Creating Access to Europe’s Television Heritage Prof. Dr. Sonja de Leeuw (project-coordinator, Utrecht University) Johan Oomen MA (technical director, Sound and Vision) Video Active Conference Rethinking Television Histories London: 19 April 2007

Rationale: using the European knowledge space Recognizing the high cultural and social impact of audiovisual media and television in particular Focus on television: a very productive cultural space in Europe addressing both national and European dimensions (and global as well) Audiovisual heritage = collective memory No matter its broad support, access remains restricted Video Active meets the need for awareness of diversity of European cultures and identities and the demand for historical knowledge in general

Access to Europe’s television heritage: the challenges Technology : Lots already digitised and more to be in the near future However no exchange at whatever level due to uneven technical and metadata standards, let alone language problems Rights: Complex issue due to legislation, no harmonisation and publishing only allowed within the national borders. Some genres more difficult: drama! Content sources: Descriptions of the original source and its context seldom to be found: no existing signifying practice

Challenge and Main Objectives Removing the barriers of technical exchange, rights and signifying practice thus creating multilingual access to Europe’s television heritage:  Stimulating use and re-use of a huge body of digitised television archive content consisting of selected, comparable programme material  Accompanying the selected content by knowledge-based descriptions (in cooperation with ETHN)  Presenting the selected content using new and existing metadata

Video Active innovative work  Emphasising the need for close co-operation between archives and academics  Advising on the content selection strategy  Developing highly relevant case studies in European television history (comparative and cross-cultural)  Remaining sensitive to what the different archives hold: again: close co-operation!

Description of data to be enriched Television Archive Content ( items) : -Earliest recordings of TV on film and (filmed) TV programmes *reflecting the cultural and historical similarities and differences of television from across the European Union *demonstrating new technological developments in TV *development of common TV genres *televised historical moments that have shaped collective memory *examining changes in everyday life and influence of media -Other data such as clippings from TV guides and stills

Expected results of Video Active A multilingual web portal for European television content (freely accessible) that offers effective search capabilities and places the presented content in meaningful contexts A tested platform for digital asset management and rights annotation (Building on the BIRTH of TV platform (project funded by EU MEDIAPlus programme) Best practice documentation on public dissemination of Europe’s Cultural Heritage (legal issues) In-depth academic research into the history of television in Europe: conferences and publications Awareness of the role television played in the construction of cultural identities in Europe: public activities, news letters

Target users and benefits from Video Active Three main sectors will benefit from the outcomes of the project: 1. Education (different levels: studying digital resources related to courses, studying differences between various cultures, comparative research on media coverage of EC related issues, publishing findings on line) 2. General Public (creative citizens and media consumers interested in e.g. their family history, matters related to work, leisure, politics: all would relate to audiovisual material)) 3. Cultural Heritage domain (f.i. enabling the creation of large inter-archival exhibitions) and Creative industries

BIRTH Television Archive

Backend Thesaurus module Multilinguality Contribution application Metadata and transcoding

Portal Open Archives Initiative The European Library Workflow ThesauriX Contribution Tool

Milestones  M1 User requirements specified and framework for content selection developed (April 2007)  M2 Launch of Video Active portal Version 1 (assessment and refinement) (November 2007)  M3 Launch of Video Active portal Version 2 (October 2008)

New partners  First two have joint after the launch (VRT, BE and Moving Image Communications TV-AM, UK)  Benefits: Exposure Critical mass Multilingual International collaboration Exploitation opportunity High-res file transfer Collaboration with scholars

Video Active: contributing to a European continuum of cultural heritage Content Enrichment: the European dimension  Content in which the cultural memory of Europe is stored  Close cooperation between television historians and archives all over Europe: developing highly relevant case studies in European media history (comparative and cross- cultural)  Portal= mediated platform for the comparative analysis  Active contribution to the building of a virtual European infrastructure (technical access and interoperability)

Prof. Dr. Sonja de Leeuw (project-coordinator, Utrecht University) Johan Oomen MA (technical director, Sound and Vision)