A Polybiography is the use of archived internet email services such as ListServs and WWWeb to publish historical information by those involved in the history. The historical web site and ListServ provide for formal historical articles, images, photographs, commentary, and discussion of those items in a process called a "polybiography"... the history by many of the many events. The site is designed to be a searchable repository of "raw material" for those with an interest in the history of

Diagnostic Medical Sonography Diagnostic medical sonography (DMS), a branch of diagnostic medical imaging, is the use of imaging by medical ultrasound for medical diagnosis. DMS uses non-ionizing ultrasound to produce 2D and 3D images of the body. In Canada, the credentialing ...

(

ultrasonography Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies fr ...

). This Internet based

historical archive History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

has been referred to as a "polybiography" because it is both

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

and

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

; the many individuals involved write the history of the many events discussed. The resulting

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

is expected to be similar to an

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

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 In statistics, self-selection bias arises in any situation in which individuals select themselves into a group, causing a biased sample with nonprobability sampling. It is commonly used to describe situations where the characteristics of the peop ...

. The stories will be in the unedited words of the individuals who made the history. The primary problem anticipated will be the differences in individuals' writing styles, and a possibly confused organization. The polybiography is uniquely adapted to the Internet and would be virtually impossible without the Internet. Without the global connections it would be difficult to locate all the individuals who contributed to the development of historical events. By the use of the Internet anyone who has a story to tell about the developments 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. The concept of the "polybiography" was first presented at the Annual Conference 2000 of the American Association of History & Computing in

Waco, Texas Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the ...

. The original article was titled "Poly-autobiography of

",SDMS & OBGYN.net; Ultrasound-History Forum & Archives: http://forums.obgyn.net/ultrasound-history/; last access: February 21, 2001 but during the discussion following the presentation it was suggested that, while the concept was thought to be a unique use of the Internet and WWWeb, the term "polybiography" would be more appropriate, more descriptive, and simpler.

References

{{Reflist Biography (genre)