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)

Interview: 'Games at the museum'

I was interviewed for the Microtask crowdsourcing blog.  Their abstract:

Culture heritage technologist Mia Ridge is a champion of crowdsourced museum gaming. Mia has worked as a developer for several world-class museums and is now writing her PhD on crowdsourcing digital heritage. She describes games as the “participation engine” of crowdsourcing.

Taking time out from her busy speaking schedule, Mia told us how and why museums should be raising their game…

'Games at the museum: Mia Ridge interview'.

Interview for BBC Outriders

I was interviewed by Jamillah Knowles for BBC Outriders: Digital relaxation. I think the podcast should be downloadable from their archive.

From the episode blurb:

If you are interested in history anywhere, then you might be interested in LODLAM too. LODLAM is Linked Open Data in Libraries, Archives and Museums. Imagine the world of history all linked up? Amazing!

I spoke to Mia Ridge who is currently a Phd student in Digital Humanities in the Department of History at the Open University and she explained more about LODLAM, what it can do and how we might be able to help us understand and work with global archives and more.

Upcoming talks and travel

Poster for a talk at Trinity College Dublin with illustrations of a man working in a factory and a soldier in a trench with sandbags and barbed wire
Trinity lecture poster

I'll be in Australia (Melbourne, Ballina and Brisbane) in February and March 2024. Get in touch if you'd like to meet for a chat about digital scholarship, digital humanities or AI / machine learning in libraries, archives and museums!

In March I'm keynoting at the fabulous Making Meaning 2024 conference, 'Collections as data' at the State Library of Queensland, Australia.

Then I'm back in the UK for a British Library / Guardian collaboration on 'Safeguarding Tomorrow: The impact of AI in media & information industries'. I'm on a panel on 'messy data in the age of “intelligent” machines' at Jisc DigiFest (online) the same week.

In April I'm giving a keynote on 'Machine Learning for Collections' at the University of Cambridge Cultural Heritage Data School. I'll also be speaking at an event for the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections (AMARC).

In early June I'm in Scotland as one of the CILIPS Annual Conference 2024 keynotes.

I may be in DC / Virginia in early August.

I'll be in Luxembourg in early September.

Recent books

I'm currently working on chapters for the final Living with Machines book.

In January 2023, Collaborative Historical Research in the Age of Big Data: Lessons from an Interdisciplinary Project by Ruth Ahnert, Emma Griffin, me and Giorgia Tolfo was published by Cambridge University Press.

In 2021 I wrote another book with 15 or so brilliant co-authors: The Collective Wisdom Handbook: perspectives on crowdsourcing in cultural heritage

My edited volume on 'Crowdsourcing our Cultural Heritage' for Ashgate, featuring chapters from some of the most amazing people working in the field was published in October 2014 and reprinted a few times subsequently. You can read my introduction on the OU repository: Crowdsourcing Our Cultural Heritage: Introduction.

By day, I'm usually at work at home at the British Library, so drop me a line if you'd like to meet for coffee and a chat. My availability for events is limited, but you can drop me a line if you'd like to book me for an event.

Some recent papers

Some publications are listed or accessible at my ORCID page, my Open University repository page, Humanities Commons page, Zenodo, and my Zotero page.

This page is rarely up-to-date or complete, but here's a summary of talks, fellowships, writing, etc in 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011. You can also follow me on twitter (@mia_out) mastodon @[email protected] / https://hcommons.social/@mia for updates.

Previous papers are generally listed at miaridge.com or on my blog, Open Objects.