Orkney Community

Digital Heritage

A project with Centre for Nordic Studies, Orkney Heritage Society and

other community groups

The points of the project

Record and share names and

stories about places in Orkney

Let older people use digital

technology – smart phones

What are we interested in recording?

Stories of places Place names Stories of people

Any place, does not have to be “significant”. Personal memories and passed down anecdotes, not just full stories

Especially “lesser” names such as field names, and names of smaller features like rocks, burns, geos, ruins

The people who inhabit these places, today and in the past, who they were, what they did, anecdotes

How are we doing this?

• Step 1: Finding “community agents”• Orkney Heritage Society• Other community groups, e.g. Stromness Museum, Sanday Ranger, Hoy

Development Trust, etc.

How are we doing this?

• Step 2:• Workshop with “community agents” to learn about the project and

the software

How are we doing this?

• Step 3:• The “community agents” and Centre for Nordic Studies staff contact

people (primarily over 60 years) and accompany them to places they want to tell us about, and show them how to work the equipment• We, the “community agents”, also make our own recordings

How does it work?

• Edina Fieldtrip GB app for smart phones• Places your spot on a map• Asks you questions• You can record written text or sound• You can take photos there and then• You can upload things later, such as scans

of old photos• All saved to a dropbox• Alex and I move contents of dropbox to a

website

How does it work?• To download Edina Fieldtrip GB onto your phone or tablet:• http://fieldtripgb.blogs.edina.ac.uk/download

• Or: Go into iTunes or Google Play Store and search for Edina Fieldtrip

How does it work?Q: What’s special about this place?

A: This is the old Orphir school. I went to school here from 1975-81. It had a “big end”, a “peedie end” and a “middle end”! I remember the playground just being a field, and

we had lots of fun finding insects in the grass. There were only about 50 pupils.

How does it work?

• Do I have to have a smart phone?• You can use your own phone if you have one. The app is free to

download• We will buy some phones too, which can be used by older people

who don’t have their own phone• Tablets also work

• What if I can’t get a signal?• It should work offline as well

How does it work?

• What type of phone do I need?• These certainly work:• Apple (iOS 4.3 and above)• Apple iPhone 4• Apple iPhone 5• Apple iPad 2• Apple iPad 3• Android (Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 and above)

What will the outcome be?

• A website• Interactive map of Orkney• Click and bring up locations, place

names, stories of folk and sites, audio recordings, scanned old photos and documents, etc.

• “ …thousands of records relating to the genealogy, history, traditions, culture and archaeology of the Western Isles …”

What is the time frame for our project?

Late May/Early June:- Outdoor workshop where all the

“community agents” come with us to a site and try out capturing it, using

smartphones and the Edina Fieldtrip app

Now:- Decide on which questions the app

should ask- Please help us brainstorm!

• Afterwards:• -It is still

possible to capture and store more data after the end of the project period

June – September:- All “community agents”

help other people get started

- Data capturing: Out and about to “your” special

places

October – December:- Centre for Nordic Studies

publishes data on the project website

What we need to do next

• Brainstorm: Which questions should the app ask?• Plan the outdoor workshop day:

Date/time and location• Who is in? Are you a community

agent?