8 Jul 2011

Ghostsigns Survey

[THIS SURVEY IS NOW CLOSED, see the results here]

Just over a year ago we launched the History of Advertising Trust Ghostsigns Archive. From start to finish the project took exactly one year and this was made possible largely due to the use of online tools such as Flickr, Youtube and Facebook.

I always meant to write about my reflections on this process, what worked well and what I would change if I were starting the project again. However, time limitations and my move to Cambodia have resulted in this never being done. My planned talk at cilip also never came to fruition for similar reasons.

Luckily this strand of work has recently been reignited by Laura Carletti, a PhD student from Ancona in Italy. Her research at the Università Politecnica delle Marche and the University of Nottingham is investigating the use of online and social media tools in the creation and sharing of knowledge and learning. This is of interest to me on two counts, my own professional experience in learning and development, and because she has selected the Ghostsigns Project as one of two case studies within her doctoral research. Laura will also be presenting a paper on the Ghostsigns Project at a conference in China in September.

Laura and I have been collaborating for the last few months through her interviewing me about the project and analysing some of the data from the online platforms such as the Facebook page and this website/blog. In order to supplement this with some more wide-ranging research we have devised a survey to ask those with an interest in the project for their views. This captures some basic demographic information but then seeks to understand more about how people are using online and social media tools and the ways they have interacted with the project.

We would be very grateful if you would take the time (15-20 minutes) to answer the questions and assist with both Laura’s PhD and my own understanding of the project and those connected to it. The survey is available here and the deadline for completion is Sunday, 31st July. Once we have collected the data I will prepare and publish a short report based on its analysis and Laura will incorporate the results into her PhD thesis. I think it will be fascinating to see what comes back and the more people that respond the better the results will be. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

If you are more generally interested in the topic of how online and social media tools are being used for other archiving and research projects then I’d recommend having a look at the work being done by Horizon and the recent Growing Knowledge exhibition at the British Library.

Thank you in advance.

• Ghostsigns Community
• Research
• Survey