H-NZ-OZ, the H-Net list for Australian and New Zealand
history, has been awarded a Network Information Service Program
(Goanna) grant by the Australian government. It received $36,426
to consolidate and extend the delivery of Internet-based
information services and allied resources for teachers
(throughout the world) in Australian and New Zealand studies and
cognate disciplines.
We will now be able to establish our long dreamed of server
on WWW. The co-ordinating hub will be in Melbourne, and will
maintain three history related homepages:
* Australian & New Zealand Studies (H-NZ-OZ)
* Urban Past, Urban Present (tied to H-URBAN)
* Association for History & Computing
These pages will include links to key H-Net resources,
on-line library catalogues, electronic archives, and Internet
clearing houses, together with advice on how to use them. The
Australian and New Zealand page will allow access to H-NZ-OZ
information and resources, the associated refereed "Electronic
Journal of Australian and New Zealand History" (EJANZH); and
Heather Goodall's homepage in applied and public history. The
project will allow the EJANZH its own linked server and the
capacity to publish complex electronic pages using HTML, graphics
and eventually audio files. The Urban Past, Urban Present
homepage will proved web access to H-Urban and its growing list
of resources, act as a shop-front for the Urban Research Program
at Australian National University, and co-ordinate future
conferences and exhibitions by the urban historians and planners
network formed at the June 1995 Urban History/Planning
Conference. The Association for History and Computing homepage
will act as a shopfront for the new regional branch of the AHC
proposed by Alan Mayne, Hilary Carey, Heather Goodall and Paul
Turnbull.
The project will support Alan Mayne (at U. Melbourne) and
Paul Turnbull (at James Cook U.) plus other editorial workers in
running H-NZ-OZ and H-Urban. Clearly there is much work to do,
but we are confident that H-NZ-OZ will generate discussion,
comment and criticism allowing the Australian information in
history server to be constructed so as to best meet the needs of
list-members. We also want to ensure that the infrastructure we
put in place will enhance the value of individual projects. This
grant also provides with a firm base from which to launch future
collaborative projects, and lobby for their funding.
H-NZ-OZ has really started to liven up over the last
fortnight or so, with a number of good topics being discussed.
Much of the discussion has been interesting and useful. However,
over the last fortnight I have found myself using the editorial
power to refuse or severely edit some postings. This has occurred
because they have been personal messages, or because they have
contained little information of common interest. In one instance
spelling and grammar was so bad I simply could not pass the post
on. Especially in view of our funding success, we must be
mindful of the quality of our conversations. We need do all we
can to ensure that discussion is focused, informative and
accurate in assertions of fact. We need to ensure that we don't
fill cyberspace with wild or woolly claims, but communicate much
as we would at seminars and conferences.
I'm not saying that we have to be deadly serious all of the
time. Like all good scholarly gatherings humour can be a great
stimulus. H-NZ-OZ should also be a vehicle for floating ideas
which might strike many as unconventional or challenging. But
each of us should remember that what we say on H-NZ-OZ is uttered
in a public space and may well influence the thoughts and actions
of the colleagues, postgraduates, librarians and school teachers
who make up our readership. It's also history, in the sense that
the H-NZ-OZ logs at H-Net's machine at Michigan State U. will be
a permanent record of what H-NZ- OZ-ers said in 1995. And you
can rest assured people from Open Learning, Telstra and DEET will
son be signing to see what we are doing. Right, hear endeth the
homily and beginneth the opening of champagne. We thank and
toast you all for your encouragement over the past six months.
--Paul Turnbull
<hipgt@jcu.edu.au>
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