Polybiography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Polybiography is an Internet based historical archive referred to as a "polybiography" because it is both biographical and autobiographical; the many individuals involved write the history of the many events.
[edit] Description
The resulting archive is similar to an oral history where an editor records and transcribes the various stories into a cohesive narrative. However, the oral history will have a slant due to the selection of participants and how they are edited. The polybiography will avoid a bias or slant from an editor because the participants are self-selected. The stories are in the unedited words of the individuals who made the history. The primary problem anticipated are the differences in individuals' writing styles, and a possibly confused organization.
The polybiography is uniquely adapted to the Internet and would be virtually impossible with out the Internet. Without the global connections it would be difficult to locate all the individuals who contributed to the development of history. By the use of the Internet anyone who has a story to tell will be able to add to the history. This will allow those who were assistants to contribute, as well as the luminaries; where as with the traditional oral history, the editor might not locate some relatively minor, relocated participants.
