2009 MW and AAM Conferences

Report to MMA Marketing Task Force

MW

• Museums and the Web• “ … Museums have much to learn from each other, and from developers

using the Web … To facilitate this exchange of information, Archives & Museum Informatics organises an annual international conference devoted exclusively to Museums and the Web.“

– Largest international conference devoted to the exploration of art, science, natural and cultural heritage on-line. • Held every spring since 1997. Full programs and full papers from past

conferences remain available: • http://www.archimuse.com/mw2009/• Presenters must submit papers for peer review and selection

• Indianapolis: Conference Highlights» Collaboration» Cloud computing» Data mining» Open source website software» Interface design» Project briefings and professional forums» APIs» Handheld devices» Crit room (reviewing museum websites)

Plenary Address: Max Anderson

• Stressed the need for museums to be transparent and honest to maintain the level of trust that the public has for us.

– Museums should use their websites to allow online visitors to peak behind the scenes at what goes on at a museum, who works there, what do they do, how do they make decisions about exhibitions, how do they hang paintings, what is conservation, etc.

Plenary Address: Max Anderson

– Giving online visitors a view behind the scenes will engender trust, curiosity, and longer-term commitment to a museum by its public.

– Video of Max’s address is available online: • http://www.artbabble.org/video/moving-virtual-viscera

l-maxwell-l-andersons-plenary-address-museums-and-web-2009

It’s Time We Met

• Considerable buzz regarding It’s Time We Met

• Attendees asking about the Metropolitan’s:– use of social media sites like Flickr and Twitter– photography policies and the public domain– plans to continue using social media to reach out

to new audiences

It’s Time We Met

• Many museums considering similar initiatives– looking to the Metropolitan as a leader in thinking

this through and making it work effectively– Likely to see several similar campaigns soon

Opening the Doors

• In general, museums expressed:– interest in expanding their adoption of social

media sites (Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to reach new audiences and create a “buzz” that will lead to museum visits

– interest in allowing sister institutions to access their data (primarily collection records) openly via APIs, akin to the recent efforts at the Brooklyn Museum

Handheld Devices

• The Metropolitan’s Koven Smith presented on the future of handheld devices.

• In general, museums slow to embrace the technology because of entrenched content creation workflows

• You can see his accepted paper for the session on the future of handhelds here: http://www.archimuse.com/mw2009/papers/smith/smith.html

Best of the Web Awards

• Douglas Hegley: one of 17 judges, and emcee for the awards ceremony at the conference

• celebration of online successes during the past year.

Best of the Web Awards

• The overall winner was Brooklyn Museum, for their three-pronged approach of: – (1) Collection – with API connection to object info– (2) Posse – their network of social taggers– (3) Click! A Crowd Curated Exhibition – in which

the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ chose photographs to be mounted in an actual museum exhibition

Best of the Web Awards

• Categories and winners:– On-line Exhibition: Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition– Educational Site: Tate Kids– Museum Professionals Site: CODART.nl– On-line Community or Service: Brooklyn Museum Collection, Posse, and Tag! You are It!

– Podcast (Audio / Video): RWM (Radio web MACBA)– Innovative or Experimental Site: My Yard Our Message– Research Site: Museum of Jewish Heritage Online Collection– Small Museum: Museum 2.0 blog– People’s Choice: Video Active

– Full info about the Best of the Web and all of the nominated sites and the winners can be found here: http://www.archimuse.com/mw2009/best/index.html

AAM

• American Association of Museums– http://www.aam-us.org/

• 2009 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia

• Theme: “The Museum Experiment”

spark

Museo-Jeopardy

• Douglas Hegley (Session Chair)

• Museo-Jeopardy: Are you Smarter than a Museum Technologist?

• Museo-Jeopardy Game

• Session themes:– social media tools & how to make them effective.– Particular questions about how to facilitate the

relationship between IT and PR within an organization.• Likely to see some follow-up to this at future conferences.

MUSE Awards

• Created by the Media and Technology SPC– 20th anniversary– 62 judges, 250 applicants, 47 winners

2009 MUSE Awards at MAT SPC

2009 MUSE Awards• Categories and Gold Medal winners:

– Audio and Visual Tours: GOLD MauerGuide/Berlin Wall Guide (Antenna Audio)– Community: GOLD Total Solar Eclipse: Live from China (The Exploratorium)– Games: GOLD Waltee’s Quest: The Case of the Lost Art (The Walters Art Museum)– Interactive Kiosks: GOLD Grammy Museum Interactives– Interpretive Interactive Installations: GOLD Green Community Interactives (Nat’l Bldg

Mus.)– Multimedia Installations: GOLD Patriots Hall of Fame Pylons (The Hall at Patriot Place)– Online Presence: GOLD ArtBabble (Indianapolis Museum of Art)– Podcasts: GOLD General Collection Podcasts for George Eastman House– Public Relations & Development: GOLD Road Trip: The Giant Artichoke (San Jose Mus. Of

Art)– Teaching and Outreach: GOLD Flashpoint: 1908-2008, Springfield Illinois Race Riot

(Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum)– Video: GOLD Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian (Smithsonian National Museum of the

American Indian)– Jim Blackaby Ingenuity Award: Flashpoint: 1908-2008, Springfield Illinois Race Riot

NMC Horizon Report for Museums

• New Media Consortium• Final publication still in process, early info release:

– 1 year– Collection Management Systems, Digital Asset Management Systems, Content

Management Systems– Mobile Devices

– 2-3 years– Geolocation– Alternative Interaction Devices

– 4-5 years– Open Content / Open Educational Resources– Multi-language Capabilities

– http://horizon.nmc.org/museum/Main_Page

“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future” – Niels Bohr

Questions?