Transcript Building Community Memory through On-line

Building Community Memory
through On-line Technology
Ted Leath
March 2000
Communities Examining:
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Preserving cultural identity
Documenting local history
Promoting tourism
Shared heritage
Current Tools
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Official records
Customs
Tradition
Stories (both oral and written)
Language
Myth
Proposal
Tools, implementation of these tools, processes and
the documentation of processes involved in
building community memory through on-line
technology should be explored.
In as much as is possible, these concepts, tools and
processes should be easily transferable and
applicable across different communities. It is
hoped that a cohesive process and associated tools
for gathering, indexing and archiving multimedia
assets for community memory will emerge.
Work to Date (1)
Approximately 3,700 images of Derry and the
northwest have been digitised. Each image
exists in 3 different formats – a high
resolution image (kept off-line on CD) a
low resolution image for web display and a
thumbnail image.
Work to Date (2)
An SQL database has been created for data
associated with each image. Tools for the
maintenance of this database have been
installed and configured.
The PHP3 scripting language has been
installed and configured to allow dynamic
database access and search facilities.
Work to Date (3)
A fundamental core system has been
implemented, and is publicly available.
Preliminary feedback from community
members is being received.