Bloggen ist mir wichtig, ziemlich wichtig sogar, und es ist faszinierend. Damit angefangen habe ich 2014 und zwar mit Wissenschaftsblogs. Neben einem Blog für ein Forschungsprojekt des Naturhistorischen Museums Wien habe ich gemeinsam mit dem Grabungsteam den Stiegenblog der Hallstatt-Forschung aufgebaut. Dieser Blog war eingerichtet worden, weil das archäologische Forschungsteam eine rund 3000 Jahre alte hölzerne Stiege an ihrem Fundort abbauen musste. Sie wäre durch den drückenden Berg sonst zerstört worden. Wie gut aber der Abbau gelingen würde, das war bei aller Vorausplanung und aller Vorsicht, die das Team an den Tag legte, nicht abzusehen. So etwas hatte schließlich vorher noch nie wer gemacht. Es sollte also transparent kommuniziert werden, was warum mit diesem wichtigen Kulturdenkmal aus der UNESCO Welterbestätte Hallstatt-Dachstein/Salzkammergut genau passieren würde.

I developed the concept for this blog together with Reschreiter and was the editor in charge for quite some times. I learnt so much from this blog what I never expected to learn from theory alone. For example, I kew that writing bloposts would be considered as additional work - an additional work that just would have to be done parenthetically, like it is so often the case in communications. What surprised me was that the team quickly got into the habbit of thinking along the postings while they did their field work.And they considered this to be helpful. Another advantage of blogging that they discovered was the fact that blogging helps you to pause and reflect about what it exactly is that you are doing. Additionally one could see the progress much better. There was a lot more and if you are interested in it, please follow this link. hier zu finden.

Another weblog that is very dear to me is the Pfahlbautenblog. The Pfahlbautenblog is part of the external communication tools used by the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps" in Austria. The site is managed by the Kuratorium Pfahlbauten. Contentwise, this blog has a broader approach than the Stiegenblog. Topics are not just of a scientific nature or focus on heritage protection or cultural didactics. In the true sense of a world heritage site, the blog is an open platform for everybody who occupy themselves with the topic. Pfahlbautenblog. Der Pfahlbautenblog gehört zu den Kommunikationskanälen des UNESCO-Welterbes Prähistorische Pfahlbauten um die Alpen und ist daher inhaltlich ein wenig breiter aufgestellt als der Stiegeblog. In ihm sind nicht nur Themen aus der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, dem Denkmalschutz oder der Vermittlungsarbeit zu finden, sondern er steht auch – ganz im Sinne einer Welterbestätte – allen als Plattform offen, die sich mit dem Thema Pfahlbauten beschäftigen.

What surprised me most while working with this blog was how much it contributed to the knowledge exchange in the scientific community. When designing the blog, we were focusing heavily on those people who live nearby the pile dwellings. We did not anticipate so many colleagues to read it with so much interest. A consequence of this was that many fellow scientists know our current work in detail and offered helpful tips or asked for help when they found themselves confronted with problem similar to one of ours.

There is so much more that I could write about the two blogs and about the many others I found myself involved with so far. But - and that is one of the things I like so much about blogging - I don't have to discuss everything at once. I am allowed to focus on some aspects that are important to me right now. The rest can wait - because I have time and I have a blog.