I decided to start a journal about my new project on my old project website. I think there is something to be said for making tools.

Many of you know about the new Remember Buffalo project but if you haven't checked it out, please access that page for a brief description of the project.



I has all the promise of an extremely elaborate project that should be fun for many types of Buffalonians from all age brackets. As a user, it doesn't require the same kind of time commitment as a blog and is accessible while on the go to provide mobile entertainment.

So far there are about 5 people involved in the creation and deployment of the project but it seems more like 20 are going to be needed. This Saturday we are having a brainstorming creativity facilitation lead by Mary Kelly from Buffalo State's Creativity Studies Master's program about the development process, etc. If you are interested in the being a project collaborator after reading the project site, please contact me as soon as possible, it would be great to have you at the facilitation, where we are going to officially define the project some more.

There is a pre-beta version of one form of memory collection interface available on the remeberbuffalo site. you can get there on the site by clicking on the "submit a memory" link at the top of the page.



Anyone can also post suggestions for the project on the suggestions page.



The first items that need to be addressed are who is going to be on a board of directors, how can we become an offical non-profit and how can we get some grant money. Even without grant money this project can be very successful, however, money could make it scale significantly.

(e:matthew) is going to be handling the photography for the project and I plan on taking care of most of the technical work, but there remains many other things that need to be done. For example, I would like someone to work on a documentary about the project so that people know about the project and visit the project site to ad memories. We will also need PR people, grant writers, people to take memory surveys at old folks homes. Someone to head up a Spanish speaking memory translation, people to help with organising and editing data, someone to make phone calls and write letter/press releases, etc.

(e:mike) had a great idea to get cross-generational support for the project. He suggested that we try and get middle school students involved by working with their history teachers. That way they can collect many memories from the old people that don't use computers, but have many very interested memories of Buffalo as was. It encourages both the children to learn to use computers in a non-video game like format, teaches writing skills, and promotes children talking to old people. For the old people, it can make them feel involved in something modern and technological and perhaps even inspire some of them to begin using technology that they previously hadn't considered.

Is anyone a social studies teacher, or does anyone know someone that could help us realize this goal?

On another note I am going to use the (e:strp) api to make this journal available on the rememberbuffalo.org site. If you want our journal on your site, please check out the (e:strip) api