If history is any measure, this is a great week for sharing ideas.

This week in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution in the US was established, as the US Congress ultimately decided the 1829 bequest of chemist James Smithson would support the creation of a museum, a library, and a program of research, publication, and collection in the sciences, arts, and history. Smithson’s decree, that his estate must be used for the “…the increase and diffusion of knowledge” today encompasses the largest group of museums and research centers in the world.

And the Smithsonian isn’t alone.

Also this week, in 1793, after 200 years as a royal fortress and palace, the French revolutionary government opened the Louvre as a public museum in Paris. Today, the Louvre is one of the world’s premiere art museums, with a collection of nearly 35 thousand inspirations, artworks, and artifacts spanning more than 100 centuries of civilization and culture.

Today, the Louvre and the Smithsonian serve us both as invaluable collections of humanity’s best ideas and boldest innovations — they serve us too as inspiration for our own libraries.

Museums matter because they give us a place to hold on to great ideas, to come back to them, to rediscover them and study them anew.

In our own lives we may not paint a Mona Lisa, or fly a Spirit of St Louis, but the ideas and information we create and share have every bit as much meaning and value to those around us. Preserving and sharing those facts, those details, and those opportunities uncovered gives others the chance to see them, revisit them, and expand upon them anew.

Most businesses already have informal libraries in place — wikis and social websites where team members can share thoughts and build on ideas. And today, video is rapidly expanding all that’s possible to capture and save — just by pressing “record,” today’s organizations can hold on to town halls and keynote addresses, to presentations and proposals, to education and development activities. And with a modern video platform like Panopto to create a centralized video library, the people who will value that information have ready access to search, watch, and share — and to revisit, expand, and innovate anew.

This week we saw more and more people taking advantage of the power of video to share ideas, present information, and show how the world works. And in the spirit of passing it on, these are just a few of the ideas shared this week with Panopto’s video presentation software.

How Much is Facebook Really Worth?
At the University of Bath, students planning to study business or management have the option to attend pre-sessional programs designed to help develop and improve their language and study skills before they begin a degree program. These lectures offer an introduction to the details of the concentration, and often focus on a specific interesting case study. This week, join Professor David Bence of the University of Bath School of Management, as he introduces many of the key concepts of accounting and financial strategy, using Facebook as an example.

Pre-Transplant Medical Evaluation of Kidney Donor and Patient
Conducting an organ transplant begins well before the surgery room lights go on. Dr Vanji Karthikeyan of the Henry Ford Medical Group shares this Grand Rounds lecture on how medical professionals should medically evaluate both a kidney donor and the organ recipient in order to ensure normal kidney function and reduce potential surgery complications.

Multimodality Monitoring in the ICU: A Review of Current Technologies
Medical technology continues to evolve and improve, meaning that especially in specialized treatment facilities like Neuro Intensive Care Units the tools that represent the state of the art are constantly changing. Join Dr Niral Patel for this look into the current state of NCU technologies, including what data these tools can monitor and provide and how medical professionals can best utilize each.

Introduction to Art: Mid and Late 20th Century American Art
Finally this week, as we celebrate the anniversary of the opening of the Louvre, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to share this flipped classroom lecture from UIU introducing students to some of the great American Art of the Mid and Late 20th Century. Created in an isolationist era, the art of this time is uniquely American in its inspiration — you’ll no doubt recognize some of the classics, including Grant Wood’s American Gothic and Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.

Try It For Yourself!

Panopto makes it easy for anyone, anywhere to record video presentations and share them online, both as live streaming webcasts and recorded on-demand video. To see how Panopto can help you share your ideas, contact our team for a free trial today.