The edge of their seats

The People’s 50 Million vote http://www.thepeoples50million.org.uk/home has whittled down to four choices:

Sustrans Connect2 network of cycle and walking paths

The Black Country Urban Park http://www.voteblackcountryup.co.uk/

Sherwood, the living legend http://www.robinhood.co.uk/

and The Edge http://www.theedge.org/index.htm

It’s a really difficult choice when all the projects are so important. We need ancient forests to be protected, we need to see the regeneration and interpretation of our industrial heartlands, and we most definitely need to make walking and cycling easier and more pleasurable. However, having met the artistic director of the Eden Project, Sue Hill, I feel fairly certain that our votes should be going to The Edge for a visionary forward-looking project that will have an impact way beyond its locality. We urgently need a space in which all the elements of designing a sustainable future can be explored in synthesis and in spectacular, affective ways. These elements are technical, societal, natural and so on, but also aesthetic and emotional. An important aspect of making the Edge work in raising mass awareness will be extending everything that it exhibits and explores beyond the physical site in Cornwall to a wider audience. It could be a fantastic focus for an ongoing TV programme and a major distributed education project.

Culture24

Here is news from Jane Finnis, director of the 24 Hour Museum:
“The organisation that publishes the 24 Hour Museum and Show Me websites changed its name to Culture24 at a special celebratory event hosted by Secretary of State, James Purnell at the DCMS on November 26th 2007. Since the independent charity started publishing in 1999, online technologies have changed beyond recognition and we have consistently pioneered new approaches and fresh thinking to help benefit the sector.

The new name reflects the fact that we are not just about museums – we’re about arts, heritage, archives and libraries, too. It also marks the beginning of a period of change and improvement that will see our family of websites rebuilt, renamed and relaunched in spring 2008 using
a new technical platform called the Integrated Architecture Project (IAP).

The IAP is a joined-up approach to digital strategy, converging a range of developments into a single, coherent offer. The result will be a unified ‘infrastructure’ for creating, managing and sharing information. It is created in partnership with MDA, with the support of MLA, DCSF,
ACE and VisitBritain.

Once live, the IAP will provide a publishing system that will power a range of partner websites and enable data to be shared simply and quickly. For now though, although the organisation’s name changes to Culture24, it’s business as usual at www.24hourmuseum.org.uk and www.show.me.uk, where news, reviews and features continue to go live.

The IAP is being built by System Simulation Ltd (SSL) and will be completed in Spring 2008. The first sites to go live will be the new Culture24 and Show Me websites. Followed by Engaging Places, the Subject Specialist Networks, Museums & Galleries Month and Untold London.”

It’s really good to see this joining up role, inclusive outlook, and sensible technical strategy. I hope that Culture24 will be able to explore the possibilities of the IAP being the platform for further key cultural sites.