This year, with the support of our friends from Cloud9dev and ICOM Slovenia, we participated in the 51st Annual Conference of the CIMUSET Section of Science and Technology Museums and Collections, part of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), held in Vienna. The prestigious conference, titled Within the Digital: Opportunities and Challenges in Science Museums, took place from September 2nd to 4th, 2024, hosted by the Vienna Technical Museum, Austria’s largest museum dedicated to preserving technological heritage. Experts from Europe, the USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, China, Korea, Iran, and other regions attended. We discussed the tangible and intangible heritage of the digital age and museum approaches to it. Through lectures, roundtables, and workshops, participants intensely compared research findings and museum practices, highlighting the formal, museological, educational, and social aspects brought into the museum environment by ‘digital-born’ entities. The conference focused on two main themes: Collections and Archives in the Digital Space and Accessibility and Inclusion of Digital Heritage in the Museum Environment.
At the conference, the Computer History Museum Slovenia was represented by the director, Gaja Zornada, who delivered a presentation. To the gathered audience, as well as virtual attendees, she introduced a proposal for a new microformat aimed at preserving websites using the method of deep web archiving. The presentation successfully positioned the Computer History Museum Slovenia among the world’s most advanced contributors in the field of digital heritage preservation and paved the way for new international collaborations.
The conference concluded with the regular annual assembly of ICOM CIMUSET, leaving us with a sense of having found our place within the international museum community.