This blog was originally published on the WebWise 2014 blog. By Lisa Rhody WebWise 2014 will feature two keynote addresses from leaders in the field whose digital work has made a significant impact on the future of digital collections, management, and sustainability.  Nick Poole and Mary Flanagan will invite WebWise attendees to consider innovative and effective ways to engage their local communities. On Monday, February 10th we welcome Nick Poole, who will open WebWise with a talk titled, “Make It Personal: Developing Services That People Love.”  In this keynote, Collections Trust CEO Nick Poole will address the theme of ‘Anchoring Communities’ by exploring the ways that museums and libraries around the world are building relationships with the people they serve. He will look at how technology is transforming these relationships by supporting new kinds of connections, going beyond social media and co-creation and uniting the continuum of creation, distribution, use and-re-use of digital content.

Additionally, Poole will review his work with museums and libraries on integrating technology into core vision, mission and strategic planning, creating organizations that are ‘digital first’ in their thinking and ready to face the future with confidence.

Wednesday, February 12th’s keynote address, “Play With Your Metadata,” features Mary Flanagan–founder of the Tiltfactor research lab as well as an artist, writer, and researcher.  She will share recent research on how games can be used as innovation tools by libraries, museums, and archives. Interested in collaboration, social impact, and creating paradigms for productive social interaction based on our inherent capacity for play, Flanagan will demonstrate these capacities in the Metadata Games project, a way that institutions can further knowledge about their artifacts through the use of games. These promise to be exciting, creative, and thought-provoking talks about the possible ways in which we might leverage digital technologies as we endeavor to become anchors within the communities we serve.  Each keynote address will be 50 minutes long with a 20 minute question and answer period to follow.  Participants must be registered in order to attend, so take a moment and register today!