Ola Nordmann Goes West. Using virtual worlds and on-line social networking technologies as historical research tools.

这个项目涉及重建一位挪威农民的经历，他是虚构的(但具有历史意义的)奥拉·诺德曼，他于19世纪80年代离开了位于挪威西部沃斯附近的家，开始了在美国中西部开始新生活的漫长旅程。我们将使用伦敦大英图书馆和挪威档案馆提供的大量历史材料来创建一个虚拟世界，在这个世界中，他离开家，前往卑尔根港，然后从那里经由赫尔到达利物浦，然后乘坐火车穿越英格兰。然后，他乘坐轮船前往纽约，我们的故事在那里结束。该项目的目的是调查虚拟世界是否可以比传统的书面历史版本更有效地为非学术受众再现历史体验，以及它是否可以激励信息者从事历史研究，并提供个人和当地信息来告知历史账户。从我们的特权地位来看，离开挪威农村的安全(以及艰辛)，进行如此重大的旅行，对我们来说是难以想象或接近的，而且通过收到的那次经历的记录，这种经历并不是非常有力的。这个项目通过奥拉·诺德曼这个角色来生动地描绘历史，公众可以与他互动，他们可以在他旅行的过程中评论他的经历。在该项目为期8个月的中心阶段，贡献者的评论将被用来增强和开发这个虚拟世界。我们还特别寻求产生更多关于旅程的英格兰阶段的信息，这方面的研究一直较少，最初是通过我们在赫尔和利物浦的海员教堂的联系，随后是通过Ola Nordmann项目。这个英格兰舞台将是虚拟世界的一个特别焦点。我们希望，该项目将为一大批潜在受益者提供信息和娱乐。从19世纪20年代到20世纪20年代，超过80万挪威人前往这片乐土，这意味着今天有数百万挪威血统的美国公民。《第二人生》是最广为人知的虚拟世界例子之一，拥有1800万注册用户，因此我们希望与许多对该项目的内容和设计感兴趣的个人接触。该项目还旨在通过试验使用在线社交网络作为开展口述历史和与线人接触的工具，对历史研究方法作出重大贡献。项目设计还使该小组能够调查历史记录和集体记忆之间的关系，并评估移民的实际历史经历如何被扭曲和重新定义，因为他们的记忆已经代代相传。

This project involves the reconstruction of the experiences of a Norwegian peasant, the fictitious (but historically informed) Ola Nordmann, leaving his home near Voss in Western Norway in the 1880s and setting off on the long journey to a new life in the Midwest of the United States. We will be using the extensive historical materials available in the British Library in London and in Norwegian archives to create a virtual world in which he leaves his home, travels to the port of Bergen and from there to Liverpool via Hull and a train journey across England. He then travels by steamship to New York, where our story ends. The purpose of the project is to investigate whether a virtual world can recreate a historical experience more effectively for a non-academic audience than traditional written versions of history and whether it can inspire informants to engage with historical research and provide personal and local information to inform that historical account. From our privileged positions the experience of leaving the safety (and also the hardships) of rural Norway and making such a momentous journey is hard for us to imagine or to get close to, and it doesn't come across very forcefully via the received documentation of that experience. This project animates history through the character of Ola Nordmann, with whom the public can interact and on whose experiences they can comment as he travels. The comments of contributors will be used to enhance and develop this virtual world over during the 8-month central phase of the project. We also seek in particular to generate more information about the England stage of the journey, which has been less intensively studied, initially by means of our contacts at the seamen's churches in Hull and Liverpool and subsequently through the Ola Nordmann project. This England stage will be a particular focus in the virtual world. We hope that the project will be informative and entertaining for a large community of potential beneficiaries. Between the 1820s and the 1920s more than 800,000 Norwegians left for the promised land, which means that there are millions of American citizens today of Norwegian descent. Second Life, one of the most widely known examples of a virtual world, has 18 million registered users, and so we are hoping to engage with a lot of individuals with an interest in both the project's content and its design. The project also aims to make a serious contribution to historical research methodology by trialling the use of on-line social networks as a tool for carrying out oral history and for engaging with informants. The project design also allows the team to investigate the relationship between historical record and collective memory and to evaluate how the actual historical experiences of the migrants have been distorted and redefined as the memory of them has been passed down through the generations.