Heritage Philadelphia Program awarded several travel grants to the Museums and the Web Conference in Indianapolis this April. Rick Fink, Education Director at Cliveden of the National Trust, kindly agreed to share some of his thoughts and insights that he learned at the conference:I wanted to thank the Heritage Philadelphia Program for the opportunity to attend the Museums and the Web Conference 2009 in Indianapolis. I had a great time out there and certainly learned a lot about internet education and marketing.
The point frequently emphasized in many of the discussions and workshops was collaborative learning. I learned that while Cliveden and Historic Germantown may have an online presence, we are certainly lacking with online collaborative education. I hope to take advantage of many FREE ideas I learned of while at the conference, specifically including:
- the use of Twitter for onsite and real-time visitor feedback;
- the use of Wikis for displaying museum collections information and allowing visitors to share stories regarding our collections;
- the use of Flickr for generating visual maps and “geo-tagged” content on our website.
While these are very specific tools I learned how to use, I did come away with a better understanding of how to present ourselves on the web. I have realized that Cliveden and Historic Germantown’s website needs to not only be simplified and made clearer, but also needs to improve opportunities for visitors to share their thoughts. It does not always have to be time consuming to create online content, as there are many historic sites across the country that have thorough history databases generated primarily by visitors and online users.
There were many international library and museum staff members from across the country at the conference, and I was able to gain a different perspective on online learning. It seems to me as if the international museum community has been employing collaborative online learning techniques successfully for several years, providing a great framework for how to move forward here in America.
During my spare time in between sessions, I attended an Indiana Pacers basketball game as well as walking Indianapolis’ historic Canal District. I had never visited the Mid-West and this trip certainly provided me with a different perspective on life and the country.
Did you attend the Museums and the Web Conference? What were your thoughts? What did you learn there? Click on "comments" below and let us know!
For more information about Travel Grants from HPP, please e-mail us at hpp@pcah.us.
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