Hi everyone,
First a plug, but it's forgivable I hope as it leads to a real question for the experts gathered here.
The BFI has just launched our Britain on Film project on our BFI Player - http://player.bfi.org.uk/britain-on-film/ (simply put, this is a film digitisation project which has geotagged the selections and created a map interface) and we're already receiving information from users about content of the archival films - eg persons featured, filmmakers.
We're working out our approach to that information, to include a data capture policy and a data capture workflow. To be clear, this is not a crowdsourcing project with a formal agreement / t&cs, this is information received informally by email, social media, etc - and it is a side effect of the project, not a structured objective of the project.
One of the key questions for us is around unverifiable information which is not in the public domain, and which is supplied by people not necessarily directly related to the work in question or the participants. For example, if we are told the names of onscreen participants in an amateur film, by someone who knew them at the time of filming. Not relatives. And not two dozen people telling us the names, maybe only one person.
I'd be really interested to learn how other organisations have managed this issue in relation to non-public domain information obtained from members of the public, either solicited or unsolicited. Is there clarity in the Data Protection Act to help me in this, and if there is, has someone referred to it in a policy in this area? Do you capture any information from the public a permanent database? Do you capture it in fields specifically designed for unverified information? Do you surface it in any public applications? Do you require contributors to sign an indemnity? Do you trust information only from the person in question, or from close family?
For me the key sensitivity is around persons' names. I feel confident that we should and can capture public domain information eg location granularity, context of a historical event, etc. But I'm far from confident that persons' names should be captured unless they derive from that person.
Anything you can tell me would be gratefully received, before I define it from scratch.
All the best,
Stephen, British Film Institute
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