EFA 2.0

Tom Cobbaert * ECMI workshop * 04-11-2011

How minorities, autonomists and independentists use social media and archivists face the

challenges of preservation

/tomcobbaert

• graduated:– master in history @ KUL, 2003– master in archival sciences @ VUB, 2004

• work:– archives & IT manager @ ADVN (2004-…)– board member VVBAD-AHD (2009-…) – member « Archief 2.0 » thinktank

(2007-...)

ADVN (1)

• founded in 1984, Antwerp (BE)• private and independent

scientific institute• recognized and funded by Flemish

government• archival and research assignment• nationalism and national movements in

general• Flemish nationalism, Flemish movement

ADVN (2)

• collects, preserves and describes all sorts of historical sources

• research on all theoretical, general and specialized topics in the field of nationalism

• database projects: ODIS, Archiefbank, NISE• conferences, exhibitions and publications• scientific journal: Wt

www.ADVN.be

NISE (1)

• National movements & Intermediary Structures in Europe

• Objective: « creating a database, a heuristic guide and an archival instrument for transnational comparative research into the national movements in Europe »

• L. Boeva, Rien de plus international, Antwerp, ADVN, 2010.

NISE (2)

• Tools:– database: national movements

(organisations, parties, individuals), archival guide, directory (heritage and research institutes), bibliography, compendium (regions, peoples, languages, …)

– public activities: helpdesk, conferences and workshops, publications, discussion platform

NISE (3)

• Organisation:– Coordination Centre: ADVN– Scientific Council: European

scholars– Network: heritage and research

institutes dealing with national movements

• Website: www.NISE.eu

EFA

• European Free Alliance (°1981)• European political party which unites

progressive, nationalist, regionalist and autonomist parties in the European Union

• 41 member parties with more than 200 elected representatives at European, national and regional levels

• www.E-F-A.org

Social Media

• ‘the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue’

• Blogs (Blogger) and microblogs (Twitter)• Social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn)• Content communities (YouTube, Flickr) • Virtual worlds (WoW, Second Life)• Collaborative projects (Wikipedia)

EFA & social media

Out of 41 member parties:• 33 have at least a classic website• 29 have a blog (in the broadest

sense)• 4 have only a blog (Wordpress,

Blogger, …)• 20 provide an RSS-feed

EFA & social media

• 31 member parties are on – 23 have a fan page– 5 have a classic group (to be removed)– 1 has an open group (new format)– 2 use a ‘personal’ profile– some have fan pages and/or groups

and/or profiles and/or community pages

EFA & social media

EFA & social media

• 15 member parties are on – from 1 up to 4257 tweets – from 17 up to 8755 followers– mainly based on rss feeds from

websites, blogs and YouTube– little interaction (replies, RT’s) with

followers, although good exceptions

EFA & social media

EFA & social media

• 15 member parties are on – from 4 up to 694 videos– content: speeches at congresses,

manifestations and other meetings, interventions in parliament, interviews, propaganda presentations, debates, recorded tv-broadcasts, archive footage, …

EFA & social media

EFA & social media

• 7 member parties are on – from 200 up to 2064 images– content: pictures from events,

persons, campaigns, history, …

EFA & social media

EFA & social media

• Other social media:– FNP: Hyves (the Dutch Facebook)– N-VA, Alands Framtid: LinkedIn, a

professional network of party members

– Plaid Cymru: social media aggregator

EFA & social media

Building identity:• language

EFA & social media

Building identity:• language• sports

EFA & social media

Building identity:• language• sports• top-level domain (TLD)

EFA & social media

Building identity:• language• sports• top-level domain (TLD)• diaspora communities

EFA & social media

Building identity:• language• sports• top-level domain (TLD)• diaspora communities• cross-border cooperation

EFA & social media

Parties use social media to:• inform: news, activities, etc• promote: electoral campaigns• connect: with members and other

(EFA) parties• visualize cause & build identity:

region, minority

EFA & social media

Remarks:• Bottom-up vs top-down:

– community driven (LS) vs the feedflood– youth vs party establishment vs (UDB)

• Interconnecting parties: supporting cause vs conflicting ideas

• Activism: easy to join vs low commitment

Extra: social media preservation

Social media preservation

What do we need to preserve?• All vs storage costs and retrieval issues• Value: « do we need to preserve? »

– Social media duplicates: feeds– Unique content: user generated content,

conversations, social media enrichment– Archival value: legal, informational,

cultural, re-use – Research value: what do researchers want?

Social media preservation

How? The challenges archivists face• Providing access: accesible, indexed and

search-enabled

• Public content vs privacy• Copyright in the « cloud »• Linked nature of social media• API’s, real time capture, authorization

Social media preservation

Existing initiatives• International:

– Internet Archive– Library of Congress & Twitter– ArchivePress

• Private: Backupify

EFA 2.0

Tom Cobbaert * ECMI workshop * 04-11-2011

Questions?

http://tomcobbaert.eu