Museums and the Web Day 2
Here I sit, end of day 2 of Museums and the Web. I could just say "my brain is fried" and crawl into bed, which would be very satisfying. But here I am, my favorite conference for expanding thinking about our work, and want to at least capture a few phrases and images before they slip away. So, looking through my notes:
- "Ecosystem": the title of the demo from the team at Museum Victoria (congrats on their award) was "the iOS Ecosystem", and it struck me we really are talking increasingly about an ecosystem of media in our work. Not just a web page, not just a Facebook page, but the ways they relate to each other. (Or don't relate — as Seb Chan noted, Facebook tends to be a "walled garden" and people tend not to click out on links)
- "Organizational change": any session having to do with organizational change was filled — it's not just the technology, but the organization. There's a natural tension here. Social media tends to be developed and fostered by people who are in a category that is new to the traditional hierarchy in museums (and "hierarchy" is a loaded word).
- "Radical trust": this phrase that I first heart at the AASLH conference emerges again as institutions grapple with the uncontrolled voices of their visitors.
- Marketing: Or, as Allegra Burnette from MOMA put it, "getting the word out," if marketing feels a bit tainted as a word. When I started in the field in the late 80's there was absolutely no connection between exhibits and marketing during the development of the exhibit. Marketing came after, by some other department. No longer the case. At all.
- "Explode the old model" as Peter Samis put it — things that used to be produced out of house are now being produce in a new case by case way with combination inhouse/out of house. A natural result of the development of social media tools which are best used inhouse.
OK. What did I miss? Fried and crawling into bed now.