Gasworks To Dome

Summary of Gasworks to Dome mid-project Review, 19.04.06

Present were Andy, Isabel, Tom, Rib, Dave, Sheila, Simon, Marissa and Felicity.

Aims

The aims were agreed to be those that had been distributed.
David commented on the importance of setting up links to others sites and organizations.
Rib commented that it should be borne in mind that the project is in fact (in terms of time spent by participants) more technology-orientated than local history–orientated.
It was agreed that the end product should be a resource.
It was agreed that the project is about the past and present of the area.
It was agreed that at some point the product should be taken into schools

Motivation.

All present expressed their motivations for being involved. Nearly all present were interested in a combination of local history, photography and new technology.

Activity

Rib gave a brief summary of activities to date, stressing that the project was now developing much more positively than had been the case for the first few months.
It was agreed that where possible dates of old photos should be clarified; Sheila agreed to check them with the Local History Library.
Dave pointed out that we have very few photos from between 1960 and 1999; it was agreed that we should get some publicity in the papers to try to get more. The public could be invited to contribute directly to the site (though contributions would be moderated), and also to bring in photos to be scanned.
It was agreed that a new outcome could be some sort of digitally re-worked version of some of the photos, as one-offs, as animation or with dissolves between them; the public could play with them, as art, and then upload them again (‘re-purposing’).
A further possible outcome could be dissolves between past and present photos of the same place.

Monitoring

Felicity commented that reminiscence/ emotional history could be of much greater interest than mere dates and facts.
It was agreed that the challenge was to make the site (and project) attractive to those who do not see themselves as historians, or even interested in history; perhaps we should use the word ‘memory’, rather than ‘history’, as the way in.

New Technology

Tom spoke about the early period of finding out what the group wanted to do, and then – very quickly – making something possible, partly as a result of looking at other projects (including the topic list from Lambeth)
This project continues to use the site while the site is still being developed and refined.
It has been very important to use Droople, which allows group collaboration.
It is now mostly a matter of actually stripping away functions rather than adding them, and at times re-assigning vocabulary.
How to make the audio tagging function has now been worked out, so Tom is now focusing on further relationships on the site, and continuing the design work.
It was agreed that there should be a separate file for material that does not strictly fall into our remit, either geographically or in period.
Dave offered to re-caption the photos which include ‘Tipp’ in the title.
It was agreed that the website itself is, for the moment, the catalogue, but that an offsite version of it should be made, with access to audio.
The possibility of showing people how to pinpoint photos/ audio clips to map positions was discussed, though there was no firm decision to do this.
Tom stressed that the design should be driven by content relationships.

Coming 6 Months

It was agreed that:
6 new interviews should be completed;
Sheila would check dates with the local archives;
an item calling for content would be placed in the press;
Mary Mills’ visit would be arranged; that there should be a ‘works outing’ to one of the ‘Working Lives of the Thames Gateway’ talks (the ‘Riverside Memories’ session at Stratford Old Town Hall, 6pm on May 31st was agreed);
the tagging should be completed;
audio should be made fully functional; there should be continued training in digital photography;
there should be a visit to the old Dreadnought School, taking Bernard Hawker and/or Mrs Melcomber;
Tom would continue to work on relationships within the site.

Future

There should be a public event in June, with a general invitation and also invitations to retired members of local industries such as Alcatel.
Issues of accessibility need to be resolved, allowing access but with certain restrictions.
Issues around the longer-term maintenance and monitoring of the site need to be resolved.
Feedback should be invited from other professionals in the field, such as Roger Kitchen, the Museum of London, Bernie Arigho at Age Exchange, Rob Perks at the British Library and Museums @ the Web.