Digital archive creates lasting legacy
We want to encourage people to use the online archive and share the stories so future generations can better understand the lives of their predecessors and the challenges they faced brought about by war.
The BBC’s World War One At Home tells the story of life on the Home Front and it’s digital offering will play a central role, bringing together the BBC’s local radio programming in one place. The World War One At Home portal will be the home of this wealth of output and will provide audiences with a truly interactive and more personal story of the war.
The first phase of the project sees 230 World War One At Home stories launch on the 24th February at bbc.co.uk/ww1, with over 1,000 stories set to launch during 2014 and hundreds more to come by 2018 – building an unparalleled digital archive of audio, video and imagery of World War One stories for people to enjoy whenever or wherever they are.
Each local story will focus on a specific place, showing how UK streets, towns, villages and cities changed during the momentous events of World War One. Audiences will be able to browse stories from across the UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands, to find out how their area's experience contrasted with those elsewhere, and discover the nationwide experience of the Home Front.
The WW1 At Home portal will organise local stories by place (a BBC local or national radio station) or by theme (such as War in the Air, Women, Medicine, Working for the War, Sport or Animals), making it easy for people to browse the archive and find stories that connect to the people and communities where they live, as well as exploring other places across the UK.
Each World War One At Home story will be shareable via social media through the local BBC sites, ensuring that these personal stories can be re-told and live on for generations to come. World War One At Home will provide a valuable local and national perspective to the BBC's WW1 digital offering across programmes, news and as well as new BBC iWonder Guides, showing the impact of global events on the local experience.
Katherine Campbell, WW1 Producer, said: “We’re proud to be able to bring local stories together to create a more personal connection to the war experience for our audiences. These will show how the momentous events of war affected communities right across the country and how events on the Home Front influenced the bigger picture of war. This collection will reach over 1,000 by the end of 2014 and remain online – to become a valuable collection of shared knowledge and assets.”
