The BBC Domesday Reloaded project is one where over a million people across the UK submitted data on their local area in order to chronicle life in Great Britain during the 1980s.
Now, 25 years later, some of this data is now available to the public. Further, BBC is asking people in the UK to send in their current photos and/or text to help create an updated snapshot of Britain in 2011. 147,819 pages and 23,225 were received 25 years ago, including pictures, maps, video, surveys, statistics, essays and personal testimonies. These were stored on two now-comically oversized laserdiscs.
All of the information from the original BBC Domesday project is now online and accessible to the public. It is also possible to update the existing images with those from the present day in order to compare and contrast how each area has changed in a quarter of a century. This may very well have been the earliest form of social media as one would know it!
Crowdsourced Time Capsules
The BBC Domesday Reloaded Project Reveals a Historical UK
Trend Themes
1. Crowdsourced Historical Preservation - Using crowd participation for collecting and preserving historical data can be used as a means to record and maintain collective memory.
2. Interactive Collaborative Projects - Engaging the public in ongoing collaborative projects can lead to a larger and more diverse collection of data on a given topic.
3. Digital Time Capsules - Creating digital archives of historical data can increase accessibility and allow for continuous updates and comparisons over time.
Industry Implications
1. Museum and Archival Services - Employing crowdsourced projects can help museums and archival institutions increase their collection of historical data and engage broader audiences.
2. Tourism and Travel - Creating interactive time capsules of local areas can provide tourists with unique and engaging experiences that showcase the history and evolution of a place.
3. Education and Research - Using digital time capsules as an educational tool can enhance student learning by allowing for direct comparisons of historical data with modern times.