The Impact of Web 2.0 on Archives

Editor's Notes

• #3: Web 2.0” is an umbrella term that is used to refer to a new era of Web-enabled applications that are built around user-generated or user-manipulated content, such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, and social networking sites.
• #4: Pew Internet (2009): 19% of UK adults have used Twitter
• #5: The concept of the archive online is still a relatively new one, and as a community we are still very much exploring the implications of these evolving spaces for the understanding of the archive. In the last decade, certain online activities have become commonplace in our outreach practices: the creation of online exhibitions, use of listservs, emailers and newsletters to reach target communities. And in the late 1990s, especially, issues of online access came to the forefront of our discourse, with groundbreaking work on developing electronic archival description, archival networks and interface design as a means to reach out to many more users, and also create efficiencies for existing ones. Daniel V. Pitti, “Encoded Archival Description: the Development of an Encoding Standard for Archival Finding Aids,” American Archivist 60, no.3 (1997): 268-283. National Council on Archives, “Archives On-Line: The Establishment of a United Kingdom Archival Network” (1998) Wendy M. Duff, Penka Stoyanova “Transforming the Crazy Quilt: Archival Displays from the User’s Point of View”, Archivaria 45 (Spring 1998): 44-79
• #7: What are the lessons we can learn from those who are taking pioneering steps before us, and the stories which are detailed through these case studies? The changing nature of outreach via the wealth of Web 2.0 channels available to us means we are in a period of experimentation – discovering new ways to engage with end users, and to be archivists in new spaces. As the case studies demonstrate, we are in a period of flux, where we are renegotiating issues of control, authority, voice and trust. As Stephen Fletcher puts it when referring to the creation of a blog about processing the Hugh Morton collection: “we faced no institutional formalities or approvals, wrote no mission statements, policies, nor measures of success.”
• #8: Importance of cost/benefit analysis Importance of a strategic direction – understanding your priorities, understanding how best to achieve your aims. Ease with which many Web 2.0 tools can be used Sense of something informal – not ‘serious’ Probably do need to start to get evidence of impact. Managers may start to require this as web 2. tools become more embedded into our mindset and culture. Maybe, like everything else, they will need to be justified.
• #9: Book: Realising The Potential of Twitter: The Complete Guide for Museums
• #13: Appealling to people in a way that is appropriate to the channel usedThe social web is built around people posting content on things that interest them personally
• #15: I think there’s a vague sense of threat with this big new world where users seem more in control. I wonder if there are still many archivists like someone I know quite well who told me she saw no point in being on the Hub or A2A because they have their own catalogue.
• #16: Professional, expert, trustworthy (vs) Engaged, approachable, flexible, open
• #17: “a lot of what we think we know about categorization is wrong” http://www.shirky.com/writings/ontology_overrated.html Physical constraints do not apply in a virtual world
• #21: Make sure archives are safe and secure. Archives are a result of human activitiy and part of culture and society We should acknowledge and use our collective responsibility But do we want to move away from niche audiences and academic preconceptions? Shift to filtering after publishing Hub on Twitter: 1,470 followers (we are following back 1,199 ) Hub blog – for past year 10,053 views and 7,569 unique page views. Average time on page 1:55.
• #23: There is a sense of equality around web 2.0. Traditional hierarchies count for a great deal less. It irons out differences in income and education. 51% of American internet users post content they have created themselves; 34% if you just take 30-49 year olds.
• #25: Web 2.0 technologies, intrinsically participatory, and focused on sharing, collaboration and mutual meaning-making, are now being effectively exploited by many among us in order to find new ways to reach out to users, and promote not only new use of the archive, but also new understandings of it. In many regards, these new forms of outreach are logical extensions of existing outreach activities, but social media in particular is transforming the concept of outreach itself in positive, and sometimes challenging, ways.
• #38: Concerns over interoperability (different formats working together), government regulation and commercial interests were seen as key barriers to a universal internet. "Real interoperability will be contingent on replacing our bias for competition with one for collaboration. Until then, economics do not permit universal networking capability." (Douglas Rushkoff, author and social commentator) The repondents were split over the whether the impact of people's lives becoming increasingly online, resulting in both less privacy but more transparency, would be a positive outcome. Will the powerful remain less ‘transparent’?
• #39: Web 2.0 is a mindset