[game_preservation] Project Discussion: Oral Histories

[Devin Monnens]

Dean,

I'd love to hear more about how you have been conducting interviews. I am
interested in doing an oral history project on the history of game
development in Colorado, so anything I could learn from you would be very
beneficial.

-Devin

On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 1:06 PM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>wrote:


> It'd be a pleasure for you to take on the project if Henry agrees :) You'd

> need to have an IGDA.org account to edit the wiki, which no doubt would have

> the IGDA's information on how to get involved (for developers) which you

> might need to sort.

>

> Hopefully there'll be other efforts in the future which the project can

> keep up with - like Rachel's contributions, and other's. I doubt there'd be

> any competition if anyone else wanted to "use the list" of available

> developers - there's more developers then people working in all the game

> history community :)

>

> I can check with someone at the IGDA about putting a call out in a

> newsletter (which goes out monthly) or as a news piece, when the appropriate

> time comes up to publicise it - you can obviously actually write the details

> if we're able to do this :) Feel free to make edits to the wiki, or suggest

> how you want it to work here first if you like (I can do wiki editing as

> needed of course too, I do so for the other projects).

>

> For hosting, I'd love a mirror of whatever files be made available on the

> Internet Archive, we have collections for interviews, which these would be

> awesome to add to. :) It'd be all credit to your team though, and rights

> reserved as you'd like, of course. It mainly helps make it available, which

> was one of the projects aims when initially thought out.

>

> Andrew

>

>

> O'Donnell, Dean M wrote:

>

>  Sorry, I subscribed and have been a bit inundated with other things, so

> only noticed this when it popped up just now.

>

>

>

> Introduction:  I'm on the faculty at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the

> Interactive Media and Game Development program.  We've been working on an

> archive that focuses on New England developers.  My colleague David Finkel,

> and our archivist, Rodney Obien spearhead that project.

>

>

>

> The Oral History Project:  I work with oral histories.  Specifically, each

> year I train some students to collect and record them.  I work with Jason

> Scott on this (he's local to us), and he's been willing to host our raw

> footage while the students edit and compile by person and subject.  The work

> has gone slowly mostly because I'm still learning and I start with new

> students every year.

>

>

>

> Next year we'll have 6 or 7 oral histories collected, which seems like

> enough to go "prime time" and set up a web page.  We'd welcome the backing

> of the IDGA and making it a joint effort of the IDGA and WPI seems like a

> perfectly reasonable way forward.  I have the students, the equipment, and

> the web hosting; the IDGA has developers.  We've been dealing with local

> developers and that can continue for awhile (Boston has a pretty good

> community), with work on how to expand beyond our area as part of next

> year's project.

>

>

>

> I would be happy to head the this project for the IDGA as long as the list

> doesn't mind when every fall I call for volunteers or introductions to

> developers to be interviewed.

>

>

>

> Best,

>

> Dean

>

>

>

> ____________________________________________

> Dean O'Donnell     Associate Director,

> Interactive Media and Game Development

> Dept. of Humanities and Arts   WPI

> dodo at wpi.edu

> Phone: 508-831-5947

> Fax: 508-831-5932

>

>

>

> *From:* game_preservation-bounces at igda.org [

> mailto:game_preservation-bounces at igda.org<game_preservation-bounces at igda.org>]

> *On Behalf Of *Andrew Armstrong

> *Sent:* Friday, February 06, 2009 2:35 PM

> *To:* IGDA Game Preservation SIG

> *Subject:* Re: [game_preservation] Project Discussion: Oral Histories

>

>

>

> I left this open but no one has replied. Another bump, we do have some new

> members.

>

> This project is, really, a bit too practical for the SIG to do "by

> volunteer work" as all SIG's operate (with most of our work going on

> online). With no money, and no one seeking out sponsorship, donations, or

> funding, we don't have any equipment (nevermind manpower and transport) to

> do this actively, even though it is an excellent idea, and we'd likely be

> able to find interested developers to participate.

>

> So, perhaps it can help by cataloguing other efforts in the area,

> preserving them on the Internet Archive, and helping logistically and with

> advertising the service. If anyone also did want to do histories through us

> somehow, having the final result freely available online or in an archive

> would be invaluable. This is tough to setup without people who are in

> industry available to be "on call" or to sign up, and without people who

> want to do the recordings in the first place! It's a lot of work on both

> sides (finding time for both, and possibly major travelling, preparing and

> researching, equipment, post-production...)

>

> Therefore, this project is going no where with no active interest. I

> personally can put forward weekend time and possibly take days off to record

> things, but since I have no videocamera I can't help directly. I would like

> to investigate setting up a signup form for both sides - the interviewers

> and interviewees so we can get a good list of people (and their location,

> what they did) to do interviews with, and who to send, and get people

> talking this way. There is a possibility that this is better done

> informally, however, or maybe through the new IGDA site which is mainly

> forum based (with mailing lists possible, just really being forum posts

> being sent to accounts, with replies being allowed), and thus developers

> would easily be able to get involved with the SIG and discuss it on forums

> or via. PM's/email.

>

> There was some possible interest from Dean O'Donnell from WPI, who is

> running an oral histories project with student help. Other then this I know

> of no proper active oral histories project, save Jason Scott's GET LAMP

> documentary, which is basically edited oral histories (which I hope he puts

> online in full :) ).

>

> Andrew

>

> Andrew Armstrong wrote:

>

> This is coming on from our previous discussion over spring cleaning the

> SIG.

>

> *Oral Histories*

> Status: *On Hold*

> Currently lead by: *No one. *

> Short description: *Interviews with industry people related to their past

> works. Brought up at GDC 2008, but currently has no assigned project lead.

> *

>

> Concerns raised previously:

> - Aims of the histories, contents, etc.

> - What to ask (I brought this up before)

> - Who can do them

>

> Someone to work on this or start organising a team of people would be good.

> Logistically this is the hardest project to manage, and technically we have

> no resources to fund it at all, meaning it requires heavy volunteer work.

>

> People suggesting information, examples of existing histories done, ways to

> get this going, and so forth are welcome. Basically bring whatever you like

> to the table, it's an open discussion.

>

> Andrew

>

>

>

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