Commissioning scenarios

Pulse

A online living archive that provides a platform for users to reflect on and contribute to the changing nature of British society.

But the PSP's commitment to Pulse is to create far more than a digital vault - it also provides the framework for an editorial layer that mines this web of social, oral and documented histories. Initially Pulse would work with communities, individuals, historians and existing archives to seed Pulse's content. Editorial projects would be commissioned to create original content around particular themes of contemporary or social importance or to curate thematic or geographical areas of Pulse. For example, Common Ground is working with Pulse to extend its Campaign for Local Distinctiveness.

Pulse is a framework and a socially engaged editorial proposition. The PSP has committed funding to develop the architecture and provide the editorial and management team with a commissioning budget for three years. But to succeed Pulse will be delivered, exploited and ultimately sustained through partnerships. One of the early projects is to populate the archive with content liberated from the BBC's 1986 Domesday Project - an early example of a user generated archive presently unavailable to its contributors. Pulse will make it nationally accessible and updatable by anyone with a mobile phone. Technology partners will provide digital storage and platforms and Pulse will work with the JISC funded Digital Curation Centre on preservation standards. Partnerships with broadcasters, publishers and RDAss will promote particular campaigns, market and distribute Pulse content and broaden access.

Pulse embodies the PSP's creative and public purpose: it provides an innovative participative service which builds on current trends in user behaviour but throws into the mix the editorial values of public service content. It is permeable, personalised and location sensitive and will be as living and diverse as the communities that build it.