We all know that college campuses are exciting places. But have you ever stopped to think about how much happens there in a 24-hour span?
That’s what we hope to find out during our SUNY Oswego: 24 Hours in Photos project from 12:01 a.m. to midnight on Friday, Dec. 2. The odd inspiration comes from Frank Turner’s video for “The Road” where he performs 24 shows in 24 hours; it made me think about all the activity that takes place here that many people don’t even realize. Because Fridays have classes and other events — Dec. 2 has a student art opening, choral concert, women’s hockey game, two basketball games and a formal, among other things — this provides a broad swath of campus experience. I don’t just want the events everyone sees, but also what happens behind the scenes.
In addition to those of us (me) working 24 hours plus other staff and students, we’re trying to make it interactive and invite user-generated photos by allowing people to email submissions (with name, place and time of photo) to sunyoswego@posterous.com. It’s a moderated account, but any decent submissions can appear on that site for starters. Folks can also tweet images with a #24hoursinphotos tag. From there, I’d love to turn the submissions into a Dipity timeline (like we used for our sesquicentennial history) and maybe some other slideshows and/or a video showing top picks.
But this project isn’t about a gimmick; as always, goals come before tools. One goal is to produce something of interest to audiences ranging from prospective students, wondering what they can do on campus, to alumni who are always interested in seeing what’s happening at their alma mater. Moreover, it can raise awareness for current members of the campus community as to how much occurs here, the people, the places, the happenings large and small.
Obviously, I’ll keep readers posted on the results. May even keep a running blog throughout that day. Whatever happens, I can’t wait to see what develops.
InsideTimsHead 