Posts Tagged ‘archiving’

Apples Time Capsule

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

How very annoying that Apple have called their new wireless hard drive Time Capsule. You spend ages trying to get the SEO right for your site and think to yourself, hey - Time Capsule can’t be that competitive a keyword. Then what happens, Wallop! one of the biggest marketing machines in the world brings out a product that shares your keyword and pushes you out to page 2 on Google.

On the positive side (which you must always look otherwise it all gets too much) maybe some of those looking for a time capsule from Apple will see our site and think to themselves, “hey what a fantastic idea” I will sign up to The100YearWebSite and create a real Time Capsule. Steve Jacobs has too much money anyway.

I have also been thinking. What happens to the data when the time capsule breaks down? I had an external hard drive go wobbly on my once and they wanted £700 to recover the data (the drive cost £120 in the first instance).  Suffice to say I just spent the next 3 months re loading all my cds back into itunes.

School Time Capsule

Friday, February 15th, 2008

We have had a number of schools setting up time capsules and so we thought it would be a good idea to write a post about the subject.

As always it is up to your imagination what you put in yours but some interesting ideas so far have been:

  • Get the children to write a piece about what they would like to be when they are older, they can then illustrate this and you can scan the work in. This will be an interesting piece for children to look back on when they are older.
  • One school have recorded a video where eadh child sits in front of the camera and says what they like about their school (a few also ad libbed and told us who their favourite friend was)
  • Take photos and videos throughout a normal school day, interesting topics include
  • Dance or Games
  • Reading with another year group
  • Arts and crafts (remember you can scan in any pieces of work)
  • Science
  • Another interesting activity is for the children to write about what they think the world will be like when they are older, flying cars, teleportation, they can draw pictures about what they think people will be wearing/how they will dress.
  • Maybe a project about their town as it is now for people to look at in the future.
  • School trips are a nice item to document in the capsule.

Unfortunately we feel it necessary to talk about the protection of children whilst producing the capsule (What a terrible terrible thing to have to do).

  • Never put a childs full name with a video/photo, a first name seems to be acceptable to parents.
  • Be mindful of the sort of images that are used, particularly games/dance
  • Just be sensible, dont let this topic put you off. Unfortuantely there are plenty of sites that cater to these weirdos, so they do not need to scour innocent sites.
  • Protect yourself (and it may be a legal requirement where you live) Get permission from parents to include their child in the capsule.

Now that topic is gladly over with we have also included below how the site applies to the UK school curriculum (If anyone would like to send us details about the US curriculum we will happily post it)

Information Technology
Pupils should be taught to gather information from a variety of sources.
Enter and store information in a variety of forms – written, videos, photographic.
Retrieve information that has been stored.

Pupils should be taught how to share their ideas by presenting information in a variety of forms.
To present work effectively.

Pupils should have the opportunity of working with a range of information and investigating the different ways it can be presented.
Talk about the use of ICT
Explore a variety of ICT tools. ( scanner, digital camera, video recorder etc)

.

History

‘History isn’t just about the past. It’s about why we are who we are – and about what’s next.’

Pupils should be taught to identify different ways in which the past is represented.
Understand changes in their own lives and the way of life of their family and others around them.
Communicate their knowledge and understanding of history in a variety of ways.

Geography

Should be taught to answer questions on what it is like to live in this area.
Observe and record information.
Use secondary sources of information (the capsule could be used in years to come)as they would be able to retrieve info. stored in variety of ways.
Pupils should be aware of their local environment and changes.

Science

Pupils must be aware of the main stages of human life – changes as they grow.

P.S.H.E

Need to be able to recognise what they like and dislike.
Share opinions on things that matter to them.
That they belong to various groups and communities, such as family and school.
Feel positive about themselves.
Literacy

Pupils should be taught to vary their writing to suit the purpose and reader.

The range of purposes for writing should include
a) to communicate to others
b) to explore experience
c) to organise and explain information.
Pupils should be taught the value of writing for remembering and developing ideas.

The range of readers for writing should include teachers, other adults, children and the writers themselves.

The range of forms of writing should include narratives, poems, notes, lists, captions, records, messages, instructions.
Speaking

Children need to speak clearly, fluently and confidently to different people.
They need to speak with clear diction.
Choose words with precision.
Organise what they are going to say.
Focus on main points.
Include relevant detail.
Listen, understand and respond to others.
Make relevant comments.

Check out some examples of school capsules by going to the100yearwebsite.com and typing in school to the search tool.

Mark your Love forever with a Time Capsule

Thursday, February 14th, 2008

Show someone you love them by sealing your love for 100 years.

Use a Time Capsule from The100YearWebSite to save all your special memories. Use photographs, upload your special songs, videos of yourself (steady now!!!!! - its not that sort of site), scan in tickets from special events you have been to. Even write yourself letters to open in the future.

Build up the time capsule over the years. Imagine the enjoyment this will give you when you look back on it in years to come. Saving your memories and looking back on them can help you remember why you were together when times are tough. Show your kids in years to come that mum and dad were young and carefree as well once upon a time.

Go over to the main site at The100YearWebSite and seal your love for 100 years today.

Even better, set up a time capsule on a day they will least expect it (but do make sure you at least buy them a card today)

The Arrow of Time

Monday, February 11th, 2008

Rumbled !!!!

In our post on the 7th February about setting up a baby time capsule we mentioned that one of the staff members here has had a great idea to take a photo of the child and family on the same day every year, he aims to do this for at least 20 years. This will be a really interesting piece of work that should be great to look back on in future years.

We have since found out that the person in question does not actually have their own brilliant ideas but instead came accross the idea whilst surfing the internet. Tea duty for the next 20 years !!!! Can you imagine, they actually let it slip whilst in a meeting with our MD (there’s Mondays for you).

This is still a great idea, and you can see the end result of 30 years of photos at The Arrow of Time (link to follow). An Argentinian photographer called Diego Goldberg has taken a photo of all the members of his family on the 13th June every year since 1976, when they are all put together it makes fascinating viewing. The first photos are just of him and his wife, then over the years you see the children appear and grow up. BRILLIANT!

After seeing this we have all decided that we are going to do our own version of this in our Time Capsules.

You can see the arrow of time at http://zonezero.com/magazine/essays/diegotime/time.html

Start your own online Time Capsule at The100YearWebSite

Baby Time Capsule

Thursday, February 7th, 2008

One of the most interesting and rewarding uses for The100YearWebSite is to set up a baby Time Capsule. As always you can set up the Time Capsule at any stage but if you can, try and start the time capsule during your pregnancy.

Below we have listed some of the ways people have used their baby time capsule and included our own thoughts and ideas for you.

  • Keep a baby diary week by week explaining how you feel.
  • Write messages to the child throughout your pregnancy, tell them how excited or nervous you are, it makes great reading when they are older.
  • Obviously photos are going to play a big part in the time capsule, make sure all your photos are accompanied by a description explaining when the photo was taken, what was happening in the photo, the more you write the more you will get out of it in years to come.
  • Include scans of any cards you get when the baby arrives and accompany these with photos of the people who sent them - when you include these photos describe the persons relationship to the family, maybe add the persons age and where they live.
  • Video messages from friends and family make really interesting viewing
  • One of the fun ideas that we have been told about was to video or write down and add predictions as to what you think the child will be when they grow up.
  • Throughout the childs life you can scan in pictures they draw, letters they write.
  • When you measure the child against a door frame or similar take a photos and add it to the capsule.
  • Snippets of their favourite tv programmes are always fun (make sure you get permission from the copyright owners, this is not as difficult as you think as this is not a sharing site)
  • Copies of their favourite nursery rhymes and songs
  • Scan in school reports and any medals, certificates they earn.
  • One of The100YearWebSite team is taking a photo of his niece every christmas day and is adding them to the capsule. In 18 years time they will be able to look back and see how the child changes and grows with a snapshot every christmas for 18 years.
  • You can put your baby time capsule in the public domain, password protect it for friends or family or even virtually bury it until a time in the future.

A nice example of a baby time capsule can be seen here.

As always we are keen to get any suggestions to add to this list, please use the contact us form on the main site.