The Pararchive Project

15th February 2016

Scholarship Related to Transgender Issues to Benefit from First Digital Archive

Read about the first newly-launched Digital Transgender Archive whose mission is: “to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world. Based in Worcester, Massachusetts at the College of the Holy Cross, the DTA is an international collaboration among…

5th February 2016

#ColorOurCollections

Interested in engaging artistically with artefacts and collections of some of the top libraries and museums worldwide for fun and at no cost? Find out more here and take part in the #ColorOurCollections campaign this week.

21st December 2015

Researchers Open Repository for ‘Dark Data’

In July 2015, Mary Ellen McIntire reported on a fascinating project in the U.S called DataBridge that created a repository of scientific knowledge and data sets that would otherwise be dumped in hidden places thereby rendering them inaccessible. DataBridge helps deposit such data sets in one place to enable their exploitation for any potential value…

13th December 2015

How Do You Choose What to Archive in Our Digital Age?

In this piece by Gina Fairley, not only is the link between archives and culture made explicit, but the role of digitisation in facilitating broader access to and wider engagement with shared heritage is highlighted. The following comments from a contributor to the piece appear to capture this well: “Archives are unsettling, and have within…

18th November 2015

How Much Of The Internet Does The Wayback Machine Really Archive?

“The Internet Archive turns 20 years old next year, having archived nearly two decades and 23 petabytes of the evolution of the World Wide Web. Yet, surprisingly little is known about what exactly is in the Archive’s vaunted Wayback Machine. Beyond saying it has archived more than 445 billion webpages, the Archive has never published…

15th November 2015

Print on Demand

As Palestinian history is erased, its archive becomes a nomadic war machine … What happens when the colonial archive, with its deletions and partial erasures, tells a story that clashes so intensely with lived history? When the archive actually obfuscates the past instead of elucidating it (a fantasy we entertain of the recording of history),…

11th November 2015

How the Internet Archive Maintains an Information Super Highway

“The [Internet] Archive isn’t just about archiving the Internet; it’s about using the Internet as an archive for world culture, over time, with no barrier to entry or qualification or justification required. And it works. An afternoon spent on the Archive is like an afternoon at the public library; it’s aimless, and overwhelming, and endlessly…

25th October 2015

How Digital Tech Can Bridge Gaps Between Museums and Audiences

In this insightful piece, Mia Ridge and Danny Birchall discuss how collaboration is crucial in helping deliver inspiring experiences to broader audiences and how effective use of digital technology can enhance this endeavour further.

14th October 2015

A tale of community storytelling…

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at the Wuthering Bytes festival, as part of the Tomorrow’s People strand, exploring the future of public service provision and how councils, SMEs and individuals can work together. I thought the story of how we designed Yarn would be an interesting illustration of where communities used collaborative design to…

1st October 2015

Yarn Showcased @ the Digital Design Weekend 2015 @ the Victoria & Albert Museum London

This year’s Digital Design Weekend was part of the nine-day London Design Festival which showcased ideas from hundreds of partners representing the heart of London’s design community. The Festival celebrated and promoted London as the design capital of the world, and in doing so, created a platform for inspirational design initiatives. Over 350 events…