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Comment on AddressingHistory by Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » Around the World in 80 Gigabytes

Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » Around the World in 80 Gigabytes — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:20:26 +0000

[...] in our use of Web2.0 tools, we cannot achieve this on our own. As Stuart Macdonald commented in his guest post about the AddressingHistory project, the success of these types of initiatives will “ultimately be measured by continual and extended [...]

Comment on Looking back at the UKOLN/MLA Social Web Workshops by Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » UKOLN’s Involvement With The Cultural Heritage Sector

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:30:32 +0000

[...] Looking back at the UKOLN/MLA Social Web Workshops [...]

Comment on Summing up the UKOLN/MLA Web 2.0 Workshops by Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » UKOLN’s Involvement With The Cultural Heritage Sector

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 13:05:19 +0000

[...] the cultural heritage sector. The first series was held in 2008-9 and delivered by Brian Kelly. The second was delivered in 2009-10 and delivered by Marieke Guy while the final series took place during 2010-2011 and was delivered [...]

Comment on The National Library of Wales and Flickr Commons by Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » UKOLN’s Cultural Heritage Blog

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:44:49 +0000

[...] (a Renaissance East Midlands project) to Using a Blog as a Research Diary (by a PhD student), The National Library of Wales and Flickr Commons and Archives [...]

Comment on The Black Art of Blogging by Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » UKOLN’s Cultural Heritage Blog

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:44:34 +0000

[...] early on having occasional guest posts from people working in the sector. Our first guest post The Black Art of Blogging was by Catriona Cardie, who was inspired by one of Brian Kelly’s workshops on blogging. This [...]

Comment on My Life As An Object by Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » UKOLN’s Cultural Heritage Blog

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 08:02:28 +0000

[...] have been interesting and inspiring – a total of 42 guest posts in all. These ranged from My Life as an Object (a Renaissance East Midlands project) to Using a Blog as a Research Diary 9by a PhD student), The [...]

Comment on Guest Blog Posts by Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » UKOLN’s Cultural Heritage Blog

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 08:02:13 +0000

[...] Guest Blog Posts [...]

Comment on Around the World in 80 Gigabytes by Tweets that mention Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » Around the World in 80 Gigabytes -- Topsy.com

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:07:16 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Alexandra Eveleigh, UKOLN MLA Support. UKOLN MLA Support said: Around the World in 80 Gigabytes: About this Guest Post Alexandra Eveleigh is an archivist with a background wor… http://bit.ly/fjmYev [...]

Comment on The Benefits of Using Web 2.0 Tools in Your Archive by Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » Around the World in 80 Gigabytes

Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » Around the World in 80 Gigabytes — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:03:02 +0000

[...] Advocates for the use of Web2.0 technologies in archives (and I’d be one of them) tend to make much of the opportunity to reach new and different audiences, to expose archive collections to the world, even to democratize the archive. But even if as professional archivists we aspire to a transformation of the civic function of archives in our use of Web2.0 tools, we cannot achieve this on our own. As Stuart Macdonald commented in his guest post about the AddressingHistory project, the success of these types of initiatives will “ultimately be measured by continual and extended use within the wider community”. Encouraging two-way engagement is not like the usual kind of organizational development project, in that there’s no fixed end point at project launch. Web2.0 experiments are easy to start up, but hard to pull the plug on, even if only a few people are contributing, without adversely affecting community trust in your organization and their willingness to participate in the future. Old Weather project home page My research is focused upon those initiatives which depend upon the skills or knowledge of members of the public to supplement or create new information about archival collections (as opposed to platforms like facebook which primarily enable passing comments or indications of approval on content submitted by archivists). This incorporates a wide spectrum of participant behavior from the small, atomized contributions required to take part in the Old Weather transcription of ships’ logs or to tag archival photographs on flickr commons, right through to the sustained effort and specialist knowledge needed to make a substantive contribution to The National Archives’ wiki Your Archives. Flickr commons home page I’m particularly interested in what motivates people to participate online, so that we can establish what social and technical structures best support user participation, and feed this knowledge back into the design of future initiatives. Do online collaborative tools genuinely open up archives to crowds of ‘new’ users as is often claimed, or can the expertise of those with a prior interest and awareness of archives be more easily or usefully tapped? What mechanisms can be put in place both to encourage contributions and to establish the trustworthiness and relevance of submissions? I’m also interested to find out how potential contributors find out about online participation opportunities in the first place, and the interplay between different Web2.0 tools in promoting such projects. Some of the initial data I’ve collected suggests that although social media like twitter and facebook can play an important role in raising awareness amongst fellow professionals of new projects, and in sustaining enthusiasm amongst the participant community once established, traditional press coverage still packs an unrivalled punch in terms of making initial contact with would-be participants in cultural heritage contexts. Milkyway project homepage Certain trends are already becoming evident within the (broadly defined) archives domain. 2010 was definitely the year of the transcription platform, as organisations seek to strike a happy balance between motivating participants to contribute and maintaining adequate organizational control over the content created. Some distinctions are also now becoming evident between different styles of project. Some aim to ‘crowdsource’ lots of small contributions from as many people as possible, yet the commitment required and connection established between each individual participant and the archives may only be fleeting. More community-focused initiatives, on the other hand, bear a close resemblance to traditional volunteering opportunities or outreach work, specifically aiming to capitalize on participants’ emotional attachment with the subject matter in hand. But this is a dynamic field, and sometimes its hard to keep up with all the new projects unveiled: I wonder what new ideas 2011 will bring? [...]

Comment on Revitalising Information Services by Tweets that mention Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » Revitalising Information Services -- Topsy.com

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:20:19 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Linda Houston, I.O.V.. I.O.V. said: Revitalising Information Services http://dlvr.it/GXCY5 [...]