The richest repository of cultural material in the country would have to be the ABC – so it is exciting and maybe even alarming to hear that Auntie is experimenting with the idea of opening up its archives so that members of the public can access and even re-use and remix the material.
The experiment is taking place under Pool, the social media project developed within Radio National. Pool is a groundbreaking experiment in User Generated Content. Users can upload text, music, photos, videos, documentaries or whatever and the content is made available for others to view and use. It’s worth taking a look, or you can read more about it here.
Tentatively, the team opening up the archives plans to start in Darwin in the next few weeks with the release under an open licence of a small amount of footage. The plan is to then move into other areas, slowly releasing slices of archive content. Says Social Media Producer Kate Gauld:
Releasing the archives under open licences is the goal. The platform for the release (and inviting back reused/remixed/repurposed material) will be Pool. The theme we choose (Darwin, censorship, oldest archives etc) is just a way to isolate a tiny slice in a very large pie (perhaps we could crowdsource where to look next?!).
The project is part of a wider initiative by Creative Archive Australia – a program of the Queensland University of Technology’s Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation) to investigate the feasibility of opening up material from government institutions. The ABC project will be the first “test case”.
It’s an expansion on the theme of Media as Application – something I blogged on last week.
And for the ABC, it is one part of the ongoing issue of how to preserve the credibility of the brand, and at the same time become a more porous and interactive institution (in fact, less of an institution and more of a space).
The ABC released a Discussion Paper on User Generated Content last year. I gather that we will be seeing some results, in the way of new Editorial Guidelines for UGC, before too long. Should be interesting
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I’m curious, Margaret, that you say this news is “maybe even alarming”. What is the fear?
I’d hardly call Pool groundbreaking, and I have contributed to it. And they are far from innovative when determining what content they generate is electronically archived.
Not my fear, so much. I am aware of concerns, including some senior managers at the ABC, who don’t like the idea of “gems” in the crown being available for re-use and mash. We are a long way off that, of course. But nevertheless there is resistance.
Ah yes, Margaret! The fear that someone else might think of something entertaining / interesting / useful to do with the material, thereby undermining the ABC managers’ “authority” as The Official Source of Australian Culture and Its Interpretation.
The reality, of course, is that if they don’t make “their” cultural gems available (they’re actually “ours”: we paid for them) then the artists and culture-makers of the present and future will simply base their productions on material that is available — and the “gems” in the crown will be less valuable because their cultural relevance will decline.
Well the parameters will be interesting. Sounds very much like YouTube now. On the character of the ABC it is a quite a beast for good and great often setting a standard to admire. With self interest also operating.
Maybe this is their way of edging toward the admirable web value of free content and if so then more blessings on them. I wonder if it’s another pragmatic way of putting up their stake in the poker game of media policy as NBN/freeview/digital etc approaches, in order to annexe (!) and manage the users of free archive much like the Catholic Church with cultures globally.
I just keep in mind Unleashed – nothing wrong with it either – ironic to think it is edited, and packaged. A bit like when 2JJ – according to legend way back when – got too radical and became the much safer Triple J. (Though who ever got away with playing those rap songs over New Year got cut off.)
Regarding the general culture of free content my little micro news blog deliberately states it’s intellectual property is open to be co-opted, the more it is the better I like it.
I notice rock dinosaurs Led Zeppellin let all there hugely popular 2008 reunion concert be grabbed by amateurs onto You Tube. Very sporting of them I thought. Millions of viewers by now. Robert Plant was just knighted by the Queen perhaps for such an attitude. And speaking of local cultural history the DVD of LZ in 1973 at the Sydney Showground is eerie with Germaine Greer as spunky reporter, or groupie, at a function afterwards.
Hi all – Jessica from the QUT group Margaret talks about in her article.
First I wanted to clarify the level of QUT’s involvement – we don’t want to take credit where it’s not due.
We’ve been working with Pool on the release of the archival footage, but we can’t take credit for the project. It’s definitely Radio National’s initiative, they’ve done all the work. We’re just along for the ride, as observers as much as advisers.
And as to the Creative Archive Australia initiative – its still more of a plan than an actual project. Hopefully we’ll get it off the ground sometime this year. Until then, we’re just encouraging initiatives like Pool’s – individual archives pushing the boundaries to get their material out there.
Which brings me to responding to some of the comments above. The release of Government owned copyright material for re-use (ie not just viewing, but remixing etc) by an official archive is groundbreaking. While there have been some test cases with similar projects in Britain and Europe, Pool’s definitely leading the pack in Australia. And considering the budget limitations and bureaucratic barriers they’re facing, Pool should definitely be recognised and congratulated for it.
Imagine the rich resource that will become available to film makers, teachers, researchers, ordinary citizens if we can free even just a small portion of the ABC’s archives.
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