Spring is back in the northern hemisphere and FIAT is just
preparing its first activity in an Arab country, i.e. the
Tunisian Seminar from April 24th - 27th, 2002 in Tunis. For
me it's not only a symbol of building bridges between
different cultures, but also a step in the right direction.
Especially after September 11th we need more dialogue and
not polarization.
But back to FIAT policy: One month after Tunisia, the
annual FIAT/IASA Meeting will be held from May 22nd - 24th
2002 - this time in London. This is, again, also a step in
the right direction. The convergence of media through
digitization is increasing rapidly and more and more radio
archives are brought together under one umbrella with
television archives. Following this seminar about sound
digitization the Antalya preparation committee will meet to
fix the detailed schedule of our General Assembly and World
Conference in Turkey on October 12th to 16th 2002.
So you see, it's also Spring time for FIAT activities all
over the world!
Last, but not least, I want to inform you about the
development of the ORF digital newsroom project. We are now
already supplying the digital, non-linear production
environment with the required archive material directly
online by digitizing the sequences that are needed in the
archives and sending the digital video files to the
production servers. That means that one doesn't have to
order analog tapes anymore and no more collecting, viewing
and copying is needed. We are also directly represented in
the newsroom. The official job title of our content manager
position in the new workflow is documentation editor. These
archive documentation editors order the material at their
desktop and their archivist colleagues - which are now in
the same category as research assistants - look for
appropriate shots in the tapes, create the corresponding
files and then digitally offer them to the production team in
the new newsroom. After some small kickoff problems the
practice of this workflow proved successful and I hope that
it will stay this way when the complete workflow of the
newsroom is digitized. The targeted official start was
postponed a few times but now the start in a few weeks seems
realistic.
Once again, this shows the problems that
especially FIAT members are confronted with. The digital
revolution cannot be stopped, but it is more complicated
than everyone assumed. Everywhere reductions of big concepts
are being made down to what is actually possible and
everything needs more time than one expected at the start.
But yet again, this may be the chance for all those who have
to cope with the totally changed everyday archive duties.
But this is also a general chance for FIAT members, who all
have their own problems, to discuss their mistakes and
experiences and pass them on to others and learn from them.
In this sense "Aufwiedersehen" in Tunis, London or Antalya.
Peter Dusek
FIAT/IFTA President
Dear Colleagues!
