Mashup mania

Something that came out strongly at the SoA conference this year was the fear and caution with which archivists usually approach digital access of their material via the web. And then the Australians do this – a Mashup competition held by the Government 2.0 taskforce. Unsurprisingly, seeing as Adrian Cunningham is on the taskforce, the National Archives of Australia is participating by making some of their material available. But what? Catalogues? Actual images of historical government records? Other participating archive repositories include the Australian War Memorial, Powerhouse Museum (who also have a member on the taskforce) and State Libraries of both Queensland and New South Wales.

Mashup Australia aims to be a practical demonstration of the benefits of providing easily accessible information created by the Australian government. The ‘About’ section of the site reveals that similar contests have been held in America and the UK. The UK Power of Information Taskforce ran a competition last year called “Show us a better way”. The Taskforce was looking for better ways for public information to be communicated.