Previously, I have mentioned my idea for my project, which would be a connector tool for historians. What does that mean exactly? Well, if you have ever tried to use H-Net, you are aware that it is very fragmented and can sometimes be a pain to actually use. What I envision is a fusion between Quora and H-Net, which would allow historians to connect to each other to ask questions about research, funding, conferences, etc.
All of this information would be searchable through tags, rather that being entirely fragmented by subtopics, and it could make it easier for historians to utilize these resources. Although I envision this tool being free to use, I do believe it would be helpful for it to be locked to having a university or professional affiliation email to register, which could potentially keep students from trying to use it to ask individual questions.
Here are my mock ups of my main page and what a board page would look like: 
I believe this would make a historian’s job a little easier and a little less isolated if this tool were to actually exist, and it is something that I have had in mind since I was first introduced to H-Net. Obviously there are improvements that could be made to my idea, but I do think it could be helpful.
[…] By anneladyem […]
H-Net can be so difficult to navigate at first and information is a bit hidden sometimes – I definitely think something like this would help to foster discussion without overwhelming people with messages or burying them with announcements.
That’s the issue that I have with H-Net, so the idea was that I wanted something that was easier to navigate and utilize.
Anne,
I would definitely use this! I like the idea of it being locked, too.