Editing BBC Domesday Project (section)

{{Short description|Crowdsourced born-digital description of the UK, published in 1986}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{more citations needed|date=February 2011}}
{{primary source|date=November 2023}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
[[File:BBC Domesday Project Community Disc initial screen.jpg|thumb|1986 ''Domesday Book'' running on its original hardware]]

The '''BBC Domesday Project''' was a partnership between [[Acorn Computers]], [[Philips]], [[Logica]], and the [[BBC]] (with some funding from the [[European Commission]]'s [[European Strategic Program on Research in Information Technology|ESPRIT]] programme) to mark the 900th anniversary of the original ''[[Domesday Book]]'', an 11th-century [[census]] of [[England]]. It has been cited as an example of [[digital obsolescence]] on account of the physical medium used for data storage.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://science.slashdot.org/story/02/03/03/1821227/1086-Domesday-Book-Outlives-1986-Electronic-Rival|title= 1086 Domesday Book Outlives 1986 Electronic Rival|first= Timothy|last= Lord|date= 3 March 2002|work= science.slashdot.org|publisher= [[Geeknet]]|location= Mountain View, California|access-date= 23 March 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| last1 = Cohen| first1 = Daniel J| last2 = Rosenzweig| first2 = Roy| author2-link = Roy Rosenzweig| title = Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web| url = https://archive.org/details/digitalhistorygu0000cohe| access-date = 23 March 2011| date = 30 August 2005| publisher = [[University of Pennsylvania Press]]| location = Philadelphia| isbn = 978-0-8122-1923-4| chapter = Preserving Digital History| chapter-url = http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/preserving/| url-access = registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/cyber/overview.php|title= Lost in Cyberspace: The BBC Domesday Project and the Challenge of Digital Preservation|first= Douglas|last= Brown|date= June 2003|work= Discovery Guides|location= Ann Arbor, Michigan|access-date= 23 March 2011|archive-date= 7 September 2011|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110907074527/http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/cyber/overview.php|url-status= dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.suzannekeene.info/conserve/digipres/tech.htm |title=Practical challenges: Technical obsolescence |first=Suzanne |last=Keene |year=2006 |work=Now you see it, now you won't: Preserving digital cultural material |publisher=Suzanne Keene |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060831170742/http://www.suzannekeene.info/conserve/digipres/tech.htm |archive-date=31 August 2006 |access-date=23 March 2011 |url-status=usurped }}</ref>

This new [[multimedia]] edition of Domesday was compiled between 1984 and 1986 and published in 1986. It included a new "survey" of the [[United Kingdom]], in which people, mostly school children, wrote about geography, history or social issues in their local area or just about their daily lives. This was linked with maps, and many colour photos, statistical data, video and "virtual walks". The project also incorporated professionally prepared video footage, [[virtual reality]] tours of major landmarks and other prepared datasets such as the 1981 census. Over a million people participated in the project, including children from more than 9,000 schools.<ref name="newscientist lamb 1985">
{{cite news
| first = John
| last = Lamb
| title = Programming the first generation
| date = 1985-03-28
| publisher = [[IPC Magazines]]
| work = New Scientist
| page = 36
| quote = The BBC’s Domesday project, which involves 9000 schools, is one example of how information retrieval programs are used. The project is an attempt to produce an up-to-date version of the original Domesday book. Schools will collect and store information about their local communities on their own micros and then forward their findings to a central team. Eventually the data will be transferred to a videodisc, to mark the 900th anniversary of the original census in 1086.}}</ref><ref name="acornuser198509">{{ cite news | url=http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Mags/AU/AU_Sep85_CountdownToDomesday.pdf | title=Countdown to Domesday | work=Acorn User | date=September 1985 | access-date=29 November 2020 | last1=Nairn | first1=Geoff | pages=16–17 }}</ref>