You are hereYvonne Hellin-Hobbs
Yvonne Hellin-Hobbs
Hi, I'm a new member so am not sure entirely how this all works yet but excited to find out. I am currently putting together a research proposal for an MA dissertation on museums and the web. I am interested in the Steve. museums project and wondered if anyone knew of any similar experiments taking place in England. I know a lot of museums are going down the digitising route, but are any allowing feedback from their audience? I'd appreciate any info anyone has. Other European sites would be of interest too. Thanks, and looking forward to some interesting conversations!
Hi Yvonne
I've left a few Twitter messages for you. In the meantime, here's a few off the top of my head directions. Regarding commenting and feedback - there are murmurings in UK museums about this, but not a lot of action.
(I'm now going to get lots of angry emails!)
But I think it's true to say that we're still wrestling with conflicting stakeholder groups (ie trustees) who seem to be stalling the development of a more shared culture web in the UK.
Creative Spaces - the NMOLP project you are aware of - is a brave attempt to get some sort of shared space off the ground. Some will inevitably disagree with that sentiment.
In my opinion, Nina Simon, Seb Chan, Shelley Bernstein and Linda Kelly are doing great work advocating for a more open, shared, cultural digital exchange.
In UK, look and see what's happening at the National Maritime Museum (fab Fiona Romeo and Dr Jim [@pekingspring] O'Donnell) and the Science Museum (@miaridge and her chums).
For me, best of all is the Museum2.0 diagram (on Nina Simon's website) that explores suggested new views of the hierarchy of museum participation. Enjoy the article - it ought to be required reading for digital museum students, I think.
Another good thing to do would be to seek out Susan Chun (one of the Steve Museum people) [@schun] at Indianapolis and get the latest from her - she's always open to new questions and will tell you what the next big thing is - on Twitter today she was talking about colour tagging, Steve and art collections!
You can read the archives or join at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email.shtml
What kinds of feedback are you interested in? Commenting on or tagging collections items, or more general user-generated content?
cheers, Mia
Mia sorry I hadn't checked in recently to see your comment. My subject is the constructivist concept for museums so yes I am interested in the tagging aspect and user interpretation of collections and how curators and others are embracing that or fighting it. I'm tied up with other stuff on my course at the moment and will start in earnest in may. I will be checking out your web site. I have interviewed Carolyn Royston of the NMOLP, I'm really trying to appraise how much user content museums are actually allowing with these projects. Also whether projects like steve.museum actually have any effect long term on the philosophical bias of the museums. I'm looking forward to the MW2009 papers to see what is happening out there. Do keep in touch. Cheers Yvonne
Yvonne,
Welcome! You can start your research by searching the Museums and the Web papers online from http://conference.archimuse.com/researchForum
You can also identify UK based people by searching the User List for country: United Kingdom. You have to be logged into the site to see / search user data.
You should also know about the UK Museums Computer Group, and its regular meetings.
/jt
j. trant archives & museum informatics www.archimuse.com
j. trant co-founder Museums and the Web | partner archives & museum informatics www.archimuse.com
Thanks Jennifer I have scanned the UK users and have contacted a few people. I think your site is going to be great for my research and to get to know people in the field.