I like the symbolism of timelapses–snapshots of moments captured and contextualized. It kind of reflects how we view history. The understanding of little moments; piecing them together.
They’re effective for storytelling and relatively simple to produce too! If you’re ready to dip your toe into timelapse, here are some content ideas, as well as equipment to consider if you decide to try it out. A lot of the prime examples seem to be older, so please do comment if you’re aware of any other great use cases out there!
1. Growth of Plants
Living collections undergo changes during their lifecycle that people can’t stand around and perceive as happening. The range of sizes and displays can vary widely, and here is one of the most grandiose examples of this is the Corpse Flower, which only blooms every 7-10 years, from the Chicago Botanic Garden.
2. Conservation & Preservation Projects
The timelapse shows the restoration of the Great Hall at Chicago Union Station, including the 219-foot-long skylight that is at the center of the train station as well as the construction of a new high-performance skylight above the historic, 2,052-pane original.
3. Building & Construction Projects
Forget the Corpse Flower–if you’re looking for true scale, building projects are immense and can span a very great deal of time. Timelapse is the best option for capturing that journey. Here’s an example of the Gay Head Lighthouse being moved BY RAIL to protect it.
4. Participatory Art
Art&Seek and Art Conspiracy invited the public to create the event’s first “Graffiti Wall.” Attendees were invited to make their mark on a chalkboard mural. This is a great concept for potentially showing the demographic range of your audiences. The event page also has some useful tips on how the timelapse was created.
5. Illustrating Science
Illustrating cause-and-effect is one area where timelapse photography excels. Rather than explaining the science or process in detail, sometimes the simplest and most engaging approach is to show it first. This video by the Canadian Conservation Institute shows silver tarnishing at an accelerated rate using an egg. See many more of their interesting timelapses at their YouTube Channel.
6. Decorating a Space
In one of the more captivating examples of timelapse I’ve seen, The Royal Pavilion Museums and Trust shows the decoration of multiple spaces, from start to show. If you’ve got to decorate for a holiday or special occasion anyway, why not share the effort? You might inspire someone.
7. Documenting Environmental Effects
In 2017, I had just started my new position at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens when Hurricane Irma paid Miami a visit. We’d just gotten a new Brinno timelapse camera and one of the security guards suggested we tether it to a balcony overlooking Biscayne Bay to see what happens. That was an inspired thought! Though Irma was not a direct hit on us, the storm surge produced enough fury to knock down pieces of the “Barge,” a breakwater/sculpture just outside the museum’s Main House. The Barge largely did its work to protect the Main House, but sustained some battle scars. Fortunately, we had just 3D documented it. This timelapse shows the fateful event that September day:
8. Exhibit Installations
You can create a timelapse effect using video as well. The example below was a first attempt at this concept, using snippets of video to show the phases of exhibit installation at a museum I worked at in Philadelphia.
9. Contemporary Art Projects
Going back to Vizcaya, here is a timelapse I took of a contemporary art project in which coverings are being sewn for the furniture akin to what would have been done by house staff members ahead of the summer months back when the house was built 100 years ago. The public was able to watch the work being done during the museum’s regular hours. The timelapse was used in an iPad kiosk at this location after the project was concluded.
Tools & Cameras
Capturing a timelapse is fairly simple if you have a sturdy camera and trip, and adequate light. Since audio is not an issue, it reduces a lot of complexity.
Brinno: This is a workhorse brand that I’ve used for years, and was used (along with a weatherproof housing) to document the hurricane event above. Keep in mind, if the the preview screen is on the back of your camera (as is the case with some of these models), it’s going to be awkward to see if you tether the camera to a post or building. But some use AA batteries, which can last for three months, so you’re really only limited by the size of the SD memory card you put in it.
GoPro: The GoPro’s ruggedness and small size make it ideal for this task. It has a built-in timelapse feature and captures super hi-res imagery. On the downside, the battery drains fast, and your ability to capture may be just hours rather than weeks.
DSLR: If you want really good quality with endless flexibility for settings, a DSLR camera is a viable option. You choose the battery size, the memory size and the resolution. Here’s a guide to using a camera you may already have.
Smart Phones: Most everyone has a smart phone these days, which has the timelapse feature built into the camera. Here are a couple of tutorials that provide detail on the functionality. Check here for iPhone and here for Android.
To button this up, here’s a video comparing the above methods.
Archival documents play a critical role in shaping the human story of a cultural site. In many ways they are the closest we can get to understanding the intent behind the creation of such places. Yet very few visitors are able to access them, or know where to start when those archives are available online as part of a collections management system. Over the course of 2020-2021, I managed development of a project that leveraged human-centered design principles to contextualize archival correspondence and humanize the founder of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens while illustrating some of the thinking that went into teh Estate’s construction.
“Yours Truly, James Deering” (virtualvizcaya.com) helps visitors to Vizcaya as well as online audiences get an answer to their most-asked question: who founded the Estate and why? Despite his great wealth, James Deering was a private person who did not marry or have children. What we know of him comes from the letters and telegrams he wrote during the construction of Vizcaya in the 1910s, which to this point have been inaccessible to the public. This project fashions his correspondence into an online storytelling experience that gives the user choices regarding what aspects of Deering’s personality they want to explore and guides them into a process of crafting their own narrative about who he was.
On-site visitors are able to activate the mobile experience through QR codes placed in the museum and gardens. Aside from the digitized letters, the experience also extends the narrative with additional multimedia content (e.g., 3D scans, 360 maps, etc.). Collectively, Yours Truly offers visitors context, discovery and surprise in Vizcaya’s storytelling approach.
Human-Centered Design
In 2019 the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation asked Vizcaya to participate in a cohort aimed at instilling the values of human-centered design in museums. That involvement resulted in the Yours Truly concept.
The project’s goals and outcomes include the following:
Established a digitization plan for archival materials
Procured modern digitization equipment and digitized more than 3,000 pieces of correspondence
Development of a responsive content management system based on WordPress that forms the basis of all future interactive experiences on the Estate and online
Human-centered design process that is now applied for all audience-facing projects
Installation of site-wide wireless access for visitors to the Estate
Experimentation with expanded forms of multimedia storytelling
Development of a user/visitor tracking system “Personamatic” based on Google Sheets/Forms/Data Studio for user studies
CLICK THE IMAGE TO SEE A PDF CASE STUDY OF THE PROJECT
User Expectations
Team members worked to avoid prescribed interpretations of James Deering’s correspondence, wanting Vizcaya’s visitors/users to gain an appreciation of them based on their interpretation of his words. In the age of smartphones and tablets and times of pandemic, expectations for interactive technologies have changed significantly. The initial intent was to heavily use kiosks stationed throughout the museum that would be updated via a newly established wireless access mesh. With the COVID-19 pandemic’s onset, the development team shifted to using a bring-your-own-device model to access the experience triggered by QR codes on signage throughout the Estate.
Visitors can often be seen in museums using pinch-and-zoom gestures, swiping, and scrolling through content. In much the same way, expectations have also changed regarding how museums and heritage institutions tell these stories effectively. The goal is to create enough novelty and intrigue—use just enough narrative to evoke emotion, inspire memories from the experience—to leave the user with a thirst to know James Deering in the museum and beyond. Vizcaya worked to achieve these objectives with an approach that will inform its future interactive endeavors.
Experience goals based on user testing and capabilities of the technology/online platform
Establishes “hooks” (highlighting letter excerpts) to provide focus considering the depth and complexity presented in the content.
Refine narratives and navigation keys to improve satisfaction for onsite or remote users in reading and using the interactive experience.
Foster user curiosity and encourage deeper exploration of collections with interest-based drop-down options for digital media within the platform.
Host a creative platform to reimagine James Deering’s personal life and business trades by combining digitized archives and other digital media.
Enhancing onsite and virtual visitor engagement by creating feedback mechanisms for sentiment, reflections and feature requests. Explore-by-Map interface in which users can find context-driven content using the floor plan of the Main House.
Digital Strategy Components Advanced during this project
Interactive Experiences CMS Yours Truly establishes a scalable content management system that serves as a repository for Vizcaya’s archival and object collections, and platform that allows contextual ties that engage users.
Personamatic Audience Studies Platform Yours Truly is the first project to leverage this unique mix of Google Forms, Sheets and Data Studio to record and visualize audience testing feedback. As data from additional projects is added, the more refined and powerful our audience analysis will become.
Beyond Vizcaya Storytelling Platform Beyond Vizcaya (also funded by Knight) is an emerging multimedia storytelling platform wherein content has the potential to be co-created by audiences. The lessons learned from Yours Truly development directly informed the structure and technologies behind this platform. With both, Vizcaya is learning how to tell stories in the digital space.
Sitewide Wireless Vizcaya underwent a total replacement of its IT infrastructure as Yours Truly was beginning. As part of the process of making Yours Truly available to on-site visitors in a bring-your-own-device scenario, Vizcaya was able to offer wireless access to the public for the first time, covering most of the Main House and some of the gardens.
Digitization Infrastructure Also as part of Yours Truly, Vizcaya developed its first plan for archives digitization and was able to procure modern equipment, as well as the needed help, to make part of the correspondence collection accessible for the first time. Additionally, Vizcaya was able to add four terabytes of storage to its servers to store the digitized collections and their derivatives.
For me, enjoying a museum visit has always required a leap of imagination. After all, a glass case or a room barrier inherently separates you from objects. Interpretive animations as short-form video are one way to get a visitor into a state where they can better understand the context is which a space, object or event “lived” its historical purpose due to its interaction with humans.
I experimented with this concept as part of a partnership with University of the Arts in Philadelphia and my colleague, Michal Meyer. Abstracting the object or story with animation really helped focus on imaginative storytelling and more effective interpretation.
Here is a playlist of animations produced as part of this partnership.
Some are definitely better than others, but they increased in quality as we refined the process. One challenge related to this experience (where we were working with a class) is that there is much work in getting the students up to speed on the meaning of the content and desired outcomes for audiences. These were also semester-long projects for an animation class, so they are several months in production. Some animations were never quite finished.
Overall, I think they turned out wonderfully. My personal favorite is an animation of an old alchemical painting the organization had, which explained what was going on through the eyes of a creature featured in it. Here’s a preview to the high-resolution source image for that from Wikimedia Commons (click for original):
Interior of a Laboratory with an Alchemist by David Teniers II, 17th Century
I saw that painting almost every workday for three years. It captured my imagination all on its own, and was a no-brainer for this project. To give these project some extra attention, we “premiered” these as part of a live webcast that featured a graphic novelist and a comic book historian.
There are many examples of museums using animations as pre-visit prep (manners in the museum) as seen below, but few featuring sophisticated storytelling and animation.
There are also examples of animations being used in museum interactives, such as these at the Benjamin Franklin Museum.
I looked for examples of interpretive animations produced by other cultural institutions, and they are hard to find. If you know of something out there, please link to it in the comments. Of course, there are many examples of object-inspired animated GIFs being used throughout social media, but that’s another post.
When you’re identifying what digital interpretive tactics work for your organization, eventually you will find one (or a combination of a few) that achieves a number of needs. This is called a strategic linchpin.
Linchpins are the result of beginning the strategic process, engaging experimentally, and giving your plans some time to percolate. The ability to focus more effort on fewer linchpin technologies is a sign that your tactical planning has truly become strategic.
The following are three examples of strategic linchpins specific to points-in-time and cultural organizations from my work in digital initiatives.
Strategic Linchpin 1: NCPTT Podcast
In 2007, the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training faced the difficulty of being a National Park Service agency with a mandate to serve a national audience, despite a decade of flat budgets and a relatively remote location in northwest Louisiana. The organization needed a way to show its impact, including the influence of innovative grant projects it funded to support the use of technology for historic preservation purposes. At the time, many of its audiences were cautiously curious about social and online media technologies. Part of this was that there were not really any topically relevant media to compel their participation.
I started the Preservation Technology Podcast as a way to empower staff to showcase their successes, and for audiences to connect to a wider world of like-minded preservation geeks. For all, it was a first step into modern online media, short of the engagement platforms like Facebook and Twitter, which were still viewed as invasive at the time. The podcast’s objectives included the following:
Give the staff a voice
Showcase grant products
Promote peer research
Connect with a national audience on no budget
Encourage adoption of digital media among audiences
Show digital media leadership within NPS
Almost ten years later, the podcast is the longest-running historic preservation podcast being produced. Moreover, NCPTT is noted for its role in championing digital outreach technologies, especially within the National Park Service.
Strategic Linchpin 2: Chemical Heritage Foundation GLAM-Wiki Program
In 2013, the Chemical Heritage Foundation was looking for ways to publicly share its comprehensive collections and research related to the history of chemistry. It used a lower-end collections management system and did not have a public search function enabled. It had narrative histories on its website, but they were difficult to find. At the same time, many staff members expressed frustration about the lack of quality information related to these topics on Wikipedia.
CHF chose to participate in the GLAM-Wiki initiative that helps cultural institutions share their resources with the world through collaborative projects with experienced Wikipedia editors. A Philadelphia-area Wikipedia editor was hired as a Wikipedian-in-Residence. This resulted in staff training on Wikipedia, and a systematic upload of high-quality collections images to WikiMedia Commons, and the creation of a monthly onsite cybercafe that included Wikipedia edit-a-thons.
The Wikipedian-in-Residence position was subsequently funded for a four-year term through a grant with the Beckman Foundation, and the Wikipedia content continues to be a major driver of web traffic to CHF web properties.
Strategic Linchpin 3: Vizcaya Museum and Gardens 3D Documentation
In March 2016, I had recently been contracted by Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, Fl., to give strategic shape to their digital initiatives. I reached out to David Morgan, a former colleague to brainstorm the evolution of a concept with which we had some common experience: 3D documentation. We both worked together several years at the National Park Service National Center for Preservation Technology and Training–an organization at the forefront of innovating technologies for heritage preservation. David has since moved on to become director of the NPS Southeast Archaeological Center in Tallahassee, Fl., and made several introductions to people who performed 3D documentation in Florida.
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is a historic house museum and formal gardens located on Biscayne Bay in Miami. Its heritage resources are continually threatened from the climate (including sea-level rise) and inclement weather. It is also an extremely popular tourist attraction. Dual-purposing preservation documentation technology with visitor-facing interpretive technologies was an attractive idea for the institution.
Only a few people at the organization were aware of preservation documentation technologies. I wrote an explanatory document in summer 2016 that describes how the tech worked, what the advantages were and what partners could help achieve success (here’s a more general explainer based on that research). Among the benefits outlined were:
Preserve endangered heritage resources
Make resources accessible & tell their stories to visitors
Bridge preservation and interpretive technologies
Nurture academic/tech partnerships
Vizcaya formed a partnership with the University of Florida to prioritize laser scanning and photogrammetry documentation on resources that were of intense interest, but not accessible to the public. In January of 2017, UF completed scanning of the resources for preservation purposes.
In May 2017, the Knight Foundation awarded Vizcaya a grant for $100,000 to fulfill its vision to create visitor-facing virtual experiences based on 3D documentation of these resources. 3D documentation technology has come a long way in the past five years, and really, only now would we be attempting to make this visitor-facing element happen. This was made evident when I attended NCPTT’s 3D Documentation Summit in April. Many of the speakers there mentioned virtual experiences as the “next phase” of this technology. We’d already submitted our grant idea by then, but it was gratifying to know the leaders in this field were thinking the same way.
It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience seeing the idea take root at Vizcaya, knowing that the resources are being cared for, and the visitor experience as well. The values of Vizcaya’s leadership and staff, and the nature of Vizcaya itself, are what made 3D documentation its first strategic linchpin technology.
In the last decade, 3D documentation has emerged as the pre-eminent technology to support heritage preservation around the world.
Organizations like UNESCO, the World Monuments Fund and Smithsonian actively participate in programs for 3D documentation of historic objects and sites.
More recently, the technology has evolved to impact digital interpretation as well. Advances in preservation technologies are aligning with those in interpretive tech, so bridging the two to create virtual experiences and kiosks is finally beginning to be possible. This post will describe two common 3D documentation approaches and related resources for institutions considering leveraging this technology.
What is Laser Scanning?
Laser scanning enables a large quantity of three-dimensional measurements to be collected quickly. Laser scanners are devices that can be placed on land or on aircraft such as planes and drones. The scanners measures distance by systematically illuminating a target with a laser light, and recording that data. The point cloud is the raw product of a survey. It contains a large number of coordinates that detail every aspect of a surface, measured in microns. There are 25,400 microns in one inch. These points form the skeleton over which a skin can be rendered to create a recognizable 3D model.
Laser data is collected into proprietary systems, so the data will require messaging before it can be exported in a useful and shareable product. It can also be affected by environmental factors like humidity. Attention must also be paid to how the scans are registered. Though individual scans may be really accurate, the finished model can have a lot of error due to the registration process. Be sure to evaluate the implications of these factors, as well as the scale of your project when examining the appropriateness of this technology.
What is Photogrammetry?
Photogrammetry works by taking many images of a scene from different locations using standard digital cameras (there are even smartphone apps) and then processing them through programs to determine the exact location from which these photos were taken. When the positions of the camera are known, specialty software looks for common points in two or more photos to determine where objects exists in 3D space. It can still produce a very detailed virtual model. The technology is useful on a small scale, to document objects or fragments of architectural detail on buildings. It can be used for more frequent visual detection of deterioration for at-risk heritage resources, at lower costs than laser scanning.
In terms of accuracy, photogrammetry can give repeatable measurable results well in the sub-mm range, with reports of repeatable measurements in the 5 100ths of a mm. Photogrammetry has an advantage over laser scanning in terms of archiving because archiving image sets is well understood.
As with laser scanning, the quality of a product of photogrammetry is determined by how correctly it was shot and processed. A good looking model can still have a lot of error.
What questions can 3D documentation answer?
Laser scanning, supported with photogrammetry, can provide critical insight into a site’s built heritage that cannot be accomplished as efficiently by any other means. These include the following:
How quickly a feature is changing. Laser scanning can contribute to a detailed record where a feature, structure or site might be lost or changed forever. Is the architectural detail on the barge measurably fading at a faster rate than that of the main house or the garden mound? Laser scanning can help predict the rate of deterioration, and inform conservation priorities.
How one feature in the landscape relates to another. What is the proportion of an institution’s grounds to its built structures? Based on the contour of the landscape, how will sea level rise affect the estate over time? Laser scanning can help inform study of the overall cultural landscape–how it was fashioned and how it compares to the surrounding landscape. It can also uncover previously unnoticed archaeological features in a landscape covered in vegetation or woodland.
The size of a structure. Laser scanning provides pinpoint accuracy regarding dimensions of objects and structures. This can be useful in planning for preservation projects by contributing to a record before renovation of a structure or landscape.
Improve accessibility. For tall structures, a frieze, tiling, or other architectural detail may not be entirely visible from ground level. For others, environmental barriers may block access. Often, objects in museums are blocked from close inspection and certainly from touching. A 3D scan can replicate the proportions and form on an object for access on digital platforms.
Aid expert understanding. Because of the detail it is able to capture, elements of an object or structure can be enlarged and examined on a virtually unlimited scale.
Improve engagement with the general public. Models produced as a result of scanning can be incorporated into interpretive kiosks and digital tour apps for mobile devices, allowing the public to manipulate, enlarge and examine objects from all sides. This can further enrich their connection to the site/objects and allow them to share their experiences through the web.
Replication. An accurate model is useful for producing a replica for display, or as a replacement in a restoration scheme. This could be useful in milling replacement replicas of the peacocks for the marine garden or sculpture on the barge that is at risk due to climate. Models can also be used by educational departments to 3D print objects as part of a handling collection.
Universities with 3D Documentation Programs
University Partners are highly aware of the grant landscape for laser scanning projects and are willing to collaborate on funding proposals. They also have excellent reputations for understanding how this technology can be applied to the entire range of cultural heritage documentation, preservation and interpretation.
In turn, universities benefit from a partnership with your institution because their students will have access to a living laboratory of historic structures, objects and landscapes to capture and evaluate. Here are a few universities that are capable of 3D documentation projects:
The University of Arkansas Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies describes its approach as “strongly multi-disciplinary and global in scope with current active research efforts throughout North America, South America, the Middle and Near East, and Europe.” The program is funded through grant projects.
The University of Arkansas CAST program has a wide variety of research strengths including capture, analysis, preservation and education.
Oregon State University Pacific Slope Archaeological Laboratory focuses on archaeological assets. Their site lists rates for services and provides interesting online video about the applications of their work.
The University of Michigan 3D Lab provides 3D capture and printing as part of its processes. They can assist with all phases of projects including planning, design and development.
In 2012, the University of Florida Historic Preservation Program launched the Envision Heritage initiative with the mission of exploring how new and emerging technologies can be utilized to document, conserve, and interpret historic sites.
The University of South Florida Alliance for Integrated Spatial Technologies (AIST) is a Research and Education Support Unit in the School of Geosciences, College of Arts and Sciences, at the University of South Florida. Its research interest is “preserving and protecting the world’s cultural and natural heritage through education and global engagement.”
Related Questions
Q: How will I be able to access and use the file?
A: You could use Autodesk Recap (subscription; $300/yr – Smithsonian uses this) to access the actual point cloud and MeshLab (open source) for solid models, or Rhino3D ($1,000 for a license). The partnering institutions are willing to work out a plan to offer training to staff on the use of these technologies as well. This will empower the organization to make better use of the data and learn to capture small-scale scans for predictive conservation modeling.
How large might the file(s) be?
A: File sizes vary by the scale of the object and resolution. Estimates regarding the point cloud for the are about 15 GB. A solid model would be more than 100 GB depending upon the level of detail. Video animations can be 1GB or more depending on length. These are large, but still manageable sizes to store and access.
Q: How often would scanning need to be done to track preservation/conservation issues?
A: This will take time to determine. Laser scanning and photogrammetry could be used to focus on specific, collectively decided target areas and not record the entire structure each time. That would decrease time in field, processing, and cost. Of course, time intervals would depend on what we are monitoring for, and would be informed through a regular visual analysis by the conservation team, including observed rate of deterioration due to cyclical tides, storm events, etc.
Q: Can we use the resulting animated graphic in 360 photo tours?
A: The partner institution can provide the point cloud or solid surface file in a number of different formats. 360 tour vendors could integrate a 3D model so that it can be opened within the tour as a web-poi. For an off-line version (kiosk version) it may be possible to have a normal poi (point of interest) featuring still angles of the 3D barge that could be scrolled through giving the appearance of it rotating 360 degrees. Regal 360 could also just come out and photograph on top of the barge, but that still leaves the water side undocumented.
Q: Who owns the product(s)?
A: The point cloud, solid model and video animations should be specified as the sole property of your institution. A partnership should be structured so that the documentation partner would seek permission if they sought to publish anything regarding the work they did at your site.
Strategic Directions
To fully realize its value, a 3D documentation project should inform a broader systematic program of capture.
Learning Experiences
Universities that teach 3D documentation skills and execute related projects internationally can be valuable partners. This expertise can be leveraged for knowledge among staff, and provide learning experiences for university students and the general public.
Staff Workshop: A partner institution could provide an on-site workshop for relevant staff on photogrammetry. Staff would be instructed in the significance of 3D documentation, how to perform it, and how to use it to inform their work. This would include targeted documentation training that would allow staff to see differences between the images they capture, and those resulting from an initial high-resolution scan.
Community Day: Your institution could hold a community event to introduce local audiences (including students) to the technology and how the institution is using it. The event would showcase commitment to preservation while enabling the public to see heritage resources in ways (both micro and macro) that were previously impossible. This event could include the following:
a presentation by the site and its partner institution to present preliminary data
A demonstration of the documentation technologies.
3D printing of objects based laser scans that the public can touch and examine.
University Classes: University partners participating in 3D documentation could involve their students in the project. With an ongoing program of 3D digital scanning, a historic site could become a living laboratory for these students, providing a diverse array of architectural and environmental elements to round out their experience.
Grant Opportunities
A university partner is particularly useful in identifying and acquiring grants for 3D documentation projects. The following granting agencies have expressed past interest in funding such projects:
3D objects can be rendered in formats suitable to a wide variety of digital platforms, including the following:
Mobile Apps: For institutions investigating app development for enhancing the visitor experience. 3D models could be judiciously integrated into such an app, giving visitors the opportunity to manipulate select objects as part of a larger virtual tour. Additionally, USF AIST has student developers within its program that could potentially create a custom experience centered around 3D objects.
Sketchfab: Many institutions worldwide publish the renderings from their project portfolios to Sketchfab. Sketchfab is a leading online repository for publishing 3D and virtual reality content. It integrates with all major 3D creation tools and publishing platforms. Files can be uploaded in almost any 3D format, directly on sketchfab.com or using an exporter. Once models are on Sketchfab, descriptive text can be added and the resulting image can be embedded on any web page and are sharable on social media.
SCENE Webshare Cloud: SCENE WebShare Cloud is a cloud-based hosting solution from FARO that allows easy and secure sharing of scan data worldwide. It offers the ability to can see the renderings of structures or objects on an interactive map. It offers a the ability to include very detailed information, including measured distances, GPS coordinates, project descriptions. Though engaging for a general audience, it is most useful in working with contractors or managing entities. The degree to which it can zoom from estate map to details on architectural features also makes it a powerful computer-based solution to understand and analyze complex on-site conditions, including conservation issues. The base package for SCENE Webshare Cloud is $990, which includes 50GB storage.
Cultural Heritage Imaging (CHI) is a nonprofit organization, dedicated to advancing the state of the art of digital capture and documentation of the world’s cultural, historic, and artistic treasures. One of its goals is to create robust, low-cost imaging tools to document cultural heritage. It is noted for unique approaches to 3D documentation, its commitment to training people in these technologies, and its willingness to use social media as an outreach tool.
CyArk was founded in 2003 to ensure heritage sites are available to future generations, while making them uniquely accessible today. CyArk operates internationally as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the mission of using new technologies to create a free, 3D online library of the world’s cultural heritage sites before they are lost to natural disasters, destroyed by human aggression or ravaged by the passage of time. CyArk tends to focus on high-profile projects, supported by large grants.
3D Data Exchange
The ASTM E57 Committee on 3D Imaging Systems Sub-committee on Data Interoperability (E57.04) has developed an open standard for 3D imaging system data exchange. Working with partners to follow this standard is important to make maximum use of 3D products. The standard’s goals include the following:
Cross-platform
Open source
Easy to use API, designed for common use cases
The E57 File Format for 3D Imaging Data Exchange is capable of storing point cloud data from laser scanners and other 3D imaging systems, as well as associated 2D imagery and core metadata.
Supporting Documentation
The following documents will be helpful for partners assisting with 3D documentation projects
Strategic Plan
Historic Structures Reports
Blueprints
Cultural Landscape Plan
Related Archival Images
HABS/HAER/HALS Documentation
Participation in National Park Service Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) would complement, inform and strengthen a built heritage site’s own 3D documentation efforts. In particular, a documentation project as part of the the Historic American Building Survey (HABS), or Historic American Landscape Survey (HALS) are options for documenting in this way. Much of the work of HABS is done by student teams during the summer, or as part of college-credit classwork. An institution could sponsor a student team in partnership with a university with an architecture program.
The measured drawings, photographs and reports produced from these programs are archived by the Library of Congress and made accessible through their online database. Efforts are being made now to connect HABS documentation to 3D documentation point clouds.
Note: I followed up with Vincent in March 2022 and here’s what he’s been up to since this podcast was first posted:
1. When we spoke more than a decade ago, you were very focused on building community via Twitter, and you’re still very active there. What is the most important thing you’ve learned about engaging on that platform on the topic of cultural heritage?
Twitter has changed a lot since we last spoke and it continues to change but some of the basic tenants remain the same. It’s very important to connect with others interested in your area of interest, whether that be fly fishing, brewing kombucha, or cultural heritage. Search for and follow these accounts, like and comment on their tweets, engage with them. Ask for feedback, create polls, pose questions to encourage interaction with you.
Create Twitter Lists to separate your interests into specific topics, or follow Lists that others have already made. Speaking of change, Lists are now accessible from the main screen with a swipe to the left. You can pin up to five there, so you can very easily flip between them. By making Twitter Lists much more accessible in this way it has made them an even more useful way of filtering the information.
2. You’ve developed websites on Egyptology, with Pyramid Texts Online still commanding attention since our last conversation. What do you think is the key to long-term success in building a last web presence around historical themes?
It has to be useful or interesting to others. I don’t update the Pyramid Texts Online website very often but it is still very popular among those interested in the Pyramid Texts. It specialises in one very specific topic and I think that is the main reason for its continued success.
I regularly receive emails from visitors to the website who want to learn more and I enjoy the discussion that often ensues. Not every interaction has to be on public display and often a deeper and more genuine conversation is enjoyed in private.
Links from reputable sources are of course a valuable asset, and you will likely get these links if you are focused on your niche, specialising in a specific area or topic.
3. Do you have any upcoming projects or interests that you’re currently exploring, and what areas of online media are intriguing to you at the moment?
A new area of online media that I’ve been getting into are 3D models. They are such a great way of experiencing artefacts, exploring inside temples and pyramids, or even understanding the context of a dig site in 3D.
I’ve been sharing ancient Egyptian models on Twitter. One of my followers even printed one of the models on his 3D printer, resulting in his very own statue of Hatshepsut!
A long term project that has had some exciting developments recently is the Earth Pyramid, which is essentially a time capsule for the world in the form of a pyramid.
We’ve got some big players involved, including world leading engineering company Arup. During the construction we’ll be testing some of the main theories of how the ancient Egyptian pyramids were built.
Recently the nation of Senegal has actively embraced the project and is keen to have the Earth Pyramid built there.
There will be four different chambers within the Earth Pyramid, each designed to capture a different aspect of our time on this planet and give everyone in the world who wishes, the opportunity to participate in this global event. The website earthpyramid.org has a more in depth description of the project and I welcome your readers to explore the site to learn more and become involved.
BEGIN ORIGINAL POST >>Have you ever wanted to learn hieroglyphics? What if a podcast could help you with that? There is one out there and it’s produced by this episode’s guest. His name is Vincent Brown. Vincent is kind of a new media renaissance man, with a focus on Egyptology and the pyramids. In addition to the podcast he created, he also maintains blogs and a very active Twitter community. That’s one of the things he’s going to talk about is optimizing your Twitter participation for creating a community: crafting relevant tweets and how to optimize those with hashtags as well. Here’s that interview. [Timestamp #00:01:39.6#]
Vincent Brown: I’m a web designer by trade. Before I got into freelance web design, I was an IT network administrator. I was a trainer as well and taught web design. I actually invented a form of Twitter with some guys in my group. I always thought that it would be fantastic to be able to update a website from a mobile phone. We actually got a prototype working. That was 2006, and in the same month, Twitter came out, so I jumped on to that. That’s the powerful aspect of Twitter–to have it on the sidebar of your blog and have those elements remotely feeding into it. #00:02:53.5#
Jeff Guin: Did you have any concept as to how things would evolve with Twitter? #00:02:54.3#
VB: No way. I wasn’t even thinking about social aspects. I was really just thinking about remotely updating a blog, and of course it’s much more than that. #00:03:05.3#
JG: You have quite a community there. Was it intentional for you to build a community through Twitter? #00:03:21.7#
VB: Originally, I started using it as a news outlet–as a micro-blog. My blog posts take hours to write. I get carried away, so there’s a lack of time for doing regular blog posts. As a way of combating that, I decided to post the micro-updates everyday. I generally put out 10-20 a day through my Google Reader feeds that I’ve developed over the years. And that expanded into doing lessons on Twitter as well. I was learning ancient Egyptian, which being a complex language, is a long-term study. I thought if would be great to help my colleagues who were studying with me to have flash cards. So I started by creating a flashcard for one word each day. At the end of the week, I’d compile them and make a chart, which I put on Flickr. Then I thought a video would be even more effective. So I created a video each week to recap six words. Being a trainer, I knew that learning requires extras like sound and visuals for easy memorization. I added music and different backgrounds and released it as Creative Commons content. I really enjoyed the community collaboration of using others’ content and doing that through Creative Commons is a good way, because it allows all involved to be credited for their work. #00:05:48.5#
JG: And this podcast is still available. I discovered it on iTunes. #00:05:53.3#
JG: Who were the folks you interacted with in social media early on? #00:06:01.9#
VB: The Brooklyn Museum was on the forefront early, doing amazing things. They took a few trips to the hospital with their mummy. They did CT scans on a mummy the museum has. Shelley Bernstein, the IT person there, decided to live blog it. I set up a live Twitter feed and embedded it in my blog. I also automated the Twitpics as well so they were coming out on my blog, and encouraged my readers to interact with them so that she was able to receive questions and could ask the curators and scientists questions. The museum also has embraced Flickr in a big way–really pushing The Commons. Flickr was one the first social media companies to embrace the idea of The Commons [here’s a list of participating organizations]. It’s a feature of Flickr, so it was powerful for the museum to put their archives on The Commons. There are a few others: Boston University and Harvard collaborated with Peter Der Manuelian of the Giza Archives, to create some fantastic representations of the Giza plateau and some of the tombs there. #00:08:54.7#
JG: Tell me more about your blog. That really is the heart of your community. #00:08:56.4#
Close up of the north-west corner of the sarcophagus chamber. The dusty lid of the sarcophagus can be seen in the lower part of the image (Courtesy of Vincent Brown’s Flickr Stream).
VB: I started it in January 2008. I created a few other websites before that, including Pyramid Texts Online, which is more academic than Talking Pyramids. I traveled to Egypt in 1997. Although the internet was around then, and I did a lot of research online, it was really hard to ascertain which pyramids were open. I was disappointed to arrive at the Great Pyramid and found that two of the three chambers were closed. In fact, another pyramid that I was very interested in going to–the Unas Pyramid in Saqqara, which is the most elaborately inscribed with texts, was sadly closed when I got there. I thought there really should an online resource where travelers can go to find this out. That was impetus behind the site. I also wanted to get into blogging. A website is quite static. Little did I know that a blog requires much more attention, and regular updates. I’m still building up those pyramid pages. I’ve been using social media on those static pages by pulling in, for example, Flickr collections of those individual pyramids. I like that because the content is constantly changing without me having to manually do it myself. #00:11:16.5#
JG: How did you get interested in Egyptology? #00:11:21.5#
VB: It’s hard to pinpoint because I’ve always liked Egyptian music, especially. The first time I picked up a guitar, I wanted to play an middle-eastern sounding riff. It’s my favorite sound. One of my first memories when I was about four-years-old was sitting down with my father to make a cardboard pyramid. It was said that if you put a piece of fruit in a pyramid shape, it will preserve it. It was the era of Uri Geller who was doing the spoon bending tricks. So we put a grape inside and folded it up and sticker-taped the sides. Being four, I wasn’t sure what the word “preserved” meant, so I just thought as long as I could rattle the box and hear it, it was preserved! So that’s my earliest memory. Then, in 1996, I read Secrets of the Great Pyramid by Peter Tompkins. It was a pretty comprehensive book that got me really interested in learning more. A year later, I had saved up enough money to go to Egypt and it continued from there. #00:13:34.0#
JG: Is your professional background purely in web design, or are you also a professional archaeologist? #00:13:41.9#
VB: No, I have no professional background in archaeology or Egyptology. #00:13:50.1#
JG: Yet, you’re an authority … #00:13:57.5#
VB: Funny, isn’t it? That’s the nature of the web, combined with passion. If you love something enough and dedicate your time to it, then anyone can master anything. I have a lot of learning to do still. There’s over 100 pyramids in Egypt and that’s a lot of study. Also the language–that’s an ongoing thing that I dive in and out of as time permits. #00:14:29.5#
JG: Let’s talk more about your Flickr stream, because you have a fairly comprehensive set of photos there. Tell me what inspired you to create your photostream and what the future might be for it. #00:14:45.5#
VB: As I said before I first found out about Flickr when I was teaching web design. It was a great project, because there were community organizations who needed websites made, and I had these guys who could create websites. It was a skill-building process in which Flickr became a major tool. Because of the Creative Commons content there, we could legally use Flickr as a source of images for these websites. I opened up my own personal account, and encouraged my friends and family to do the same. In the old days, you would have to compile photos into a five or 10 megabyte attachment in an email that no one wants to receive. Obviously, Flickr is fantastic for holiday photos. I also find it fantastic for research and use it as a search engine. Recently a friend told me about a church he was visiting in Holland, so I went straight to Flickr and found hundreds of photos. He was describing the patterns on the floor, and I responded “Yes, I see.” He says “what do you mean.” He was surprised so much was already on Flickr. It’s a hugely powerful tool. #00:16:49.7#
JG: You’ve got all the big guys covered: Flickr, Twitter, etc. Are there any other forms of social media that you use to deepen your connection with your audience. #00:17:01.5#
VB: There’s also Delicious.com. Delicious is really powerful. I used to have bookmarks, which got really big and unwieldy. Delicious is a terrific online tool that allows you to give your bookmarks tags to keep them organized and relevant. That is also fed into the sidebar of the blog as well. The thing about YouTube is some people don’t realize how you can used for anything other than upload. I only have a few videos of my own online. However, I have created playlists for all sorts of topics, such as individual pyramids. These playlists are added automatically to each pyramid’s page. Apart from the playlists, I’m always favoriting as well. When you arrive at my channel, you always see the most recent video that I’ve favorited. Sometimes I don’t watch all the videos right away and will come back on the weekend and watch them all in the playlist then. #00:19:48.2#
The big news has been the uprising in Egypt. I’ve tried to keep my focus on pyramids, but it’s hard with such a huge event, so I made up a playlist of the Egyptian songs that were written during and after the protests. #00:20:13.6#
JG: Have you found that those events have driven additional traffic to your blog? #00:20:14.3#
VB: Yes. I’m posting more regularly since this is big news. I’ve tried to keep my readers informed about the looting at the individual pyramid fields. That’s been hard. Official reports have been conflicting and it’s very ongoing. #00:21:05.1#
JG: A lot has been made of the role of new media in the social unrest in the Middle East and other places in the world. What’s your opinion? #00:21:14.0#
VB: It seems that is the case. It started with a post on Facebook by the Google executive Wael Ghonim that was an impetus for the uprising. Twitter was a very big part of that as well. We saw when the internet was turned off, that Twitter and Google joined forces to create a service that would allow people to send tweets through a public phone box, or any phone. We saw two giants come together beyond their competition. Then, once the internet was turned off, the people were in the streets and there came a point when social media didn’t matter anymore. But people were still recording video with their phones and other devices. When the internet came back up, we got to see those stories. Social media played a big part, and I don’t know if it would have happened without that first Facebook post. #00:22:55.2#
JG: How do you curate the news that you put out? #00:22:58.3#
VB: It’s very time consuming. It’s a matter of sitting down and skimming through those feeds. I also use Twitter as much as Google Reader. I have a lot of lists that I look at and particular people that I follow on Twitter. It takes me several hours everyday to do that. #00:23:50.3#
JG: Related to Twitter, you mentioned your lists. Explain how you’ve broken your lists down. #00:24:04.7#
VB: My lists are my meat and potatoes. That’s where all the action happens. I’ve got an Egyptologist list that is purely people working in that field. Then there’s a museums list, and a general ancient Egypt news list, which comprises anyone talking about the topic. This lists are private right now as I try to curate the information, but I’m considering opening those up more. #00:25:23.5#
JG: You are for hire as a web designer. What’s your web design specialty? #00:25:37.6#
VB: My specialty is care and attention to the client. I don’t do cookie-cutter sites. Training is important is well. I want to empower the person to be able to update their site as well. For that reason, I used WordPress a lot, so that people can update their content without having to pay me or someone else to do it. I also train them in social media and often set them up with a Flickr account and teach them to make that useful to promote their website. And also using social media to help them promote their site as well, so there’s an ongoing promotion service if they want that. If anyone does want a site made, they can contact me at Talking Pyramids or through my business website “Vintuitive.” People can have a look there if they want to see some of the sites I’ve made. #00:27:14.8#
JG: What’s your strategy for updating your social media? #00:27:18.4#
VB: For Twitter, I post 10-20 updates a day, depending on the news. YouTube, a couple of times a week. Flickr, once a week. Being from South Australia, it’s not easy for me to go and take photos of pyramids. Some I’ve posted have been from the South Australian Museum’s Egypt Room, for example. People also send me photos. Flickr is very powerful for contacting people who have just come back from Egypt. Everyday, I’ll finish my news posts with a photo, usually on Twitter. Those will usually come from a Flickr search. I’m always looking for feedback from visitors to find out which pyramids are open. Official sites will say one thing and things may be totally different on the ground. Ticket prices will also go up and down. It’s a bit time consuming, but it’s also a good way to expand the network. Those people will start following my Flickr stream and blog because they are obviously interested if they cared enough to visit the pyramids. #00:29:37.2#
JG: Do you find that you have different audiences for each of the social tools you are involved with? #00:29:52.8#
VB: They’re very different audiences. I have a lot of schools linking to a post on ancient Egyptian games. I think in year six primary schools, they do a segment on ancient Egypt. That post receives more hits on my blog than any other. I’ve got a post on how to make a paper pyramid that’s very popular with schools as well. I don’t know how many people follow me across these services. There are a lot of people who just follow me on Flickr. Same with Twitter. Some of those people who read my posts of Twitter never go to my blog. Some bloggers will only use Twitter to announce new blog posts. They are shortchanging themselves because Twitter is a fantastic resource for reading. I spend a lot of time reading there. It’s really just a matter of spending time to manage your filtering. I think most people, when they come to Twitter think this is all about “that guy eating a ham sandwich” or “someone watching television.” Of course, it’s about following the right people. #00:31:46.9#
JG: How do you filter you Twitter feeds other than your lists? #00:31:52.4#
VB: I use TweetDeck, which includes rows and rows of searches. I’ll run a search on “egyptian uprising”. There’s the hashtag #Jan25 which is what I tag any post to do with the Egyptian uprising. Hashtags are a big part of emphasizing what’s important on Twitter. I will do searches on particular hashtags and save it in a TweetDeck column. I’ve intentionally kept anything not related to Egypt out of that Twitter stream, and that’s why I have another Twitter account as vinbrown. I use that account for digital archaeology. #00:33:57.7#
JG: This leads to one of my pet peeves, which is use of hashtags. Many people are putting the hash symbol in front of every noun in their tweets, and it’s annoying and unreadable. From your perspective, what is proper hashtag etiquette? #00:34:14.2#
VB: Don’t look at the trending topics and use those hashtags. Too many put something like #justinbieber in front of something that has absolutely nothing to do with him. I always put any hashtag at the front end of my tweet. It’s stripped out of the sidebar on my blog. Its is okay to make up your own hashtag, as I started doing with #digitalarchaeology. It’s being used my a number of archaeologists now. #00:36:24.7#
JG: I’m seeing #digitalarchaeology in a number of tweets beside your own. What does it mean? #00:36:43.1#
VB: In the examples we talked about before, I think the work of organizations like the Brooklyn Museum online would qualify as digital archaeology. Also, much of the efforts to recreated archaeological sites in 3-D is a powerful thing. There’s also people like Sarah Parcak, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Parcak), and egyptologist who specializes in using satellite technology in two ways–not just to search for sites on the ground, but also to use GPS to navigate to those sites on the ground. That process has enabled archaeologists to find new sites. That’s definitely digital archaeology. #00:37:55.4#
JG: Have you been involved in any uses of SecondLife in archaeology? #00:37:58.7#
VB: I dabbled in Second Life for a project of my own. But I found on the Discovery Channel a really innovative project in SecondLife, which was The Book of the Dead. Now we’re not just recreating a three dimensional space. #00:38:49.0#
JG: Are there any unexpected connections you’ve made through your online communication? #00:39:01.2#
VB: One thing I really haven’t talked about it Pyramid Texts Online. I’ve been contacted a lot through that website from people who are doing work in this field. For example, the Toledo Museum wanted to know if there was any way of getting high resolution images of the pyramid texts. It’s a long process of finding those hi-res images, but I did eventually find them. What I did with the site was to create a nonlinear presentation of the texts. There’s contention among Egyptologists regarding how they were originally sequenced. By putting them in a linear format in a book, you’re forcing the reader into a linear sequence. Really, the only way you effectively present them without bias is to present them in a 3-D sense. That’s how Pyramid Texts Online came about, in a two dimensional application of that idea. When you go to the site, you can read the whole north wall of the sarcophagus chamber. I recreated the wall from a photographic plate. Those photos came from an old book called the Pyramid Texts of Unas. Turns out the photos were taken in 1950 by a guy named Fred Husson. I did some research and found that he is still alive and well. I contacted him, and he didn’t have the photos, so it was back the research. Then I found that both of the people who were involved in making that book Natacha Rambova (wife of Rudolph Valentino) and Alexandre Piankoff, were born in the same year and died within a few weeks apart in 1967 before the book was finished. So it was handed over to the curator of the Brooklyn Museum at that time. So I thought, if he finished the book, the images were likely to be in the repository at the Brooklyn Museum. So I contact Shelley Bernstein, who I had the interaction with on the “monitoring the mummies” project, and asked if she could find a record of the images. A week later, she got back to me and said they had found them. It was an exciting moment to have copies of those photographs finally go back to Fred. They were recently used in a publication. #00:43:14.8#
JG: Do you use your own podcast to learn hieroglyphics? #00:43:19.2#
VB: That was the reason I created it. The vocab is the hardest thing. Eventually, you memorize all the signs and realize what they mean, but it’s another thing to know all the vocab. It’s an ongoing thing and I’m still learning. I can read basic steles and funerary inscriptions, but some of the more complicated things like pyramid texts are very difficult. We are now working to create a 3-D representation of the pyramid texts. Part of that recreation will include analysis of the texts from a variety of people, somewhat like a wiki. Each line could be translated, and then updated with additional commentary and viewpoints. The problem with a MediaWiki format is syntax, especially for the older members of the group. #00:46:45.5#
JG: Why do you think that is? Not that wikis are mind-numbingly complex, but why should you need to know any code at all to use one? #00:46:46.4#
VB: Especially with Wikipedia, you would think they would drive that forward. They did recently upgrade their interface, but it’s still not there. It’s a fantastic resource. And you have to think, who’s making these edits if it requires that kind of technical know-how. #00:47:35.2#
JG: I agree. Vincent, thanks so much for visiting with me. #00:47:41.7#
VB: Thank you, Jeff
Additional resources from Vincent:
A Tumblr page that shows his network of sites and services.
You’ve probably heard for some time now that you need a digital strategy, but what does that mean? There can be many facets to developing a strategy. Really though, you only need to grasp a few key ideas to establish your mindset and focus first on the aspects that are most important to you and your audience. For this post, I asked some trusted friends in the field to share their top tips for framing a digital heritage strategy.
Don’t Confuse Needs and Wants
“Many times we come into the creative process with a really strong idea of what we want—or rather, what we THINK we want. More often than not we’ve been charmed by something we saw somewhere. Maybe it’s a new piece of hardware. Or a shiny interactive. Or a really generous check (with or without strings). We are lured by the siren song of a design idea that may or may not actually meet the needs of the place, heritage, or collection we are trusted to interpret. Getting clear about your goals, actual needs, and nice to haves up front will help minimize the pain of mismatched expectations as you move ahead in your development process.”
“For Mount Vernon, our key was investing in visual mediums that translate really well from our mission. Our Virtual Tour was one of the first investments and it has paid off tremendously. One of the second best investments was in video, particularly hiring for a few years someone to regularly create short form video on our YouTube channel. At one point were were up to posting 95 videos per year and because the history and storytelling rarely changes those are all still paying dividends on views and driving subscribers. One thing cultural institutions like ours overlook is YouTube is the second largest search engine. Treat videos like SEO for your website and it will be a great strategy.”
“Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a tool. A repository of the organization’s collective knowledge about its guests, members, and donors. Successful CRM implementations start with two things: concrete problems/needs data can help solve and… good guest data. An example of a concrete problem might be “After two years of Covid-19 closures, we need to retain members now more than ever. How do make ensure first-year members renew?” The data to drive this would come from an integration with the ticketing system to link ongoing membership sales, card scans, and renewals. You can then start chipping away at the problem by creating dashboards to monitor first-year member renewals and implementing email marketing automation programs to ensure members visit and use their benefits over a year, and build a sense of relationship with the organization.”
“Many stories, objects and resources need to be strategically curated to tell history. Not only are there many different kinds of assets in digital storytelling, but the relationships between these elements weave a complex web. That’s why we focus so much on building flexible platforms that enable these stories to come to life. Where it’s the entire platform, a log form story page, or mini-site. the palette of content storytelling tools needs to be robust enough to express all aspects of these stories.”
“In any digital installation project, it can be easy to become so enchanted by the technology that we forget what visitors really connect with: storytelling, content. Creating original content takes a ton of time and resources and needs to be planned into the project from the outset, whatever the intended technological solutions might be. Content has to come first. When it doesn’t, you’ll find yourself too late in the process and with too much of your budget spent and not enough time or resources left to create the story — the part that’s really going to capture your visitors’ hearts and minds.”
“I think when you hear the term “digital strategy” or “digital transformation”, you automatically jump to the technical aspects: what’s the technology and platforms that will be used. But digital strategy should start with people. It must have utility for those who’ll be using the technology and following specific processes. The first place to start is understanding the ecosystem of users and what their needs, pain points, and goals are. Often times, we think of “users” as the end user or customers. But we need to take a much broader view to include users as both customers and internal staff and stakeholders. Digital strategy within an organization needs to be considered from an internal and external perspective. Lastly, as ideas and solutions start to take shape, it’s important to take a “design with” approach to prototype, test, and refine ideas with users to ensure that their needs and pain points are addressed, and value is being delivered.”
Traci Thomas, Platinion Lead Strategic Designer (BCG Group)
You don’t have to start with an answer
And finally, a tip from me, which echoes the ideas above. There’s a fine line between prescribing something you want for your audiences and only creating experiences that are built up based purely on what they say then want. It’s alright to start out with an educated guess based on your visitor interactions and then TEST TEST TEST to chart a course to the final project. Set up a testing protocol, using paper prototypes if you need to. Have some type of spreadsheet or database to put testing results into and then use that to inform how the product develops. Make sure your development vendor is on board with this process, and committed to interpreting and iterating the results.
Hope these tips help move your strategy forward. I’ll continue adding to this post. In the meantime, if you have any tips of your own, please share them in the comments.
Sometimes creating in the digital heritage space can feel lonely, if not thankless. It has always been challenging but it has been especially true in the COVID era. Virtual meetings have been a coping mechanism, but there’s nothing like being in the same room together while the ideas flow. As we seek to find a way to connect with one another again, I thought I’d share some tips and models you can use to bring like-minded digital folks together where you are, whether it be virtual or in person.
Active Meetups
I’ll start with a few models that are currently out there, and then go into the idea surrounding a model that I specifically developed.
Wiki Salon: Folks in the Wiki space are holding Wiki Salons. As of this writing they are mostly virtually through Zoom. These usually present a theme for creating or editing articles in Wikipedia and The Commons. Here’s an event listing from a New York group and a Philadelphia group. Here are general instructions on holding a Wiki meetup.
THATCamp: The Humanities and Technology Camp. This was inspired by the old BarCamp concept. Sadly, the organization behind THATCamp has died. However, the concept behind still exists on the old site.
CodeforAmerica is back and holding hybrid virtual/in-person meetings. This is the big one, that seeks out ways to make government work better through meaningful presentations of data and development of useful digital tools. They have a summit scheduled in May 2022. There are also regional groups in cities across the U.S., though most seem to be on hiatus.
Also in Philly, there’s a Maker’s Meetup that is about 3D printing+++ .
When I was volunteering for the Philly Digital Humanities group, I proposed the idea of the GLAM Café as a monthly coffeehouse-style event that would extend the organization’s good work and good will during the once-a-year THATCamp throughout the year. Its purpose more broadly was to afford digital heritage enthusiasts and professionals in the Philadelphia region a regular opportunity to connect, collaborate and learn from one another. We held it from 5-8 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month. The museum conference center I worked for provided the space, and snacks were sponsored. Though I moved to Miami in 2014, the GLAM Café continued for several years after.
Checklists
Below you can find the checklists and considerations that I used to plan the GLAM Café. And you can check this Google Drive link to find logo and signage templates, as well as images from the events we coordinated in Philly.
Buzz-Builders
Door Prizes & Swag: Stickers, pens, overstock from institution gift shops and publications.
Podcasts & Blog Posts featuring participant projects
DH “Angel”: A help desk at the meetup for helping to orient newcomers, or provide perspective to help people become unstuck with their projects.
“Theme Nights” For Archives, Archaeology, Historic Preservation, Etc., with a specialist guest from the field.
One Hour Before Event Start Setup Digital Help Desk on non-GLAM Cafe Tuesdays. Send broadcast announcement
@Meetup Group Page
Use forum function for virtual white papers (and discussions)
Active Projects
Featured “Follow Tuesday” GLAMCafe’r: Profile on projector with project working on.
Materials to Order/Create
Branded paper coffee cups
Flyers: Promote/debut at museum events
Promo business & postcards, e.g. http://us.moo.com/ distributed @THATCamps
Name tags
Promo contest (win a travel mug by collecting 10 cards)
“Connecting” Resources
Literature stand for digital humanities white papers (invite people to contribute their own)
Large screen with Wikipedia Project Page displayed
iPad with Meetup.com group set up (for folks to register, or add their project ideas)
iPad showing video on loop of GLAM topics
Name tags (with color code interest “tagging”?
Streaming chats/hangouts that talk about a case study
Power strips!
Loyalty card with an attached service prize
Ambiance
Locate “set dressing”
Directional signs
Promotional material
Projection of logo on whiteboard
Create “nooks” with furniture and lighting
Soft music
Live tweet stream projected
Projects board
Coffee smell
Barista with espresso
iPad co-working stations
Outcomes and Outputs
Poster/booklet/screen display of online projects people can “adopt.” Unassigned
Build audience advocates for digital and social media
Build a brain trust of digital leaders to strengthen digital initiatives Unassigned
Offer digital learning opportunities for staff
Logisitics
Confirm coffee and food with conference center
Confirm SPACE with the conference center
Set up coffee cart
Set up brainstorming tools around the space: whiteboards, easels with paper and markers
Audiences/Partners/Advocates Primarily local, and select regional groups. These are folks with an interest in consistently using digital tools to communicate.
Area Museums
Wikipedia Groups
Area historical societies
Core Collaborators
DH community GLAM Institutions Area Wikipedians
Example of Reporting and Metrics
(Sample report from Philly GLAM Café)
At least 36 people attended, about half of whom were involved in PhillyDH. People interested in Wikipedia started arriving around 4.30, and mostly left by 7.00 or 7.30. PhillyDH people arrived between 5.00 and 6.30 and stayed until 8.00. PhillyDH held a breakout meeting from 6.00 to 8.00. There is overlap between the two groups, so having rolling times may work well.
The large round tables in the GLAM room worked well; we should have 4 or 5 of them next time instead of 3. The lounge-style seating was used somewhat in the beginning, but not once the groups broke apart. We may want to have some available. People rearranged the tables in the breakout room into a rough circle so that they could all see each other during their meeting. They may break into smaller working groups next time. The small rectangular tables are good there because they are easy to rearrange. The lighting was good.
Having a mix of sweet and protein in the snacks is important. The Greek yogurt was popular. Bagels with cream cheese would be a good choice as well. Cookies, danishes or biscotti are all good complements. All three drink options (coffee, tea, water) were used.
We should plan to accommodate those who come early. For the next GLAM Cafe, the PhillyDH breakout group plans to meet from 6.30 to 8.00, giving people time to attend the GLAM Cafe beforehand. There was a sense that the first meeting was largely a meet-and-greet, and that people would like the next meeting to be more work-oriented (focused on getting things done more than on talking).
Email Notification Format and language
Hi folks,
Beginning Nov. 12 we’ll have a regular opportunity to connect, share and collaborate with digital heritage enthusiasts and professionals alike when the “GLAM Café” debuts at [PLACE]. The GLAM Café is a coffeehouse-style event brought to you in partnership with [GROUP]. Come by any time between 5-8 p.m. to join in. If you enjoy it, mark your calendar for future meetups on the second Tuesday of each month.
Why Should I Come?
Sometimes it’s easy to become so focused on our own institution and its immediate needs that we forget we’re all part of a larger community of Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (often referred to as GLAM institutions). Those working in this community are facing many of the same issues we do as a cultural heritage institution in the digital age. We all have unique experiences and perspectives that, when shared, can collectively lighten the load and make the path to digital success clearer.
What should I bring?
Bring your curiosity: You’ll have access to expertise ranging from social media to web exhibits to Linked Open Data and beyond.
Bring your ideas: You can also find a project to participate in or potentially even a collaborator for your ideas.
Bring yourself!: The point of this meetup is to provide a time, space and support for making progress on GLAM-related digital projects that don’t seem to fit into your schedule otherwise. Feel free to just claim some sofa territory and work solo on that Wikipedia entry you always wanted to correct, or grab a white paper and read up on what others are working on.
Whether you want to socialize, study, or mercilessly hack some poor unsuspecting data set, please come enjoy coffee and snacks in a relaxed atmosphere.
How can I participate?
If you’re looking to be part of a discussion group, you’ll have two breakaway opportunities at this event:
A digital humanities discussion.
An interest meeting for a planned Hack-a-thon that helps GLAM institutions open up their data for more impact.
To learn more about the folks you might meet at this event and to receive regular reminders of these events, visit the meetup group at the following link: [Insert Link Here]
And please share this announcement with anyone you think may be interested!
Many Hands Make Light Work
Hosting this event was one the most fulfilling things I did during my time in Philly. It made my day job easier by having creative people to bounce ideas and challenges off of. And it’s just so much easier to face those challenges with a community of like-minded people. This concept is very scalable, so I hope you’ll use these tools as a foundation and start your own!
If you know of any other active meetups that I missed, feel free to post them in the comments here.
Twitter tells me I joined up more than 13 years ago. As much of a cesspool that Twitter can be, I’ve always found a way to get better use of it by creating “lists” and I’ve been a more active user of the lists function than I have been in blasting out content to the world. According to Twitter, a list is “a curated group of accounts. Create one or subscribe to a list created by others to streamline your timeline.” I thought I’d share some of the lists I’ve built covering the the various cultural fields that you can subscribe to, or just find like-minded people to connect with.
Note that people on these lists have other interests besides the topic they are listed for, so there is a variety of content you will find in each. Social media has more noise than ever, so be prepared to skim for the good stuff. Once you get there, Twitter will have a function that allows you to follow any of these lists. When talking about tech or digital, you can engage with any of these topics using the hashtag #digitalheritage.
So here’s the list of lists …
Archaeology: This is one of the first lists I began to curate because so many archaeologists were trying out social media ahead of other cultural institutions back in the day. With more than members, it has about a post and hour. Notable tweeters there: Shawn Graham, Archaeology News Network. Sample tweet from the feed:
We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant! With this, we will be running a community archaeology project in 2022 in the UK’s New Forest, excavating a former Romani site with descendants of those who once lived there (1/3). 💙 pic.twitter.com/TjDJzXgEnn
Archives: This 60-person list covers numerous aspects of archival practice, including digital preservation. Includes NY Public Library Labs and Paige Roberts as well as several folks I knew in Philly–Michelle DiMeo of Science History Institute and Matt Shoemaker from Temple U. Updates a couple of times an hour on average. Example of one of the tweets there:
Relish Some Relics?
Paul Heitz's Einblattdrucke, a 20th c. German periodical with facsimiles of 15th c. woodcuts is sometimes the only proof they existed after WWII bombings. This foldout portrait of an Augsburg reliquary trove was reproduced at original scale!#NewberryLibrarypic.twitter.com/d6c8OZWRGd
— Suzanne is sporadically here for 40 days (@DrKarrSchmidt) February 27, 2022
Built Heritage: The list primarily covers historic preservation. With more than 80 members, it normally has new posts several times an hour. Notables include National Trust for Historic Preservation, Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and many local historic preservation organizations. Engage with the hashtag #builtheritage. Here’s an example of a tweet there:
"If our goal is to tell the full American story, then women must be equitably represented in that story."
Conservation: With close to 40 members, these folks are good about tweeting what they are working on, whether it’s paper, architectural, etc., etc. A few of the members there are AIC/FAIC, Berta Blasi and AIC-Art Conservation. Sample tweet:
Digital Humanities: There are 128 very active tweeters comprising this list, covering a lot of the fields in this post. They are largely involved in digital projects. Notables include Digital Heritage Innovation Lab, Historical Cats, Tracy Jentzsch and Sarah Stierch. Sample Tweet:
Today we remember Katherine Johnson, who died on this day in 2020.
“Take all the courses in your curriculum. Do the research. Ask questions. Find someone doing what you are interested in! Be curious!” – Katherine Johnson
Folklife: My master’s is in folklore and oral history, so couldn’t let this be unrepresented. It only has about 16 members though, so let me now if you have any suggestions for folks who might fill it out. Tweeters: Kaitlyn Kinney, TellHistory, Dale Jarvis. Example of a tweet there:
There’s an Ukrainian tale of vodyaniks who lured a violinist to play at a party by shape-shifting into his relatives. In the end, they granted him with a loaf of bread.
Geneaology: A group of about 50 genealogists and researchers. These folks really tweet about this topic as a passion! Includes people like Lisa Louise Cook, Elyse Doerflinger and interment.net. Typical Tweet:
Usually when researchers do on-site research at a cemetery, they only have one visit to get all of the clues and pertinent information. It's important to have a plan and the needed supplies for a successful trip. https://t.co/kBoanSlRQA#genealogy
GLAM-Wiki: A list of people working in the GLAM-Wiki field, be they Wikipedians in residence, at any of the GLAM institutions, or just enthusiasts from the institutions themselves. Just a note, this is a very politically active group. Sample Tweet:
Heritage Influencers: Thought leaders in the heritage field who exemplify the spirit of new media. Some notables: Shawn Graham (probably half the tweets!), Nina Simon (naturally), Mar Dixon (naturally as well) and my old buddies, Past Horizons.
Digital Storytelling for Byzantinists: A Digital Story Map Workshop Dr. Fotini Kondyli (University of Virginia), via Zoom, March 25 Limited to 30 participants. Registration is first come, first served. Registration closes Monday, March 21 at 1:00 pm (ET).https://t.co/QZCbW6SuQ6pic.twitter.com/g6aOsJkeHK
— Byzantine Studies Association of North America (@bsanabsc) February 25, 2022
History: This list has 64 members and you’ll get a lot of straight history facts and “this day in” posts. Who you’ll see there include American History Association, HistoryHit podcast, and Chris Samuel. Frequent hashtags: #history #fineart #twitterstorians. Representative Tweet:
On the 28th Feb 7pm GMT join myself & queer activist historian @carmineclaire as we celebrate lesbian, bisexual and non-binary history in the likes of Père Lachaise and Passy cemeteries! Graveyard Gal Pals for #lgbthm2022 ! #history#queer
Museums: Museum Twitter accounts have traditionally been largely run by PR and marketing folks fulfilling an administrative agenda in a corporate voice. However, there’s innovation here and there and still useful and entertaining content to be found even from the traditional types. This list has about 160 members and features the MoMAs numerous house museums and Seb Chan. Hashtags to engage by: #tweetmuseums #musesocial and simply #museums combined with whatever word describes the type of museum you’re talking about. Very typical tweet:
How can looking at photographs be an exercise of love?
— MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (@MuseumModernArt) February 26, 2022
Sites & Tourism: There are more than 60 people and organizations on this list dedicated to advancing the cultural heritage of specific sites. These are as likely to be advocacy organizations as superfan individuals dedicated to the protection and promotion of a place that holds special memories for them. Hashtags: #thisplacematters #WorldMonumentsWatch #FanPhotoFriday. Sample tweet:
🚨#TriviaTime🚨 Which #HistoricHotel hosted the Beatles before their first ever public concert in the United States?
I’ll preface this post by stating my day job is working in technology in cultural sites and has been for 20 years. I started Voices of the Past in 2008 as a manifestation of my personal mission to equip folks with digital tool and practices that help them build their legacies–both personal and community. I do love to see those connections made. But balance is key, and I’ve been the proverbial boiled frog these last several years with technology encroaching on every facet of my existence.
That realization came a several months ago when I read Greg McKeown’s advice about making “one decision that makes 1,000” and decided to apply that to every facet of my life. One of those decisions I labeled “e-ink thinking.” To me, this means identifying what is the bare minimum tech you need to enhance your life, ridding yourself of as many things possible that would be considered distraction. A black-and-white kind of existence as opposed to the constant swirl of color and noise from our streaming video world.
From childhood, even in the 1970s, too much TV, bright lights, large crowds, loud noise, etc. would unnerve me. I talk about this a bit in another post “You don’t have to be a king to find your voice.” I needed to find a way to mitigate that and take back control of my brainspace.
Before: Tech Overrun
For those of you who use apps to turn on your lights, I was already a Luddite, and God bless if it truly enhances your life. For me, every device (defined as being powered by electricity or battery) generated another layer of distraction and brain fog. Here’s what I started out with at home:
55″ Roku TV
iPad Air
iPhone 11
iPhone 6s and iPhone 5 (used mainly as digital photo albums)
Amazon Echo
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite
Apple AirPods (and various other Bluetooth earbuds)
Brother Electric Typewriter
MacBook Air with ALL the bluetooth peripherals
Mac Mini G3 (for all my OS9 games!)
Desktop PC
A combo record/CD/radio player.
DVD player
Freewrite Traveler Word Processor
After: The Read/Write Life
What’s left are devices that are generally either E-Ink or audio-based. Here are the last pieces of tech still inhabiting my residence:
and I’m counting my “gaming” device: Dataman, the handheld I had when I was about 8 years old.
I’ve been working with this setup about four months. It was maddening those first two weeks. But, slowly I realized the dream: No passwords to constantly have to remember or two-factor authentication hassles. No updates or freezes. No constant notifications.
Among my goals related to this decision was “To be at home in my own mind.” A critical component of that was to get rid of the constant external noise in my ears. This meant being more intentional about podcast and music listening. While my Light Phone does do podcasts and mp3s, you sync them manually through a desktop computer. When I made this decision, it was with the knowledge that I’d be spending a lot of time in waiting rooms and commutes without these crutches to entertain me. It meant making peace with what’s in my head, which often felt so raw and just not a place I wanted to be. But getting past that withdrawal stage, I find that has changed. I enjoy opportunities to think and contemplate and generally be grateful that at least in my personal life, all is quiet.
Concessions and Adaptations
Making this decision hasn’t changed the fact that there are some things I still have to get done requiring tech and media, but there are things you can do in those cases that are intentional and not simply distractions. And there are very satisfying ways to spend discretionary hours that have nothing to do with a phone or computer.
I have an old iPhone 6 in my truck glove compartment in case I REALLY need a device for a special app-only use–primarily travel related.
I went to cash-only spending for discretionary items so no payment apps or credit card necessary. I’m much, much more mindful of money now.
I can use library computers.
I am consuming the surviving library of 40 or so favorite CDs and as many DVDs that I was never able to let go of.
In addition to that, I read physical, paper-bound books everyday. I hadn’t finished a book in years prior to this. In the last month, I finished three.
My echo will play my Amazon Music items, including podcasts and Kindle books if I just have to have that fix.
I go to the gym six days a week, and never miss.
Manifestations
My life has changed in the last few months, and that’s no exaggeration. Here are some of the ways:
I’ve lost 25 pounds and counting, packed on a lot of muscle and ran my first 5k down in Key West in January.
I naturally developed systems for planning and evaluation rather than trusting a device to tell me when to do things. My brain alone always know where I’m supposed to be over the course of a week, and when. And I pretty much always know what time it is instinctually.
My productivity has soared measurably.
I’m more mindful, optimistic and contented.
A full night’s satisfying rest, every night.
Rather that identifying as a writer and never doing it, now it’s part of my daily morning routine. Also, I treat myself to a “free day” meal at Panera once a week where I spend about four hours straight writing creatively on my Freewrite.
After 10 years of battling. Resistance in updating this blog, I’m now posting to it on a weekly basis and for the first time have an editorial calendar with about 40 ideas in queue.
I know there is much more to come. Dreams that I thought would never come true because of unmindful living now seem very tangible. It will take a while to build momentum, but you know what?
Sometimes the process of building and losing can be more than you’re able to bear. Your soul compels you toward leaps of faith.
My life is wonderful these days. For the past six years, I’ve worked at a historic site I love and admire with people I respect. But there have been cycles of those dark “learning” times, that were necessary to get me here. One of those leaps has been on my mind lately and it happens to be the one that got me here.
In spring 2014, I took a solo vacation to Florida and then road tripped to Louisiana. I needed to reconnect to what shaped me to figure out my next evolution. It had been a few years before (about ten years ago as I write this ) that I moved from my hometown in Louisiana for a job in Philadelphia. A lot of fine accomplishments came out of that experience, including several lifelong friendships. It was a necessary step for growth in my life and personal mission and I’m grateful for it. At the time of that trip though, I was disillusioned and depressed.
Scheduling this trip was a Hail Mary for my wellbeing. It was instinct and all I knew is there was no choice. Had to do it. And it had to be here.
So I flew down to South Florida in the midst of a massive tornado outbreak, with flights variously diverted and bumpy. When I finally arrived and picked up my rental car I hoped the road trip portion of the trip to my hometown in Louisiana would be the restful experience I needed to clear my head and get some perspective. I was within three hours of my destination when I got onto the 18-mile Atchafalaya Basin bridge where a tanker truck had fallen over and set the bridge on fire, trapping me for more than two hours. Here’s what I tweeted from there:
Trapped on a south La. bridge, 1k cars around me; wishing I knew where home was anymore, and for the means to get back there.
Pretty pathetic, eh? Sometimes I take the Universe personally if everything has been directed against me. I’ve worked at it, and trust me, have come a long way in that regard.
As soon as I hit the city limits my hometown I felt I was back where I belong. So little changes in a small town even over the course of three years it was like I never left. For the next three days I found myself the embrace of my Mom and extended family; a feeling that I had not experienced since I left. She cooked all of my favorite things: fried porkchops, gumbo, chicken and dumplings, banana pudding … for a moment, all was right.
Road tripping back to South Florida, I felt like I met my destiny. The vibrancy of the culture and the warmth of the climate felt like slipping into my skin and I felt a new me emerging in the process. A few months later, that recognition suddenly manifested a job opportunity, in Miami. While that workplace situation was ultimately a stepping stone, it moved me along to where I needed to be, and that’s where I remain. Other areas of my life crumbled and rebuilt in the same fashion even going into the COVID era. It’s been a process of “painful but more perfect.”
Now in my 50th year, I’ve experienced these cycles a handful of times and no doubt they will come back around at some point. But I’ve learned to trust my instincts, and the machinations of the universe, in each rotation. As long as I can remember to run into that next leap I’ll be okay.
English: River Walk, Natchitoches, Louisiana (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I served on the board of the Natchitoches Historic Foundation throughout much of the 2000s. NHF focuses on preservation, education and advocacy of cultural heritage in my hometown of Natchitoches, La. My work was focused on promotions and design of print and digital assets.
Brochure Newsletter Writing and Design
The newsletter was still in print at that point, and I took it to a process color quadfold, designing it in Adobe Indesign. It conveyed the necessary information in a concise, easy-to-consume manner.
NHF held numerous events, and was looking to take its message to events by others during that time. I put together the design shown below, which was printed, laminated and adhered with velcro to a trifold tabletop fabric display.
This print postcard was used to promote NHF’s biggest fundraiser, the Preservation Gala. It’s a simple black-and-white design accented with fall colors. The design and typography echos the look and feel of the membership newsletter.
One of NHF’s most popular events was the annual tour of American Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in the state. Community members would tell the stories of those interred while dressed in period costume. In 2006, the tour was renamed the Sacred Places Tour and expanded to churches and other sacred sites of historical significance. NHF hired a professional photographer to capture representative scenes from these places and I designed the 16×20″ posters below, which were used to promote the event.
It was NHF’s website where I first cut my teeth on WordPress. As in, I developed the site as seen below and then exploded it and had to start over. It was developed with an early StudioPress theme.
In 2017, I was faced with an interesting choice: the cultural site I had been serving as a digital strategy consultant was willing to make my contracted position a full-time one. The catch is that I would have to manage the IT function too. My specialty and focus has historically been audience engagement and not the nuts and bolts of what makes everything tick. Additionally, I would have to supervise the institution’s migration from a County managed services model to a total new, internally managed IT infrastructure.
I loved the site and thought it had great potential, but didn’t want to drift off course of a career I both enjoy and have mindfully charted for the past 20 years. It was during this time of internal struggle a chance meeting with a guy named Matt Tarr at a Museum Computer Network conference cleared my mind on the issue. In response to the dilemma, he told me “if you control IT, you’re set with the rest of what you want to do.”
My mind knew what he meant. Struggles with IT departments past really took the wind out of my sails when it came to interactive development. Still, it took a while for my heart to catch up. A while meaning two years of getting the right people and partnerships in place, and then going through the mindboggling process of establishing and then actually migrating every conceivable communications system — radio, telephone, network, internet, etc., while with no service downtimes.
A year past that harrowing event, I can tell you Matt was absolutely right. Having systems that we can control and scale have made a recent grant project funded by the Knight Foundation much easier than it would have been otherwise. Having wireless access for visitors for the first time has made developing bring-your-own device experiences that we all pretty much now have to offer much easier. We also have servers we can scale and policies we can tailor to our needs. Thanks to that process, remote work platforms were already in place before the pandemic hit.
Sure there are pain points. Cybersecurity issues loom large in an era when even Microsoft and Solarwinds are getting hacked. I worry about it everyday. But that’s a fair trade off for gaining a greater knowledge of what makes tech tick, and the boundless creative possibilities that then present themselves.
During my National Park Service years, I was privileged to work on a project initiated by Congress to serve as a national model for heritage education. This included development of the marketing and promotional material to communicate with participating teachers and program supporters.
The initiative was piloted as Heritage Education–Louisiana. Classroom teachers, preservation specialists, and learning professionals were consulted to ensure that the program met preservation ethics and provided professional development for teachers in innovative and evolving educational theology and techniques.
Meeting the needs of classroom teachers who must not only cover curriculum standards and benchmarks, but must also consider high-stakes testing, the program aided teachers in creating integrated lessons and activities that use local cultural resources such as archaeological sites, historic structures, and cultural landscapes as the foundation.
Workshops, Mini Grants, a website and quarterly newsletters were avenues by which the program strove to meet its goals of:
Enhancing and enriching Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade curriculum;
Instilling a sense of cultural stewardship in tomorrow’s leaders; and
Serving as a national model for other states.
The program lost its congressional funding after the pilot phase, and limped along until about 2010, but it’s still a worthy model for heritage education. Everyone who participated in it saw its value. You can read more about some of the resulting products and activities at its legacy web presence.
Voices of the Past 