The Digital Villages Research Network

Our second group of researchers, Amanda, Roger and Marion met at Carlin How Jubilee Hall yesterday for an introduction to the DVN by Paul and Carrie. It’s great to have new people coming on board and we are really looking forward to working in Carlin How and the surrounding area. It’s also fascinating to learn about the different villages and towns in East Cleveland. This group will join the first group of researchers in helping out with the ICT mapping. We are looking forward to our second workshop next week.

This is a bit of a test to see if this works and if it does we can start to map the distribution of community mapping tasks… These are the DVN researchers located in place. Click on the balloons to find out who is researching where.

The community researchers from Carlin How (Amanda, Marion and Roger) and Margrove Park (Marian with Margaret), along with Steve and Carrie, met again today to take part in the return leg of the photographic walkabout in Carlin How.

We rendezvoused at the primary school and started the walkabout at the pond and the railway line which leads to the steelworks.

After gaining some photos there we then went back via Amanda’s house where she showed us some photos of her house and the street when it was flooded. We then walked up to the row of village shops before crossing the road and going down to the bottom part of Carlin How to photograph the churches, Mount Pleasant, the steelworks and the beautiful coastline from the top of the cliffs.

Here you can see the jetty at Skinningrove and a little further on, the village of Skinningrove in the valley below.

The weather was mostly kind, with the exception of some strong gusts of wind. The walkabouts to date have been so interesting in terms of learning about local history and the researchers’ own experiences of their local communities. It has also been a good opportunity for cross-village networking and getting to know each other more. We hope that the resulting postcards will facilitate some great community stories.

Steve and I went to Margrove Park today to meet Marian and make plans for our first community photography day. The photographs will, with village members’ permission, be used on our digital postcards. We hope that the photos will inspire some interesting stories about local communities.

The community photography day, to be held next Wednesday (13th) – weather permitting – is open to all to take part. After discussion we decided that we should work in groups to photograph specific parts of the area. We will focus on taking photos that will faciliate community storytelling. Here’s hoping for a warm and sunny afternoon.