Thanks to the many user-friendly multimedia production tools that are available today, your historic preservation group has numerous options for sharing your message with a large web audience.

With very little investment in digital recording equipment, you can enhance your group's web presence using digital photos, web videos, and audio files. For example, if you want to create video content, you can purchase a digital camera with a video recording function for under $200. If you want to record audio but no video, you can get a digital audio recorder for under $100.

When you post multimedia content online, make certain you protect your group's original content and respect others' intellectual property rights.

Displaying Multimedia Content on the Web

If your preservation group does not have its own website, you can still post audio and visual media to the web by uploading your media files to a hosting site. Your group may want to choose this option for these three key reasons:

• Hosting sites reduce the amount of server memory space your group needs to store large digital files.
• Uploading multimedia files onto a hosting site requires less technical knowledge than embedding video or audio files to your group's own website.
• Hosting sites provide opportunities for comments from viewers.

Many image-hosting sites offer a basic hosting service for free with options for paid service upgrades. Others offer a free trial period and various service tiers at different prices. The higher-priced services offer more advanced features. Three popular image hosting websites are Flickr, Fotolog and SmugMug. By far the most popular video-hosting site is YouTube. However, Vimeo has quickly gained a reputation for professionalism, thought-provoking community engagement, and higher-quality videos. Both of these hosting sites provide online tutorials to help you learn the basics of producing and uploading videos.

Displaying an Image Collection on the Web

Image-hosting websites can help you maximize the impact of your preservation group's photos, especially those that spotlight your programs and active projects. Placing your photos on an image-hosting site is different than maintaining a photo archive on your own website because the image-hosting site will have features that allow viewers to interact with the content. These sites typically allow viewers to do the following:

• Add comments to individual images
• Add "Favorites" tags that prioritize the most popular images
• Share images via email or posting to a social media page

If your group has a blog or uses a social media site like Facebook, you can use an image-hosting site to store images that you embed on your blog or social media site. Photos posted on image-hosting websites can be searched by keyword. This feature is handy for preservationists who are looking for examples of building styles and types, such as bungalows, gas stations, outhouses, or barns.

Historic Milwaukee, Incorporated (HMI) is a good example of a Wisconsin preservation group that has embraced multiple social media and hosting sites to enhance its connection with members and the community. The group's HMI Flickr photostream maintains an archive of event and program photos grouped into sets. This photostream is linked to the organization's website. This means that whenever new images become available, they are uploaded to the website via a single button on the group's Flickr page.

The Madison Trust for Historic Preservation Flickr photostream is a photo archive of the group's events and activities.

Producing a Web Video

An exciting development for grassroots advocates is the availability of user-friendly web video production tools. Today, anyone with a digital video camera or camcorder and internet access can produce and publish compelling online videos. Even many cell phones have the ability to record short videos. With a little investment in time and creativity, you can even turn still images into dynamic videos using some of the many free and low-cost video presentation tools that are available on the web.

Many preservation and other advocacy groups in Wisconsin have used video for both practical and inspiring purposes such as these:

• Document key events and activities
• Share videos created by members or viewers via a video blog (or "vlog")
• Tell a story
• Launch a preservation advocacy campaign
• Stream or record a virtual meeting

If your group has a series of videos to share, you should create a complete archive of your videos so they are all in one place. If you use a video hosting site, you can create your own free channel for all of your videos. You can also embed your hosted videos on your website. This will drive visitors back to your website, where they can find out more about your group or campaign. Your website should describe the video series to provide some context for your visitors.

Recording a Podcast

Podcasting is an inexpensive way for your preservation group to broadcast your preservation message online. A podcast is simply a digital audio recording that is made available online for listeners to download, like an on-demand radio show. The term podcast merges the word broadcast with the word pod from Apple's iPod portable media player. However, listeners can access your podcast using any brand of portable media player, smart phone, or computer that can play digital media files.

You can record a podcast cheaply using a digital audio recording device. Most podcasts use a digital file format called MP3. A podcast that includes video clips is known as a vodcast.

A podcast can be a great way to record and archive voice-centric events such as expert interviews and candidates' forums. Podcasts can also be used to supplement written documents for your board members, such as your board manual or board orientation packet. Your website or blog is a great place to host your podcast.

The National Center for Preservation Training and Technology produces regular educational podcasts consistent with its mission to advance preservation technology.

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Historic Preservation Advocacy Guide

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