www.notrehistoire.ch: Building a collective audiovisual memory

Summary form only given. The family pictures and films constitute the very first audiovisual global fund. This heritage presents as many individual life traces as the essential component of a collective history. Digitization is widely used today by institutions, but also by private individuals. Together, it is possible to highlight these documents on the Internet and build the social and cultural history of a country, a region, a city, a community... That is the editorial project carried out by www.notrehistoire.ch, dedicated to the French-speaking Swiss audiovisual archives. The platform gathers and combines documents (pictures, films, sound recordings, stories) from family archives and institutional funds in a refined editing environment, supervised by a moderator. As a “work in progress”, these archives enrich interest groups related to personalities, places, events and daily life facts to create the French-speaking Swiss collective memory. The platform favors the sharing of knowledge, helps connecting generations, social categories, private individuals and institutions (libraries, museum, radio, television, etc.). www.notrehistoire.ch is also a social network that gives its members the opportunity to take part in a project of public interest. It is a unique platform in Switzerland. Free of charge, in the service of the community, it is edited by the Foundation for the Safeguarding of the Audiovisual Heritage of the Swiss Radio Television (Fondation pour la sauvegarde du patrimoine audiovisuel de la Radio Television Suisse, FONSART). In terms of statistics, since its creation on October 29, 2009 in French-speaking Switzerland (1.2 million inhabitants): 41'300 archived documents (39'000 pictures, 1'200 videos, 1'100 audios); 2'350 members, 17 institutions (Swiss Radio Television, RTS, ICRC archives, League of Nations archives, International Labor Office archives, etc.), 728 interest groups, 850'000 visitors from 160 countries (Switzerland, France, Belgium, Canada, United States...), 8'100'000 views. www.notrehistoire.ch offers a smartphone app (Iphone, Android) which uses geolocation to discover pictures and films from the place where they were made at the time. An Ipad app is currently being developed. By using web technologies and the main social networks, www.notrehistoire.ch shows that a simple tool and a coherent editorial project favors the conservation and use of audiovisual archives. The platform allows the public to become actors in the construction process of a collective memory, it supports the sense of belonging to a community and the sharing of knowledge. Moreover, this project documents the present and reflects on the evolution of our society through the valorization of singular histories. The project and activity of www.notrehistoire.ch face the challenges related to the Universal Declaration on Archives.