E-HumanitiesJune 7th, 2012

CroMe- BiHMe Croatian Memories

Bosnian & Herzegovina Memories

Unveiling personal memories on war and detention 1941 – 1995

Peter van der Maas Erasmus Studio – Erasmus University Rotterdam

Matra fund of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

– MATRA – MAatschappelijke TRAnsformatie / Transformation of Society

– Improving mutual understanding in Croatia and BiH among other post-

Yugoslav countries

– Stimulate social transformation and create a civil society

– Candidate EU member states are Matra fundable

– Croatia EU member in July 2013

– BiH in a process toward EU

Specific Objectives

– Offer a platform where victims of war or political violence and public

with an interest in Croatia’s past can access the recorded interviews.

This will contribute to restoring self-respect and social and individual

empowerment

– Affirm remembrance and truth-telling and ensure that memories are

kept for the future in archival custody, in the region itself and as a

digital copy in the Netherlands

Specific Objectives

– Contribute to public awareness on the importance of respect for

human rights, and minority rights through increasing visibility of

minority narratives

– Strengthen the position of Croatian institutions in the field of human

rights, documentation and science and develop networks with the

Netherlands and other post-Yugoslav countries

– Affirm oral history in relevant scholarly communities as a serious

research tool and demonstrate that the use of state-of-the-art ICT

tools, such as speech technology, can improve access to historical

information

Project Consortium

– Documenta - Center for dealing with the past, Zagreb www.documenta.hr

– Erasmus University, Erasmus Studio, Rotterdam, www.eur.nl/erasmusstudio/

– University Twente, EWI faculteit Elektrotechniek, Wiskunde en Informatica, Enschede www.utwente.nl

– DANS, Data Archiving and Networked Services The Hague www.dans.knaw.nl

– Noterik BV, Amsterdam www.noterik.nl

– Consortium website: www.balkanvoices.org

Center for Dealing with the Past Zagreb, Croatia

Founded in 2004 by Center for Peace, Non-Violence and Human Rights Osijek, Center for Peace Studies, Civic Committee for Human Rights, Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights

Documenta fosters the process of dealing with the past in Croatia, documents and researches pre/during and post - war events

Dealing with the past in order to establish sustainable peace

CIN is based in Sarajevo and was established in October 2004 with the goal of producing investigative stories that are of interest to citizens of BiH.

The HRC Sarajevo was founded in December 1996 by the University of Sarajevo with the assistance of a number of international organizations such as: Council of Europe, EU, UNMBiH, Office of the High Representative in BH (OHR), World University Service and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute

CroMe projectBiHMe project

An Open Internet Platform, enabling the editing, publication and streaming of interviews with advanced search options in the Croatian/Bosnian and English languages

500 interviews CroMe 85 interviews BiHMeApproximately 1.5 hours, digitally recorded, transcribed, edited, annotated, authorized and translated into English and published on the Open Internet Platform

• Interviewers are trained by Documenta

• Research access by EASY DANS Catalogue with unedited material with full metadata information. Access after authorization

Local Project Staff

• Project coordinator• Editor• Field work coordinator• Interviewers• Translators• Transcribers• Videographer• Video editor

The Interview

4 phases• Research and preparation• Before recording of the interview• Recording of the interview• After recording of the interview

Supporting documentation

Questionnaire Semi-structured – divided into 10 units:

• Introduction• Family history / WWII• Life in Yugoslavia• Inter-ethnic relations in Yugoslavia• Situation before the war

Supporting documentation

– Informed consent • Before the interview

o Consent for interview recording • After the interview

o Consent for public access (audio-visual media, printing media)

o Consent for scientific research – protection of the confidentiality of data disclosed

– Protocol• Personal information • Status of the interviewed person during the time of the testimony • Civilian / member of army/police/paramilitary• Refugee / internally displaced• Civilian victim/disabled army member• Relative of killed/missing civilian/army member

Methodology

• Interview focuses on life narratives of the interviewee in order to establish social and political context of some periods

• Interview follows the chronology of interviewee’s experience and determines those experiences which take the central place in the life of that person

• Attempt to achieve neutrality through open-ended questions, semi structured questionnaire and by interviewing various people from multiple perspectives

Methodology

• Criteria for the selection of interviewees is their absence from or under-representation in official history, groups outside of the mainstream (ethnic minorities, women etc.), war veterans outcasts

• Ethical approach - interviewees well informed about the nature and purpose of the project; treating interviewees with respect and courtesy

• Community building – community learned more about it’s constituent members through public presentations, round tables, discussion forums

Selection of the interviewees

Covering all regions in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and all layers of society, especially:

• witnesses and protagonists of war events• victims of political violence• minorities • survivors• veterans• former prisoners• relatives of killed or missing people

Recruitment of potential interviewees

• Contacting local civil society organizations, local authorities, media and (inter)national organizations • Contacting potential Interviewees via letters, e-mails

and telephone calls • Advertising the project in relevant media channels• Spreading flyers and posters through regional networks

Training and selection of interviewers – volunteers

Zagreb: Peace studies, Faculty of Philosophy, Faculty of Political SciencesSarajevo:

Workshops and individual consultations:– Importance and meaning of oral history method– Personal motivation and identities– General principles of communication skills– Secondary trauma / burnout syndrome– Methodology (4 interview phases, supporting

documentation, techniques)

Transcribing and translating

• Transcribing – Interviews completely transcribed

• Transcriber software (open source)• False starts, stumbles, repetitions and catch-phrases removed• Transcriptions checked by editor

• Translating– Interviews completely translated

• Transcriber also used for translating• Translations checked by local staff• Additional information necessary for clarity put in brackets

(acronym of the organization, important persons, etc.)• Words in spoken in a dialect translated into standard language• Sentences shortened, but containing the same meaning and

structure

Editing for online platform

• Extraneous remarks removed (setting up the equipment, interruptions, simultaneous speech…)

• Removed – repeating of the same contents, contents not completely understandable, digressions not related to questions/contents of an interview

• Annotation layers: • Chapters –individually assigned to each interview according

to the content, quick overview of the video, select to go to a specific fragment

• Themes – 6 themes pre-defined for all interviews, user can collect fragment on different interview all talking about the same theme

Editing for online platform

• Keywords – pre-defined, assigned to each interview according to the contents

• Persons – list of well- known key persons mentioned in different interviews, possible to retrieve a specific collection of video fragments of people all talking about the same person

• Summaries – short information on the interviewee and the interview

Public platform

– Open internet platform – www.croatianmemories.org– www.bosnianmemories.org

• Edited version (summaries, chapters, themes…)• English subtitles available• Croatian/Bosnian and English edited transcripts available• Simple search - Full text search• Advanced search:

– Name of the interviewee– Place of remembrance– Period– Keywords– Gender– Theme

Research platform

– Dans Easy Catalogue www.knaw.dans.nl• Unedited version• Available with Croatian/Bosnian English

subtitles/transcripts• All metadata available ( linked with a Collective Access

platform)• Full text search• Access under specific conditions

Research

• Research fields– Psychological / psycho-medical issues – Political science– Linguistics– Speech technology

• Collection available EASY catalogue of DANS– Full version– 100% Translation in ENG– Optimal searchable

www.balkanvoices.org