Curating the Internet for Life Online

Blogger: Anna Ward, Content Developer

Seven weeks to go before Life Online opens to the public. The physical build is coming on, looming shapes have appeared in the foyer, and upstairs in Level 7, walls are appearing. Our technicians are ready to fit screens, lights and speakers, and the office is a hive of activity.

Behind the scenes at this stage, everything needs polishing and signing off. There are bits of text to finish, films to check, interactives and animations to be tested and improved, and content still to collect. We are liaising with external agencies about design, animations and games, and with artists about their installations in our temporary exhibition upstairs. All the while we are talking to the press and helping our marketing and PR teams to get the message out about the gallery.

In short, we're busy!

There is one area which still needs a lot of work, but when I describe it, you won't think it sounds like work at all.



At the centre of the gallery there are three large projection zones. In the office we have been referring to these areas as the 'Cloud Browsers'... a meaningless name which has its routes in a long forgotten concept. They are Find Out More stations, with a twist. Because our gallery charts the history and impact of the internet, we need to represent the internet within the gallery. But of course, we cannot allow free and open access, especially not when someone's search results will be projected six feet high for all to see; so starts the job of curating... the internet!

Our Find Out More stations (the name is still up for debate - any suggestions welcome!) will expand on the topics explored elsewhere in the gallery. In them you will find articles produced by our curators, films made by our in-house media development team, and lots of relevant content streamed live from the internet. Hundreds of websites need to be found, checked for accuracy and interest and added to the relevant section in the Stations. For the next seven weeks I am paid to surf the web! Better get back to it...

Interviewing the Inventor of Email

Blogger: Anna Ward, Content Developer

In March 2012 our new gallery Life Online opens. Work starts later this month to transform the foyer area of the museum. Don't worry Games Lounge fans, a revamped lounge will appear upstairs.

The idea of the Life Online gallery has been around for several years. The core team, Joe Brook, Tom Woolley, and Sarah Crowther have been beavering away since 2007 collecting content, shaping ideas and trying to work out how on earth to capture something so formless in a museum setting.

The last year has seen the gallery really coming together and with the help of industry and academic experts, we have managed to pin down what we will say in the gallery and what it will look like.


Tom Woolley and Anna Ward

I came on board last April and have been helping the curators get their ideas down on paper, collect the images we'd like you to see, and capture on film some of the people who helped make the internet what it is today.

I was very excited last week to set up an interview with Ray Tomlinson.

Back in 1971, Ray invented something most of us use everyday without much thought. I for one would be lost without it – email. Ray sent the very first email.

He lives in Boston... our budgets don't stretch that far, so, very much in keeping with a gallery all about the internet, Tom, Emma Shaw (our media developer), and I piled into Emma's office – set up a laptop and interviewed Ray via Skype.

I didn't think I would be so excited, but it was a real thrill when the webcam panned around and focussed on Ray. He's a really lovely man who has obviously been interviewed many times before; very professional and succinct with his answers – it couldn't have gone better.


Ray Tomlinson and Tom Woolley

We received an email after the interview saying that Ray had very much enjoyed it and that the idea of using Skype was a great one. Sounds like we've done something no one has done before, yay team and yay for Ray!