For ten years, beginning in 2001, I worked at the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, a research center dedicated to the use of technology for historic preservation. I was a one-man marketing, public/media relations and design department. Over the course of that time, my work included creating the following:
Newsletters (email and print)
Marketing materials (postcards, flyers, etc.)
Product catalogs for research
Planning and executing a website redesign with the resident developer
Creating the National Park Service’s first social media channels
Creating the first social media strategy for a heritage research institution
Development of the first preservation-themed podcast
Livestreamed trainings
Training videos
Organizing community events
Embedded below are collateral coming out of that time, including my scrapbook of products from then. Tools used included Adobe Creative Suite, Final Cut and WordPress. It was a creative and fruitful time, getting in on the ground floor of the social media movement of the mid-2000s.
David points out some quarried stone near the tombs of Jerash and then takes us on a hillside tour of urban sprawl, Jordan style. Afterwards, events take a turn for the funny when the team takes a few moments to “de-sweat.” A game called “what’s my quarry?” turns slapstick. Who says archaeology has to be serious all serious?
As the United States Gulf Coast recovers from the most recent hurricanes there, news about the cultural resources affected continues to pop up on the internet.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has put out a call for any volunteer structural engineers and architects willing to help with the assessment of cultural resources damaged in the wake of the Hurricane Ike.
Lynn Edmundson writes from Historic Houston in an attempt to assist the Galveston Historic Foundation, which has recently been displaced by Hurricane Ike. The Galveston Historic Foundation (GHF) has set up temporary headquarters at Preservation Texas in Austin, from which the GHF has announced that although damage was serious, it was not as bad as they had feared it would be. The 1861 U.S. Custom House, GHF headquarters, was flooded with eight feet of water, damaging files, computers, archives, and systems. At The Texas Seaport Museum at pier 22 the wooden workshops were lost and the pier structure was damaged. The 1857 Italianate Mansion had flooding of up to 18 inches, most likely damaging the furniture on the first floor; windows were lost on the second floor. The 1889 Gresham House, or Bishop’s Palace, retained minimal damage, but flooded up to three feet on the lowest floor, which contained offices and a ticket counter.
Hurricane Ike further uncovered a mysterious shipwreck along the coast of Alabama in Fort Morgan. The ship is about 150 feet long, 30 feet wide, and appears to be badly burned. The ship was partially uncovered in 2000 by Hurricane Camille and was thought by researchers to be the Monticello, a battleship from the Civil War. The Army Corp of Engineers, however, believe it to be the schooner Rachel, built in 1919 at Moss Point, Mississippi.
David takes a look behind the scenes, introducing us to the functions of the survey team, even if their faces are a little obscured. Next, he interprets an ancient relief panel outside one of the tombs in Jaresh. Finally, David undertakes an adventure in the city and decides to check out a construction site.
David and the team are shocked when they unexpectedly discover an “incredible find”–a partially covered mosaic located in a remote olive grove outside Jaresh. Nearby is an ancient wine production facility, complete with press and cisterns that locals are still using.
Confused about social media? Don’t know where to start? For the last two years, I’ve been hunting down great projects in and outside of museums that exemplify the themes of visitor participation, user-generated content, and flexible relationships between institutions and visitors.Here are some of my favorite museum projects that represent interesting, thoughtful experiments with Web 2.0:
The Bay Area Discovery Museum: A Lesson in Good Listening
You don’t need a big initiative to get involved with social media—you just need ears and a voice to add to conversations that are already happening. Jennifer Caleshu, head of marketing for a small children’s museum, is an active participant in local Web 2.0 parenting and recreational sites like Yelp!, and developed relationships in those online communities to build strong relationships with current and potential visitors.She recently started a blog for the museum, but her best work is in listening to what others are saying about her institution.She describes her social media strategy here on the excellent Museum Audience Insight blog maintained by Reach Advisors.
MN150: A Visitor-Generated History Exhibition
The Minnesota Historical Society developed an innovative permanent exhibition featuring the 150 most important contributions of Minnesota as nominated by regular people.Read an interview with the lead developer of MN150 here.
The Brooklyn Museum is a leader in innovative social media initiatives, from the creation of Facebook applications to crowd-curated exhibits and a “posse” collection-tagging project.You can read three articles about their initiatives here or visit their community site here.
When the Library of Congress put some of their photo collection on the photo-sharing site Flickr, it opened up whole new conversations and interpretations of their content.Read more about it here.
ExhibitFiles
ExhibitFiles is a social networking website for people who make and visit exhibitions.It is a living database of exhibit case studies and reviews and is useful for anyone looking for best practices in the field.
Museum blog types compared (with examples)
In this post on Museum 2.0, I compare the different types of museum blogs and offer a self-assessment tool to determine what type might be right for you.
Beth Kanter is an extraordinary social media maven with a focus on non-profits.She covers everything from Web 2.0 tools to fundraising strategies on her blog and on the NTEN WeAreMedia project site.
Useum
The North Carolina Museum of Life and Sciences is doing a series of no- to low-cost experiments with Web 2.0 and documenting them here.
Science Buzz and Red Shift Now
The Science Museum of Museum and the Ontario Science Center each maintain impressive community sites that integrate real-time visitor feedback from the Web and the museum floor here and here respectively.
After an early start and a cup of coffee, David give us an up-close look at some of the artifacts his survey team is finding in ancient Jaresh. Among the artifacts are a rare water pipe and filter attachment, the lid for a coffee pot, and pieces of a glass kiln possibly dating to the Roman era.
“Past Horizons: Online Journal of Volunteer Archaeology and Training” has gone live with its September issue. Designed by Preservation Today collaborator David Connelly, it features a magazine style layout with lots of online tweaks like embedded video. To find out more on the magazine, visit the Past Horizons Blog.
The articles include:
Nokalakevi – archaeology in Georgia
Rwanda – discovering a forgotten past
Kota Mama – adventure down the Amazon
Ometepe – petroglyph project in Nicaragua
Kayble – a survey of the Thracian Plain
For the last few years, the terms “web 2.0” and “social media” have been used for nearly anything new and interactive on the internet. Since Voices of the Past and sites like it integrate many basic social media tools, let’s take the time to consider the concept of social media and its potential to advance heritage preservation.
Core to this connectedness is the idea of community and how it’s being redefined. For example, the purpose of Voices of the Past is to inspire connections to heritage values using new media. You don’t have to have lots of money, a Ph.D., or be a credentialed preservationist to view the site or interact with it. It doesn’t matter where you live either. If you care about heritage, you belong here.
The accessible nature of social media tools, coupled with the relative anonymity of the web, levels the playing field for discussion. This takes away some of the fear of saying the wrong thing and allows people of many different backgrounds to interact as peers.
Social media comes in a variety of flavors. Some of these tools—like forums and message boards—you may already be familiar with. Others, like photo sharing (Flickr), video sharing (YouTube), wall posts (FaceBook), blogs (WordPress), music sharing (iTunes), and internet telephony (Skype), may be new.
When you visit the a site like Facebook or MySpace, what you’re seeing is a form of social media called a “social network.” Essentially, it brings social media tools together on the same web page. The efficiency of social networks is leading to an explosion in their popularity. The combined worldwide user base of MySpace and Facebook roughly equals the population of the United States.
So how’s this different from the web we used to know? For one thing, you’re no longer just reading the company line. The web is now instantly interactive with the potential for infinite conversation on any given topic. It’s like the old gossip fence, except your neighbor is potentially anyone in the world.
What’s been the reason preservation and heritage issues have been so hard to communicate? It’s because they, like politics, are traditionally local. And while probably nothing will ever most people care who’s the state representative for Burning Moscow, Nev., you very well may throw in with an online group that is fired up about preserving the Old West mines there.
So, your worldview isn’t just limited to your place of residence anymore. With social media, your interests can help define your social responsibility in the realm of heritage values. Explore and enjoy!
In this installment, David explores the ancient water system in city of Jaresh. He and other archaeologists are finding a sophisticated water system that includes filtration, which is a first in their careers. The team also finds that archaeology is sometimes for the chickens!
