How collaborative wiki platforms can help heritage practitioners document knowledge, work together and expand public access to cultural information.
Tag Archives: toolkit
Heritage Scrapbooking: Online resources to save the memories of a lifetime
Heritage scrapbooking sits at the intersection of craft, family storytelling, and preservation. This resource guide introduces archival materials and practical sources for assembling photographs, documents, and family memories into objects intended to last. The deeper concern is familiar throughout Voices of the Past: preservation is not limited to museums and professionals. Families also make choices about what survives, what context accompanies it, and how personal memory is handed forward.
My hipster GTD folder form for keeping projects on track
A homegrown project-management form inspired by David Allen’s Getting Things Done system. The post turns a productivity method into a simple printable artifact for keeping projects visible, bounded, and moving—an early example of translating an abstract workflow idea into a practical tool.
Social Networking for Family History
Genealogy Gems founder Lisa Louise Cooke traces her path from sharing a research discovery on a Family History Center bulletin board to building a podcast and online network reaching genealogists around the world. Her story illustrates how social tools changed genealogy from a largely individual research pursuit into a networked practice of exchanging methods, clues, discoveries, and encouragement. The technology changed the scale, but the underlying impulse remained the same: researchers helping one another find people.
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.
Social Media Planning for Heritage Organizations: Differentiating Goals, Objectives & Tactics
A practical framework for separating communications goals, measurable objectives, and platform-specific tactics. Written for heritage organizations during the early social-media era, the post argues that new tools should fit inside strategic planning rather than become a strategy by themselves—a distinction that remains useful as platforms continue to change.
How to promote your heritage event using the web
This past week, I attended WordCamp Dallas, a meeting of bloggers and web professionals who are using the WordPress platform. WordCamp was phenomenal both in terms of the information delivered and the wonderful people who were there. Seeing all the fabulous strategies used to make this event happen on a registration fee of just $30 per person, it got me to thinking, how could these strategies be applied to make heritage events more accessible and successful? <br />
Twitter and microblogging: Instant communication with your community
"What are you up to?" It's how we greet friends and strangers alike everyday. It's also the question behind one of the web's most popular social networking sites: Twitter. Voices of the Past posts links to its news, along with other community announcements, at http://www.twitter.com/ptnews. So what is microblogging, and what can you gain from it?
Heritage DIY: Create and Preserve your Family Tree the Web 2.0 Way
<b>By Dylan Staley</b> <p> Geni is a web based family tree maker that is using the idea of Web 2.0 and collaboration to make finding your long lost relatives easier. Geni, built by some of the people that brought you PayPal, eGroups, eBay, and Tribe, allows you to work with your family members on building your family tree. So, you may not know your second great grandmother’s husband’s name, but your grandmother’s sister may know, and Geni provides the platform to allow this knowledge to travel the great distances that often separate families.</p> <br />
John Leeke V-log: Steam Paint Removal
In this installment of his Voices of the Past V-log, John Leeke demonstrates using steam to remove heavy paint build up from wood surfaces. Steam paint removal softens the paint film so it can be more easily scraped away. It works well with the heavy paint buildup commonly found on the exterior of older buildings during house restoration and historic preservation projects.