Introducing our new Marketing Manager: Wiebe de Jager

Earlier this month, we welcomed Wiebe de Jager to Europeana in the role of Marketing Manager. In today's blog, Wiebe introduces himself...

For the past eight years, I have been publisher and director of Eburon Academic Publishers. During my time as a publisher, I developed a great interest in digital publishing, and in 2007 I started up eReaders.nl - a website about digital reading, attracting over 1.5 million users annually. Later on, I co-founded eLinea.nl, a ‘Spotify for newspaper and magazine articles’, which (re)launched on 24 September 2013. I also blog (in Dutch) for Wearable technology magazine.

My educational background is in technology (electronics and mechanical engineering) and business administration. My hobbies are writing/blogging, tinkering with computers and high-end audio, and photography. I am also a bit of a social media aficionado, you can follow me on Twitter at @wdejager or join my network on LinkedIn.

I think that there are many opportunities for further distributing Europeana’s content from the various partners in innovative and engaging ways. The diversity of the content you can find on Europeana is really amazing, and I can think of numerous applications that could make use of this content, both in commercial and non-profit contexts. I look forward to working with the network to help Europeana evolve from portal to platform, thereby creating a sustainable ecosystem for the digital dissemination of our cultural heritage.

The video above is a news item called 'Arnhem kan weer automatisch telefoneren' (1947). I like it because it perfectly displays how communication technology has evolved over the past decades. The switchboard and electronics your see on the still would now fit on a chip smaller than your fingernail. The impact of this kind of technology on society is enormous, and the speed of innovation only increases, so it will be interesting to see what will happen in the years ahead.