Someone asked me recently to name examples of good email newsletters. I have to admit I scratched my head a bit on that one. In the last two weeks I used Gmail filters to effectively get rid of 90% of my subscriptions. Boy has my life improved!

A lot has changed on the e-news front in the past few years. Folks are really simplifying their newsletters so they are more easily viewed on mobile phones. One that I’ve historically liked is World Monuments Fund (I always click on something there). Brooklyn Museum has some good content too. Rather than sending you down rabbit holes in search of the perfect e-newsletter, I’ll tell you about some traits that make up the one I would stay subscribed to:

• It’s a good snapshot of the organization overall. Generally it’s the only time someone will get a sense of the breadth of your offerings. Offer a variety of content from several of your departments.
• It has short teasers with a picture. Skip feature-length stories. All your content should be able to be scanned with a couple of thumb swipes, with included links if your reader wants to know more.
• ONE major call to action.
• It features links and directions on following/subscribing/sharing social media. Emphasize those that have the most creative input (I.e. Storytelling) from staff. Featuring the latest episode of a podcast is a good example of this.
• It offers a frequency option. People are inundated with email, so having the option of weekly/monthly/quarterly or by subject matter is important for keeping them on your list.

Those are my thoughts. If you think differently, I’d love to see your comments on this post. If you believe the perfect email newsletter exists for a cultural or heritage institution already, feel free to share a link to it as well.

Teaser image credit.

When I looked into a new logo for Voices of the Past, I wanted something that represented both history and technology.  I discovered the graphic above while visiting the Minnesota Archaeological Society website, and something about it struck me. Check out the tailfeather of the bird on the right. Does is remind you of any new media symbols out there? How about this one:

MAS, which uses the entire bird on the left for its logo, states on its website:

The inscriptions … are from a 1,000-year-old pot that was discovered in 1957 near Red Wing, Minnesota by an MAS member. The thunderbird motif is representative of Middle Mississippian iconography.

I love the thunderbird legend and its symbolic meanings of courage, transformation, and victory so much that it remains my one and only tattoo.

Did Native Americans first conceptualize RSS 1,000 years ago? I’ll leave that to the conspiracy theorists 😉 But it did inspire me enough to use it as the basis for the logo Voices of the Past has today.

By Suzie Kolber

A large family tree framed and presented as a gift is a wonderful way to honor a person. It is the ideal choice for a milestone birthday or anniversary and has a lot of meaning. It can be difficult to choose the right template with so many options. The right one for your family may be different from what would work for someone else.

Consider Presentation
Since the family tree will most likely be prominently displayed, it should have a nice visual presentation. A circular family tree provides a continuous, symmetrical design that looks nice when framed. A fan is another option that appears like a piece of artwork when hung.

Another choice is the bowtie family tree chart if you want to include both sides of a family member. This is ideal for anniversaries where you would feature the married couple in the center and branch off for both of their families. Since there will be a lot of information or a long list of names, you want the shape to stand out even if someone doesn’t take the time to read the words.

Consider Information
To choose the right template for your gift, you have to consider how much information you want to include. This will influence the selection as to which style works best. If you only plan to include photos or a name and birthdate, a family tree with oval spaces will look nice. If you want more information included such as birth, marriage and death dates, lines or boxes will be more practical.
The landscape and pedigree styles are the most traditional. They can hold a lot of information in a way that is easy to follow. If you are giving this gift to a couple who did not have children, you may want to use a partner family tree. It allows you to trace the history on both sides of the family with the couple as the starting point.

Keep these tips in mind when designing a family tree print as a gift:

• Choose a template that doesn’t have a lot of holes that are glaringly obvious – you don’t want to highlight missing people or unusual circumstances that may make people uncomfortable
• Remember that your family tree chart doesn’t have to be an 8×11 piece of paper; it can be as large as you need it to be to fit the information
• Consider making it vibrant with a colored background but choose a shade that doesn’t take away from the information or make it difficult to read
• Find free templates online and try out different ones – you only know when something works once you see it
  A family tree chart is a fabulous gift that many people will appreciate. It is a gift from the heart and one that is personal to the recipient but that others can enjoy. Be willing to play with different styles to fine the one that fits your needs.

Suzie Kolber created http://obituarieshelp.org/free_printable_blank_family_tree.html to be the complete online resource for “do it yourself” genealogy projects.  The site offers the largest offering of family tree charts online. The site is a not for profit website dedicated to offering free resources for those that are trying to trace their family history.

Note: Having experienced the complexity of developing a small museum interactive product, the concept of Cooper Hewitt’s Pen blew my mind. Cooper Hewitt’s presentation at Museums and the Web 2015 was THE must-see on my list. This is a bulleted recap of the lessons the tream recounted.

Cooper Hewitt reopened at the end of 2014 with a transformed museum in a renovated heritage building. New galleries, a rapidly digitizing collection a new brand and a desire for new audiences drove the museum to rethink and reposition its role as a design museum. At the core of the new museum is a digital platform built in-house that connects collections and patron management systems.  This talk explored the processes, the decisions and resulting trade-offs during each stage.

1. Why a pen for the digital touchpoint between visitor and museum? Pen was integral to institutional historical narrative.
2. Project was successful at great cost and time: “There is so much we could have done differently.”
3. Curators for the first time had to design all floors with no extra staff. Historic building was being restored.
4. Pen was supposed to be near-future tech, but was “not there” for the intended timeline.
5. Collections website was built quickly, as was API.
6. “We could see the shape of what we were doing, and had brought the technology in house.”
7. The museum was opened without the pen (the tech could function without it).
8. The pen is there so you don’t have to take a picture of the label text (which never worked well for anyone).
9. Affordances in descriptions: what was made possible by the object?
10. Pen touches every single part of the museum. Didn’t realize how much work it would be—goes beyond design thinking.
11. Pen’s biggest possible is that it pointed to recall—promise to help help people remember their visit.
12. Pen’s form has resonance with their particular brand.
13. “Slide of disillusionment.” It was a tedious process
14. There were three iterations of pens.
15. Available technologies were too expensive.
16. The cost of failure
17. Less cost allows more experiments with failure. Start with something like Raspberry Pi—computer that’s $35. 
18. Original pen was so expensive that outsourcing would not have worked— needed an in-house team.
19. Moved from ideas of active to passive pen.
20. Realized not all of the building rooms had power or networking. Worries about fire around works related to enclosure (and liability issues).
21. Most useful line: To build institutional momentum—built the dumbest, dirtiest prototypes ever
22. In DFM modifications, every single change affects manufacture—molding of plastics, internal mechanics, etc. 
23. Metal is the enemy of radio frequencies.
24. Had to write an Android app to talk to the API.
25. This is not just a tech project—it affects everything the museum does.
26. Process difficulties—pen registration and transfer stations.
27. Ten manufacturers contribution to the making of the device.
28. Audience change at Cooper Hewitt has been vast.
29. Gave out 14,000 pens in four weeks.
30. 30% return rate on people coming back to their exhibit on the web. Ticket urls don’t expire. Data hosted in Amazon. Pay for use, as capacity grows
31. Concierge model for visitors. “Keep your ticket—we’d love to have you back.”
32. Pens cleaned nightly. Batteries were going through first round of changes during the time of this presentation.
33. Value is in users having a good experience and wanting to remember it. Long game is making recall better through touch and creation.
34. Another good point: Before this we had nothing; now we have something and we’ll figure the rest out later.
35. Pen could have been much more. Pen has NFC and is a stylus—everything else is done in software.
36. Website allows urls for sharing on social media. Don’t integrate social too much because platforms change so quickly.
37. Don’t overdesign for the present.
38. Made a commitment to not make one-offs for web awards.
39. Focus on the right stuff, build capacity, hire people, sustain sector, share as much code as you can.

To learn more about the concept and making of this tool, read Cooper Hewitt’s post, Designing the Pen.

Note: The titles in this book review were provided to be as review copies by their publishers. I wrote these reviews because I they mean something to me, and I think you might like them as well.

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick

I’ve been working in (and with) social media for several years now. Despite all the emerging services, there’s been very little that’s actually new in approaching it. Guy Kawasaki is someone I respect, and it’s the reason for looking at this book more deeply. Its stated purpose “is to enable you to rock social media.” Much of what’s here, you’ve likely heard before, scattered across thousands of social media posts over the last few years. The charm of this book is that is distills this conventional wisdom into a concise handbook on social media process and strategy. From planning to writing to SEO and graphics—it covers exactly what you need to keep in mind. A good primer for the newbie, and a good reminder for the veteran.

The Impact Equation by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

What is the impact equation? No worries, you won’t have to be good in math to understand it. Instead, this book is a reflection of the concepts that shape today’s social media-focused values. I have to admit that one statement in the first chapter really hooked me: “If you’re in a small town in central Louisiana, your needs will be different from those of someone in New York City.” I was “that guy” in a small town in central Louisiana when I discovered my digital heritage legs. I’ve now lived in Philadelphia and Miami, and can say the principles described in this book review will be applicable to any time and place or stage of learning. It provides insight on establishing your platform, and then demonstrating the bravery to be different, even as you attract an audience. The book is full of simple, yet profound, truths. A philosophical complement to Kawasali’s “Art of Social Media.”

The Art of Work by Jeff Goins

Admittedly, some of my interest in writing a book review about “The Art of Work” came from the author’s name being so similar to mine. Having read it now, I can say that it’s a good, concise distillation of methods for keeping perspective on work situations.  Like many books, it’s often allegorical or filled with stories from the lives of famous people (e.g. Walt Disney, Steve Jobs). The quote that introduces part two pretty much sums up the purpose of this work “Every single that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.” The book has a balance of practical and philosophical  advice. It calls on the reader to consider their situation and, with intention, employ “deliberate practice” so that they are able to live their best lives, which is often the result of repeated failures. The author’s story about becoming a writer is particularly inspirational. Goins sums it up by saying “…finding your calling, as mysterious as it seems, is not only a mystical process; it is intensely practical. You either act of what you know, or you miss your moment.”  All-in-all, this book is a quick read that encompasses profound life lessons.

The Leadership Handbook by John C. Maxwell

One of the first business books I ever bought was authored by John C. Maxwell. Billed as “the leadership expert,” John’s relationship-centered approach is good for introverts like me to remember now and again. This book review explains why this title is a keeper. It distills many of his leadership concepts into brief and actionable instructions. It goes beyond handbook to function as a devotional, and a course in positive habit development. Application Exercises and a Mentoring Moment end each chapter to ensure each lesson is taken to heart. One of the most valuable pieces of advice Maxwell offers is in the chapter “Keep Your Mind on the Main Thing.” There are times in life that you have to step back and ask three critical questions: 1. What gives me the greatest return? 2.What is most rewarding? 3. What is required of me? He adds to that a closing chapter on the importance of establishing a legacy by picking NOW how people should summarize your life. What’s your legacy? The stylistic elegance Maxwell has honed over his decades of writing has produced a volume of simple truths that you’ll want to continually come back to throughout your career to refocus your life, and savor.

Read more book reviews here.

Here are five interesting elements of this book that enlightened my understanding of Delphi, which Scott describes as “the belly button of the ancient world”:

1. It’s virtually hidden away. Despite its central role in the ancient world, Delphi was never exactly accessible. It lies in the foot hills of the Parnassian mountains, “resembling a fortress that Nature herself had chosen to take care of.” Nature and time have obscured the site even more, but it has never seen more traffic either—about two million visitors per year.
2. Vapor courage was the secret sauce. The Pythia’s responses were “inspired” by a vapor chasm, over which she sat on a tripod.
3. It changed hands more often than Chrysler. Nothing speaks to Delphi’s political and cultural influence more than surviving invasions on too many occasions to count. For a small town, it carried tremendous staying power.
4. It was a monument to heroism (from a certain point of view). Partly because so many cultures occupied Delphi at some time or another, the monuments there are a fairly definitive gallery of world history. It’s regrettable so few have survived, but this book describes them well.
5. Nero (?!) slept here. Nero was indeed the first Roman emperor to visit Dephi. Initially, he gave much autonomy to the city’s ruling council, and was honored with a statue of himself there. Unsurprisingly, the relationship cooled when Nero claimed some of Delphi’s statues, and the Oracle made a comment to him about mother-murderers.

There are several aspects of how this book was written and organized that I appreciated:

• Shakespeare framed its structure (kind of). In his introduction, Scott frames the book’s three parts with a quote from Twelfth Night: “some are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them.”
• It’s chronological, but narrative. The book certainly has themes weaved into its narrative, but it is largely chronological. A wise move for making so much history make sense.
• The illustrations add value. Quality photos and illustrations abound, always adding to the story without overwhelming it. Favorite images: “The Priestess at Delphi” and anything from the chapter on archaeological excavations of the early 20^th century.
• The end matter is a book unto itself. The story of the modern archaeological record is indeed my favorite part of this book, and it leads elegantly into perhaps the best end matter I’ve seen in any work: An insider walkthrough of the Delphi museum as it appears today, Abbreviations, Notes (about 60 pages) and a detailed index.
• Top-grade construction. The first thing I noted about this book is the quality of its construction. The weight and feel of the paper, the binding and even the typographical presentation, make it a pleasure to read.

If Delphi intrigues you on any level, this book is a masterwork for your library. It’s authoritative and accessible, and only gets better in the final few chapters. Worth the read, in print format especially.

Question: What’s your favorite fact, story or resource about Delphi? Leave a comment below, or share it on social media with hashtag #voicesofthepast. I’ll be listening!