Jacob's post, January 14th

I finally got an email back from Public Works and Government Services Canada saying they would give me an interview in-person. I told them about our project and they seemed to approve, so I do not think there will be any issues with transcribing what the interviewee says to our site (they've yet to tell me who the interviewee will be). It's unfortunate I don't have the technology to record the interview, as that would be fitting for this type of project. I'm also going to take a trip to the Ottawa Public Library this weekend, as they have an "Ottawa room" which I am told has some news articles that may be relevant to the fire. Through my research as of late, I've become interested in John A. Pearson and J. Omer Marchand, the two architects who won a contest awarding them the privilege of planning the new Center Block, including the Peace Tower, now an icon of Canada. I do not want to get too off-track with this, seeing as how we're focusing on the event itself, but Pearson and Marchand's story of collaboration shows how Ottawa eventually resolved the panic brought upon by the fire and reacted to it constructively.

Janice's Post (Jan. 14th)

Since the last post, I feel as though the project is finally progressing. The book that I got from the library has proven to be very useful and has a fair amount of information in the areas we want to expand on. It talks a bit about before the fire, the fire itself, the people who died because of it, and what happened next. For me, it has proven to be of great use because there were many pictures that seemed useful. Most of the pictures said they were from the Library and Archives of Canada. Therefore, this past week Nadine and I went there to see if we could find more information and whether or not we could use the photos. It was a good idea to go and we were told where to find photos and what the copyright issues on them are. Most of them have an expired copyright and we are able to use them.
I also went on the website where our project will be published and tried to figure out how to work it. I am still a little confused but I was able to make some edits and now our part has a title, picture and a few sentences.

abbey's post for dec. 3rd

I have still been doing some research for what Parliament was before and after the fire. I will begin to start putting it all together.

Chris' Post for December 3

I am continuing to gather information and highlight the important aspects that would be helpful for our work. I finally figured out how to get Zotero working with Microsoft Word. Now it's much easier to put together a bibliography. I am still writing about the events that happened during the night of the fire and shorty after.

Janice's Post (Dec. 3rd)

This week I ordered a book from the Ottawa Public Library that should help me find more photos and general information about the fire. I have also been looking at photos that I have found and have been trying to find the information dealing with the copyright issues of whether or not we can use the photos. I have found many pictures on Wikimedia Commons, for which the copyright has expired, that we will be able to use. For all the pictures that I find, it would be good to go over them as a group to ensure that we do not break any copyright laws.

Jacob's Post (December 3rd)

I'm continuing to read and make notes on the formal commission report. It seems the content is mostly procedural and legalistic; only occasionally does it provide relevant information on the fire. So I will continue to look for other primary sources with a focus on witness interviews. I have emailed Public Works Canada to (hopefully) get an interview with somebody who can inform me in person about the fire. If I end up getting an interview, I figure I could transcribe what they say and put it on our website (with the interviewee's permission of course) to add more depth to our research. Other than that, as my "official" task is editing, I am always willing to proofread/go over written content that anyone else is working on.

Nadine's Blog Post (December 3rd)

Since the last post, I have been working on finding source material, mostly through old newspapers (using Google News Archive Search) ranging from directly after the fire, to twenty five years later. Though an extensive number of newspapers discuss the fire, unfortunately there seems to be a very small amount of information regarding the subject of arson, and the cause of the fire. The papers tend to agree that it was likely a German spy who started the fire, but give no evidence to back up these claims – therefore, throughout my spare time in December I plan to locate better primary sources that relate to the possibility of arson as the cause (possibly checking the National Archives and for Museums within the Ottawa area that discuss this). Secondly, the map of Parliament Hill is close to completion, and therefore almost ready to be embedded into the templates when the time comes.