Australian Screen Online goes 2.0

[Matthew Davies]

Hi. Just letting you know that Australian Screen Online - the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's screen culture website - has just been relaunched with some basic of web2.0 functionality including discussion groups etc.

[Christian van der Ven]

The website looks very nice! I am especially interested in the community aspects of the site and -- from my point of view -- the role of the staff/archivists.

Do they moderate the forums/discussions/comments/etcetera? Do they actively join the conversation? Are there policies for this communitymanagement?

[Matthew Davies]

Yes, the staff do actively engage in discussions, as do the contracted "guest curators". Moderation is really only to remove offensive comment - users must be registered before they can post to the site and this is considered to be a reasonable protection against SPAM and other spurious content. Policy for staff contributions is still developing, and will be extended to the NFSA's general site once it is re-built to include community features such as blogs, tags, comments and discussion forums.

In many cases we expect staff will initiate discussions, but they will also respond. For example we expect users to have comments about selection of material for the site, or to ask why only short clips are shown. The staff will use this as an opportunity to explain the curatorial process, and the limitations of our ability to place material online caused by copyright law etc.

[Christian van der Ven]

@Matthew: Thanks for your reply! Sounds like they're creating an active community "down under". I'm happy to hear more about their experiences, if there is any info available, since we're trying to do the same in our archives. I'm sure we could learn from you all!

[Matthew Davies]

I'll add more information as it comes to hand. I will be much more directly involved when NFSA's main site is re-launched next year with similar functionality to the Screen Online site.

[Christian van der Ven]

@Matthew: Great, thanks! I'm looking forward to it!

[Sherri Berger]

Thanks for posting this, Matthew. We are also thinking about 2.0 functionality on our site and it is great to hear from your experience.

[Kimberly O'Sullivan]

I love Australian Screen Online and have found some fabulous things on there which I have used in my job. I love the new 2.0 functions. Thanks!