1986 Domesday project, now on-line.

[maniac]

In 1986 the BBC launched an ambitious project to record a snapshot of everyday life across the UK for future generations. A million volunteers took part…

 

Now, 25 years later you can explore the archive online, see the pictures, update the information and make your mark on this fascinating record of our collective history.

 

You can browse the archive and contribute to the 2011 version here.

BBC - Domesday Reloaded: Explore, compare, update and share the Domesday Reloaded archive

 

And an interesting article about how they managed to extract the information from the now obsolete laserdisc format that was used to store it.

BBC News - Domesday Project reborn online after 25 years

 

Mike.

[Rawns]

I've had a nosy at my area and it's rather interesting.

[laptopsandspares]

looks good doesn't it? alas the area i was living in back then isn't included serves me right for being a country bumpkin I guess.

 

 

Good Spot, thanks for sharing.

[maniac]

If anyone's interested in the exact details of how they retrieved the origenal archive, there's a very long, but quite interesting article here.

 

The Domesday Project

[CHR1S]

The phone is a good idea but there is

one thing I don't like and that is the

bill! Some people deserve the price. My

mom does. She's on the phone from one

o'clock until we come home, and even

longer.

 

lol, some good reads

[CHR1S]

Generally women seem to do more house

hold tasks than men and girls are

expecto do more than thier brothers.

Was, ironing and cleaning the house are

done exclusively by women.

 

Ducks for cover.....

[penfold_99]

I'm surprised this has made it online, i was at a conference where the project leader from the BBC was giving a keynote as said it wouldn't see the light of day again as the BBC didn't have the rights to digitise all the photographs that were sent in.

[maniac]

There's a very lengthy document discussing the legal and copyright issues involved.

 

http://www2.si.umich.edu/CAMILEON/reports/IPRreport.doc

[bondbill2k2]

Ive been reading a few areas near me, pretty interesting. Shame theres so few pictures!

[Dos_Box]

Back in 2001 during a summer deployment I came accross a laser disc player in a cupboard and was told it was used with an old and very long binned BBC micro to show off this content. As it was a redunded piece of technology it got binned as the school no longer had the discs and it did not interface with any equipment we had. Several years later I heard they were screaming out for these players as only a few were left working and they needed them for this project!

Ooops.

[ButterflyMoon]

Awe wow I had three images accepted back then.

[Chillibear]

If anyone's interested in the exact details of how they retrieved the origenal archive, there's a very long, but quite interesting article here.

 

The Domesday Project

Actually strictly speaking the article extraction (and image captions) in the 'reloaded' version is a different extraction effort from Andy's work (although much of the reverse engineering effort was similar). The images on 'reloaded' are from his extraction work with the BBC on the 1" tape from which the laserdiscs were mastered. Not that it makes an end difference since it's all the same content!

[Sirbendy]

Hah, I recall it well.. We did a lot on this in Primary - we even had (and how well I recall it) the Videodisc player and the MASSIVE great videodiscs..I remember very nervous headteacher loading the disc, wearing white cotton gloves and trying very, very hard not to even breathe near it..

 

Ahhh...memories...

[Gibbo]

I looked at my area and the work involved in collating and typing up some of the contributions onto the Beeb came flooding back!

[Trapper]

Archive on Radio 4 documentary about the original project : BBC iPlayer - Archive on 4: Domesday Reloaded

 

My Secondary school had one, the entire school was Acorn. Those were the days! When the RISC PCs and A5000s were coveted by the geeks and the bullies in equal, but entirely different measures and fault finding the Econet could take days using a multimeter and a diving rod.

[sted]

econet 5 pin din networking lol

i remember school having a laserdisk player but not having it tied to a beeb micro all i rememberseeing on it is adverts lol