7:17 min
Community Engagement, Ethics & Regulations
- Building Relationships & Trust
- Requirements & Scope
- Door Openers
- How to work with Door Openers
- Site Access
- Permissions
- IP & Copyright
0:03 Hi, my name is Hamish Sewell and I’ll be taking you through module 6. In this module, we’re focusing on building audio walks that go beyond experimentation and play.
0:14 So we’re talking about audio walks that are So we’re talking about audio walks that go beyond experimentation and play. In for publication.
0:20 We believe that audio walks can be really powerful ways of telling stories, but with this power comes great responsibility. So today we’re going to talk about how to build and honour community trust as well as rules and regulations you need to consider.
0:37 Projects published on our sound trails platform were typically commissioned by communities. In the process of making an audio walk, we were connecting with local councils, schools, folks, Aboriginal communities.
0:50 Community organisations. We want to share today what it takes to honour the trust in which these stories of place, science, and as we say in Australia, stories on country are offered to us and how we work in a professional and respectful way.
1:06 We’ve been building audio walks since 2012 and we’ve learned our lessons, so we’d like to share a few things that have helped projects off to a good start and last the test of time.
1:18 Right off the bat, here’s a few things we think you can do. Need to think about. Have you got a budget or have you got funding?
1:25 Do you intend to sell your audio walk or conversely will visitors to the site be offered the trail for free?
1:32 Have you got production help? Have you got contacts in the community and finally, have you got the necessary permissions? Think these things early, think these things through early on and you’ll save yourself a whole lot of hassle down the track.
1:48 Okay, so assuming you have a place in mind, now let’s talk about important community contacts or people we call our door openers.
1:59 Firstly, do you know someone who’s well connected in the community? An elder, someone who has a senior position saying council, a organization.
2:09 That has real cloud in the community or someone who wants to see your project succeed. We call these people, or these people who work in these organisations, our door-openers.
2:20 You only need one or two door-openers, but they need to be well-liked and well-connected. Recognize community elders, all the better.
2:29 Now just a word of warning, sometimes when you’re making inquiries you might come across people who claim ownership over a story or a site.
2:37 Be careful of this, don’t get caught up in local politics. More than once we’ve all away from producing a soundtrack on account of it being too difficult.
2:46 You be the judge. If you don’t have local contacts, think about how to find them. Go and talk to people.
2:53 But door openers are gold and you want them batting for you and your project. Make them excited about the project.
3:01 Door Opens can help you in a whole number of ways. For example, they can help you gain access to a local site, for example places which are normally out of bounds.
3:09 They can help you connect to local storytellers, or people who know the site. History and the stories, for instance professional researchers, historians, librarians.
3:20 They can help you with access to venues like a quiet room where you could do your recording when you’re in production.
3:26 They could help you get the support of the local government or council. And have the help of their marketing, their signage or even a launch venue.
3:34 And finally they can also help you access local archival material. So door openers are gold. Do be kind and forgiving of your door opener so won’t you?
3:52 They may believe in what you’re doing, they might be passionate about the project, but they might be elderly, they might not be tech savvy, they might be volunteers, their time might be limited, they might be looking after you grandkids.
4:04 Further, sometimes you might want more than what they can give you. Alternatively, they might want more from you than you can deliver.
4:12 So we’d suggest you try and manage expectations and keep your door openers on site if you can. Let’s talk about access and sites and permissions.
4:24 Let’s talk about access to sites and permissions. If your project involves public, to accessible areas such as parks or streets, you might not require explicit permission from the site owner.
4:41 However, this doesn’t constitute legal advice. We’d recommend talking to a local council, whoever is in charge of the space to make sure you avoid any legal issues.
4:50 Later down the track. If the site is private property, such as a museum, mall or privately owned park, you’re likely to require permission from the site owner or management before creating an audio walk on their premises.
5:05 Keep in mind that even if, is not explicitly required, it’s still important to respect the privacy and rights of others when creating audio walks.
5:15 Also be mindful of any potential disruptions or safety concerns. Let’s now talk about IP and copyright. IP is a complex issue and we’re not legal experts and what we share here does not constitute legal advice.
5:37 In fact we’re constantly learning in this area. What we want to make sure we do is we do the right thing by the people and the communities that we serve.
5:45 Here’s a little bit of an overview of the copyright considerations for publishing audio walks. Copyright in an audio walk is generally owned by the person who, arranged for the audio walk to be made.
5:57 This is often the producer or a commissioning organisation, unless there is an agreement to the contrary. Participants in an audio walk recording, this is the people telling their stories, will need to sign a release form.
6:11 Also called a rights agreement, where this is clearly laid out. If you’re using other people’s work, such as images or audio recordings, you need to seek permission from them, best in writing, and you’ll need to make sure you attribute them as the whole, of the copyright for their material and the credits
6:30 and contributors section of the Soundtrails builder. We encourage you to go and have a look at the creative commons license if you want to use that and if you’re planning on recording Aboriginal stories we recommend using the arts law link here and reading up on the protocols for using First Nations
6:49 cultural and intellectual property in the arts. So to finish up if you’re interviewing people or using other people’s material and you have plans to publish your work in the future, get clear about copyright and a rights agreement with participants is an absolute must.
7:10 Has your organization got a release form that you’re able to use for your project? And see if you can find it.
7:17 That’s the end of module six. Thank you very much.
Has your organisation got a release form that you are able to use for your project?
See if you can source this.
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