report

Etherport Workshop

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Workshop Etherport

Introduction

Etherport is a place for experimental, multi-voiced, and non-linear cultural event reports.

Etherport is a tool for cultural organisations to make more experimental, multi-voiced, and non-linear event reports. By integrating the entire process of creating event reports into one tool, it also helps to standardize your event reporting workflow, reducing production workload and clarifying the role division between author(s) and editor.

Workflow integration: All steps in the creation of an event report, from (real-time collaborative) writing to editing and publishing, are integrated in Etherport.

Hybrid publishing: Publishing an event reports on Etherport generates two versions simultaneously: a web version, and a printable .pdf.

One-click design: Both the web version and .pdf of your publication are automatically designed using a template. (It is possible to create your own template, to match the visual identity of your organisation, in CSS.)

Content labeling: Etherport uses a labeling system that allows readers to engage with the event report in a non-linear way based on theme or type of content. This same feature creates links between reports of different events, which makes it easier to nagivate and activate the event report archive.

Content templates: To accomodate custom serialization, it is possible to create pad templates for different types of reports/publications.

Multi-media content: Etherport supports text, images, audio, videos, and timestamps.

Shared infrastructure: Multiple organisations can use the same instance of Etherport. This shared infrastructure can grow into a shared archive of event reports, in which relations between events from different organisations become visible and navigable.

Can I use Etherport?

Etherport functions as an open-source, free-to-use tool developed especially for cultural organizations. It helps to standardize the event reporting workflow, reducing production workload and clarifying the role division between authors and editors. To find out more about the functionalities, watch the introduction video below, or read the Etherport manual.

How was Etherport developed?

Etherport is based on the tool patchwork Ethertoff, which includes Etherpad (text editor), Django (framework), and Paged.js (paged media polyfill). It was developed by Open Source Publishing and the Institute of Network Cultures in the context of the research project Going Hybrid.

Key Terms

Pad: A pad is an online text editing document (such as a GoogleDoc or, in this case, the open-source alternative Etherpad). On the back-end, publications in Etherport consist of pads. Each pad generates a single page on the front end (or ‘static version’). Simple publications may have just one pad (apart from the ‘index’, see below), but they can also be parts (e.g. chapters) of a larger publication.

Index: An index is a special pad of which each publication has one. It functions as the home page (digital version) or as the combined colofon and back-cover (print version) of a publication. In the index, you will typically include an overview of collaborators and a blurb.

Template: When creating a new pad in Etherport, it is possible to select a template. If you select a template, the newly opened pad will not be blank, but it will include pre-structured base content. For instance, the template ‘Event Report’ includes a step-by-step guide for the author who will write the event report. (It is possible to create your own template files, or customize existing templates.)

Folder: The pads in EtherDish are organised in folders (like the files on your computer). EtherDish is programmed to recognize each folder as a separate publication. The content of this publication is the collected content of all pads in the folder.

Root folder: This is the main of the folder system, where all publication folders and master template files are collected. The root folder is also the landing page on the back-end of Ehterport, from where you can navigate to any publication.

Static version or generated version: This is the ‘front end’ or ‘read mode’ version of the digital tool, which is automatically generated and designed. To refresh the static version and preview changes, it is required to regenerate it.

Label: Labels are used to categorize bits of content (typically sentences or paragraphs) as a specific type of content (e.g. quote, opinion). These labels create additional, non-linear pathways throughout a report and between reports on EtherPluck.

Workshop

2. If your device had a personality, what would it be? (Think of: a hoarder, a minimalist, a chaotic archivist)

chaotic accumulator +1

Structural Seeking Archivist (aka Chaotic Archivist)

chaotic archivist

Chaotic hoarder with the wish to properly archive

hoarding archivist

connecting archivist

ager archivist

poradic archivist

3. How can an archive become a dialogue rather than a collection?

comment function where visitors can have conversations about the archived materials

Wonderful question, having the audience/visitors actively participating with the collection and sharing this with (potential) other audience/visitors via comments, videos, audio forms

instead of archiving (just the) content, also interview participants, the audience. Or by creating an archive together with other people

reate a space for storytelling

allow various modalities as non-absolute media and create space for participants-collaborators to expand that accessibility (e.g., sound as physical medium, description, and non-acoustic medium)

come up with ways to discuss the contents and make that a continued commitment (with available resources) if possible

aking the collection accessible through multiple mediums to a broader audience (remote) that can interact with the contents via commenting, referencing, etc. Creating a broader network in which the content can live and relate to more than one collection potentially.

creating ways for people to interact with one another in relation to the content, like commenting on things, creating space for conversation even if it happens across different temporal spans

Creating events around certain parts of the archive

Allow participants to curate the archive, so we can have multiple perspectives on seeing the archive

4. Do you have examples or references from your own practice around the questions brought during the lecture?

*The question of what needs to be archived is coming up a lot/Is it even an archive when there is no curation happening? On the other hand this could lead to blind spots.

uestions of intent - why, what, who

The question of how you can set and embed an intention to archive/preserve from the outset I often find relevant - how do you make this part of it, without being too preoccupied with the “afterlife”, before a project or event has even started/happened.

Since we do a lot of public events with The Hmm, was thinking about how we can take people’s own ideas around privacy into account more when we document an event. Also in our livestream we document comments in the chat (although with anonymous user names), but there is this assumption for most events that since they are public you choose to be documented. But what if we take Avery’s ideas about deciding together (or at least with vital stakeholders) about how much information we want to document. –> an idea of creating a collective consent at the beginning of the event?Í¢ > this is a nice idea, and would be interesting to think about how to generate consent in this context

I also have to think of the datacenter tour we organised with The Hmm. Usually we livestream our events and publish the entire livestream. Because the datacenter tour was a day long event, it didnt make sense to publish the entire event and there was an audio collective making the report. They didn;t just record parts of the presentations, but also asked the audience questions.

ast and present modes of identifying oneself - how archivists can navigate this, ethics of representation

The question about privacy/the right to be forgotton vs preserving the knowledge for the future generation, if Susan Sontag email archive for example has a right to be forgotten we would have lost a valuable insight in her activism.

5. Are there labels you’d like to add. If so, which?

Maybe something about the infrastructural level of the the archive?

Reference to an external source like a publication/website/…

something like ‘example’ or ‘anecdote’ from the research process? agree with this one

I think ‘links’ could be a nice label, so you can collate all shared links together

oncept - to further knowledge base

**6. Which Group would you like to join or would you prefer to work on your own archive instead? **

- Work individually on your own archive

Julia

Zuraida

Chietra

Jay → I decided to work on how to navigate Etherport :) +1

eg

alex

Lilian

Margarita

Avery

Intent, privacy, right to be forgotten

Tommaso

harlotte