Our keynote speakers continued
We are happy to announce the three speakers that will form our second keynote session at Digital Past 2018. on the afternoon of the 8th February, we are excited to bring John Andersson (Wikimedia Sverige), Meri Huws (Welsh Language Commissioner) and James Stark (Leeds University) to the event.
John Andersson is Executive Director at Wikimedia Sverige. With a background in International Relations, he has worked for Wikipedia Sverige in a range of differing roles, before becoming Chief Operating Officer in 2016 and Executive Director in 2017. John will be talking about Wikipedia’s Connected Open Heritage Project, designed to improve the structure and searchability of immovable cultural heritage around the world, particularly in relation to that which is at risk from war, disaster, negligence and poor maintenance. The presentation will include lessons learnt from dealing with a world-unique dataset originating from 50 countries.
Meri Huws is Wales’ Welsh Language Commissioner. Meri has been Chair of Cymdeithas y Iaith Gymraeg (The Welsh Language Society) and Chairman of the Welsh Language Board as well as deputy Vice-Chancellor at both Bangor University and University of Wales Trinity St David. Her current role is to promote the Welsh language and its use, ensuring that it is treated on an equal basis with the English language. Meri’s talk, The Digital Tradition, will focus on the part digital technologies can play in understanding and protecting the Welsh language as a fundamental part of our heritage, introducing history language and culture to new audiences to ensure understanding and appreciation, as well as preserving valuable information.
Dr James Stark is Associate Professor of Medical Humanities at Leeds University with a particular expertise in the history of medicine and the use of innovative digital tools to explore, understand and explain these challenging histories. James has recently co-published a report, Experiencing the Digital World: The Cultural Value of Digital Engagement with Heritage, which laid out the findings of an AHRC funded project to assess the value of digital projects, and how we measure and assess that value, within the heritage sector. James’ talk, Digital Engagement, Challenging Histories, will lay out the findings of this study, discussing how the digital world has the ability to generate empathetic connection between different audiences and heritage, but how this comes with its attendant problems. He will also discuss his follow-up project, Yarn, which aimed to develop tools to circumnavigate the issues raised in the original project and assess the success of these tools.
13/12/2017