I have recently contributed two reviews, and added them to two groups I run. The first is a short response to Shah ‘Abbas at the British Museum and the second is in response to Byzantium at the Royal Academy.

Read response to Shah Abbas in the Iran and Persian Culture group.

Read response to Byzantium in the Medieval and Byzantine Objects group.

Please note: For some reason my paragraphing is not preserved and so the Byzantium review might be a little hard-going. If you happen to read it and would prefer to read it in a more sensible format, please leave a comment here, or on Creative Spaces.

Creative Spaces does. No poking, no sheep throwing, no nonsense.

The two posts below and the several comments are enough to set out the different views of Creative Spaces, or the National Museums Online Learning Project. I am not going to respond to the various criticisms leveled at the project as they do a good job of speaking for themselves. This is about my experience so far, over the last two weeks or so of actually using the site. Many of the buggy features have already been pointed out by Tom and by and large I agree with those (strange URLs and registering procedure, the lack of a big fat button to JOIN and the lack of an advanced search are probably my immediate problems).


.What have I created?

My first Group is the Medieval and Byzantine Objects group. It currently has four members including myself and the premise behind it is to build up a network of people, collections and objects who take an interest in medieval and byzantine artefacts and the history they can provide. My next plan with it is to begin commenting on objects in the group and inviting dialogue with others, whoever they may be.

My first Notebook is the Travels around Italy notebook. Another passion of mine, both personal and professional, I wanted to find out how widely ‘Italy’ existed across the 9 collections represented in Creative Spaces so far. So many of our national museums’ foundation collections derived from world exploration and also the Grand Tour in the 18th and 19th centuries that I wonder how much our feelings and attitudes towards Italy and Italians have been conditioned by this aspect of British history. Indeed, it was the subject of my MA dissertation, and there remains a lot of work to be done on how early collecting, particularly deriving from Italy, have shaped British museums. As well as adding images and descriptions of objects to my notebook, I have also added a link to my flickr collection of photographs of my travels in Italy, and a blog post (‘note’) about what ideas we have about travel in Italy, including the stories that are brought back.

My second Notebook is called The Corrupting Sea notebook, inspired by the modern classic study of pre-modern Mediterranean history by Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell, The Corrupting Sea. A Study of Mediterranean History, (Oxford, 2000, pbk 2005). This is my ‘play-thing’ notebook. I want to be able to act out some of my ideas about the significance of the Mediterranean as a state of mind, an ideology, a way of breaking down unnecessary barriers. Much of this has been inspired by my own research on a comparative history of medieval southern Italy as well as the work by Horden and Purcell, Fernand Braudel and other scholars who have used the Mediterranean rather than political or national boundaries to frame their work. I would very much like anyone with a feel for the Mediterranean to contribute to this notebook, whether from the point of view as tourist, sun-seeker, scholar, curator or scientist.

.Why I like Creative Spaces

Everything that I have described above, I have wanted to do for ages. I have thought about setting up different blogs, forums or utilising existing networks such as facebook or flickr but none of these options enabled me to have the direct contact with collections that I craved. Granted I am a specialist in museum collections and how they are documented and interpreted, but that does not make me any less of a user than someone simply interested in finding out more, and wanting to talk about something they are interested in, whether over a long period of time, or just as a one-off. None of them provided a good space in which I could also get in touch with like-minded people.

Creative Spaces does. No poking, no sheep throwing, no nonsense.

I didn’t actually know I wanted something like Creative Spaces until it was announced. I had a sense of the immense value many people hold in being able to understand museum collections across the boundaries of institutions from my own work on a digitisation project (Hantsphere) which formed part of a small network of other sites (Sense of Place South East) with online collections. It was this that excited the ‘silver surfers’ I trained in basic web skills the most.

The current limitations and gaps notwithstanding, the design is clean, suited to the content and makes me want to come back on a regular basis. A simple bookmark in my browser’s toolbar allows to me login without any extraneous effort and I intend to do so.

.What will I do with Creative Spaces?

Apart from my own personal interest, learning and amusement, I would use Creative Spaces for teaching projects (particularly for distance learners), for creating networks of enthusiasts and academics in areas which are not served well by existing groups and societies and to follow up museum visits. Granted, only a minute proportion of collections from these institutions are represented here but as their documentation and digitisation projects continue, this can only improve. Similarly, I should very much like to see other museums examine their collections management databases and see if they too could one day participate. There is no room for exclusivity here.

.Why it has come at the right time

Because, for all the hot air often expelled by my cultural technologist colleagues (including myself at times) something’s finally happened, Reg.

The documentary explores plots by a Chicago gang to steal his body in 1876. The clip below gives you a taste of how they have achieved this ambitious project.

Read more on History’s (“History ™” is the new name for The History Channel…) Lincoln website.

You can subscribe to Historyscape via this RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Historyscape

Alun is using Yahoo Pipes and Feedburner to create the service. Details about how he did it are also available.

This is a great example of why it is important for heritage organisations to make their data available via web services – you can get people doing amazing things with your data. The possibilities would be endless.

Can an online experience be more satisfying than learning in a classroom of people where you hesitate with your ablatives and datives? Will anyone come out of these courses able to have a good stab at old documents in an archive and to debate hotly with another how many minims a word contains? Will these courses be able to convey the importance of grammatic jargon that goes with learning Latin, and still inspire through the gems contained in documents such as Domesday book?

Although I am reading many documents in medieval Latin at the moment, I am going to take the online medieval Latin challenge and report back with a comparison with my book-based and classroom experience.

Medieval Latin, Beginners’ Level (1086-1733)
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/Latin/Beginners

Medieval Latin, Advanced Level (1086 – 1733)
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/Latin/Advanced

Palaeography, Reading Old Handwriting (1500-1800)
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/Palaeography

whatwasHere.com wants to revolutionise how history is written. Its pilot website in Liverpool tells history like it’s never been told before: by everyone. It doesn’t only tell the capital H history of Liverpool, but the everything-interesting-that-ever-happened-to-the-people-who-actually-live-there history of Liverpool. It’s oral history for the My Space era.

Based around Google maps, the site lets people instantly publish the stories that matter to them on the spot where they happened, discuss other people’s stories, use the Timeline to go back in time, make connections between big events and small across the map. If you know something that happened in Liverpool, put it on!

whatwasHere.com’s aim is to get everyone – yes everyone – writing history.

You can follow the project blog at http://blog.whatwashere.com/

As the press release says, the website aims to allow everyone to contribute to building a history of the world, beginning with the pilot area of Liverpool, UK. You can contribute words and photos to the site, and associate them with a new or existing marker on an embedded Google Map.

This is a great idea, but not completely original. Your History Here, Wikimapia, and a few others have been doing similar things for a while now. However, whatwashere.com have been liaising with various groups around the Liverpool area, such as schools, the BBC, and Liverpool Libraries in order to get a good body of quality material for their launch. There is also a version of the website for under 16′s.

The interface seems a bit cluttered to me on my first look around the site, but I do like the way that they have implemented the temporal aspect. It is very easy to wind back time and see what records are available for any century. Each century is then divided up into ten year slots, allowing you to be quite specific in your search. Results are displayed to the right of the map. When you’re waiting for your query to take place, a nice little message tells you to “Please wait – there’s a lot of history to tell”. I like that!

You can click on points on the map, which expand a bubble with a summary of the information for that point, and a link inviting you to open the material in the viewer to the right of the map. There is a tab in the viewer allowing comments, or another story about that place where you can type away and upload new images.

It looks like a great site and I’m looking forward to when they expand to the rest of the UK. It would be nice if they could link to other services like Flickr and YouTube, as well as provide GeoRSS, but let’s give them a chance to get settled!

Is this the real beginnings of ‘Citizen History’, to go alongside ‘Citizen Journalism’ and ‘Citizen Media’? It’s certainly an application of geotagging the past, and the possibilities are positively exciting if this takes off. It really could help to enrich the past.

Read the press release, or visit whatwashere.com (which is actually www.whatwashere.com – if you miss out the www, as they do in their press release, the site doesn’t work at the time of writing).

‘One Day in History’ is a one off opportunity for you to join in a mass blog for the national record. We want as many people as possible to record a ‘blog’ diary which will be stored by the British Library as a historical record of our national life.

Head over to the History Matters – Pass It On campaign website to contribute to a one day “blog” which will be lodged in the British Library.

A MASS BLOG for the national record. The History Matters campaign has designated October 17 a day for the public to make historic. We have chosen ‘an ordinary’ weekday of no particular significance to ask you to write a one day on-line diary.

Source: http://www.historymatters.org.uk/output/Page95.asp

They want people to record a “blog diary” which they can upload to the History Matters website.

We want as many people as possible – tens of thousands of UK residents – to record a ‘blog’ diary of this one day to be by the British Library and others as a record of our national life.

As ever, I’m positive about a day where people will record how history has influenced them on an ‘ordinary day’, and have that text lodged with the British Library in perpetuity. But I am uncomfortable about the use of the word “blog” to describe what they’re doing.

From the text on the “One Day In History” page, it’s not clear that they want people to write about it on their own blogs and bear the History Matters badge on relevant posts to raise awareness of the campaign. Despite using the term “Mass Blog”, in the “How” info they seem to be talking about typing up your diary and uploading it to their website. Will people be contributing to an actual blog with an RSS feed? Is it a copy of the text from our “One Day In History” posts on our own blogs from that day that they’re after?

If they aren’t actually advocating blogging, they’re missing the one trick that could give them the greater exposure that the campaign deserves – the blogosphere itself.

I think a bit of rewording needs to go on here, perhaps to the tune of:

“A MASS BLOG for the national record. The History Matters campaign has designated October 17 a day for the public to make historic. We have chosen ‘an ordinary’ weekday of no particular significance to ask you to blog about how the past has affected you on that day.” (emphasis mine to show what I’ve changed)

They could provide a graphic that you can include in your post that links to the campaign website, like the one I’ve made for my History Matters posts.

In the “How” section it could read:

“On the 17 October and for a week after it will be possible to upload a copy of your blog post to www.historymatters.org.uk. The archive thereby created will be held by the British Library, Mass Observation, the National Trust and others.” (emphasis mine to show what I’ve changed)

They could also ask people to upload photos onto Flickr and tag them with “historymatters2006″ and aggregate photos as well as blog posts onto their website.

The blogosphere is already quietly talking about it, but with a bit of a push, it could really buzz!

And for starters, History Matters needs it’s own blog, one of the golden rules for any campaign that uses the internet these days!

This post may well sound a bit negative, but with relatively little effort (get bloggers to do the work!), they could really use the internet to help raise the campaign’s profile, and really help to make a difference by reaching out to new audiences.

I’ll certainly be participating in the “One Day In History” event, and doing my bit to help more people that “History Matters” and that we must “Pass It On” :-)

History Matters – pass it on is all about raising awareness of the importance of history in our everyday lives and encouraging involvement in heritage in England and Wales. Our goal is to build public support and interest in looking after our history and heritage – today and in the future.

There has been a bit of a splash about the campaign after the publication of the results of a Mori poll showed that more people care about history than sport.

I fully support “History Matters – pass it on”. I’ve even declared my support. They’re asking for people to visit the website and “share your thoughts” by completing a questionnaire, uploading pictures that reflect British history, or take part in a discussion.

But I think that they are missing a trick or two on the campaign.

The website is very colourful, complete with smiling photos of Tony Benn and Bill Bryson. But it’s not very navigable. Whilst writing this, I tried to find the discussion forums, but I couldn’t remember where I saw them! After a few minutes of clicking about, I found them, and they were empty. The path to the forum is: Share your thoughts > How history matters to others > Join the debate. At the time of writing, there were 2 guests online, and the forum seems to have disappeared entirely (in Firefox).

So how do you get involved?

Declare your support

Give your views on why history matters to you and what you would pass on

Have you taken a photograph that captures a moment in history? Or would you like to share a picture of your favourite place? Then, why not upload them to the website?

Name your favourite historic place and text it with your postcard to 077717 97777

Arrange a History Matters – pass it on event. See our on-line event guide

As a web modernist, as well as an archaeologist, I can spot that they’re missing a very big trick. The blogosphere. Websites. Where’s the online campaign?

As well as contributing to their website, why not provide people with a badge (they give away real badges at their events) to put on their sites (like the Make Poverty History campaign), and encourage people to blog about why history matters to them, and to write about their favourite historical sites that they like to visit. There could be a Flickr group set up, and a special tag for people to use on their photos.

A few blogs have picked it up already (Technorati search), but by actively encouraging online communities I think that “History Matters – pass it on” could really gain momentum and maximise the campaign’s exposure, which is what it needs.

It’s a sad fact that heritage, one of the major reasons that the UK attracts tourists from across the globe, is horrendously under-funded, which is a national disgrace. Hopefully, with political pressure, and campaigns like “History Matters – pass it on”, things will begin to change.

So – if you’ve got this far through this post – please go forth and spread the word! Pinch the badge I made from their logo, stick it on your site, and write about why history matters to you. Declare your support for the campaign, and link to their site, and link to other blogs that are writing about it. Let’s help this move!

(If you tag your posts or photos, I suggest historymatters as your keyword)

The Sherborne Missal has had a script error. Oh the irony…

The Sherborne Missal is a 15th century illuminated manuscript, and the virtual version is available to browse on a large touch screen in the foyer of the British Library. It allows you to ‘turn’ the pages with your hands, as you would a real book. It’s very impressive, allowing you to zoom in on details, and see notes attached to some of the images throughout the book. Unfortunately, it had a little error while I was using it, and my camera was to hand ;-)

You can view it online as well, via a Shockwave application, as well as many others.