Nominet Internet Awards 2010
I am so proud to reveal that our very own amazing Cambridgeshire Community Archives Network (CCAN) was shortlisted out of many applicants for the prestigious Nominet Internet Awards 2010!!!! It was well deserved and I am so pleased that we have got recognition for our wonderful network. Thanks are due to all of you who have been involved in helping promote, use and contribute to Cambridgeshire’s biggest and best community archives website. Last night I attended the Nominet Internet Awards ceremony at One Whitehall, London along with our partners from Cambridgeshire County Council, represented by Steve Capes and Matthew Hall. The shortlisted applicants were requested by special invitation to attend the awards ceremony which was a spectacular evening of fine wine, champagne, incredible food and exclusive company.  Well done for all your hard work with the Cambridgeshire Community Archives! If you would like to know more about CCAN and take part or get a group going in your village/area please do get in touch!

shortlisted:

Cambridge Libraries and Learning Centres

www.ccan.co.uk

The Cambridgeshire Community Archives Network (CCAN) is a unique community-based project that has created a

cross-searchable network of digital archives. Staff from Cambridgeshire’s Library Learning Services team have assisted towns, villages and organisations in learning IT skills and recording and developing their own online

community histories.

CCAN is built around a specially created web site www.ccan.co.uk and now consists of 50 active groups. In just over two years, the site has grown to contain over 14,000 records that include photographs, stories, oral history recordings and videoed memories.

This project has enabled rurally isolated communities to join together in a common bond, to preserve their history, customs and heritage in a unique online format. This has

in turn enabled them to share their gathered history and culture internationally.

 

The Nominet Internet Awards Promoting UK Internet Best Practice The Nominet Internet Awards is an annual competition which is aimed at UK individuals and organisations who are helping to make the Internet a secure, open, accessible or diverse experience for everyone who uses it. These awards promote UK best practice and celebrate achievement and innovation on the Internet.

This year's winners include a variety of world-class projects from SignTranslate, a small organisation that has created communication tools that enable medical professionals to communicate with non-English speakers, to the British Library, which has developed an interactive timeline allowing users to explore history.

When we launched the Awards in February we set out to recognise and reward the organisations, groups and individuals whose work is helping to ensure that the Internet offers a secure, open, accessible and diverse experience for all.
Nominet went looking for examples of British creativity and
innovation in the use of the Internet and discovered a wide
spectrum of people and organisations that have tackled a diverse
set of challenges for the benefit of Internet users in the UK and
beyond.
This year we were delighted to receive a huge number of high
quality entries, across all five categories. Narrowing these down
to a shortlist, and subsequently selecting the winners was a
big challenge. Indeed I want to congratulate all the shortlisted
applicants. In a very real sense you are all worthy winners.
Now, I am proud to be celebrating so many examples of best
practice within the UK Internet industry and look forward to
highlighting their good work at the Internet Governance Forum
in Vilnius, Lithuania in November. The winning entries are sure
to spark lively discussions and add substance to the
international policy debate.

Rt Hon Alun Michael MP,

Chair of Judges,

Nominet Internet Awards 2010 Read more at:

Winners Brochure
 
There is an eminent and independent panel of judges Chaired by the Rt Hon Alun Michael MP.

Why does Nominet run an Internet Awards competition?

• To promote and develop industry best practice
• To learn from others and share our knowledge to help shape the future of the Internet
• To reward UK organisations or individuals who work to ensure the Internet offers a secure, open, accessible and diverse experience for all
• To recognise UK creativity and innovation in the use of the Internet and showcase these to the international community in the United Nations Internet Governance Forum

 Nominet is the Internet registry for .uk domain names. We operate at the heart of e-commerce in the UK, running one of the world's largest Internet registries and managing over eight million domain names.We maintain the register of .uk domain names. We run the technology which locates a computer on the Internet hosting the web site or email system you're looking for when you type in a web address or send an email to an address that ends in .uk.

http://www.nic.uk/

I've just been to the Cambridgeshire Association for Local History committee meeting held in Hildersham, Cambridge. We had a great meeting, always friendly and nice and today we had the added bonus of a lovely homemade cake being delivered by the secretaries mother. If all meetings were like this I think most people would be on some committee or other! As usual we covered a lot and got a hugh amount done. Next year will be our Diamond Jubilee year, so keep an eye out for information coming soon about our 2011 Conference, our celebration events, our AGM & Awards, excursions and jam packed programme of events and lectures!

Am now covered in big insect bites and calamine lotion from our explore of Sawston spooky, swampy wood on Sunday. That'll teach me to go walking in woods with flip flops on!
I have been back down the cellers of Cherry Hinton Hall this morning to gather up and rescue more of the archives which were discovered there a couple of months ago.
Cambridge International School now rent the Hall building from the council and the teachers and pupils there have been a fantastic inspriation. They have taken real care and interest in their School Building and the history of the site and local area. I went out to visit them a couple of months ago to take them some old maps, records and artifacts relating to the building and site. Also to show the children around the parkland and point out and show them all the lumps and bumps on the ground, telling them what we think is hidden beneath.
While I took some of the children round the park one of the teachers did a history trail in the Hall building which included a visit down the cellers. The children came up from the celler clutching handfulls of interesting old documents from the mid 20th century and paper work which they had discovered down there. There were things like old Folk Festival programmes from the 1970's, Royal Ballet tickets, City Council amenities records and all sorts. I then went down the celler to see where these had all come from and I found there was a very sizable amount of these documents all piled up on a ledge and some in old decaying wooden crates. The cellers, were vey dark - no electricity - and very, very damp, with running water culverts in places. The documents were in need of being removed and examined as soon as possible. So it was agreed that I could go back sometime soon and take the archives out and remove them to the Cherry Hinton Community Archives Group  (CHCCAN) for examination and if appropriate, recording and making public via our website.
A couple of weeks ago both myself and Jon Phillips (CHCCAN) went down in the cellers to begin sorting this lost archive out but not having electricity and the sheer amount which was there, we decided to take a sample of the archive and come back another day with re-enforcements and better lighting!
On Saturday the Cambridge International School was awarded a CYPHA award (Cambridgeshire Young Persons History Award) at the CALH (Cambridgeshire Association for Local History) AGM & awards in Toft, Cambridge. I put the school forward for this award as I was so impressed by the work the children had produced on their local area and the interest they had shown in the history and how the teachers had been so encouraging. You can see more about this on their website and more about the awards at CALH
Today I have been back to the cellers, along with Jon & Nicola Phillips to retreive the remaining archives. This time we had much better lighting (it is very spooky down in those cellers!) and we spend a good couple of hours ferrying the archives out of the celler to my car. There was so much! A lot had, sadly, been so badly damaged by water and had rotted but a huge amount was still fine - there was a lot of old council reocrds from the 1930's to late 1970's. Lots of interest, with things like parks and gardens records, items from the allotment society and records of the Cambridge Festival etc. My car was filled - literally! As so much of the material didn't actually relate to the Hall itself or just to Cherry Hinton village, I decided to give my friend Phillip Sauders a ring. Phillip is a well known Cambridgeshire archivist working at Cambridgeshire Archives (formally Cambrigeshire Records Office). I had a chat about what we had and asked him if I could pop up to Shire Hall to the Cambs Archives so that he could have a look and see if he was interested. He agreed, so off I went, car nearly touching the floor with the weight! (good job I have an old banger). Phillip and one of the conservators came out to the car and had a good look and decided they would be able to take the archives in and sort them out, which was fantastic news :)
Once they have had chance to go through them properly, Phillip will get back to me with an update and we'll see how it goes.
So all in all, I'm very pleased that we were able to rescue these documents before they degraded any further.