1. Exploring Europe's Television Heritage in Changing Contexts
Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
'Why Digitise and Make
Available? What Is All This
For?'
Why Digitise and Make Available?
What Is All This For?
JOHN ELLIS
PROFESSOR OF MEDIA ARTS
ROYAL HOLLOWAY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

2. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
THREE STAGES IN THE
HISTORY OF DIGITISATION
FIRST: Access and availability seen
as good in themselves
THEN: Criteria of content selection
and organisation
NOW: Reaching out to users

3. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
EUSCREEN AND USERS
• Finding users
• Researching their requirements
• Designing appropriate interfaces

4. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
OUR DEFINITION OF USERS
• Education: primary, secondary,
higher (including research)
• Media Professionals
• Cultural Heritage Institutions
• General Public

5. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
USER DEFINITIONS
Generic definitions
Groups with their own cultural aims
Using assets as television content:
Informing
Educating
Entertaining
... a great mission that dates to the
earliest days of television

6. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
ALREADY SOME
SURPRISES...
USE IN LANGUAGE TEACHING
AND LEARNING
• Sections of authentic everyday
speech on real issues
• Wide range of accents and dialect
• Can see the gestures that
accompany speech

7. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
LANGUAGE LEARNERS &
TEACHERS
Specific group in and beyond formal
education
Have their own particular needs
Probably will want to repurpose
material at some point e.g.
• Extracts
• Added text or commentary
• Even embedding in VLEs...

8. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
VLE EMBDEDDING IN
EUSCREEN?
An online academic journal
Able to quote extracts from Euscreen
assets
Analysing programmes from many
points of view
Demonstrating the history of TV with
quotations from TV’s history

9. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
OTHER POTENTIAL USERS

10. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
REMINISCENCE THERAPY
Already established for use with
Alzheimer’s and Dementia patients
• Slows memory degeneration
• Combats depression
• Encourages socialisation
• Requires regular sessions

11. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
REMINISCENCE THERAPY
Uses objects and music to provoke
memories and discussion
Generations for whom television was
a central part of their lives
But television material is hardly ever
used...

12. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
“Silver surfers”

13. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
... So we need to make this
happen!
Do we need a further project to
define these socially important
but specific uses...
and to find their users?

14. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
AND WHAT IF...
Users see our content
not as television
but as data...

15. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
BRUCE FORSYTH

16. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu

17. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
A LONG CAREER IN THE
PUBLIC EYE...
... is also valuable, possibly unique,
data on the ageing process
We can examine Bruce Forsythe as
a man of 20 and a man of 80:
– How does his physiology change?
– How does he move differently?
– When do signs of degeneration
appear, if at all...

18. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
TELEVISION AS
MEDICAL DATA
Euscreen could also be used as a
vast repository of
longitudinal medical data
unavailable anywhere else

19. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
IMAGINE OTHER USES...
a depository of data about spaces
at particular times in the past
– Use in Planning: how the space has
worked in the past?
– Use in construction: what are the
hidden hazards of industrial heritage?
Could be used in mash-up with other
material...

20. Exploring Europe's Television Heritage in Changing Contexts
Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu

21. Exploring Europe's Television Heritage in Changing Contexts
Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
Depends on two factors:
‘Ordinary television’
Everyday television rather than the great
works, the classics, the canon...
29-06-10

22. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
and METADATA
Crucial for any reuse of TV material
as data
Must be:
– As accurate as possible
– As comprehensive as possible
– As searchable as possible

23. Connected to:
Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus programme www.euscreen.eu
This is the huge potential of our
project.
Thank you.