This case study examines livestreamed webcasts as a way for cultural institutions to extend programs beyond the building while allowing remote audiences to participate in real time. Rather than treating video as simple documentation, the approach combined live production, audience interaction, moderation, institutional expertise, and post-event reuse. The project explores how relatively accessible technologies can turn a physical program into a broader public conversation when participation is designed into the experience from the beginning.
Category Archives: Case Studies
Concrete projects, experiments, and implementations examined for what they reveal in practice: the problem, the approach, what happened, what changed, and what remains useful. These case studies connect cultural heritage, technology, storytelling, public knowledge, and institutional work through real-world experience rather than abstract prescription.
iPads Break Digital Ground in Pompeii Archaeological Research
Archaeologists at Pompeii were among the first to use iPads as field-documentation tools, replacing parts of a paper-heavy workflow with direct digital recording at the excavation site. Steven Ellis discusses how the experiment changed data collection, communication, and research practice while attracting attention from Apple and the wider public. The project captures an important transition: mobile technology moving from consumer novelty into the everyday infrastructure of archaeological fieldwork.
Paisley’s Past, Part II: Building the Team, Organizational Support and Funding
The second Paisley’s Past installment shows community archaeology moving from idea to organization. Claire Casey describes assembling a multidisciplinary team, conducting reconnaissance, building relationships with local institutions, seeking funding, and creating the support structure needed for a multi-year project. The piece is valuable because it makes visible the less glamorous work behind participatory heritage: partnerships, credibility, logistics, persistence, and the gradual conversion of enthusiasm into a viable community initiative.
Since No One Knows Us, We Decided to Social-ize: The National Park Service Northeast Museum Services Center
Staff at the National Park Service Northeast Museum Services Center faced a familiar institutional problem: highly specialized work that mattered, but remained largely invisible to the public. This case study follows their decision to experiment with blogs, Facebook, and Twitter despite limited staff time and internal skepticism. The project reframes social media as a way to explain hidden professional work, connect collections with audiences, and make institutional expertise more understandable and accessible.
Bringing “Paisley’s Past” into the 21st Century with Community Archaeology
Paisley’s Past began with frustration that an important Scottish town’s heritage was being neglected—and with the realization that waiting for someone else to act was not enough. This first installment follows the project as it moves from complaint to a proposed multi-year community archaeology initiative. By publishing the process while it was still forming, Voices turned the project itself into a participatory case study, inviting others to share experience and help shape what came next.
How Heritage Professionals Used the Web: 2009 Survey Results
More than 300 heritage professionals responded to this 2009 survey about how they used the web, social media, research tools, and online networks. The results provide a snapshot of a field in transition: many practitioners were already joining digital communities but relatively few were creating content, while strong interest existed in networking, advocacy, web optimization, and managing information. The survey offers rare baseline evidence of digital adoption before these practices became routine.
Hometown Heritage Media Network: Empowering Community Heritage Preservation
Hometown Heritage proposed a community-centered media network for helping people preserve local history through oral history, DIY preservation, community museums, and shared digital resources. The idea grew from work in Natchitoches and from a conviction that heritage should not belong only to institutions, experts, or wealthy property owners. The project sought to give ordinary communities practical tools, connections, and confidence to document and sustain the places and memories that matter to them.
KSU Digital Ethnography Project – An Analysis of How Students Learn Today
Responding to Michael Wesch’s influential digital-ethnography work at Kansas State University, Dylan Staley examines the mismatch between traditional classroom structures and the media environments students were actually inhabiting. The post asks whether learning can become more participatory, collaborative, and community-driven rather than remaining confined to instructor-led systems. In that context, Voices of the Past itself is presented as an experiment in education created by ordinary participants rather than a formal classroom.