Michael Peter Edson

Michael Peter Edson is a digital strategist working at the intersection of tech, culture, and democracy around the world. He was Co-founder of the newly emerging Museum for the United Nations – UN Live and formerly was the Director of Web and New Media Strategy at the Smithsonian Institution.

During 25 years at the Smithsonian (where his first job was cleaning Plexiglass for exhibitions) Michael worked on numerous award-winning projects and was involved in practically every aspect of technology and New Media for museums. In addition to leading the development of the Smithsonian’s first Web and New Media Strategy, first blog, and the first Alternative Reality Game to take place in a museum, Michael has been a forceful advocate for open content and the cultural commons.

Michael is a Salzburg Global Fellow; a Fellow at the Getty Leadership Institute; a Presidential Distinguished Fellow emeritus at the Council for Libraries and Information Resources (USA); and a juror for the MacArthur Foundation’s $100 million grant initiative — $100 & Change —and Cumulus Green, a global design competition for solutions to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

Michael Chairs the Europeana Foundation Advisory Board, is an O’Reilly Foo Camp alumni, and was named a “Tech Titan: person to watch” by Washingtonian magazine.

MuseumNext Green Museums Summit
Monday 28th March 2022

A ‘concept of digitality’ for cultural climate action
How should museums respond to the climate emergency? What tools and capabilities do we need to make a future that is joyous, sustainable, and just? In this provocative and inspiring talk, Michael Peter Edson draws from work on 5 continents to argue that museums are working with an outdated ‘concept of digitality’ that is unable to answer today’s most important questions about culture, society, and change. An updated concept of digitality — new tools, skills, and a new understanding of the digital public sphere — is required if the sector is to take consequential action in the face of cataclysmic change.

Full Schedule here