+

 Welcome! We will get

started shortly.
 As you wait, please review
the definitions on pages 8—
10 of the handbook.
+

The Public Humanities Toolbox:

Engaging Communities Online
Leah Nahmias & Al Lees

John Nicholas Brown Center

October 2010
+ 9:00—10:15 am: Toolbox Overview


 Introductions
 What is the Public Humanities Toolbox?
 What tools are included and what are their
basic features?

 10:15—10:25 am: Break

 10:25—11:00 am: Examples of the Tools in Use

 WordPress
 Flickr
Today’s Schedule  Wikis
 Google Maps
 Catablogs
 Mobile Apps

 11:00—12:00 am: Planning and Consulting on

Your Projects
 A Strategy for Web Projects
 Small group break-outs
 Report back
 Pleased to meet you!
Tell us your name, your organization, and what
drives your interest in digital projects

+
+
What is The Public Humanities
Toolbox?
 A framework (or toolbox) of free or inexpensive Web 2.0 applications
to build a more engaging web presence

 Designed for small cultural heritage organizations with limited

budgets, staff, and expertise

 Explains uses and “how-tos” for blogs, wikis, Google Maps, Flickr
(photographs), Scribd (documents), Facebook, Twitter, podcasting,
and more

 http://publichumanitiestoolbox.wordpress.com
 Download the complete handbook for free
 Find examples of tools in use
 Download this entire presentation starting this evening
+ What do we mean by “framework”?

 Start with a blog as your website’s base (the framework)

 Customize the blog with pages for different aspects of the
organization (or project)
 About, Collections, Educators Resources, Public Programs,
Hours & Directions

 Embed other applications into your blog depending on

what you want to share—photos, maps, videos,
documents
 Useother social media tools to help you reach new
audiences, network with other professionals, build
meaningful and rich relationships
+  The types of …
 INTERACTIVE (tag, comment,
respond, favorite)
 COLLABORATIVE (many people
editing, adding content from different
places)
 INTEROPERABLE (all the parts

Web 2.0 work together—embedded—to create

one seamless whole)
 web applications developed after the
dot com bust of 2000-2001

 The ways users interact with each other

and with content enabled by these
applications

 Characterized by the ease with which

non-expert—That’s us! That’s you!—
can add content to the web
+
 Above all: it’s possible!
 What are the opportunities?

 What are the tools?

 How do you use the tools?

Our goals?  To make local history instantly and

This speech and beyond easily accessible

 To broaden the scope of local history

 To make it easier for teachers and

students to incorporate local history

 To increase collaboration among small

cultural heritage organizations
Tools
 WordPress (blogs)
 Flickr

 Scribd

 Google Maps
 Wikis

 Facebook& Social
Networking
 Twitter

 Mobile Technologies
 …And more!
+
WordPress

 Basic web publishing platform; a blog

 Highly customizable
 Free!

 Lots of users: Advice! Help! New features all the time!

 Two versions:
 Fast and Easy WordPress
 Bigger and Better WordPress
+
Flickr
 A photo-sharing site

 Upload your photos; allow your users to view, comment, make notes,
share with their friends, even “favorite” items in your collection

 Uses:
 Promote current or upcoming exhibits (tease with a few items in the
collection)
 Draw viewers’ attention to details by making notes on items
 Collect information about unknown items in your collection
 Embed items hosted in Flickr in your blog or on Google Maps
 Collect tags labeling items; share a tag cloud showing your collection’s
strengths
 Easily collect data about view counts and what sites and search terms are
helping users find your content
+
Google Maps

 Create your own maps

 By time period
 By theme (African American history, agricultural activities)

 Create driving or walking tours of a site or town

 Map points described in an oral history or diary

+
Scribd

 The Flickr of documents; sharing documents

 Allows users to embed documents in other sites like blogs

 Allows social media functions: tags, comments, favorites, etc.

 Works for all file types (Word, Excel, PDF, Power Point)

 All text is indexed and searchable

 Share…
 Educational resources: lesson plans, registration forms
 Transcriptions
 Brochures and other literature
 Meeting minutes, annual reports, other organizational literature
+
Twitter

 “Micro-blogging”

 Providestatus updates (what you’re doing, thinking,

reading, etc.) of 140 characters or less
 Follow others…see their updates on your homepage
 Others follow you too
+
Twitter

 Follow professionals or consultants in your field…keep

abreast of new ideas, latest literature
 Follow other institutions…how are they using Twitter to
build or maintain relationships
 Share quick updates on events
 Share fun like “this week in history” or brain teasers
related to local history
+
Catablogs

 A catablog is a site created with blogging software that provides short

descriptions of collections via blog posts.

 These posts can be easily tagged, categorized and updated, and can
contain image and media files.

 Your community can follow your RSS feed to keep up-to-date on new
collections as they are added and easily link to collection descriptions
to share their finds with others.

 Great for genealogists!

 There’s already a catablog plug-in for WordPress…and we’re curious!

+
Web 2.0: Product or Process?
 Web 2.0 tools are interactive—you can allow users to comment on, tag,
mash-up and even edit your content

 Some organizations worry about “losing control” of their content: will

“their” content be accurate, respectful, etc?

 Some organizations worry about “letting go” of their expertise: will they
need us if we let them have our “stuff”?

 We suggest looking at Web 2.0 tools as process as much as product—

they are a way of engaging a community as much as a way of creating a
finished product
 This is the opportunity presented by today’s economic crisis
 This is the thinking that will help us survive

 By the way, all of the tools we profile can be amended to prevent

comments, tags, editing, etc.
 Toolbox 1.0 Toolbox 1.5
Flat Carefully Managed
Content
Communication is still
one-way, but you are
Communication is one- putting more of your
way collections “out there” for
the public to find
You as the institution post
information (about You may simply be
yourself) so that people putting your collections
database online or
can find your building and
learn about programs and building simple online
exhibits
exhibits
You retain control of the
content but potentially
reach a larger audience
than a collection or exhibit
housed in a physical
location can
Toolbox 2.0
Free for All Third
Space
The difference here is that
communication is two-way
Your public comments on
your content and discusses
it among themselves in a
forum you have created
Other tools might allow
users to create their
own content in a variety
of ways: sharing images
or documents held in
their private collections,
creating and editing
encyclopedia entries
about your community,
or sharing their personal
memories
+
What’s the difference between

Availability? Accessibility?

 You’re open  Your tools make your

collections and
 People can find you resources…
 Ifthey can get to your  Easier to find
physical location, they can  Easier to navigate and search
look through your  Open for reflection,
collections discussion, and personal
meaning-making
 They “consume” what you
produce
+
 Be back promptly at 10:25
 If
you came today with a
specific project or digital
Break “problem” to be solved,
please see Leah during the
break
+ 9:00—10:15 am: Toolbox Overview


 Introductions
 What is the Public Humanities Toolbox?
 What tools are included and what are their
basic features?

 10:15—10:25 am: Break

 10:25—11:00 am: Examples of the Tools in Use

 WordPress
 Flickr
Today’s Schedule  Wikis
 Google Maps
 Catablogs
 Mobile Apps

 11:00—12:00 am: Planning and Consulting on

Your Projects
 A Strategy for Web Projects
 Small group break-outs
 Report back
+
Sites Built with the Toolbox!

Pioneer Valley History Network Veterans Education Project

+
More sites!

Pocumtuck Valley Memorial

Association

 PVMA used to have a website

built by outside developers
 It was expensive
 It was difficult for PVMA staff
and volunteers to change or add
content to their own website
The MobileJNBC Project
Why Mobile Now?

In 2009, 17% of US adults used smartphones, up from 11%

in 2008 and 7% in 2007 and that fully one in three
Americans now own a smartphone or QMD (quick
messaging devise), statistics that, by any measure indicate
an exponential growth curve.

In a world where instant access to information, products

and services is becoming an expectation, mobile
technology as an information gateway will fundamentally
alter how, when and why individuals experience and
consume a vast array of goods and services, including
culture and heritage.
Project Assumptions
 Web based mobility is preferable to
native apps (iPhone), even when
one must contend with slower
connectivity.
 Cultural organizations can extend
their knowledge of Wordpress to
create a pleasing mobile
experience.
 The future of accessing information
mobily will either equal or surpass
the desktop/laptop within the next
10 years.
Consider These Points:
 Mobile gateways emphasize breadth not depth of
information.
 Make you site attractive and easy to navigate. It draws
the viewer in. Heavy emphasis on images should be
discouraged.
 Your site should engage, keeping the viewer involved
and occupied, and;
 Itshould be enabling, letting the viewer do or see
things they could never do before.
Form Follows Function

 What is our mobile

purpose?
 How do we wish to interact
with our audience?
 What tools would we like
to deploy?

The point is the what and how of

it is more important than its visual
appeal!
 Examples

National Museum of Natural History

Musee du Louvre
+
A Strategy for Web Projects
 What are your organization’s goals? Who is your intended audience?
What sort of “voice” will your organization have online?

 Self-Assessment
 Where are you now? Where is your staff? What do you know how to do?
What do you need to learn to achieve your goals?
 Page 11-12 of the Handbook

 What functions do you need?

 Choose tools (allow form to follow function)

 PLAN CAREFULLY! What are the key “categories” /organizing

principles of your site? Who will do what work? Who will maintain
it?

 Map it out
+ 9:00—10:15 am: Toolbox Overview


 Introductions
 What is the Public Humanities Toolbox?
 What tools are included and what are their
basic features?

 10:15—10:25 am: Break

 10:25—11:00 am: Examples of the Tools in Use

 WordPress
 Flickr
Today’s Schedule  Wikis
 Google Maps
 Catablogs
 Mobile Apps

 11:00—12:00 am: Planning and Consulting on

Your Projects
 A Strategy for Web Projects
 Small group break-outs
 Report back
+
 Divide into small groups of 3-4

 Group Roles
 Observer/Facilitator: Keeps the group on task, takes
notes
 Requestor (someone to share an idea for a project or
a “digital problem” to be solved)
 1-2 consultants

 Break-out Procedure (35 minutes)

 5 minutes: Requestor describes project; group asks
Small group break-out clarifying questions
protocol  10 minutes: Using pages 13-14 and 17-18, start to
consider tools and how they would be customized
to fit the proposed project
 12 minutes: Create a “next steps” plan
 5 minutes: Consider obstacles: staff/volunteer
expertise, buy-in from community, time constraints
 3 minutes: formulate a question or issue that arose
during the charette to share with the whole group
 Leah and Al will circulate during break-out sessions
to consult and help

 Share-outs & Conclusions

+
Social media is like a
free kitten:
easy to get one,
A piece of advice
but then you have to
take care of it!
+ Thanks!
Leah Nahmias (leah_nahmias@yahoo.com)
Twitter.com/lnahmias
Al Lees (aelees@mac.com)

http://publichumanitiestoolbox.wordpress.com
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