance the in-class, residential experience at <strong>Emory</strong> <strong>College</strong>, not to replace it.The resulting projects span <strong>College</strong> disciplines and activities, and they provide a glimpse at how comprehensively the <strong>College</strong> has goneonline. Here are just a few examples.SOUTHERN SPACES<strong>Emory</strong> is home to one of the first peer-reviewed online journalsin the nation, Southern Spaces. Focusing on “real and imaginedspaces and places of the U.S. South,” Southern Spaces takesadvantage of the web’s capability to deliver audio, video andinteractive imagery, in addition to text, and explores new ways oforganizing and updating research using these multiple media.Southern Spaces launched in February 2004, a partnershipbetween a loose group of faculty, graduate students, and stafffrom Robert W. Woodruff Library and Academic TechnologyServices who had an interest in exploring the new scholarly possibilitiesof the web. “I think what we recognized was the realpotential to combine these media elements into one new format,”says Allen Tullos, professor of American studies. “It justseemed like an exciting new way to present things that youcouldn’t do any other way.”In the early days, the group frequently had to work withexisting pieces, largely text, and would have to collaborate withcontributors to find materials to accompany it. Five years later,Southern Spaces routinely receives submissions with accompanyingmultimedia files, often with permissions for use alreadyobtained. “We’re really getting a whole new group of scholarswho compose pieces in multimedia formats,” says Tullos.A piece like Scott Matthews’ essay on musicologist JohnCohen’s documentation of Appalachian musician RoscoeHalcomb embodies the possibilities of the new genre. Matthewscombines his own textual analysis of Cohen’s journey into easternKentucky in the late 1950s and early 1960s with periodmaps, audio music clips, and both still and moving images ofHalcomb and the musicians he influenced. The result is a rich“reading” experience that leaves you with a deep, broad understandingof the topic.Multimedia pieces like Matthews’ require an array ofresources to produce. The journal relies on a cadre of graduatestudents who have learned to create web pages, to formatimages correctly, and to digitize and store audio and videofiles in multiple formats. <strong>Emory</strong>’s Woodruff Library also playedan instrumental role, hiring technical staff and developing thenecessary server infrastructure, supported by a grant from theAndrew Mellon Foundation.ITUNES U<strong>Emory</strong> is showing up online in other arenas as well, most notablyvia participation in Apple’s iTunes <strong>University</strong>. <strong>Emory</strong>’s iTunes U sitewent live in October 2008 with both a public site and an internal,<strong>Emory</strong>-only site for distributing lectures and teaching materialsto registered members of a class. The public site featuresfall 2009 11