Frameworks for the sharing of memory in a digital world

1. Frameworks for the sharing of memory in a digital world Darren Stephens MBCS CITPhttp://about.me/darrenstephens

2. Preliminaries • A bit about me • A bit about the Project and my aims

3. Who Am I? • Originally a Physicist • Then a Computer Scientist (of sorts) • Now in Digital Media • But still a BCS member(since 2004)  • Originally started a PhD in the area of web engineering

4. What Am I Doing? • The Malta Music Memory Project (M3P) was founded in 2010 • It’s main goal is to provide an inclusive repository for memories of Malta's music and associated arts, ensuring that these are kept in posterity for current and future generations • I’m doing PhD research to support this project

5. …And : Why Should Anyone Care? • Minority cultures are under great pressure in the modern world • Identity is shifting • Even if things don’t survive, at least recording that they were here is important • Recording the ever present now is important too. Who knows what might be seen as important later on?

6. The Malta Music Memory Project • Designed to capture and record some of the music of Malta and the Maltese – but not traditional music necessarily • Much in common with other places, like Birmingham

7. M3P • Initial decision made to use Mediawiki • Useful as a first step but not without issues, as others have identified

8. Wikis • How many people actually edit Wikipedia? Seen as a mostly ‘consume’ model by public • Barriers to entry – editing and wikicode can be daunting to a non-technical audience • But, information can be stored and searched for consumption relatively well

9. Memory and Archiving

10. Memory Human societies are predicated on storytelling and memory - we can think of ourselves as pan narrans: the storytelling ape But a big part of this representation of memory is the idea of the archive (e.g. Derrida) Memory is a complex and constantly evolving relationship between two broad types • Individual • Collective

11. Memory Individual Memory • Models that come from antiquity, such as Plato and Aristotle (mostly mechanical, which continued for many years) • Changes in the early 20thCentrury. – Ebbinghaus, and from a different perspective, Bergsson. The idea of memory as a complex, creative and even performative process was born • Modern psychology identifies many different types of memory, though this project is probably most concerned with autobiographical memory, as it applies to identity

12. Memory Collective Memory • Foundations in Jung, from a psychological point of view, but also Halbwachs, from a more sociological standpoint. He claimed that this was mostly externally imposed • Assmann & Assmann claim that Collective identity is a complex interplay of the relationship between individuals and groups and can be used to direct behaviour and practice • It also can be used to reinforce, and be reinforced by, individual memory

13. All of this is lovely, but… • Where does the technology fit?

14. Technology • So where does technology fit? • From the 1960s we see the beginning of the idea of technology as a tool for prosthetic memory (McLuhan) and augmentation of intellect (Englebart). It also allows for the curation of collective memory (Rheingold) • Technology allows us a method of removing gatekeepers from the mediation of memory – communities can write their own stories • Consider the move from oral history, to archives, to printing to the digital age

15. Technology • So where does technology fit? • We currently see traditional archiving, but also a more immediate form of preserving both the present and immediate past: • Social networks: generally self-selecting, self-organising and sharing memories of events, people etc. This is easy, and something people do often • So, you share something with a friend using Facebook. But what then? • Those memories are still effectively ephemeral: they are not captured for long term storage, exploration or retrieval

16. So, back to M3P… • How do people share memories? • Well, mostly on Facebook • Over 50% penetration of Facebook in Malta • Actually 53% of population, and over 80% of its online population(socialbakers.com) • But it‘s “trapped” within Facebook. How do we get it out?

17. An Initial Conceptual Model

18. Oddly… • This initial model was briefly sketched on a piece of paper during a workshop. • It looks a lot like a Platonic model of memory, as it happens. So all the memory stuff is not irrelevant……especially as the questions we need to ask are: • What are we trying to capture? • And why?

19. Broader Questions • How do we connect these sources together (and do something useful with them)? • Social media: the stream of the memories of the present and the near past. People use these things as part of daily life • Archives: which represent our memories of the near and even distant past. These have barriers to entry for many users (see issues with engagement with Mediawiki/Wikipedia) This should form the focus of my research.

20. Direction • At this stage, still very open, though it is clear that the way to proceed is mostly immersive, and will involve work with the Malta Music Memory Project (M3P) • At first confining the project to a specific case study and use of a single social network, Facebook • Clearly, however, the point of a ‘framework’ is to be extensible

21. Questions?