People throughout the country are being asked to contribute to a mass web log recording a day in the life of Britain.
Thousands of people across Britain are expected to contribute to a project aiming to create an online archive of a day in the life of the country.
Tuesday 17 October has been picked as an "ordinary day much like any other of no particular national significance".
The National Trust is encouraging people to record a diary of their day on a website, as part of what is being called "Britain's biggest blog".
The blogs will then be stored by the British Library and at other locations as a permanent record of everyday life.
The blogs will then be stored by the British Library and at other locations.
The National Trust says the "massive electronic snapshot in words" will be a "fascinating social history archive for future generations to explore".
The trust says it will create a "fascinating social history archive" of everyday life for future generations.
Director general Fiona Reynolds said: "We want this day to have its own place in history and be a snapshot of everyday life at the beginning of the 21st Century.
The project was inspired by the Mass Observation Archive which was set up in the late 1930s to let ordinary people record their lives in diaries for future generations.
Since 1970 the archive has been housed at the University of Sussex.
Tuesday has been picked as an "ordinary day much like any other of no particular national significance".
National Trust director general Fiona Reynolds said: "We want this day to have its own place in history and be a snapshot of everyday life at the beginning of the 21st Century.
"It would be fantastic if hundreds of thousands of people take up this opportunity for mass online participation... and make it the biggest blog ever."
"It would be fantastic if hundreds of thousands of people take up this opportunity for mass online participation... and make it the biggest blog ever."
Historian Dan Snow said recording "the minutiae of what as many people as possible got up to on a normal boring day" was actually "quite exciting".
The trust says the emphasis does not have to be on recording exciting events.
Historian Dan Snow said they had wanted to choose a "run-of-the-mill day".
He said: "What we want this to be is a detailed account of people's normal lives when they're doing nothing out of the ordinary; what they did when they got up, what they ate, how they got to work, what they did at work.
"It's those mundane details, those boring details that will seem extraordinary to people hundreds of years in the future."
It may be that historians in the future will be amazed that on 17 October 2006 we were still eating meat or driving privately owned cars David Cannadine, of the Institute for Historical Research
It may be that historians in the future will be amazed that on 17 October 2006 we were still eating meat or driving privately owned cars David Cannadine, of the Institute for Historical Research
"The duller the better," he said.
"We want to give people in the future a sense of what it was actually like to live at the beginning of the 21st Century in Britain.
"We should include as much banal normal stuff as possible."
David Cannadine, of the Institute for Historical Research, said: "The wonderful thing about these records is we don't yet know what it is about them that will be interesting in the future.
David Cannadine, of the Institute for Historical Research, said: "The wonderful thing about these records is we don't yet know what it is about them that will be interesting in the future.
"It may be that historians in the future will be amazed that on 17 October 2006 we were still eating meat or driving privately owned cars."
"It may be that historians in the future will be amazed that on 17 October 2006 we were still eating meat or driving privately owned cars."
How you can get involved
To get involved people should:
First, record a diary of your day on 17 October - it can be anything from 100 to 650 words long
Record a diary of their day - it can be anything from 100 to 650 words long
Log on to the History Matters website (via the link to the right), and follow the instructions on how to upload your blog/diary
Log on to the History Matters website (via the link to the right), and follow the instructions on uploading their blog/diary
Diaries can be uploaded from 17 to 31 October 2006
Diaries can be uploaded from 17 to 31 October 2006
Urge friends, family and colleagues to do the same
Urge friends, family and colleagues to do the same
Watch the History Matters website for details of how the archive can be accessed in the future
Watch the History Matters website for details of how the archive can be accessed in the future
Have you contributed to the blog? What did you do today that you have kept a record of? What do you think of this as a way of capturing daily life for future generations? Send us your comments using the postform below.
