Finally it is here, the long awaited for book on the emergent field of Digital Heritage. Edited by the ever so talented Elisa Giaccardi.
This book explores how social media is constantly reframing our understanding and experience of heritage. Through the idea of ‘participatory culture’ it begins to examine how social media can be brought to bear on the encounter with heritage and on the socially produced meanings and values that individuals and communities ascribe to it.
My contribution is to this book is the chapter Museums of the Self and Digital Death: An Emerging Curatorial Dilemma.
Chapter Abstract: This chapter is primarily concerned with exploring the connection between digital legacy of data that people currently leave behind and how this data can begin to form a part of our collective “digital heritage”. By reviewing current practices around online data storage in relation to memory and death, the chapter considers the value of ‘digital memory objects’ for the growing field of digital heritage. It also discusses the significance and implications of designing new contexts and systems for the future management of personal legacy data. By using the transformative properties of the ‘digital memory object’ itself, the chapter presents various strategies concerning how this data could be both (re)used and (re)evaluated, making it a useful asset in our contemporary collective; for both history and heritage.
Heritage and Social Media can be bought directly from the publisher at: www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415616676/ or ordered from Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/Heritage-Social-Media-Understanding-participatory/dp/0415616670
