ECHO ANNOUNCES A NEW INITIATIVE IN HISTORICAL RESEARCH AND ASSOCIATED GRANTS

How can the Internet help historians conduct research? Until now, historians generally have used the Internet to describe and display the past; the point of ECHO is to change the way historians use the Internet by empowering them to take an active role in collecting the past. ABOUT ECHO George Mason University's Center for History and New Media, with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, has initiated a new project to promote and improve the collection and dissemination of the history of science and technology on the Web. This project, entitled ECHO: Exploring & Collecting History Online--Science & Technology, and its associated Web site (http://chnm.gmu.edu/echo) will try to accomplish this in several ways:

- through a directory that collects, categorizes, and reviews the spectrum of existing sites on the history of science and technology (feel free to link to this directory at http://echo.gmu.edu/center)

- through the development of model digital histories that collect first-hand accounts on line (http://echo.gmu.edu/memory)

- by consulting with and assisting historians who wish to explore the unique ways the Internet can aid and expand their work (http://echo.gmu.edu/guide)

- through outreach to those who took part in and experienced recent scientific, technological, and medical advances With these tools, ECHO will help historians create compelling, interactive, and innovative historical experiences for scholars, scientists, and engineers, as well as the interested public.

ECHO GRANTS & WORKSHOP

ECHO is sponsoring a select number of scholars seeking to advance their research on the history of science, technology, and medicine using the Internet. Participants in this competitive program will receive a $1,000 stipend to attend a workshop that will be held from October 26-28, 2001, at George Mason University, near Washington, DC. The stipend can be used to defray the costs of attending the workshop and to support online history projects. Applicants for this first wave of grants should be working on a topic that involves the recent history of science and technology, where people who experienced important events (whether through their involvement in discoveries or inventions, or because they witnessed the event) are still alive. Sample topics and projects can be found on our Web site at http://echo.gmu.edu/workshops. Applicants should send a c.v. and a 1-2 page description of the project they wish to work on, including how they envision using the Internet to reach historical participants. Although applicants will not be selected based on their computer skills, applicants should include a brief paragraph detailing their level of familiarity with computers and the Internet to help us plan for the workshop. Please send applications via email to echo@history.gmu.edu. Applications will be reviewed beginning in July and must be submitted by September 1, 2001. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact the ECHO staff at echo@history.gmu.edu.