Tag: Ariadne

UKOLN's one-stop shop 'Cultural Heritage' site

I've been a bad blogger lately (though I do have some good excuses*), so make up for it here's an interesting new resource from UKOLN – their Cultural Heritage site provides a single point of access to 'a variety of resources on a range of issues of particular relevance to the cultural heritage sector'.

Topics currently include 'collection description, digital preservation, metadata, social networking services, supporting the user experience and Web 2.0'. Usefully, the site includes IntroBytes – short briefing documents aimed at supporting use of networked technologies and services in the cultural heritage sector and an Events listing. Most sections seem to have RSS feeds, so you can subscribe and get updates when new content or events are added.

* Excuses include: (offline) holidays, Virgin broadband being idiots, changing jobs (I moved from the Museum of London to an entirely front-end role at the Science Museum) and I've also just started a part-time MSc in Human-Centred Systems at City University's School of Informatics.

Mashed museum and UK MW 2008 write-up

A report I wrote on 'The 2008 Mashed Museum Day and UK Museums on the Web Conference' is now live on the Ariadne site. I've already reported on most of the sessions and the mashed museum day here, but the opportunity to reflect on the day and write for a different audience was useful. The review really made me appreciate that time and space away from all the noise of every day life in which to learn, try and think is incredibly important, whether you call it a workshop or an away day or something else entirely:

One lesson from the Mashed Museum day was that in a sector where innovation is often hampered by a lack of financial resources, time is a valuable commodity. A day away from the normal concerns of the office in 'an environment free from political or monetary constraints' is valuable and achievable without the framework of an organised event. An experimental day could also be run with ICT and curatorial or audience-facing staff experimenting with collections data together.

The Ariadne issue is packed full of articles I've marked 'to read', so you might also find them interesting.