Europeana

Back in time for Christmas! Europeana is working again (when it launched in November the site crashed due to demand).

Europeana showcases over "two million books, maps, recordings, photographs, archive documents, paintings and films."

Flickr is a winner

Roy at HangingTogether brought my attention to this post on the Library of Congress blog about the success of their Flickr pilot project.

The full LC report is here but if you don't have time read the summary here.

Some stats from the pilot include:

• Within 24 hours of its launch the LC account had 1.1 million total views
• LC photos average approximately 500,000 views a month
• They have received over 10 million total views
• 7,166 comments were left on 2,873 photos

This report is very positive about the whole experience, has some good advice in it and is a brilliant example of what Web 2.0 can do for you. Show it to your boss!

Archives Open - open for business

David over at the Digital Archive has a new venture called Archives Open which is a

"new community-powered blog that focuses on archives, access, community and the Web... a platform to discuss Web 2.0 technologies and Web 2.0 ethics and values "

He has a nice post about the new blog and the reasons behind it here. I think it's a really good idea and a new way of using a blog to collect information from archivists and users about the Web 2.0 projects that are happening out there. It looks like it will build up into a handy resource and source of inspiration.

It's open for business now so get over there and check it out.

Youtube and government

I read today that Obama is using youtube for his weekly addresses as president-elect and it made me wonder what the impact this high level endorsement of technology might have on its up-take by the average archive or archivist. (Incidently, the wonder of the Internet allows us to listen to Roosevelt's fireside chats and compare the two formats for ourselves.)

I did wonder whether this was going to be an area where the UK was slightly behind but it turns out the Prime Minister already has a youtube channel, with 500+ videos . There is also a UK parliament pilot channel on youtube. Who'd have thought it?

I wonder whether the use of these kinds of technology by government bodies will have an impact and make those organisations that have been more conservative and hesitant in their approach to Web 2.0 look again at them? Does it legitimise Web 2.0 activity?