User-generated history

Seventy years ago, hundreds of people from all walks of life participated in a huge social experiment in Great Britain - the Mass Observation Day Survey - documenting, with pen and paper, daily life on the streets (and in the kitchens, pubs and hospitals) on the day of the coronation of George VI. It was one of the earliest and most elaborate exercises in user-generated documentary content creation, and the hope was that the results 'should be of interest to the politician, the historian, the advertising agent, the realistic novelist and indeed any person who is concerned to know what people really want to think.'