Reflections on the Imperial War Museum's permanent digital memorial
1. Reflection on IWMs’ Permanent Digital
Memorial
Catherine Long
Public Engagement Officer
Lives of the First World War and War Memorials
Register
2. - What is Lives of the First World War?
- How does it work?
- How do we build an audience?
- What is the legacy of Lives of the First World
War?
Overview
5. Objectives of Lives
To work with the public to piece together Life Stories to form the
permanent digital memorial which will be saved for future
generations.
Lives of the First World War is free to browse, free to join and free
to add to Life Stories – and always will be.
6. Key Messages
Official place
for discovery of
stories
Ensure people
understand the
impact of
conflict
More important
than ever
before
Commemorate
lives of
individuals
9. Launch – 12 May 2014
• Pageviews 315,509
• Sessions 47,701
• Regs 10,482
• Subs 121
• 1m/12m split 65/35
• Life story improvements 4791
• Image uploads 2257
• Email verification 91%
• Mails into customer care cir.550.
75% within the hour
10. Launch Day Press
Day of the launch,
- BBC Breakfast (National) on the half hour
- BBC Radio 5 Breakfast
- BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme,
- Woman’s Hour,
- 22 regional BBC radio stations
- ITV lunch time /evening news
- BBC London evening news.
- Telegraph, Times, The Sun.
The following days:
- The Daily Mail
- Various international news
- BBC London’s Robert Elm’s Show
- RTE Ireland History Show.
3 weeks following launch, incl.
- Who Do You Think You Are Magazine (First World War
edition),
- Huffington Post, Stylist, Family Tree Magazine and within
June’s Inside the First World War Sunday Telegraph
supplement.
14. ‘Dear Sir,
Please excuse me writing but if one does
not ask they don’t know.
On the 20th June 1919 I received a letter of
thanks from you for the photograph of my
dear boy killed in action. I have been to the
Imperial War Museum but cannot find the
photos of our boys only those in groups –
perhaps I have somehow missed them –
but if it is of no use to you I should be glad
to have it sent back. I do not want to feel he
is just put on one side. I am sure you will
quite understand my meaning. It’s a
mother’s sacred love for her dear one. I
should like to feel I can tell my friends that
he is there with all his comrades. He was
only a boy but God love him he well did his
duty.
Sorry for troubling you.
Yours faithfully
(Mrs) E A Tickle’
15.
16. • Created by Friends of Lives of the First World War
• Connect Life Stories together
• Examples: family, school, sport, workplace, location,
military unit, memorial
COMMUNITIES
23. Development
Beta testing: February – 12 May 2014
May 2014 (during beta testing): Communities
12 May 2014: Launch
June 2014: Remember button
October 2014: Timelines on life story pages
May 2015: Member-to-member messaging
July 2015: First remote volunteers recruited
September 2015: Adding new life stories / merging life stories
24. How do we build an audience for
Lives of the First World War?
26. Visitor
- Browse the website for free
Member (free account)
- Access over 7 million free records
- Connect evidence and add facts
Friend
(subscription: £6 per month, £50 per year)
- 7 million Free records
- 15 million Premium Military records
- 327 million Premium Civilian records
27. Volunteers
22 volunteers
Being able to research and record … extraordinary stories of
courage, hard work, sacrifice and determination … is a huge
privilege for me and spurs me on. I particularly like it when my
research helps a member of the public to 'find' and commemorate
a relative who was last heard of over 100 years ago. Ann
Within the group we have folks who have years of experience
behind them in the fields of family, military and social history. We
all share a two-fold commitment: the first is to ensure that
information in Lives is accurate and evidence-based; the second is
to help other members to get the very best out of it. Michael
28.
29.
30. Public Engagement
Examples of Outreach activity
2014 – BBC World War One At Home Tour 2014. We delivered
7,071 taster sessions to 15,116 members of the public
2015 – Arts and Humanities Research Council World War One
and its Legacy workshops. We led sessions with 30 participants in
Nottingham, and 20 participants in Canterbury.
2016 – Stonyhurst College Somme Schools Conference. We
engaged with 150 students and 20 teachers
31.
32.
33.
34.
35. Anniversaries and Key Dates - 2017
January – March
- Silvertown Explosion
- Women’s Land Army created
- National (later Imperial) War Museum founded
April – June
- Battle of Arras
- First daylight Gotha bomber raids on Britain
- Battle of Messines
July – September
- Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps officially established
- Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele)
- Continuing conflict in Middle East
October – December
- End of Third Battle of Ypres
- Battle of Cambrai
- Women’s Royal Naval Service created
36. Social Media
Channels created in October 2013
Lives of the First World War Facebook:
11,000 likes
LivesOfWW1 Twitter:
14,000 followers
41. What is the legacy of Lives of the
First World War?
42. Legacy
Lives of the First World War will remain live and active, until spring
2019, when IWM will take ownership of the Life Story database,
assets and stories. This data will be integrated into iwm.org.uk to
create a permanent legacy for the project, which will always
remain free for the public to access.
Between now and the end of the project, we will continue to
encourage public contributions to the site, via press, social media
and engagement events.
43.
44. Whose Life Story will you discover?
- Find your own family members, or people who
share your surname
- Find people listed on local war memorials
- Choose a name from the site to research
The permanent digital memorial to men and women from across Britain and the Commonwealth who made a contribution to the military or civilian war effort – whether they died during the war or survived the conflict.This includes those who were born in other countries, e.g. USA, but served with British and Commonwealth organisations.
Video often first impression of Lives
IWM history – crowd sourcing for 100 years
We only charge for access to premium genealogy records that are always behind paywalls on the net.
Position within 14-18 centenary activity – focus on stories as part of commemoration activity: faces to names on memorials, building pictures of names from a family tree.
Platform for individuals to share research – centralise and preserve memories and records for perpetuity. Reliant on public contribution to enrich life story records.
Evidence based – ‘how do I know this truth?’ Pass on a rich and accurate legacy to future generations. Before you can add a fact to a life story, we ask that you first find and share the evidence that proves it.
Lives of the First World War is the official place for people to discover the life stories of the over 8 million men and women from across Britain and the Commonwealth, who served in uniform and worked on the home front.
With the First World War passing out of living memory, it is more important than ever before that we remember their lives for future generations.
Discover the remarkable stories (personal, local and extra-ordinary) and commemorate and remember the lives of the people who lived, died, fought and contributed to the First World War.
Since its foundation in 1917, IWM has continued to ensure that people understand the impact of this global conflict and how it shaped the world we live in today. Join us in creating and sharing this dynamic, permanent digital memorial.
Academic Advisory Group
‘The crowd will be diverse and interesting’
‘The scale of the project will pose challenges for drawing boundaries around it’
‘Is beating the drum for free, non-paywalled access – very pleased to be involved’
UCL
Lives partnership – IWM responsible for promoting the resource, engaging with audience; FMP responsible for developing and maintaining the website
List of organisations who have contributed to Lives (funding – Charles Skey: Teachers Hub; providing access to records – Pearce CO Register; promoting resources – FWW Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme)
Remember function
Contributors
Sharing capability
Connecting IWM stories and resources
Evidence
Engaging IWM material with wider audience
Hornsey Historical Society
Community of 110,000 users, but also communities of individuals with connections
Stables family, from South Yorkshire – 9 members
HSBC War Memorial, London, to former employees (also Barclays, Co-op)
Football Remembers (also cricket, rugby)
Bottesford, Leicestershire – HLF community projects
90th Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, officers and men of FWW
Teachers Hub launched in June 2015 to support secondary teachers to use evidence based historical enquiry and real life stories. From date of launch to 21 December 2016 , Teachers Hub has received almost 8,500 page views.
Resources include introductory presentation, relevant life stories and activity plan. These include creating a mini exhibition, encouraging creative responses (poetry, art, drama) and primary source analysis.
By creating free accounts, teachers and students can also add photos and stories passed down through the family, or contribute research on a former pupil or local serviceman.
Themes include Remembrance, Beyond the Western Front and The Battle of the Somme. We will be creating a Third Ypres offering for the centenary of Passchendaele.
Tailored to Key Stage 3 history curriculum. Responsive to the national curriculim (Injuries, treatment and the trenches – Edexecel)
Volunteer teacher – help to shape content of the Hub and promote resources with her peers.
Records:
Free records: CWGC, Canadian Expeditionary Force, Midland Bank
Military Record: Service records for British Army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force
Civilian records: UK census returns from 1881-1911, Marriage and Death indexes
Conscientious objects register 1914-1918, National Roll of Honour Ireland, Harold Gillies Plastic Surgery Archives
Signpost to further research tools and guides
Context for life stories – theatres of war, military abbreviations, Royal Navy structure, a day in the life of a munitions worker
Beta testing - individuals joined at Who Do You Think You Are Live – Olympia
Engaged individuals to test the Lives site pre-launch, provide feedback
Many of those individuals went on to be active users, and later volunteers
Firstly by understanding who our audience is.
Curious – stimulated by media stories and comes via search engines. Interested in the First World War but needs a content theme to stimulate this interest.
Call to action – ‘Search, discover and share millions of remarkable life stories and find out more about how the First World War shaped the world we live in.’
Seeker – will be used to using tools like ‘Lives’, will probably already have discovered their connection to the FWW and will delight in finding them publicly available on Lives.
Call to action – ‘Find your family’s life stories among the millions of records from museums, libraries and archives across the world’
Explorer – will use Lives to find out if they do have a personal connection to the FWW. Through Lives they will have access to search tools and a unique collection of content.
Call – ‘Explore how you are connected to the millions of life stories waiting to be discovered online’
Expert – a key content contributor, the Expert uses Lives to carry out new research and as a repository for all their information. Interested in gaining recognition for their work from other Lives audiences including expert peers.
Call – contribute your knowledge by linking records from across the world and help change for future generations the way people discover how the FWW impacted on the world we live in.
Support 110,000 users to get the most out of their Lives experience
Forum responses, improving life stories, removing duplication, adding new life story pages
All volunteers have individual projects along with supporting other users.
Trevor and a few others – Jutland Remembered as of 30th January 22,765 names from the Battle of Jutland now in Ship communities – 23,853 names in total identified
Volunteers sharing Jutland research with volunteers at the National Museum of the Royal Navy
Remember WW1 awards – November 2016
Army and Navy Club
National Recognition award for preserving the legacy of the First World War.
Traditional notion of supporting family research
Computers available at both IWM London and North granting users full access to Lives records on site.
Stonyhurst College Somme Schools Conference
Interacted with school children through object handling and story with connection to their school
Woking Family History Fair – November 2016
Promoting Lives and WMR alongside each other
BBC Breakfast – wider engagement about IWM activity with Lives signpost
Martin Middlebrook papers – ‘The First Day on the Somme’
Tie engagement and social media with key anniversaries – tap into existing interest and drive traffic towards Lives
Also, 2017 is UK-India Year of Culture – we are posting each Wednesday about an Indian story
Engaging with new audience, reinforcing connections with existing users
Post popular Facebook post – Harry Patch, anniversary of his death 25 July 2016
In excess of 400 likes, 250 shares and 25 comments
Light and shade – 22 Push Up Challenge
Ties in with user and volunteer research, guest blog posts and public engagement