Presentation of the project Orkney Community Digital Heritage, a project by Centre for Nordic Studies, funded by Digital Scotland. This presentation explains the project, for the benefit of community groups that wish to get involved. Originally presented to the Orkney Heritage Society 22nd April 2015.

1. Orkney
Community Digital
Heritage
A project with Centre for Nordic Studies,
Orkney Heritage Society and other
community groups

2. The points of the project
Record and share
names and
stories about
places in Orkney
Let older people
use digital
technology –
smart phones

3. 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

4. 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.

5. How are we doing this?
• Step 2:
• Workshop with “community agents” to learn about the project and
the software

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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)

12. 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.

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

16. 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!

17. • 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

18. 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?