Hacking the Past: An Archives Game Jam

The National Archives in collaboration with the Bentham Project, University College London are coming together to create a game jam, focusing on games with a purpose (GWAPs). These organisations have experience of crowdsourcing the transcription of historical documents with the assistance of interested volunteers.  They have also been experimenting with the use of Handwritten Text Recognition software to automate the transcription of documents. However, the transcription of historical material can still be a time-consuming and complex task. The challenge for this Hackathon is to create imaginative and engaging games that encourage and help people to transcribe documents efficiently. These transcriptions will open up access to historical material  and make them discoverable for anyone interested in historical research. As a team you will be invited to create exciting games based on digital images from a diverse range of historical collections at both The National Archives and University College London.     Programme Saturday 23 February   09:30 - 10:00 Registration 10:00 - 10:15 Welcome and introduction Francesca Mackenzie (The National Archives) and Louise Seaward (UCL Bentham Project) 10:15 - 10:30 UCL Centre for Digital Humanities Simon Mahony (UCL Centre for Digital Humanities) 10:30 – 11:00 Historical documents at The National Archives Chris Day and Ruth Selman (The National Archives) 11:00 - 11:15 The Bentham collection Louise Seaward (UCL Bentham Project) 11:15 – 11:30 Icebreaker 11:30 – 13:15             Hacking 12:00 – 13:00 Introduction to Twine (tool for telling interactive non-linear stories) workshop Faith Lawrence (The National Archives) 13:15 – 14:00 Lunch 14:00 – 18:00 Hacking 14:00 - 14:30 Palaeography workshop (optional) Chris Day, Francesca Mackenzie and Ruth Selman (The National Archives) 18:00 – 18:45 Pizza 18:45 – 20:00 Hacking 20:00 Day closes   Sunday 24 February 09:00 – 13:00 Hacking 13:00 – 13:45 Lunch 14:30 Submission deadline 15:00 – 16:00 Teams present to judges (5 mins + 5 mins Q & A) 16:00 – 16:30 Judges deliberate 16:30 Winners announced 17:00 Event closes     FAQs What are the specific timings for the event? Saturday 23 February, 09:30 - 20:00 Sunday 24 February, 9:00 - 17:30   Why should I attend? A hackathon is an opportunity to meet people with wide ranging skill sets, learn, collaborate and create projects. Throughout the hackathon there will be talks and workshops with opportunities to learn more about paleography and technology. Most importantly it’s fun! Getting here Base KX is about a 10 minute walk from Kings Cross Station and 15 minutes from Camden Town. Who can attend? Everyone! If you have lots of creative ideas, a flair for the artistic, skills in technology and development, are interested in games or just love heritage and archives this is the event for you! Participants should be over 18 (but send us over an email beforehand if you’re under 18 and want to join anyway) Do I need to bring anything? It is strongly recommended that you bring a laptop. Other than that just yourself. Will there be food and drink? Food and drink will be provided throughout the day and evening, some of which will include pizza. Can I stay the night? Unfortunately we cannot host overnight stays at the venue.