Paper short abstract:

In 2016 we launched a web based collection platform that offers both contributors and collectors new opportunities. I will present the new features, how the contributors have been using them, and the work that lays ahead of us to get the new tool to function properly.

Paper long abstract:

Norwegian Ethnological Research is a cultural archive specialised at collecting reports from private persons regarding topics of the everyday life. The method can be characterised as mass interviews by correspondence. In recent years, the method has been adapted to digital communication, and October 2016 we launched a website tailored for this line of work.

The website introduces some novelties. The correspondents get the option of publishing texts and images at the website minner.no (memories.no). The last 20 years new legal and ethical standards have made it increasingly difficult for researchers to collect and publish people's personal stories. We believe the new website can be a means of untangling this knot. Both the laws of intellectual property and the laws of personal privacy revolve around the concept of consent, and if something is going to be published at minner.no, it is the author who has the authority to push the button - or not.

The author also gets the option to edit or delete a text he or she previously has submitted, and if you at first decided that a contribution should be for research only, you can later change your mind and publish it anyway. Giving such authority to the author is not technically advanced, but in the work of cultural archives, it is radical. In the paper, I will take a closer look at both the reasons for and the consequences of this move.