I know it sounds like all I do is play. But I must reassure everyone one that I am working too. First off, what is it that we're doing? Well, we are in the first phase of working on building the digital national archive here in Namibia.
First task is to make sure everyone is communicating and understanding what that all means. We have been working with the Namibian National archive, Polytechnic University, their IT and Media departments, news stations and just about everyone it seems like.
We want to make sure there is cooperation and communication, otherwise this isn't a project that will last long. We have been divided into groups. My group is in charge of the oh so lovely task of archive cataloging. Vicky, Kenjii, Joey and me are working on naming conventions. Basically, creating a user and archivist friendly workflow to store files in. We have the difficult task of creating a file name.
The issue, is that we have thousands of records that are an audio, video, images, photos-- just about everything it seems like. I am writing key people at the Smithsonian and the LDS Archives. They should give us a good direction on how to do it or get us closer to a good solution.
It's difficult, because the archive is going to be for everyone, not just Namibians. We want names that make sense to anyone. We also have to deal with 13 ethnic groups and several languages. Also we have different belief systems like Christian and native beliefs. So there are a lot more elements involved than just dates.
The others are working on templates and getting prepared to actually scan images. We are essentially doing all the setups and presets for the Namibian students for the rest of the year. On Monday we set up the studio and so now they are learning some of the software.
Thursday we will be actually in the National Archive and will be able to go through the boxes. Warner, the archive director will be taking my group through and showing us how they file their names. That could possibly give us a clue of how to best name the files.
On a much lighter note and I will probably get a lecture from my parents, I took a motorcycle tour around Windhoek. I have about 25 minutes of video of me cruising! It was great, Vicky took me and showed me a couple of places not on the tourist route necessarily. We visited where the Miss Universe 1995 was held, University of Namibia (UNam) and then we went to her radio station. She is a regular DJ there.
She let me goof off with the radio equipment and I did a fake interview. I got to watch the DJ Headrush do his ending to his show. Then Noodle did his beginning to his. Very cool, I have never been to a radio station or for that matter, ever road a motorcycle. I can get use to this life. Maybe I will stay here for a bit longer...
As for the cafeteria food, things have been getting weirder and weirder. Yesterday for breakfast we had scrambled eggs and fish sticks. At 7:30 in the morning, I had to pass on the fish sticks.
Well, this is Emily Hedrick with Radiowave 98.7 signing off.
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