With 20 years of experience in writing, branding, design and digital communications management, Jeff Guin helps people use the web to “own” their history and advocate for heritage resources. He blogs about digital heritage at voicesofthepast.org, which was chosen by Alltop.com as a “Best of the Best” blog in the social media category.

Jeff’s passion for heritage preservation emerged as he grew up among the historic homes and sites of Natchitoches, La., the oldest town in the Louisiana Purchase. After receiving his bachelor’s in Journalism, he served as a communications specialist for a Fortune 500 corporation. His experience there included facilitating strategies to promote and enhance special sites of cultural and environmental value.

These sites and the people who seek to protect them served as inspiration as he returned to his hometown to pursue a Master’s degree in folklife and oral history. While in graduate school, Jeff began working with the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, a research arm of the National Park Service. There, he initiated the first coordinated social media strategy within an NPS organization.

Additionally, he has led mobile, web and multimedia initiatives for the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia, Wolfsonian-FIU Museum in Miami Beach and Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami. He has created highly successful GLAM-Wiki initiatives, pioneering cultural heritage webcast series, and mobile applications.

He has spoken at conferences such as O’Reilly’s Gov 2.0, the Society for Historic Archaeology, the Association for Preservation Technology, and numerous state historic preservation gatherings.

In addition to his public relations and digital development work, Jeff has contributed articles to scholarly books and journals such as CRM Journal, the Dictionary of Literary Biography series and Facet Publishing’s international edited collection “User Studies for Digital Library Development.”