Second seminar for Social Media Volunteers for Heritage starts in Weimar
The second seminar for Social Media Volunteers for Heritage is taking place from 10-15 September in Weimar, Germany. Heritage Times is a European wide platform for sharing heritage (news) stories with content provided by trained volunteers. Heritage Times was launched by Europa Nostra and European Heritage Volunteers in November 2016 during Denkmal in Leipzig, Germany, the largest European Trade Fair in the field of heritage.
Heritage Times at a glance
In 10 months 50 stories from 14 European countries were published online on www.heritagetimes.eu and shared on social media.
More than 5.000 unique users visited the site since its launch. The top 10 countries were:
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- Italy
- US
- Germany
- Greece
- Finland
- Netherlands
- Albania
- UK
- Belgium
- Spain
The Twitter account of Heritage Times gained 200 followers. The top 10 followers are:
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- EC project for the promotion of cultural tourism aimed at millennials | @EU_Millennials (Europe)
- European Federation of Associations of Industrial and Technical Heritage | @EFAITH2015 (Europe)
- Chief Executive of the Heritage Alliance | @heritage_lizzie (England)
- International Heritage News Network | @IntlHeritage (USA)
- Faces For Heritage | @Faces4Heritage (Switzerland)
- Helsinki Malmi Airport | @malmiairport (Finland)
- Pompeii Archaeological Park | @pompeii_sites (Italy)
- European Travel Commission | @ETC_Corporate (Belgium)
- Association of professional enthusiasts about industrial culture | @saveindustrial (Italy)
- Former EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism & Youth | @VassiliouEU (Cyprus)
Direct involvement with young people
Social Media Volunteers for Heritage reaches out to young people from across Europe:
- 12 selected volunteers from 12 different countries met for the first training session in Weimar, Germany in September 2016.
- 2 volunteers participated to the launch of Heritage Times in Leipzig, Germany in November 2016.
- 2 volunteers participated to the European Heritage Congress in Turku, Finland in June 2017.
- A new group of 10 volunteers from 10 countries are set to meet in Weimar 10-15 September 2017.
- A group of volunteers will be actively involved in the European Cultural Heritage Summit in Berlin in June 2018.
What kind of stories?
- Stories with a personal touch;
- Stories that highlight the European dimension of tangible and/or intangible heritage;
- Stories that further communicate initiatives of the European Year of Cultural Heritage;
- Stories that are structured according to journalistic rules with a beginning, middle and end, including good titles and subheadings;
- Stories with photographs, videos or other visual material (creative commons or self-made);
- Stories written in English;
- Stories that are geared towards experiencing, discovering, enjoying and exploring heritage;
- Stories that are not an academic paper (although links can be added);
- Stories that communicate in an accessible way about heritage;
- Stories that do not hold soliloquies for the benefit of an organisation;
- Stories that have a sense of humour or sensibility depending on the story;
- Stories that have social and political sensitivity;
- Stories that are local but with a European scope or a European angle;
- Stories 300-1200 words in length.
Social Media Volunteers for Heritage is supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union through Europa Nostra’s network project “Sharing Heritage – Sharing Values”.
