BANGOR, Maine — After having lived, studied and worked in such faraway places as Dublin, Edinburgh, Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, a historian turned techie who grew up in Maine is making her way back home — and taking a piece of the business she founded with her.
Kristen Gwinn-Becker, formerly of Levant, said earlier this month that she’s returning because her company, HistoryIT, is growing and she wants to bring business back to the state, as well as to “return to living the way life should be.”
Gwinn-Becker, the company’s chief executive officer, recently opened an office at 245 Commercial St. in Portland that will serve as the headquarters of the company she founded two years ago in Evanston, Ill., where she will continue to have an office.
Thanks to modern technology, the company’s staff and consultants also work remotely with organizations and institutions elsewhere in the United States and abroad.
During an interview earlier this month, Gwinn-Becker said HistoryIT digitizes historical collections and other documents, so researchers and others have easy access to information.
“The idea behind the company is that we’re historians and technologists who can better build systems to support humanities scholars, to support archivists, to support librarians, to support the people doing the real work of history as the users of those programs,” she said, adding that HistoryIT now is starting to create off-the-shelf software solutions for those markets.
“Think about the ways in which we search for information now — we all have that experience, the way in which Google has changed our lives,” Gwinn-Becker said. “What we do is apply that same experience to historical documents, to materials that are buried, sometimes quite literally, in archives, in libraries, in people’s basements and we work to make it accessible.”
“And the only way it could be accessible is if it’s online, and not only online but online in some kind of way that the infrastructure behind it — the architecture — is designed in a way that people are going to be able to interact with it. Otherwise, it’s needle in a haystack,” a problem that historical researchers had faced for centuries.
Also a problem is that while the owners of important collections — many of which have limited funding and labor — can land a grant to digitize documents, they might lack a strategy for making them available, Gwinn-Becker said.
“So now instead of 12,000 pages you have 10,000 digital pages. But if those pages aren’t online and made available in a way that’s useful to them — beyond preservation, which is important — it’s not helping a greater [pool] of people access that material,” she said.
Once that information is made accessible, “we can then begin to look at historical materials in a completely different way because the more you can filter information in historical records and look at it in comparison … some of these projects can shift the narrative of the way we’ve been teaching history or understanding our history,” she said.
Simply put, one can have the best reference book or document collection in the world but if it doesn’t have an index, it’s essentially useless.
HistoryIT is one of the latest accomplishments for 35-year-old Gwinn-Becker, a self-described database and user interface geek who began making her mark in history circles in May 1997, when at the age of 19 she became the youngest University of Maine graduate to earn a college degree since at least 1991, when the Orono campus moved to a computerized record-keeping system.
At that time, she received a degree in U.S. history, with a minor in Irish history, graduating with honors in only three years of campus work.
Since then, she has gone on to earn a master’s of philosophy in international peace studies from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and a doctorate’s in U.S. History from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
A self-taught database and Web developer, she has also written a book, “Emily Greene Balch: The Long Road to Internationalism,” which is a biography of the second U.S. woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
“I keep busy,” she said with a grin.
Gwinn-Becker hasn’t yet moved back to Maine, largely because she is busy bouncing around among Maine, Illinois, Washington, D.C., and wherever else her interests take her.
For information about HistoryIT, visit www.historyit.com.
Is this what Paul LiarPage had in mind when he declared “Maine open for business”?
She is moving her office here, but are her employees here? IT people can and do work all over the US and the world, so what good does it do to have this business here?
From the article “Thanks to modern technology, the company’s staff and consultants also work remotely with organizations and institutions elsewhere in the
United States and abroad.”
Is this good news or not? How many people does she employ where do they work India, China, the USA?
Some good may come out of it though unintentionally, because when people have access to more history it will become harder and harder for the GOP to deny that they are responsible for the majority of the mess this country is in. Right Ronald Raygun, Bush and Shrub admirers. LOL!
I highly doubt if Gov. LePage knows who this woman is.
Nice try. Obama owns this economy. This is good news. Merry Christmas!
?? The woman in the article “owns” the economy.
This move does nothing to help the US economy, I hope it helps the Maine economy.
Children participate in name calling. Educated people use authenticated facts to bolster their arguments. You are neither of the above. Quite frankly, I’m not quite sure what you are. A “tweener” perhaps? You need to stop following daddy’s politics and start thinking for yourself.
Additionally, why would she want to bring business back into Maine anyway? Forbes, Business Weekly, my friends who own businesses in Maine etc agree that the State is business unfriendly. Frankly why would she reinvest in Maine? It’s so less profitable than virtually everywhere else?
Where does it say she is “reinvesting” in Maine? Like I said it’s an IT company which means the company may have it’s office here but it’s workers are robots sitting at keyboards all across the globe. My guess is they are more than likely from India but who knows from the article.
As to my “daddies politics” sorry these are all mine I learned early on not to trust Republicans. Not that I completely trust Democrats either but lesser of two evils is what we have.
Sorry you know nothing about me or my level of education, so that makes you a what? As to facts I did not see ONE in your reply. PS Forbes is not the whereall knowall in business, there are many diverse models and Steve Forbes is not the rocket scientist you seem to think he is. But since he is an Republican, a conservative and about my age I can tell you one thing that for my generation defines Republicans of that era. They all are draft dodging faux patriots with a big yellow streak running up their back. Something, I as a veteran will never let them forget.
I’m pro-choice, pro-gay marriage and Agnostic.
Funny thing, I SUPPORT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY on fiscal issues.
WHY exactly would you trust the Democratic party any more then the RNC?
I’m getting a vibe that you are one of those people that despises Foxnews and yet has NEVER watched the network. I’ve encountered several younger people that feel this way and yet if I ask a simple question of them they have no reply..
I hope this young lady does well but it’s nothing but a feel good piece and has no impact on anything here in Maine As I stated before the fact that there is no mention of how many people she will employ means she probably won’t be employing anyone. and had a friend at the paper.Why else report this non story?
Are you kidding??
You think it was members of the RNC that dodged the draft?
Might wanna do a little research. It was most assuredly the hippies and love children of the era that ran to Canada and elsewhere. Do you really think those people were Republicans? You actually have HATE IN your heart for people you don’t even know.
WAY to keep an open mind.
John as a well to do probable Federal employee maybe you should tone down the partisan rhetoric it is unbecoming, and makes you look like a fool, which I am sure that you are not.
Why bring business back to Maine? I plan to retire to Maine and will do my IT consulting work from the old family homestead. That likely won’t employ many local people but if there is anyone trained and local, I certainly would consider them.
These are guesses: The Portland area, in particular, has a jetport, Amtrak, is close to Boston, has enough going on socially to make life interesting, has good schools, access to very high-speed internet, the weather is reasonable, and the housing costs comparatively low to most major cities. This combination is attractive to potential employees, as well. And, no doubt, there is an educated labor pool for IT services in the Portland area.
And, above all, it is home for Ms. Gwinn-Becker.
The article said that she is from Levant which is a little north of Bangor and Bangor has much of the things that Portland has the notable exception is Amtrak, but it does have the UMO campus which may have been a better resource.
Anyway thanks for coming to Maine.
Yes, I saw that she is from Levant and am aware that is not near Portland. Bangor has its benefits, I realize. In fact, my old family homestead is about 30 minutes SW of Bangor so it likely is to be the “city” to which I gravitate as Portland is a couple of hours away. I wish it were someplace else but it isn’t.
I found a couple of good restaurants in Bangor and some cultural life. It is, after all, whatever you personally are looking for. I will be frank – I live in the DC area and I am not going to even presume that Bangor (or Portland) will ever match (or should, for that matter), what is available here for the cultural events I enjoy. I would say that at least with Portland, there is more of a connection to Boston and I can take the train directly to North Station (especially as I get older and do not want to drive in Boston traffic). I could run down in the a.m. and return late the same day.
I also am reasonably close to the coast so hitting that area in the summer is always an option. A bit more inland is one of my favorite restaurants is the Village Inn, in Belgrade Lakes.
http://www.zagat.com/r/village-inn-belgrade-lakes
So, I am pretty much set. The plan is to retire to the farm in Maine and then travel during the coldest part of the winter to visit family and friends (in far warmer climates!).
Don’t pay any attention to him (her?) he has his twisted beliefs and will keep them until death, besides they are probably not his father’s beliefs anyway. He(she) is probably still rebelling and knows not what he speaks of.
Besides name calling is what is done best here.
The economy is changing and LePage has nothing to do with it. This is the face of business: small, versatile, utilizing technology.
The why do you blame him when a business decides to move or close, which he has no control over.
where oh where in my comment do I blame or credit anyone other than the woman who started this company?
please!
in past posts, but that was then not now. Right???
The whole ‘blame’ game is so lame anyway…why bother? Blame is the same as responsibility, so, no….I don’t blame LePage for much because I see government more as a process than as one person making much of a difference.
I have disagreed with LePage and have voiced that. That’s not the same as ‘blame’.
Ok, maybe a fat joke here or there….but if anything, I tend to blame an apathetic electorate. We got what we deserved.
And we deserve what is coming down the road from the Federal government? We must be one evil bunch of SOB’s.
Apparently, we do deserve it and will continue to deserve it as long as we all our parties do is nominate extremists
YOU are the invidual that brought The Governor into the discussion.
If he wasn’t relevant then why bring him up?
no, no i wasn’t. read the entire comment string. my comment is a reply.
Mixed bag so I won’t rate your post. The 1st part is negative and I’ll bet that employees are onshore and working from scattered home offices.
This addition to the body of historical information is most welcome including for the reasons you mention.
Its a start and better than the entire business leaving like they did under baldy baldacci ..thank u lepage!
LePage had *nothing* to do with this. This is the new economy and the business is 100% due to the efforts of the woman who started the business.
Your wrong.
Poorly articulated response that is also grammatically incorrect. lmao
One trait I commonly find among the Tea Party supporters is the inability to grasp the difference among to, two, and too, and between your and you’re, their and there, its and it’s, and, of course, spelling and grammar in general.
This does not do much to bolster their credibility.
To paraphrase Pogo: We have met the enemy and he cannot spell.
Lets not undermine ourselves with argumentum ad hominem. I am all for pointing out errors however, to attack the argument by attacking the character, is an attack to the character of the person, and not the argument.
@LOADEDWITHMONEY:disqus, why is @SingleTrackGirl:disqus’s comment wrong or incorrect? Or did you really mean to say SingleTrackGirl possess wrong like one possesses a thing? For example, “your idea.” Please clarify.
Fair. I did not see any argument. “Your (sic) wrong,” hardly constitutes an argument.
I think it is fair to consider spelling and grammar when assessing the validity of a comment. Spelling is an indicator of how much reading a person has done; the more one has read, the better speller that person is, generally. Conversely, poor spelling probably indicates a person has not read much.
So, when a commenter uses poor spelling, it is safe to assume they lack a great deal of cultural, civic and historical context.
I will let Harlan Ellison say it,
“You are not entitled to your opinion; you are entitled to your informed opinion.”
Sooooo… it’s ONLY Republican’s that make spelling errors?
THAT… that right there is why I can never support the DNC.
Condescending tone.
Always right.
Incapable of TRUE compromise because in their minds COMPROMISE means the other guy gives in.
The worry about grammar and spelling is interesting. When I last commented to you I did not correct your postings for such stuff I was able tp figure out what you meant.
Have you ever had your spell checher use the wrong word? I have.
I just answered another criticism. My point was that if an actual argument existed, I could overlook typos but “Your (sic) wrong,” is no argument.
I reviewed my comments – I did not see any errors but would be willing to review any you find.
I simply ignore simple errors and only comment when one of the grammar nazis make it, and this site has many.
Exactly Chuck. And then they usually whine that we’re a picayune bunch, that literacy has no meaning, decry science and confuse belief with knowledge.
Well said. I particularly like your comment, “…confuse belief with knowledge.”
I find this lack of logic to be a most disturbing trait. There is this trend to have a belief that has no basis in fact and then to pass it along as fact. I had one lady respond to my reply to her about a baseless statement that was not even in the ballpark of being reasonable. Her reply, “Well, I just pass it along and you can judge whether it is true.” Since when was that journalist license adopted?
Apparently, in her mind, it is perfectly acceptable to post a wild accusation to see if anyone bites. Bizarre.
This crowd seem to “react” instead of “respond.” I saw a great deal of this during the SSM debate. Well, “debate” is an optimistic word. There was more hand-wringing and bemoaning than actual debate. There was little understanding of the separation of church & state and almost none of the basic constructs of law. I’m no attorney but business law was a 101 course in college. Again, this lack of basic logic vs. emotion and belief was what I found troubling. Facts do not seem to matter. The use of the “scientific method” – completely unknown, or unpracticed. It is all very strange.
it is bizarre and very strange. i try to stay civil as a way to juxtapose sanity with (all that whackadoo stuff) so any reader out there can see the reality.
we can’t descend to their level, we need to stay on point. hang in there.
Good advice. But, where does all that illogical whackadoo stuff come from? I certainly do not have any friends or family that I can think of that are as off the rails as what I have experienced. Have there always been these people out there and now they have the internet, or is this dance-around-the-fire crowd a new phenomena? I guess I should tune in AM radio more often to get a sense of the numbers.
fear,
I think the Tea Party is in large part a response to the crash of 2008. I was living in Ft Lauderdale at the time. A LOT of people were flipping houses, maxing out their equity, had their retirements invested in instruments that are now worthless. or were like me, and worked in an industry that just crashed.
Those people did what society asked them to do: they worked, they invested, they toed the line. When the system failed, they became very afraid, very bitter. I do agree with people who say its an emotional disorder.
Pessimism is such an easy club to belong to. I think that’s part of it, too.
Thank you Ms Vederba. (She was my first grade teacher and probably died decades ago, but was always there to correct my grammar and spelling.)
It is “you’re.” Try opening a third-grade writing conventions text.
“Entire”. More wild exaggeration.
LePage is a GOOFBALL and won’t be able to be elected dog catcher in 2014. He is a walking JOKE including as a fiscal manager. Just look at the job situation under his pathetic watch. Just look at the budget shortfall. Welcome to the extreme minority as you sing the praises of Governor GOOFBALL.
It’s all part of the creative economy. Good News for Maine that highly intelligent young folks are wanting to come back to Maine & bring their businesses.
Amen. In the 1970’s we had a brain drain due to the economy. Those who could leave, did. Those who could not, stayed. I give those who stayed credit for doing the best they could in an ever-declining economy.
The old economy had a heavy geographic factor and as Maine is at the “end of the line,” it did not bode well for the State. The new economy is more global and electronic, and thus the limits of geographic location tend to disappear. Look at Amazon.com as a good example.
Mom had a stroke in 2008 and lives in her home in Maine with her caregiver. I order all (and I do mean ALL) of the usual supplies needed for many elderly people from Amazon and other online retailers. Now, certainly, I would like to give the business to local companies in Maine, but when the online people can offer a broader selection, far better prices, online shopping, free shipping, and reliable service, from whom do you think I am going to make my purchases?
If I were running the show in Maine, part of what I would be doing is ensuring that all homes had access to low-cost, high-speed internet, and the kids in school would be coming out of school fully-trained in the computer skills every employee is expected to know. Our starting salary right out of college for the typical grad is around $50,000/year. We expect they know Microsoft Office products very well – Word, Excel, Visio, PowerPoint, Outlook, and to a lesser degree, Access. From there, we start training them in products that are industry-specific that few would be expected to know.
I am reminded of that young man someplace in the wilds of Maine that created a game or application (can’t recall) because he had access to the internet and to computers.
The great advantage we have over many of the kids in China and India is our creativity. We have the ideas and turn them into a product. Often, the product is built overseas. We need to promote that creative spirit in our kids. The next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs may be somewhere in Smalltown, Maine. Let’s hope so.
LOve the idea of internet for everyone..
EXACTLY who IS GOING TO PAY FOR IT?
Your comments are terrific in a world where money doesn’t matter.
IDEALISM is great until reality sets in.
4G baby, who needs the internet.
Reality is that it is dirt cheap and prices are dropping like a rock. The backbone for the internet really requires carriers to connect to it and provide the infrastructure connections. There are proposals for WiMAX which is city-wide WiFi. The companies providing traditional internet service would wail endlessly if the town provided WiMAX to all as it would be lost revenue for them. But, the internet is a public service designed, created, run and maintained by our government.
Here is an example of a public/private partnership to benefit all:
http://www.macon.com/2012/12/25/2296310/google-to-provide-wireless-internet.html
Another example of Municipal Wireless Network.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_wireless_network
Currently, libraries often provide internet and the computers to access it. McDonald’s, Starbucks, and many companies provide free internet access. It is not such a long shot for the city to provide free, or greatly reduced fee internet service.
Again, think of this as education and access to the outside world. I personally have heard of some of the strangest stories with the internet. One guy I spoke with planned to retire. He and his wife opened a small shop on the coast selling music boxes – kind of a high-end thing, but it was a hobby and he wanted to make a few bucks in retirement. He decided to put up a webpage, half on a lark. I asked him how his retirement was going. He asked me, “What retirement?” He now gets orders from all over the world. He provides repairs, customization of certain songs with certain types of boxes, and the like. His ‘little hobby’ turned into another career.
I have not been that lucky, but I keep trying!
Notice very few move back any further north then Portland?
Now, wouldn’t you think those areas north of Portland might ask themselves how they, too, could get on this bandwagon? What could they do at the State and Local level to entice people and companies to move to their areas?
A “what can I learn from this” versus “sour grapes” attitude is what is needed.
Well said, Vic.
She is opening an office here and buying a summer home…Nothing more , yet this is “news”…LOL…Only in the BDN….LOL…
Darn right it’s news.
Why is it news Gopher?
This is what the new economy looks like. Some of us are interested.
Her real talent seems to be in self promotion.
Her real talent seems to be in self promotion.
All small businesses self promote. Since she is the principal, she would indeed need to excel in self promotion.
Good for her!
But it’s all so much fluff, white noise and marketing speak. It’s a web design company that will scan documents and share them. The reporter seems to have swallowed it whole. It’s funny.
fluff? this is what business looks like.
Yes, fluff. It’s web hosting and document scanning.
This is as newsworthy as a new Burger King opening up. “Woman returns to Maine to provide innovative new service known as ‘Quick’ Food” in the form of ‘beef sandwiches” served on ‘bio-degradable paper dinnerware’. Business yes, front page material, no…
it’s okay, I have not confused your pessimism with intellect.
By Forbes standards, Maine may not be the best place for Corporations, but obviously Maine can attract businesses with the quality of life here. I have lived in other states with better jobs, but came back to raise kids and because it is just a much better atmosphere. We do not need to sell out to oil companies.
She won’t stay long after the democrats figure out how much money she’s making and tax her away.
Oh here we go with the TeaPublican lies and delusions. They just never end do they? Still stinging from the election are you? Still whining and crying the like the rest of the TeaBabies because your sad little TeaGoofyParty is OVER ?? Your TeaGOOFY party just got CHUCKED because your goofy goofballs, with Governor Goofy leading the parade, went on and on about “jobs jobs jobs” and what we got was NONSENSE NONSENSE NONSENSE and FAILED TRICKLEDOWN FAILED TRICKLEDOWN FAILED TRICKLEDOWN. First, we got all of Governor Goofy’s delusional NONSENSE and the rivers of CRUD that keep running out of his BIG MOUTH. Then we got the ALEC/Koch Brothers agenda starting with your FAILED attempt to suppress our voters and to give away our tax dollars to church schools that peddle mythology. Then we got HIGHER taxes with your new corporate healthcare law insurance law. We have anemic job growth compared to other states. We got a huge budget shortfall through TeaPublican mismanagement of the budget and lost revenue due to their corporate toadie TeaPublican tax cuts for the wealthiest which, of course, have created NO jobs.
And speaking of taxes, you TeaPubs dance for joy every time taxes and fees of all kinds are raised on everyone else so you can give massive tax breaks to your already-rich oil company puppet masters and to the millionaires and billionaires whose toes you kiss night and day as they kill our jobs and hide their tax break money in the Caymans. The great lesson of today’s world: DON’T EVER TRUST OUR MONEY TO THE JOB-KILLING TEAPUBLICANS.
Rant much?
Is that your excuse for not creating something?
Why are you so sure that I haven’t?
I’m not sure, but your pessimism was showing, so I took a guess.
For history geeks this is really good news, actually. Our organizations do, indeed, have thousands of pages of Maine history that are currently in boxes awaiting transcription and scanning to make them available to students, authors and family genealogists.
How does she get paid? Grants? It seems there must be a lot of upfront costs assembling this data.
Notice there is no indication of how many people this “Company” employs?
If this is just a one woman organization this is a silly story reported by a friend of this young lady. I will give her credit for finding a profitable way to use WORTHLESS degrees.
Since she is not only making her own living but employs others as well, her education is proving far from worthless.
I see that the BDN have become just another group of Nazis that need to PRE-Approve EVERY COMMENT.
Heaven forbid someone disagree with ANYTHING the BDN report.
MSNBC NORTH has arrived in Bangor
damn, I was hoping she was coming to Maine. She could have moved to anywhere with HS internet and she moves to “return to living the way life should be.” Portland???
I am only partially serious.
PORTLAND?
I thought she was moving to Maine.
STOP REPEATING ME!!! LOL
Sorry.
Lost my head.
The Maine Historical Society has a website called the MAINE MEMORY NETWORK which is a digital archive that local libraries, schools, museums, other organizations, businesses, private individuals, etc. can access via setting up and account and, following the right protocols, can add to. So you can digitize and upload historical materials onto the MAINE MEMORY NETWORK site. It is, as I understand it, the largest statewide site of its kind and right now has somewhere around 70,000-80,000 items on it. If you have never done so, Google MAINE MEMORY NETWORK and check it out.
great share. thank you!
Sooo… it’s just her and she’s moving to N. Boston?
Whoopie!!
Gotta love the feel good story with NO SUBSTANCE.
Do you hate the taxes that the people in ‘N. Boston’ pay also?
Just what this state needs…more liberals!
Well, I am glad you agree! Certainly, we haven’t seen much from the Tea Party crowd except millions wasted on anti-civil rights efforts and other social issues that cost the State not a dime. Some people who live in the 21st century would be a breath of fresh air for a change.
I am assuming you are making the link that educated + skilled + entrepreneurial = liberal. Most commenters think that liberals are the (47%) of people who receive ‘entitlements’.
Thank you for pointing out that fallacy.