The Lapsed Clubber Audio Map – Reflections on Pioneering Digital Archives

The Lapsed Clubber Audio Map is a crowd-sourced digital archive that allows members of the original raving community of Greater Manchester to record, preserve and share their spoken word memories. Based on Google Maps, the archive utilises WebRTC, a HTML5 standard, to record and share those memories by linking them to a specific location. Funded by the Heritage Lottery, the project is a collaboration between Manchester Digital Music Archive, who bring their expertise as digital archivists, and Dr Beate Peter, a scholar in the field of electronic dance music. This article reports on the project. We explain how the map works both technically and with regard to its content. We discuss the challenges, opportunities and risks of the map and conclude by remarking on its legacy and our future plans.