The Amsterdam Historical Museum held an exhibition about the district from October 2003 to February 2004. Much of the information for the exhibition website came from archives, neighbourhood organisations, old peoples' homes, local residents and schools in the area. At the same time the local 'neighbourhood online' forum Buurtonline was searching for a project which would allow visitors to get to know both each other and the Internet better. The result was The Memory of East Amsterdam.
Following the success in East Amsterdam, the district of Geuzenveld Slotermeer in the west of the city has now developed an interactive cultural and historical website. Here too, visitors can read reminiscences of life in their district, in this case Amsterdam's 'garden city' of Nieuw West.

Everyday memories and the reminiscences of local residents make popular reading on the Internet. In east Amsterdam, local memories are being preserved on a district website. Personal stories and anecdotes help people get to know their neighbourhoods better. The successful project in east Amsterdam is now being followed by a similar initiative in Geuzenveld Slotermeer in the west of the city.
How do you make residents more involved in their own neighbourhood?

EAST:
The Amsterdam Historical Museum and Buurtonline run courses for volunteers on using computers, interview techniques and writing for the Web. Buurtonline makes its rooms available for editing and uploading anecdotes and reminiscences.

Volunteers from throughout East Amsterdam interviewed people from the district, i.e. from their own social milieu. They went into the district, made contact with other residents - young and old alike - and asked them if they had personal anecdotes, reminiscences or photos about the district.

WEST:
Residents and former residents can respond to the stories placed on the website. There is also space for people wishing to leave their own anecdotes and reminiscences, who can email the editors. Each story on the website is linked to themes and key words. Stories that come under the same themes and headings are automatically placed together. Clicking on a story brings up a list of stories on the same themes.

Naturally it is also possible to search using key words, and there is a search function on each page. The search engine selects both on the existing themes and key words and on the presence of these words in the texts of the stories. This means that users do not need to choose between set themes and key words but can simply indicate what kind of story they are looking for.

The website also has a Guest Book, where visitors can record their responses and communicate with each other. The Guest Book attracts an average of two to three messages a day.

Two lively websites. At the time of writing there are fifty-five trained story-gatherers in East Amsterdam. The scheme also pays attention to particular groups such as women and the homeless. There are also thirty 'free-range' narrators. The East website now carries over three hundred stories. Enthusiasm among participants is high and they are keen to continue.

In West the project made a ‘restart’ in January 2006. There are now about ten trained story-tellers and writers. Attention is paid to the same groups as in East (women, elderly, but also youngsters from all backgrounds). There is in West also cooperation with secondary schools, like the Nova College in Slotermeer.

12. What resources were used? Which of these resources were crucial? The project cost approximately EUR 30,000. The largest items are website maintenance and paying a professional editor. So far, costs have been borne by the district, a European subsidy and money from a special fund for projects of this kind (the VSB Fonds).

For 2007 and the onwards Stichting de Brug is now actively searching for ways to finance the project on the long term. EUR 50.000 on a yearly basis is the amount needed to provide the project with sufficient professional coordination.

City of Amsterdam, Local District of Geuzenveld-Slotermeer The Memory of East, Amsterdam
Juriaan Otto, tel. +31 20 8898230

EAST
Mariska van der Linden, tel. +31 20 6656622

27/12/2004

case

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Community development

Community websites