Who would have thought that a history buff and a techie would EVER have anything in common? Turns out, they do – and it’s on the techie’s turf.
A historian’s dream, Footnote brings the Smithsonian’s National Archives – thanks to a partnership with the museum – and much more right to your screen. The perk: no more traveling to research primary documents. You no longer have to hit the road to see the Declaration of Independence… you can view it – in excellent detail – on Footnote.
Harnessing the web’s power to unite all sorts of people, Footnote.com is also a fantastic example of web 2.0’s accessibility. True to the social media movement, Footnote.com connects historians and fosters group collaboration on document analysis – hence the name. Users can contribute comments, annotate historical documents, upload images and even create new pages within Footnote. For more details on how Footnote works check out the screen-cast below.
The negative: not all documents you encounter in Footnote are free to view. However, with time that could change and if you really want to see something up close, then I’m pretty sure it’s still cheaper than a plane ticket.
