Pibroch Network Conversation #1: Our Draft Mission, Vision, and Values

Barnaby Brown, Josh Dickson, Jimmy Carnegie, and Kate Carpenter launch a public consultation

Purpose: To gather feedback on plans for altpibroch.com, a digital collection of source materials built by the late David Hester, now moving to www.pibroch.net

This meeting was held on Saturday 22 January, 8.15pm UK time:

0:00 Introducing the Pibroch Network

1:18 Why do we exist?

3:26 Jimmy Carnegie’s role and background

5:36 Kate Carpenter’s background and canntaireachd graphics

12:07 The purpose and structure of this meeting

13:10 Josh Dickson’s background; how to build on David Hester’s legacy; teaching, research, and reaching out beyond the borders of pibroch

17:00 Reaching within and beyond the pibroch community

We want to see pibroch in the classroom, in the village hall and the concert hall, and everywhere in between.
Josh Dickson, Pibroch Network Conversation #1, 17:38

18:10 What the site currently contains; usability issues; the strategic importance of partnerships, engagements, and consulting widely.

19:40 Historical context getting pibroch source materials online. How can we gather momentum in a smart way, channeling limited resources? Our engagement with the Piobaireachd Society, a conversation that began in 1995

22:25 Our draft Mission: presentation and discussion

28:27 Our draft Vision; wanting competitors to be central in our constituency as well as reaching beyond the competition platform. What is the value of pibroch today, for practitioners and wider society? What social functions may be most meaningful in future?

36:13 Our draft Values; a calpa, the four-part ‘support’ holding up the mast of a West Highland galley; how our values help us sail towards our vision; not away from our roots, but invigorated by a stronger connection with them

West Highland galley, Sea Stallion, showing four ropes holding up the mast: this is the calpa, a four-part 'support'

42:18 Discussion with input from John Frater and Talitha MacKenzie; an ecology of user groups who engage with pibroch in very different ways; how vital it is to hear pibroch

51:55 Our draft branding (see below)

53:49 Discussion with input from Stuart Letford and Lindsay Davidson; transforming divisions and antagonistic relationships into respectful engagement and effective collaboration; borders to deal with not being international but within piping; opening minds of 12-year-olds, giving general public a WOW experience

1:03:43 About research; pushing boundaries gently, respectfully, and with huge gratitude for the work of others; being totally inclusive, interconnected with the wider world and with history; calling out language that denigrates other sectors of the piping world; not complicit with ‘othering’ but celebrating a collective legacy, digital and pre-digital; a fertile soup made more navigable by pursuing scholarly rigour hand in hand with public engagement

Progress will be slow, but with your ideas and support, strong. To contribute or attend further Zoom Conversations, please email barnaby@pibroch.net.

Web developers wanted

If you are interested in implementing the International Image Interoperability Framework (iiif.io) for seamless interconnection with resources like Google Maps and historicenvironment.scot, or are tech savvy developing WordPress sites in any way, we would love to hear from you!

A user-led resource

We are reaching out to every corner of the piping world, and beyond it. The seven user groups we envisage serving are:

We look forward to your feedback, written or voiced, during Zoom meetings or afterwards, in the public domain or in personal communications. When our public consultation period ends, 22 March, we will forge collective wisdom into a 5-year plan.

Our draft mission, vision, and values

Mission: To make it easy for people to discover, learn, teach, and research pibroch, dissolving barriers that limit understanding and access.

Vision: A world in which pibroch features in mainstream education and performance, and is valued internationally for its positive contribution to cultural life and wellbeing.

At the Pibroch Network, four core values guide how we operate:

Openness welcoming people and ideas.

Reliability in our relationships and our scholarship.

Respect for others and for evidence.

Gratitude showed towards our lineage and each other.