Supporting creativity in networked environments: the COINE Project

Butters, Geoff, Hulme, Amanda and Brophy, Peter (2007) Supporting creativity in networked environments: the COINE Project. Ariadne (51). ISSN 1361-3200

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Abstract

This article describes an approach to enabling a wide range of users to create and share their own stories, thus contributing to the development of cultural heritage at the local level. Local libraries, museums and archives can act as mediators, providing advice, training and the necessary infrastructure. Cultural heritage has an important role to play in today's society. Not only does it help us to understand our past but it also has an impact on social development, the economy and education. Developments in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have provided new opportunities for the manipulation of cultural heritage. Digitisation of cultural material has widened access beyond the boundaries of traditional memory institutions and has provided scope for adding value to collections. The involvement of non-experts in creating recordings of cultural heritage, in whatever medium, so as to capture the experience of 'ordinary citizens' in their own terms, could lead to richer and more illuminating collections as new insights and previously hidden information is revealed.