My name is Gazalle and I am the Social Media Editor at 239 Days in America. On the 12^th of January I ran into Caitlin by coincidence. It was a dark night in Toronto and I was meeting a few friends for dinner. As I was paying for parking at a lot near University Avenue and Adelaide someone called my name. The person was wearing a hood. After I got over my fear I realized it was Caitlin Jones!  She mentioned she had emailed me about a social media position for a project called 239 Days in America. I never got the email because she had sent it to the wrong address.

239 Days in America sounded like an interesting but confusing opportunity. It was hard for me to grasp it. It seemed like they wanted to tell a story using many social platforms. The problem was that these crazy lunatics were talking in the present tense about something that happened 100 years ago!

I joined the project because it seemed like an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. Coming from a corporate background in digital media to a digital humanities project has been quite a change but I’ve seen this project unfold over the 50 days. I am enjoying the features just like everyone else, but since our project is supposed to be a “social media documentary” I think we need to do a better job at bringing YOU into the conversation. 

I will be posting regularly on this blog to share with you the insides and challenges that we are facing, and I really want to invite your comments, thoughts and criticism of what we are doing.

Gazalle Ardekani