Sound and Vision is looking for a million experts

January 23rd 2009

The Netherlands has millions of media experts and Sound and Vision would like them to start sharing their knowledge with each other on the Sound and Vision-wiki (Beeld en Geluid-wiki). Program makers, media scientists and viewers and listeners either know a lot about radio and television programs and about the people who pull the ropes or they have very specific knowledge about subjects such as radio technique or television design. A wealth of information that can be made accessible by and for all Dutch people on the Sound and Vision wiki.

Sound and Vision instigated the wiki in 2008 as a platform for knowledge about audiovisual media in the Netherlands. Around 2.000 films, radio and television programs have already been described and over 400 biographies can be found about TV-personalities: from announcers to actors and musicians. But the wiki also offers elaborate information on all kinds of subjects, such as the Dutch ‘Polygoon News’ and television prizes.

The wiki has been designed as Wikipedia and has been built with the same Mediawiki software. In 2009 Sound and Vision expects its first 50.000 registered users and the wiki will hopefully be consulted over two million times. Editors of Sound and Vision will lay the foundation, but external users have to add information. In 2014 the Sound and Vision wiki will include over 50.000 descriptions.

To point wiki wiki out to users, a promotion film has been made in which (amongst others) media expert an program maker Bert van der Veer discloses how the title Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden (a famous Dutch soap) came into existence and in which composer Stephen Emmer talks about the daily door bell in the news.

The Sound and Vision wiki is an initiative of Sound and Vision within the framework of Images for the Future. In this project, six organizations save an important part of the audiovisual heritage of the Netherlands through conservation and digitization. The digitized material will be made available to education and to the public as broadly as possible. By contracting expertise and knowledge and by sharing experience, the foundations assist in the renewal of the heritage sector.