National Archives (U.S.) Launches Six-Month “History Hub” Pilot Project, a New Collaboration Platform From NARA

UPDATE January 20, 2015
We asked NARA to let us know what software they were using to power History Hub pilot project.
They informed us that History Hub is powered and hosted by Jive Software and added that the platform/site is, “the result of three years of research into how other government agencies handle inquiries from the public.”
From a Blog Post by David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States (via AOTUS Blog):

I am pleased to announce a new pilot project from the Office of Innovation at the National Archives called the “History Hub.” This new platform may be thought of as an external collaboration network, a place where subject matter experts from the National Archives can engage with researchers and the public, to share information, work more easily together, and find people based on their experience and interests. The platform offers discussion boards, blogs, profiles, and other interactive tools for communication and collaboration.
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We aim to use the History Hub to explore new ways of connecting with and serving customers interested in historical topics relating to our holdings.
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The History Hub is a limited six-month pilot project so that we can test the platform for its use and usefulness as a crowdsourcing platform. We will use the pilot period to benchmark level of effort on the part of NARA staff and to better understand public engagement metrics. We are developing a robust set of evaluation criteria to evaluate the pilot and ensure good use of NARA’s resources.
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Do you have research questions you’ve always wanted answered? Do you want advice on how to get started with genealogical research? Give it a try and ask a question at historyhub.archives.gov.

Learn More, Read the Complete Blog Post
Direct to History Hub Pilot Project

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, News, Profiles