I was really into the conversation we had on Thursday about FourDirectionsTeaching.com and the idea that the land of the internet, just like physical land, is at risk of being colonized and turned into a means of capital. The intentions of Four Directions are for the absolute good of the people and were created alongside respected Indigenous. But there is also a point to be made that we can’t always control what happens after that information is put online and who will end up benefiting most from it. I usually have multiple drafts of research questions before I have one that fully encapsulates my idea but I have a rough start to a question: What kind of demographic do digital history websites get a version what was the intended demographic of the website? There are already a ton of different factors that would go into figuring this out like whether sites can even accurately track what traffic a website gets and the demographics of the traffic. I think a primary source could potentially be the website itself or possibly reviews of the website from parts of the internet like academic forums or review sites. I am also wondering how many creators of these websites have seen a difference in recourse audiences change over time. Because this type of question would involve specifically digitalized spaces, I am also trying to brainstorm how I can use a non-digitized source. One of my first thoughts was to see if there have been any physical resources similar to digital that has seen a difference in the intended audience of who would use this recourse versus the outcome. In my head, that would also help me try to visualize how the “land” of the internet compares and contrasts to physical land. I think my next steps are definitely to start looking back at my question to see how possible it is to answer in reality, also to start looking to see if any research like this has been done before and what similar approaches have looked like, and what resources others many have used.
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Lua– I am so glad to hear that you enjoyed that conversation! I agree that it is very compelling and profound to approach internet studies as any other facet of colonialism. Especially when paired with the reading from that week, it is evident that even under the best intentions, protecting Indigenous knowledge online is challenging when there are so many colonial controls in place (not to mention the threats of cultural appropriation as you described). I think the author is very transparent about this reality, so she is sure to communicate to the participants in her project that their teachings will be publicly accessible. Small steps like these not only protect Indigenous knowledge, but transform spaces that are inherently colonial into spaces that are guided by Indigenous protocols and procedures.
Your research question brings up a key point, and I also wonder about the traffic to websites. A lot of times, you can track where your website visitors are from, but the specific demographics are usually a mystery. Interestingly, this is why social media sites have become so good at scraping personal data– they are the only sites where users willingly enter all of their personal information directly into the site. In turn, this information is often sold to third parties and/or used to guide advertising. Data is quite the mind-boggling industry.