2010 – A year in review

As the year heads towards its end, its a good time to reflect on what we have achieved in 2010.  For starters, we have officially set up our digital heritage consultancy – business cards printed, website online and CC registered!

Here are a few other things we’re proud of …

Projects

  • We developed an online archive of newspaper clipping and research resources for ccrri.  Read more …
  • We redeveloped the KZN Literary Tourism website, created an interactive literary map of KwaZulu-Natal and digitized a collection of literary videos. Read more …
  • We set up an OJS website for the Transformation Journal. Read more …
  • With Vuleka Productions, we produced the Memories from Inanda web documentaries. Read more …
  • We set up a mobile interface for the Ulwazi Programme.  Read more …
  • We developed a series of online, indigenous games (in Zulu and English) for the Ulwazi Programme.  Read more …
  • We continued with the hosting and management of the online components of the Ulwazi Programme, ESAACH and ccrri. Read more …

Training

  • We provided training for the Ulwazi Programme’s field-workers on digital media production and website management.  Read more …
  • We provided digital media and research skills training for the Trees and Memory programme.  Read more …

Workshops and Conferences

Niall attended and presented at:

  • Revisiting Apartheid Racial Categories: A Colloquium, Wits. Read more …
  • FAD Forum, Durban University of Technology. Read more …
  • Art and Social Justice Conference, Durban University of Technology.  Read more …
  • The Digital Archive and South African Heritage, University of KwaZulu-Natal. Read more …

Grant attended and presented at:

  • Quarterly Workshops, Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative, UCT. Read more …
  • The Archive and Everyday Life Conference, McMaster University, Canada. Read more …

Awards and Recognition

  • We won Best Green Blog at the SA Blog Awards for our gardening and environmental blog Sprig. Read more …
  • The Ulwazi Programme got a mention in the Innovations in Local Sustainability book. Read more …
  • The Mail&Guardian featured the Grey Street Writers trail in their guide to Durban. Read more …

Toward 2011
Thanks to our clients for the support this year.  We wish you a peaceful Christmas and New Year.

Next year promises to be exciting, with developing recognition of digital heritage in South Africa and some very interesting projects already lined up.  We are, however, always keen for new challenges so get in touch with us if you have a project that could benefit from our input.

Cheers,

Niall and Grant

2010 - A year in review
2010 - A year in review

Transformation Open Journal System

Working with the journal Transformation, we recently set up an Open Journal System (OJS) website – a journal management and publishing system that has been developed by the Public Knowledge Project.  Through the OJS website, we’ve made available all 73 back issues of the journal, digitized with assistance from DISA.

OJS is pretty great software with some nifty features and can assist with every stage of the refereed publishing process, from submissions through to online publication and indexing.

Transformation Journal Digital Archive
Transformation Journal Digital Archive

Transformation is an established journal serving as a forum for analysis and debate about South African society in transition, as well as the surrounding region, and the global context that affects southern African developments.

Website: https://transformation.ukzn.ac.za

Yoza Cellphone Stories

This is a really interesting project, using cellphone technology (MXit, Wap) to get kids reading and writing.  Yoza publishes a series of m-novels or short stories through their website that you can read (for free) on your cellphone.  Each main story is broken up into a series of chapters, which are published daily.  You can leave comments on the chapters and enter writing competitions (and win airtime – no doubt a good incentive!).  Users can also submit their own short story for publication on the site.

Wonder how many submissions and readers they are getting and whether it is beneficial being solely mobile-focused?  My experience, from the few mobile platforms we have developed for projects, is that we currently get about 5% of traffic from mobile devices.

Check them out at www.yoza.mobi.

Yoza Classics (and out of copyright)
Yoza Classics (and out of copyright)

Archive and Public Culture Workshop

I recently attended the Archives and Public Culture Research Initiative quarterly workshop held at the Jon Berndt Thought Space. It was an intensive three days in which a number of working papers from various disciplines, broadly relating to the archive, were presented. Papers included topics such as the early years of black radio broadcasts in Zulu, the Victorian postmodern in contemporary South African art and literature, possibilities for cultural recovery in southern KwaZulu-Natal and work on the Bleek and Lloyd Collection. The workshop is a constructive, academic yet welcoming forum for the presentation and critique of works in progress.  It concluded with the official launch of the Archive and Public Culture website and the opening of the Jon Berndt Thought Space.