(PDF) Addressing the Need for a Collaborative Multimedia Database of Maltese Music

Journal of Music, Technology and Education Volume 2 Numbers 2 and 3 © 2009 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/jmte.2.2-3.89_1 Addressing the need for a collaborative multimedia database of Maltese music Toni Sant University of Hull Abstract Keywords This article is a position paper addressing the author’s plan to build a collabora- collaboration tive multimedia database of Maltese music. The proposed collaborative project will digital archives use wiki technology to capture a living archive of past, present and future works Internet resources of interest in connection to music from and in Malta. Such a project raises vari- Malta ous critical issues related to intellectual property rights, preservation policies and postgraduate research techniques, technical infrastructure strategies, and other similar topics. Research wiki on these issues is directed through specially developed postgraduate research stu- dentships, which will ensure the project’s longevity. Contemporary Maltese popular culture consists of an interesting compen- 1. The National dium of colonial traditions and postcolonial reactions. The lack of schol- Archives of Malta’s mission statement is arly research in this area makes it possible for cultural memory to fade available at www. into anecdotal legend, at best, or at worst become forgotten and lost for- libraries-archives.gov. ever over time. The problem is evident even without delving back into a mt/nam/general_info. htm. Accessed 19 distant past. The liberalization of broadcasting in 1991, after over 50 August 2009. years of state-funded monopoly within the sector, has given rise to a glut 2. See Allmalta.com of uncollected documents and data, which have increased exponentially created, maintained with the recent proliferation of digital technologies and the Internet. The and edited by John J. rise in output can be felt particularly through the amount of popular Cassar in Glasgow, Scotland, available at music being produced and recorded now in comparison to similar activities www.allmalta.com. just 20 years ago, when Malta had only one radio station, one television Accessed 19 August channel, three or four record shops, and only a couple of multitrack 2009. recording studios. The National Archives of Malta aim to preserve the collective memory of the Maltese nation, and they have a remarkable collection of records – written documents, maps, photographs, moving images, audio material and electronic files. However, collections at Malta’s National Archives are closed for 30 years before they are made available to the public. This means that there is no public access to any records of contemporary popu- lar arts, even those financed by public funds. Furthermore, the acquisition of private records is not one of the priorities of the National Archives, even if there is a declared official interest in any documents that might have a certain degree of national importance.1 Significantly, there is no cohesive multimedia database or any other sort of collection of most Maltese music. Minor but noticeable exceptions exist for some elements of traditional folk music,2 a sprinkling of popular JMTE 2 (2+3) pp. 89–96 © Intellect Ltd 2009 89 JMTE_2.2-3_art_Sant_089-096.indd 89 6/15/10 10:44:48 AM 3. See Music, a Malta- mainstream releases,3 one commercial radio station with nationwide based website by Code Design, available at reach,4 and two alterative record labels established within the last five www.music.com. years or so.5 More recently, sporadic entries on MySpace,6 Facebook7 and mt and The Lib66 a handful of other social networking websites8 have enabled musicians to Homepage of Malta Music created, main- easily distribute their work to new audiences. In the ad hoc process of tained and edited by making so many new recordings available to a larger public, it has become Michael Bugeja in evident that there is a clear need for a comprehensive repository, which Malta at www.lib66. tk. Both sites accessed amounts to a substantial collaborative multimedia database of contempo- 19 August 2009. rary Maltese music and associated activities. 4. Bay Radio 89.7 FM The proposed database project can be approached in three phases: launched Bay Bands preparation, implementation and elaboration. in 2009 as a way for Maltese music acts to submit their tracks 1. Preparation: This part of the project is essential for the work to start, and to the radio station. it consists of two key elements. One relates to the technical requirements See www.baybands. involved in the principal methodological tool, and the other involves com.mt. Accessed 22 August 2009. establishing a clear, sustainable policy for the strategic gathering of data for the database. 5. Reciprocal Records 2. Implementation: Phase two starts by capturing detailed information is available at www. reciprocalrecords. about live performances and recordings from shows, studio sessions, and com. Pinkpube is public releases on CD and through the Internet, along with photos, post- available at www. ers and other similar materials. The database also needs to collate details pinkpube.com. Both websites accessed of all the technologies used to create and document music – from the 19 August 2009. equipment used for recording and live performances, to individual web- 6. Available at www. sites and social networking websites used by both artists and their fans. myspace.com. 3. Elaboration: If data for this project are captured systematically, they Accessed 19 August can serve as the basis for a broader collection within a relatively short 2009. period of time. More importantly, however, they will help establish an 7. Available at www. ongoing research base with a pedagogical dimension closely associated facebook.com. Accessed 19 August with postgraduate research projects. The research projects will subse- 2009. quently feed back into further development on the database itself. 8. Examples include Reverbnation at The principal methodological tool www.reverbnation. Contributions to the collection should come from the same people and com, Last.fm at www. last.fm, SoundClick venues creating the original artefacts in collaboration with their admirers at www.soundclick. and private collectors. This methodology stems from developments spear- com, and MP3.com headed since 2003 by the Wikimedia Foundation,9 a non-profit charitable at www.mp3.com. All websites accessed organization best known for Wikipedia.10 As with the mission of the 19 August 2009. Wikimedia Foundation, the proposed project should aim to develop and 9. See www.wikime- maintain open content, through a wiki-based project, and to provide the diafoundation.org. full contents of the project to the public. This is easily achieved through Accessed 17 August the creation of a specific multimedia wiki and regular solicitation of par- 2009. ticipatory networking. The instant the data start trickling in, they can be 10. See www.wikipe- analysed for content, discourse and network flows. This analysis should dia.org. Accessed 27 August 2009. lead to the acquisition of further contributions and the expansion of the database beyond obviously related entries. 11. For a full history of WikiWikiWeb A wiki – derived from wikiwiki, the Hawaiian word for quick – is a and other details prime example of a collaborative technology that operates in direct corre- see http://c2.com/ lation with social networks. Wikis are designed to facilitate conversational cgi/wiki. Accessed 27 August 2009. knowledge management and group collaboration. Ward Cunningham created the original wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, in 1994.11 In 2001 he 90 Toni Sant JMTE_2.2-3_art_Sant_089-096.indd 90 6/15/10 10:44:48 AM co-authored The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web with Bo Leuf. 12. See www.wiktion- ary.org. Accessed However, the Wikimedia Foundation has led significant developments 27 August 2009. with this technology since 2003. Aside from the ubiquitous Wikipedia, the 13. See www.wikiq- WikiMedia Foundation also operates some of the largest collaboratively uote.org. Accessed edited reference projects in the world, including Wiktionary12 (a multilin- 27 August 2009. gual free content dictionary in every language), Wikiquote13 (a repository of 14. See www.wikisource. quotations, proverbs, mnemonics and slogans), Wikisource14 (a multilingual org. Accessed collection of texts distributed as free and open content), and more impor- 7 August 2009. tantly Wikimedia Commons15 (a central multimedia repository that hosts 15. See commons.wiki- close to five million multimedia files). The server-based software used for all media.org. Accessed these wikis is called MediaWiki.16 27 August 2009. Wikis owe their success in large part to the ease of creating and editing 16. Available as a free pages containing information about a specific theme or anything else download at www. mediawiki.org. its users are interested in. MediaWiki is particularly popular through its Accessed 27 August use for Wikipedia, of course, but also because it is licensed as free software 2009. under the GNU General Public License. Although the MediaWiki software 17. WYSIWYG stands for package is written in PHP, knowledge of this programming language is ‘what you see is what only required of system administrators. Other MediaWiki users do not you get’. A web- based WYSIWIYG need to know or learn PHP to add or change data in the wiki’s database. editor enables users This is done easily through a web-based WYSIWYG editor17 or a simple to format text into the markup language called wikitext, which makes knowledge of web author- way they want it to be seen by others. ing essentials like XHTML or CSS unnecessary. Collaboration and community-building are at the heart of any wiki. Although a MediaWiki installation is designed specifically to allow any- one to add to or edit material in a particular collection of electronic files, it is not uncommon for wikis to organize a hierarchical system for moderat- ing submissions and to control irrelevant rambling or contributions from misleading sources, and even to curb vandalism. Specific pages or sec- tions of the database can simply be frozen if this is deemed necessary. Furthermore, regular database backups and MediaWiki’s ‘revision his- tory’ feature allow for easy reversal of any unwarranted tampering or inappropriate contributions. While the wiki methodology remains problematic, or at least controver- sial, for anyone who values fixity and authoritative sources above anything else, wiki technology and the cultural dynamics associated with it are sig- nificantly present in new media studies. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (2006) by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams is the first extensive study of the topic in book form. Tapscott has been commenting on the paradigm shift brought about by the Internet since 1992, but in this book, co-authored with Williams, the emphasis is on the idea that collaboration through wikis and similar technologies of mass cooperation is having a noticeable impact on various socio-economic spheres. Marketing author Seth Godin (2008) argues that Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has embraced an unconventional leadership style, based on forming movements out of tribes of like-minded people. According to Godin, Wikipedia’s success owes much to the way Wales chose to con- nect contributors to one another ‘with ever-evolving technology that made it easier and easier for them to engage and communicate’ (Godin 2008: 24). In the process, Wales has given Wikipedia contributors a platform they can use to engage others to not only consume their work, but also join Addressing the need for a collaborative multimedia database of Maltese music 91 JMTE_2.2-3_art_Sant_089-096.indd 91 6/15/10 10:44:48 AM 18. See www.fsf.org. them in enhancing it. Similarly, in Zittrain’s The Future of the Internet Accessed 20 August 2009. (2008), Wikipedia is discussed as a notable example of generative technol- ogy, aligning it with the Free Software Foundation,18 which advocates 19. See www.ina.fr. Accessed 26 August sharing towards collective benefits (Zittrain 2008). 2009. All social media utilities, including wikis, blogs and online social net- working websites, support and thrive on content generated by their users, 20. See www.baylor.edu/ lib/gospel. Accessed rather than a central authoritative source. Many of their core functions 26 August 2009. are being used to facilitate knowledge sharing within ‘communities of 21. See www.videoac- practice’ (Lave and Wenger 1991; Wenger 1999). This term comes from tive.eu. Accessed scholars who observe participatory informal learning among ‘groups of 26 August 2009. people who share a concern, a set of problems or a position about a topic, 22. For recommenda- and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting tions on space data on an ongoing basis’ (Wenger et al. 2002: 4). Groups that operate this system standards, see the Consultative way are united in a shared commitment to common topics and through Committee for the importance found in discovering new things cooperatively. Wenger et Space Data Systems’ al. trace the history for such communities back to the earliest knowledge- Reference Model for an Open Archival based social structures of early human societies involving survival con- Information System: cerns. They later manifested themselves clearly in the craftsmen of ancient Blue Book – Issue Rome, the guilds of the Middle Ages and in families. This view sees learn- 1. Available at public.ccsds.org/ ing as a social participation characterized by the creation and exploration publications/ of identity through individual and collective meaningful experiences in archive/650x0b1.pdf. communities of belonging. Accessed 24 August 2009. Basing itself on the working models of communities of practice created by the WikiMedia Foundation, the proposed collaborative database of Maltese music has the potential to develop into a living archive of works produced by Maltese musicians and associated aspects of popular culture, such as radio, television, theatre, visual arts, sports, dance, and other related arts and popular entertainments. The creation of the proposed collaborative multimedia database will benefit greatly from a close study of similar projects. The French Institut national de l’audiovisuel,19 the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project housed at Baylor University in Texas,20 and the European Commission’s eContentplus-funded programme Video Active21 are three large-scale ini- tiatives with similar aims. While they may employ assorted methodologi- cal tools and operate under different conceptual parameters, these projects share one common goal: they all seek to preserve endangered cultural memory for future generations. Although the WikiMedia architecture and software implementation is being recommended for adoption on this project, further data-gathering models must also be considered. This would necessitate the involvement of an existing archival repository, such as the University of Malta’s Library or the National Archives of Malta. While the wiki technology fulfils one principal function of the provision of more comprehensive archive serv- ices, that of providing widespread dissemination of independently under- standable digital objects, it does not satisfactorily address the second: providing long-term preservation for those artefacts, both digital and non- digital.22 The longer-term storage of the highest possible fidelity copies or versions of digital objects is also known as dark archiving because it is not meant for public access. These dark archives may be used for the purposes of disaster recovery, or for generating copies of objects at lower fidelity for 92 Toni Sant JMTE_2.2-3_art_Sant_089-096.indd 92 6/15/10 10:44:48 AM more general access. This process can also be part of the way commercial 23. See www.fedora- commons.org. intellectual property is protected from general misuse during its term of Accessed 24 August copyright. Repository projects such as the Fedora Commons23 attempt to 2009. address these issues (Lagoze et al. 2006). An ongoing technical appraisal of the proposed database will also allow for fine-tuning of the software, and may indeed generate software architecture/organization overhauls in the medium and long term. Developing associated postgraduate research projects Such a project raises various critical issues related to intellectual property rights, preservation policies and techniques, technical infrastructure strat- egies, and other similar topics. Engagement with these issues should ide- ally be handled through specially developed postgraduate research studentships once the basic infrastructure of the research project has been established. The interdisciplinary nature of the technical and cultural research on this project should be emphasized. The rapid developments taking place in both creative and archival technologies also need to be given special attention. Possible topics of research include intellectual property rights in online social networks spanning divergent legal frame- works, technical infrastructure management strategies for digital arte- facts, preservation policies and techniques for Internet databases, the relationship between social networking and technologies of cooperation across Europe, and other similar areas. Postgraduate research projects would also ensure the collection’s lon- gevity beyond the initial implementation phase. However, before the potential postgraduate research can begin, there is a basic need for a solid infrastructural foundation. To this end, the preparation phase of the data- base project needs to be supplemented with regular staffers in the role of a software engineer to coordinate the implementation and maintenance of the MediaWiki installation, and an information architect to coordinate the public interface with the database. The software engineer will ensure that the MediaWiki software is installed on appropriate hardware from the start, ideally a system that is easily scalable as the project grows. The soft- ware engineer would also handle software updates, particularly security patches and new feature support. After the initial installation is imple- mented, there should be minimal need for technical support beyond the occasional upgrade and ensuring that a proper backup system is running efficiently and effectively. By contrast, the information architect needs not only to design the initial policy for the way contributions are displayed on the wiki, but also to coordinate bespoke tutorials and workshops to enable collaborative participation from potential contributors to add new materi- als to the database and enhance existing holdings. Starting with a limited geographic area for the proposed collaborative database provides an opportunity to see how the power of networking works in a specifically designed open environment. In this case, the col- laboration will extend from the local population in the relatively small community that is the Maltese islands to the immediate physical neigh- bours around the Mediterranean, as well as making connections with other European countries and beyond. Malta’s accession to the European Union in 2004 makes it part of the new Europe, and therefore a very Addressing the need for a collaborative multimedia database of Maltese music 93 JMTE_2.2-3_art_Sant_089-096.indd 93 6/15/10 10:44:49 AM appropriate choice for a study on the mobility of culture across boarders and national boundaries. This angle can also prove to be a fruitful area for study in related postgraduate research projects. The possibilities depend in part on funding opportunities and potential graduate student interest. In relation to the proposed database project, an example of the power of networks (Rheingold 2002; Barabási 2003; Benkler 2006) can be seen through Malta’s involvement in the Eurovision Song Contest. Malta became a participant in this popular song contest in 1971 and has taken part every year since 1991 (Kennedy O’Connor 2007); there were no Maltese entries between 1976 and 1990, mainly due to lack of funding at the local level. The cultural networking involved in this event is an appro- priate way to demonstrate how networks work on both centralized and decentralized models. In this case, a centralized model circulates around the European Broadcasting Union, which initiated this contest as part of the creation of a pan-European television network in 1956, while a decentral- ized model operates as a function of the hundreds of related Eurovision fan clubs that have appeared in the last decade or so, with numbers growing exponentially in recent years through both the expansion of the Eurovision network itself (Raykoff and Tobin 2007) and the general uptake of Internet communication since the mid-1990s. The growing relationship between social networks and technologies of cooperation is fast becoming an important element in the immediate future of the music industry. Things have clearly moved on considerably since the rise of Internet use across the world. The scenario envisioned in the early 1990s by media culture theorist Burnett (1996) has come to pass in magnitudes that are clearly evident to anyone who either produces or consumes recorded music anywhere in the world (Kusek and Leonhard 2005). There seems to be a growing interest within the study of this phe- nomenon in relation to music that does not have an easily detectable impact on the global economy (Burnett 2009; Knopper 2009; Kot 2009). This approach makes it possible to explore the interrelation between social and technological network topologies through an analysis of the use of participatory media in digital cultural heritage. Evidence of the cultural dynamics afforded by the combination of these two types of networks can be witnessed in such commonplace examples as Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and Twitter, as well as numerous lesser-known social networking sites and online multimedia networks. A research group at the Institute of Integration Studies at Trinity College Dublin has conducted a series of studies that range from mapping migration networks and intercultural performance, to fandom within social network- ing around the Eurovision Song Contest (Fricker and Lentin 2007). This work demonstrates that there is great scope to look at exploring the use of digital networking within fan cultures across Europe and beyond using a variety of methodologies, from web content and discourse analysis to ethno- graphic control group research. The proposed database would provide excel- lent primary sources for study on similar research projects related to Malta, and other aspects beyond the geographical boundaries of the country. Another research angle relates to examining the economic impact of these cultural communities on local, international and global economies. Research in this vein would identify characteristics of social networks 94 Toni Sant JMTE_2.2-3_art_Sant_089-096.indd 94 6/15/10 10:44:49 AM applying several cases of cultural networks through methodological approaches such as social network analysis. The goal of this research would be to identify network characteristics (i.e. growth rate, centrality, size, degree distribution) that may be associated with successful economic factors within a community, starting with Malta and potentially moving to any other economic zones associated with it. To summarize, the following is an initial list of potential postgraduate research topics that would find a worthwhile case study in the proposed database project. Others would undoubtedly be developed once the data- base’s preparation phase has come to full fruition and the implementation phase has begun: • Intellectual property rights in online social networks spanning divergent legal frameworks • Technical infrastructure management strategies for digital artefacts • Preservation policies and techniques for Internet databases • Observable characteristics from the relationship between social net- working and technologies of cooperation across Europe • Mapping migration networks and intercultural performance • Data analysis of fandom within social media networks • Examining the economic impact of cultural communities on local economies in a global context The outline proposed here is meant to highlight the fact that aside from developing into a popular utility, this collaborative database will undoubt- edly also be of value to researchers across a wide range of academic disci- plines, from performance and cultural studies to International and European studies, and from the social sciences to computer science. A collaborative multimedia database built in line with the ideas discussed here brings together existing elements and preserves as much as possible of the new output being produced. In the process, the project will serve both as an archive and a showcase for new developments in what it seeks to preserve. Acknowledgements The author wishes to thank the following individuals for their invaluable contri- butions to this article through discussions about the proposed project: Michael Bugeja, Frank Camilleri, Karen Fricker, Alex Grech, Albert Marshall, Judith Molka- Danielsen, Lillian Sciberras, Brian Singleton, Darren Stephens, Christine Trala, Kenneth J. Vella and Saviour Zammit. References Barabási, A. (2003), Linked: How Everything is Connected to Everything Else and What it Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life, New York: Plume. Benkler, Y. (2006), The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press. Burnett, R. (1996), The Global Jukebox: The International Music Industry, London: Routledge. —— (2009), The Music Industry: Music in the Cloud, Cambridge: Polity. Fricker, K. and Lentin, R. (eds) (2007), Performing Global Networks, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars. Addressing the need for a collaborative multimedia database of Maltese music 95 JMTE_2.2-3_art_Sant_089-096.indd 95 6/15/10 10:44:49 AM Godin, S. (2008), Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, London: Piatkus. Kennedy O’Connor, J. (2007), The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History, London: Carlton. Knopper, S. (2009), Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age, New York: Free Press. Kot, G. (2009), Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music, New York: Scribner. Kusek, D. and Leonhard, G. (2005), The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution, Boston: Berklee Press. Lagoze, C., Payette, S., Shin, E. and Wilper, C. (2006), ‘Fedora: an architecture for complex objects and their relationships’, International Journal on Digital Libraries, 6: 2, pp. 124–38. Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991), Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Leuf, B. and Cunningham, W. (2001), The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web, Boston, Mass.: Addison-Wesley. Raykoff, I. and Tobin, R. D. (eds) (2007), A Song for Europe: Popular Music and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest, Aldershot: Ashgate. Rheingold, H. (2002), Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, Cambridge, Mass.: Basic. Tapscott, D. and Williams, A. D. (2006), Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, London: Portfolio/Penguin. Wenger, E. (1999), Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wenger, E., McDermott, R. A. and Snyder, W. M. (2002), Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge, Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press. Zittrain, J. (2008), The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It, London: Allen Lane. Suggested citation Sant, T. (2009), ‘Addressing the need for a collaborative multimedia database of Maltese music,’ Journal of Music, Technology and Education 2: 2+3, pp. 89–96, doi: 10.1386/jmte.2.2-3.89_1 Contributor details Dr Toni Sant is a Lecturer in Performance and Creative Technologies and Programme Leader for the interdisciplinary degrees at the University of Hull’s School of Arts & New Media, on the Scarborough Campus. He is the recipient of an AHRC Research Leave Award, which has enabled him to finish work on a book entitled Franklin Furnace & the Spirit of the Avant-Garde: A History of the Future (Intellect, forthcoming 2010). He is also the Book Reviews Editor of the International Journal of Performance Arts & Digital Media. His blog and weekly Maltese music pod- casts are available at www.tonisant.com. Contact: University of Hull – Scarborough Campus, School of Arts & New Media, Filey Road, Scarborough YO11 3AZ, UK. E-mail:

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