Peer Sites Review
https://www.baltimoreuprising2015.org/
This omeka-created site is an excellent benchmark for the January 1964 Archive Project. It has a clean design interface and content distribution. The site is very quick to load and mobile responsive. Its creators have mastered the right “tone” in their copy to make contributors feel welcome. For example, they are encouraged to “contribute their stuff” to the archive; an oral history tool kit is included to guide them. The approval criteria for the contributed content is simple and straightforward; all of it is subject to an evaluation process, and most of it is publicly available. Users can easily search the archives for photos, videos, oral and professional recordings, while also browsing through its collection and external links to other archives. Users can browse objects using pre existing tags or search using more specific fields; maps are provided for easy geo referencing. Social bookmarking features are also included. MAIN TAKEAWAYS: USER FRIENDLY COPY AND FUNCTIONALITY |
http://occupyarchive.org
This no-frills site was created using the Omeka interface by a group of 10 volunteers with no funding available. The home screen is used to prompt users to upload photos or short videos and write first-hand accounts; it also provides an analog feature that allows them to call in their contributions with a telephone number. Users retain ownership of shared material while contributing to the historical record. The site uses Zotero to collect snapshots of organizational web pages, forums, YouTube channels, Facebook pages, fliers, and other digital imprints. Creators also experimented with a feed importer that links to Flickr images tagged with related keywords. The site is careful to not use images with rights reserved and relies heavily on Creative Commons licensed photos. MAIN TAKEAWAYS: SIMPLICITY, CREATED BY VOLUNTEERS WITH NO FUNDS |
http://hurricanearchive.org
The Hurricane Digital Memory Bank (2005-2008) collected over 25,000 digital items related to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita using the Omeka web publishing platform. Launched only three months after both natural disasters, it is a great example of preserving “instant history”, as content was created and published by thousands of average people in their personal blogs, on photo sharing websites, social media and YouTube. The "items" section is particularly well rendered with images in collage format that are grouped by images, stories, oral histories, video and maps. Creators seeded the archive with information submitted by university students and their families so online visitors would be comfortable seeing other contributions before they shared their own. They also developed relationships with local partners to promote the site, and relied on both online tools and traditional media outlets to increase site traffic (e.g. phone calls and postage paid reply cards for people to mail in to then scan and upload to the archive). MAIN TAKEAWAYS: INSTANT HISTORY, MARKETING AND PROMOTION, "TILE VIEW" OF COLLECTION ITEMS |
http://mallhistory.org/
I chose this site to benchmark because it was designed mainly for mobile use; most Panamanians use cell phones to navigate the internet. Its designer built a custom responsive Omeka theme that reduces the width and padding of the header, footer, navigation and columns, and adjusts the font sizes of headings and body. To create entry points for the project, its development team built collections of digital items, mapped them, linked sources across time periods and themes, and interpreted those items by creating short exhibits. It also includes a public Zotero library. This site does not include user generated content, but it incorporates a great geo location map that recognizes each visitor within the area, and provides each with valuable location information. MAIN TAKEAWAYS: MOBILE CREATED DESIGN, RESPONSIVE GEO LOCATION MAP |
https://museumonmainstreet.org/storiesMuseum on Main Street has empowered people to embrace their history and uncover their community’s stories. Since 2012, they have engaged young people in several states through their YES initiative to research topics important to their towns' histories, conduct interviews, collect photos and footage, and assemble their work into a final digital project that is saved in a searchable Smithsonian database. The website is a bit difficult to navigate and it is not easy to share stories, but I liked the idea of youngsters working to preserve their community´s history as the protagonists of the January 9th incidents are 65+ years old and might have trouble working with a digital platform.
MAIN TAKEAWAY: TEACH PEOPLE TO RECORD, COLLECT AND PUBLISH STORIES |
https://storycorps.org/participate/storycorps-app/This free mobile app allows people to record and archive an interview. The app guides users through the interview experience, to then upload the audio to an online archive and the Library of Congress. The app is quite easy to use and navigate. However, it is in English and does not allow the user to download their interview to their phone or any other local repository in their regular program. They do offer a custom program where they can provide a digital archive to the host organization that can be shared publicly. They also offer some great national recording initiatives that can serve as benchmark to other countries at: https://storycorps.org/discover/
MAIN TAKEAWAYS: EASY TO USE APP THAT GUIDES USERS; NATIONAL RECORDING INITIATIVES |
https://www.chattanoogamemory.com/
This site was developed using the Pass it Down software, which costs $ 10 000 a year. I interviewed Chris Cummings, who gave me an overview of the project. It is a drag and drop system that allows users to upload to the archive and also host an oral history project that can be ordered by category, tab and also chronologically. You can feature stories and questions to trigger user responses. It is mobile responsive, and can be shown in large screens too to incorporate in a museum exhibit and also promote user participation in the oral archive project. It is not available in Spanish yet, but will be so in 2019.
MAIN TAKEAWAYS: EASE OF USE; DRAG AND DROP SYSTEM FOR ADMINISTRATORS; BILINGUAL CAPABILITIES |
https://redhookwaterstories.org/Another Omeka site, this e-museum memorializes forgotten, overlooked and erased histories of the New York city waterfront. Users can explore the site via menus, the search window, or an interactive map. Users can view "random" items. The site includes a donate button that takes the visitor to a flipcause donation page under the hashtag #GetOnBoard to grow its team, budget, programs and space.
MAIN TAKEAWAYS: FUNDRAISING, RANDOM ITEM DISPLAY |
http://apc.historiaabierta.org/Not the best site in terms of organization, but it proves Omeka´s capabilities for developing an archive in Spanish.
MAIN TAKEAWAYS: SPANISH SITE USING OMEKA |