There isn't a heading that won't make me sound like a dork.

So this is the personal website of Mia Ridge. I'm guessing you're here for my blog or a previous paper/presentation so they're up first. I'm aiming to get all of my presentations online in the hope that they may help people working on similar projects.

You might also be after my woefully out-of-date web and database development resume/CV or photos of the best dog in the world, Thor.

If you want to contact me, use the contact form on the right (or just make up any address at this domain and I'll get it).

My blog, Open Objects

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I also wrote for the Museum of London 'behind the scenes' blog (my posts).

Some presentations

Presentation: "Happy developers + happy museums = happy punters"

This was a 'lightning talk' at JISC's dev8D 'developer happiness' days held in London in February 2009. The slides are downloadable and I've put a transcript on my blog.

Presentation: "Web 2.0 in the Real World"

This was a case study for an MLA London Workshop on 'Web 2.0 and Social Networking for Museums, Libraries and Archives', held in London on July 14, 2008.

Panel paper: The role of the IT professional in a heritage institution

I was a guest speaker on a panel for a course in 'Culture and Heritage Informatics' at Kingston University, London, April 28, 2008. I have summarised some of the discussion on the Museum of London blog and on my personal blog.

Presentation: MultiMimsy database extractions and the possibilities for OAI-based collections repositories at the Museum of London

UK MultiMimsy Users Group. Museum in Docklands, London, April 18, 2008.

Panel paper: A Little Web 2.0 Goes A Long Way

Informal Panel Discussion: "Wine, Web 2.0 and What's New"; Museums, Libraries and Archives E-Learning Group. The Trocadero Centre, London, February 7, 2008.

Paper: Sharing authorship and authority: user generated content and the cultural heritage sector

Web Adept: UK Museums and the Web 2007, Leicester, June 22, 2007.

Seminar paper: The IT Strategy for Exploring 20th Century London

Seminar: Exploring 20th Century London Project, September 25, 2006
Museum in Docklands, London

Seminar paper: The Dyson Archive of medieval London property transactions: a seminar to discuss future work

June 12, 2006
London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre

Design and development of the Dyson Archive of medieval London property transactions: Powerpoint slides

Paper: '20th Century London' Project IT Strategy

On Line Galleries and Narrative Workshop, Manchester City Galleries, Manchester Museums Consortium, December 12, 2005

Paper: The IT Strategy for Exploring 20th Century London

Museums Association Conference, October 24, 2005
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London

Seminar paper: Not One Voice But Many: The Çatalhöyük Database

On-site seminar, Çatalhöyük, July 2005

Seminar paper: The development of the Ceramics and Glass website

Ceramics and Glass Seminar, November 18, 2004 (Powerpoint slides)
Mortimer Wheeler House

Some publications

Paper: Buzzword or benefit: The possibilities of Web 2.0 for the cultural heritage sector

Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology UK Chapter Meeting, January 24 - 26, 2007
Tudor Merchants Hall, Southampton

Paper: Clay pipe recording at MoLAS and the stamped makers' mark website

SCPR Annual Conference, September 16, 2006
London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre, Mortimer Wheeler House

The paper discusses the process from initial specification through requirements gathering, database design, development of the database application and website, to publication online.

Report: Nick Holder, Mia Ridge and Nathalie Cohen, The Tony Dyson Archive Project: Report of a pilot study investigating the creation of a digital archive of medieval property transactions along the City waterfront

Museum of London Archaeology Service. PDF version of report, without mapping and plan diagrams.

Çatalhöyük Archive Reports

Çatalhöyük Archive Report 2007

Çatalhöyük Archive Report 2006

Çatalhöyük Archive Report 2005

Çatalhöyük Archive Report 2004

I also contributed to the Çatalhöyük blog during the 2006 season.

Some teaching

Class: Computer assisted interpretation; integration of finds and site sequence

For the Birkbeck MA Archaeology Module "Archaeological Post-Excavation and Publication".

Class: Creating Digital Resources II: database design for the digital humanities

"Introduction to Digital Humanities", Birkbeck, Spring/Summer Term 2007, May 29, 2007 and December 2008

Class: New Working Models

"Introduction to Digital Humanities", Birkbeck, Spring/Summer Term 2007, May 15, 2007 and November 2008

Class: Creating Digital Resources

"Introduction to Digital Humanities", Birkbeck, Spring/Summer Term 2007, May 1, 2007 and November 2008

Class: Introduction to Databases

"Introduction to Digital Humanities", Birkbeck, Spring/Summer Term 2007, February 27, 2007 and October 2008

'Introduction to Digital Humanities' was a new postgraduate course at Birkbeck College that examined the impact of technology on humanities research practice. It combined aspects of media studies, humanities computing and literary studies to foster an appreciation of the core methods and practical, political/philosophical and pedagogical issues in digital humanities.

Other stuff

I had to learn Oracle when I started at the Museum of London, and I kept a list of Oracle tips for MS SQL and MySQL developers as I went. My notes cover tips useful for developers and DBAs moving from MS SQL or MySQL to Oracle, and from Oracle 8 to Oracle 9i. At the time, most tips or FAQ pages didn't seem to cover 9i so hopefully someone will find them useful if they've ever wondered 'how do I do that in Oracle?'.

You can also find out how to transform data stored in XML to SQL for databases without XML support such as Microsoft MS SQL Server 7. There's also a text version of the same content. SQL Server 2000 has better built-in support for XML, but there are still legacy applications using SQL Server 7 that might find this useful.

Contact

About me

I am the Lead Web Developer for the Science Museum and NMSI. Previously I worked at the Museum of London/MoLAS (the Archaeology Service) as a database and web analyst/developer. I grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and am now living in London. I started as a Arts student, played around in multimedia, and eventually graduated as a software engineer.

My interests include digital cultural heritage (particularly online access to museum collections, objects and archaeological data); interoperability, the semantic web and related technologies; user-centred design; usability and information architecture for websites and database applications; open source technologies and open standards.

I am currently studying for a MSc in Human-centred Systems at City University, London. My subjects are Systems Specification, Human-Computer Interaction Design. Advanced Topics in Human-Computer Interaction, Evaluation of Systems, Requirements Engineering, Research Methods and Professional Issues, Inclusive Design and Visualising Information in Human Computer Interaction. Lots of work, but also lots of fun!

In 2007 I was elected to the committee of the Museums Computer Group as Co-Webmaster. I was a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Thinktank 'UK Museums and the Semantic Web' in 2006/7.

My personal interests include writing travelogues, creating animations and short films, and I also enjoy travel, cycling, surfing, music and reading. (I know nearly everyone likes listening to music and reading, but I'm hopeless at lists of favourites so that will have to do.)

I had the traditional shamefully neglected projects at Sourceforge, which I really should delete as will be heaps of great applications with the same functionality by now. They were browser-based web applications written in PHP and HTML, with MySQL, but if I was to re-start them I'd think about doing them in a format so that the content can be used beyond the traditional browser and I'd use them as an excuse to properly learn some new acronyms.