JISC

The Strand is one of the oldest streets in London: among its lines are the Roman road of Akeman Street; the Saxon boundary of Aldwych; the medieval thoroughfare linking the City and Westminster; the sites of Tudor palaces; an eighteenth-century location of coffee-houses, learned societies, taverns, brothels, the New Exchange and Thames-related traffic. Find out more about the Strandlines project and the community that exists around a single street in central London by visiting their website.

  Overview

Bringing together the academic community of King's College London and members of diverse local groups, Strandlines will initiate engagement around a place in the heart of London, the major thoroughfare 'the Strand', which has at present little active sense of community.

The Strandlines pilot will be part of a wider programme of activities around 'the Strand' (across College and local communities) that will ensure its sustainability beyond the funding period. By engaging with and helping elderly and disadvantaged members of the local community to make their voice heard both locally and on-line, the Strandlines project will contribute to the agendas of digital inclusion, lifelong learning and widening participation.

Aims and Objectives

• Through its activities, the project aims to widen participation, engage the public and to contribute to the agenda of life long learning and digital inclusion, specifically by empowering less privileged and technologically less literate members of local communities to find their own voice in the setting provided by Web 2.0 and life writing.
• The project will explore the possible benefits of trying to include under-represented groups; by understanding the risks and acheiving more effective participation.
  
• Through documenting this process, including the challenges encountered and lessons learned, the project will contribute to a better understanding of community digitisation projects.
• Working with different groups, the project will create a new body of life writing in a digital, specifically Web 2.0 context, and will provide support for less computer literate and less articulate members of local communities.
  
• The project will develop an interactive website, embedded in a Web 2.0 context, and an accompanying programme of activities that will enable different communities to 'write' about how their lives intersect with the Strand. By jointly building a collection of digitised and born digital materials, we will create a living archive of life stories past and present. 

Outputs

•  The Strandlines website  
• A collection of digital materials (including stories) relating to lives on and around the Strand, embedded in the Strandlines website
• Technical and supporting documentation
  
• A methodological workshop
  
• A historical workshop
  
• A series of events and activities organised and realised in collaboration with project partners
• A case study on methodologies and lessons learned through the project
  
• A sustainability plan
  
• A final project report