Archiving Community Storytelling: Challenges
and SolutionsUniversity of the West of Scotland
Digital CommonwealthProf. David McGillivray
Jennifer M. Jones
Why: The Context“We have been approached to contribute to the National Library of Scotland open archive for the XX Commonwealth Games, where NLS would like to collect publications and archive websites relating to legacy. We are asking them to include the Celebrate website in the archive and would like to encourage our Legacy-funded projects to do the same with any digital or other materials you created as part of your project”
Why: The Context
What content would we send?
In what format?
Do we need to ask anyone involved if they’re happy for the website content to be shared?
How will the information be made available and where?
What we want to do today
To initiate discussion about the technical, legal, ethical and skill-
based issues around digital content and ‘communities’
To hear from projects/organisations wrestling with the challenges of the digital
age when we generate stories, capture and collate, circulate, preserve and archive
To generate ideas for what different stakeholders require going forward to
enable them to more effectively cope with digital assets and be supported to make them available in an appropriate fashion
Schedule
• Morning: Talks and discussion
• Lunch
• Afternoon: Focused and facilitated discussions and feedback and some actions
Audience• Community media organisations
• Legacy 2014 projects
• Third sector organisations
• Community organisations
• Academics (a few)
• Creative practitioners
• Archiving specialists
History
#citizenrelayLondon 2012 citizen journalism project
BUT: Instantaneity and immediacy took precedence over developing
long term relationships and implications of uploading content
The Digital Dilemma: How to archive multi-media content?• Discussions with NLS on good practice
• Problem of ‘ownership’: third party media providers (Youtube, Audioboo, Twitter, Instagram)
• Accessing the ‘story’ behind the media artefacts (software, architecture, hard copy, publications)
• Permissions (did you ask?)
• Whose responsibility to maintain, host, pay?
• How/where to access?
S C H O O L S P R O G R A M M E
• 57 schools, 23 out of 32 local authorities, 585 learners signed up
• transition initiatives (primary & secondary working together)
• cascading skills (learners becoming digital leaders)
• creative citizenship responding to the themes of project
O R K N E Y, N O R T H H I G H L A N D S , E D I N B U R G H , G L A S G O W A N D AY R S H I R E
DIGITAL STORYTELL ING WORKSHOPS
C R E AT I V E V O I C E S
• 3 creative practices (creative writing, community songwriting & documentary) supported by UWS lecturers and post-graduate students
• community engagement across 4 campus areas (Dumfries, South Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Renfrewshire)
• 80 page anthology, 12 original songs and 6 films produced
The ‘common-weal’ (def. for the common good) – supporting communities (particularly those who are socio-economically disadvantaged and not well represented in mainstream media) to have a voice through self generated media and creative practice
Common (s) purpose – expressed via the notion of creative commons licensing and a shared sense of purpose in creatively responding to the themes brought about by the Commonwealth Games coming to Scotland
Ownership – we believe that, where possible, our participants should host their own content and retain ownership of it. The Digital Commonwealth project has no intention of commercializing the content you generate and our focus is on supporting targeted communities and individuals to produce and share their own content
Collaboration – from the partners involved in delivery to the participants working together to produce creative content. Individual or group partners adhere to the guiding principles as they contribute to the Digital Commonwealth project
Sharing - open media for non commercial use, including technology, design ideas and Creative Commons licenses
Accessibility - in terms of the tools and technologies used to generate content and ensuring that we put as few obstacles as possible in the way of individuals and groups getting involved as content creators
Archiving – by producing digital enabled content, we will be contributing to a larger archive of community-generated materials produced around the Commonwealth Games. This is will be preserved by the National Library of Scotland for future generations to access
From Principle to Practice
Questions such as: Who owns the content that I produce and share with the Digital Commonwealth project?
What if I want to withdraw my content from the project website?
How will the content hosted on the project website be decided upon?
Does my content have to be of professional standard before it will appear on the Digital Commonwealth website?
Video: what platforms does Digital Commonwealth want us to use?
Questions such as: Audio: what platforms does Digital Commonwealth want us to use?
Do you have a preferred blogging platform that we should use for the Digital Common-wealth?
Do you want us to share our content using popular social media channels?
How will I (we) submit content to the Digital Commonwealth?
What permissions do I need to get before submitting my content to Digital Commonwealth?
Are there any restrictions on what content I can produce?
“It is also your responsibility to ensure your content (whether audio, video, blog posts or
social media) complies with the terms of conditions of the platform you use to host it (Youtube, Vimeo, Audioboo, Soundcloud, Flickr, Instagram, Twitter etc). You should also avoid including music in your content unless it is your own and/or you own all the
rights to it” (www.digitalcommonwealth.co.uk)
“For your content to be hosted on the Digital Commonwealth website you will need to supply consent forms if people are featured in video or audio. It is also
good practice to ensure that when writing blog posts or other creative responses
that you ensure the people you are talking about know what you’re writing for and
where the end result will be hosted (and for what purpose). For legal reasons
anyone under the age of 18 featured in film or video will have to have completed a special minors consent form signed by
a parent or legal guardian.” ((www.digitalcommonwealth.co.uk)
Community-based
research/practice
• Legitimacy • Power differentials • Who initiates • Responsibility for results/
outputs • Sharing knowledge • Trust
Enhancing Digital Literacies
Lessons learned
Having ‘principles’ and ‘procedures’ doesn’t replace need
for sensitive interactions with contributors
Securing ‘permissions’ can feel invasive and alters the
nature of relationship
Must build in archiving intentions from the outset and embed in
approach, procedures and practice
In ‘project-focused’ activity, ongoing relationships and
implications for ‘cultural memory’ can be problematic
Thinking about what happens at the end and who will be
responsible for maintaining web content
There is a need for more accessible advice for smaller groups/organisations to ensure
they’re aware of the legal/ethical issues that arise when hosting digital content