2011: an overview

An incomplete retrospective of what I got up to in 2011, apart from 'quitting my job at the Science Museum to start a full-time PhD in Digital Humanities'.

December: Interview: issues in museums and technology

I was in Atlanta in November 2011 for MCN2011 (my 'Hacking and mash-ups for beginners’ workshop is a highlight, woo!) and a panel discussion on 'What’s the Point of a Museum Website?'. I also debated the question “There are too many museums” in the 'Great Debate' for MCN’s closing plenary. Then it was back to London where I chaired a session at the MCG 'Museums on the Web’ UKMW11 conference and was elected as Chair of the Museums Computer Group.

October: I was one of two keynotes at Europeana Tech in Vienna, with a paper titled 'Open for engagement: GLAM audiences and digital participation’. The next day I was back in London for LODLAM-London October 6 (with the Open Knowledge Foundation). A few days later I was on a panel on the Digital Humanities at the Open University – my talk notes are at Notes on current issues in Digital Humanities. I was also interviewed for the Microtask crowdsourcing blog, 'Games at the museum: Mia Ridge interview'.

September: I went to Edinburgh to chair a session on 'Entrepreneurship and Social Media' for the Museums Galleries Scotland conference 'Collaborating to Compete'. I was asked to present on my work in my introduction, my notes are ‘Entrepreneurship and Social Media’ and ‘Collaborating to Compete’. I was also interviewed for BBC Outriders.

July: Katy Beale and I ran a workshop on 'hacking culture’ at the V&A Museum.

June: I gave a presentation for the International Training Programme run by the British Museum for museum professionals from around the world, on 'Changing contexts: museums, audiences and technology', and talked about 'The future of museums and learning to love change' at OpenCulture 2011 in Birmingham.

May 2011 – I was invited to Stockholm to give a talk on 'Museum Crowdsourcing Games: Improving Collections Through Play (and some thoughts on re-inventing museums)'. I gave a presentation called 'Everyone wins: crowdsourcing games and museums’ for MuseumNext in Edinburgh and a presentation on 'Museum Games and UGC: Improving Collections Through Play’ for 'UGC4GLAM – Joint Workshop on User-Generated Content for Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums', Vienna.

April: my chapter on 'Crowdsourcing games: playing with museums’ for 'Museums At Play: Games, Interaction and Learning' (edited by Katy Beale) was published and I presented at Museums and the Web 2011 in Philadelphia.

March: I taught a class on 'The possibilities of Web 2.0 for cultural heritage institutions’ for the course Arch6056: Multimedia Methods in Archaeology at the University of Southampton. I also submitted my MSc dissertation and started my PhD.

Blog posts written for Open Objects included:

Interview: issues in museums and technology

Jude Habib from sounddelivery interviewed me at the Museum Computer Group's UK Museums and the Web 2011 about current issues in museums and technology (link, in case the embed doesn't work). Oh, and I was elected Chair of the Museums Computer Group – a big responsibility, but I have a great committee of smart, talented people so I'm excited about the challenge.

Mia Ridge Museum Technologist (new Chair MCG) (mp3)