For 50 years, the core mission of US/ICOMOS has been to deliver the best of international cultural heritage to the U.S. domestic preservation dialogue, while sharing with the world the unique American system of historic preservation. While that remains a constant, what is changing is the way we do it.
Inspired by its 50th anniversary, US/ICOMOS is launching US/ICOMOS KnowledgeExchange, an innovative, thematic approach to US-international cultural resource exchange. KnowledgeExchange will use new web and social media-based tools to leverage existing programs like the ICOMOS network of scientific committees and US/ICOMOS’s marquee summer intern program. The goal is to help US preservationists and cultural resource managers solve the heritage challenges they face, while harnessing new technologies to break down the cost and time barriers to international collaboration.
The KnowledgeExchange initiative is centered around virtual communities of heritage practitioners sharing international cultural resources knowledge on specific themes. We call them Knowledge Communities. The Themes generally map to the work of existing ICOMOS international scientific committee or an important, cross-cutting concept. To begin with, we are creating six such Knowledge Communities built around themes like Climate Change and Heritage, and Cultural Landscapes Practice. Click on the icons to the left to learn more about these initial offerings.
Ultimately, each Knowledge Community will be served by a suite of online tools including customized heritage content, resource libraries and events calendars. US/ICOMOS Members will have the option to have digests of the content streamed to their inboxes on the Themes of their choice.
Currently Members can sign up to participate in one or more of these Communities as part of the 2016 membership renewal process. In the coming months, as we roll out KnowledgeExchange, Members who have signed up will receive additional information on how to subscribe to streaming content and participate in these new information sharing opportunities.
US/ICOMOS KnowledgeExchange: Delivering a World of Heritage Solutions