All aboard as director sails into uncharted waters

Help needed ... Kevin Sumption wants to reach out to audiences around the country using new innovation and digital storytelling. Photo: David Westwood

''You're invited to join the crew of a real British fighting ship from World War I,'' Sumption explains on the phone from Greenwich. ''You're set a series of tasks, and you can be promoted through the ranks for successfully completing them.''

It may seem harmless fun, Sumption says, ''however what they are transcribing is important meteorological data.'' It is at the time used by Met Office scientists in Exeter to produce climate models for the conditions in the North Sea, the Pacific or the South China Sea between 1914 and 1918. ''That's real science which would have been impossible earlier the internet,'' Sumption says.

''One of the fundamental challenges we have [as museums] is how to make use of the millions of records which no amount of professional staff time could ever transcribe. However if you make that information available on the internet and provide people with some training, the rewards can be enormous.

The key to unlocking this vast potential

The key to unlocking this vast potential, Sumption adds, is the federal government's controversial national broadband network. ''I'm sure it will offer great ways for an institution like [the maritime museum] which is based in Sydney to reach out far more effectively across the country, using internet technologies to take its message and ideas to as many Australians as possible.''