Hi all
It all feels uncomfortably like 'showing off' but the key point I wanted to get across is that it's the data that made it what it is. Access to that data, open licensing, and freedom to re-use collections and archives content can achieve
incredible impact once you can link it all together (and in no way is any of this 'linked' data, but more what I'd call 'linkable'!)
To summarise the post, I built what I thought would be just a small demonstrator of what could be created if you linked up various First World War data sources. 48 hours later it had had nearly 200,000 unique visitors. Three weeks on and
that figure stands at 435,000 with over 3,500 tweets sharing the a link to the site, and probably ten times that figure or more on Facebook. Over the course of the first 48 hours the site crashed, was migrated to a new server, upgraded, and was still suffering,
but at the same time a quick 'sorry' message combined with a crowdfunding appeal raised enough money for six month's enhanced hosting! Aside from the numbers though, the reactions on social media have been really heart warming, seeing what people have discovered
through this.
More detail on that, and some thoughts about what happened and possibly why it worked, are in the post.
I'm currently talking with a few people about next steps, especially bringing in new data sources (this project so far has actually barely scratched the surface). Also exploring possible funding opportunities - all suggestions welcome.
On a final note, thanks to several people within the sector for support since then, but a special mention has to go to James Grimster of Orangeleaf who was messaging me early on a Saturday morning giving me some very timely and sound advice
to help tweak the site performance. You have to love this community!