[Rumori] BBC to put its entire archive online

[Rick Prelinger]

The archival field desperately needs examples like this.  It is 
astonishing, ten years after the Internet went mainstream, that so 
little moving image material is available online.  Archives 
classically focus on preservation and access.  Preservation typically 
means either cold/dry storage or copying film to new film, videotape 
to new videotape.  Access until recently has meant letting 
researchers come in and watch material in house, doing rare public 
screenings, or making DVD deals.  It hasn't meant access TO everyone 
FOR whatever projects they may have.  It certainly hasn't meant using 
our incredible online infrastructure to distribute digital files to 
one and all for reuse.

Most archivists are incredibly protective of the materials they've 
collected, not to mention protective of copyrights (which may 
"belong" to entities that are long gone).  There is a strong sense 
that letting out too much material with too little regulation will 
cause archives to "lose control" over their collections.  I'd say 
they've already lost control, if their mission is to control rather 
than to propagate.  Archives are justified by use.  If archives don't 
open up quickly, people will lose interest in banging on their doors, 
and they'll morph into anachronistic institutions, as vibrant and 
cutting edge as your county art museum.

This is a rant because I'm writing a piece about this right now, and 
working myself into a frenzy --

Rick


>It's so amazing that it's almost unbelievable.  This is the best
>thing that could possibly happen, for such a prestigious (and
>somewhat conservative at times) organisation to be saying that they
>are not scared to do this.  It will hopefully affect/shake up some
>other UK archives too, like Pathé News, who received a lot of money
>from the National Lottery (where much of our arts funding comes from
>here) to put their archives online for free download and haven't kept
>their word, they are charging for downloads.
>
>Vicki
>
>>i find this so incredible,  they will need a server the size of w(h)ales.
>>imagine every peel show..........
>>
>>
>>
>>Vicki Bennett wrote:
>>
>>>  Oh!  Much fun to be had!!!
>>>
>>>  >The BBC has gone public with its intention to find a way to put the
>>>  >entire content of its radio and TV archives online. I know some of
>>>  >the details of this project, and I couldn't be more excited.
>>>  >
>>>  >"I believe that we are about to move into a second phase of the
>>>  >digital revolution, a phase which will be more about public than
>>>  >private value; about free, not pay services; about inclusivity, not
>>>  >exclusion.
>>>  >
>>>  >"In particular, it will be about how public money can be combined
>>>  >with new digital technologies to transform everyone's lives."
>>>  >
>>>  ><http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3177479.stm>Link
>>>  ><http://www.quicktopic.com/boing/H/DgvjsDiJZ3y>Discuss (via
>>>  ><http://slashdot.org>/.)
>>>  >
>>>  >--
>>>
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>>
>>
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>
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-- 

Rick Prelinger
Prelinger Archives    http://www.prelinger.com
P.O. Box 590622, San Francisco, Calif. 94159-0622
Fax: +1 415 750-0607
footage at panix.com

Internet Moving Images Archive: http://www.archive.org/movies/prelinger.php