Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 4, 2007

Last week, I received an inquiry from Mary Maher, editor of Hand to Hand, a magazine put out by the Association of Children's Museums , about Museum 2.0. Why, Mary asked, were there no posts about children's museums on this site? Why aren't children's museums represented on Museum 2.0? stuff naturally.

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Children Museum Web Social Network 20

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

For years, I've been fascinated and a bit perplexed by the Elsewhere Collaborative , a thrift store turned artists' studio/living museum in Greensboro, North Carolina. By calling ourselves a museum, we respond to those cultural institutions that have separated practice from production, exhibition from process, and work from play.

Collaboration 36

Collaboration North Carolina Museum Artist 36

Museum 2.0

MARCH 30, 2010

Let's say you're a young person eager to break into museums. What's the fastest, most effective way to get employed? Over my first year in museums, I worked at five different institutions as an educator, exhibit builder, exhibit cleaner, art model, and whatever else I could find. I don't miss all-staff emails or office politics.

Work 46

Work Museum Model Professional 46

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 6, 2008

A few weeks ago, I learned about Scholastic Books' new series, The 39 Clues , which ties together a ten-book mystery with an online gaming environment. This problem is analagous to the repeat visit problem for museums. Museum visits, like book reading, can be an intense and wonderful experience. But the Times missed the boat.

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Museum Game Platform New York 23

Museum 2.0

MAY 26, 2009

On a recent trip to DC, an old friend showed me around a new exhibit at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), From Memory to Action: Meeting the Challenge of Genocide. The paper is perforated with one section for the promise, which visitors keep, and another section for a signature, which visitors leave at the museum.

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Pledge Museum Digital Indianapolis 23

Museum 2.0

MAY 9, 2007

In January, I interviewed Sibley about the potential use of virtual worlds and Second Life by museums, but in the four months since then, the virtual world platform--and the hype around it--has exploded. It seems that Second Life is both the closest and farthest thing from many museum professionals' minds. Collaborative Experience.

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Second Life Museum Life Virtual 20

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 18, 2008

This week marks one month of live activity for the Tech Virtual Museum Workshop , a collaborative, online platform for exhibit development. But museum folks, no matter how much we want to collaborate, don't move quickly. A month ago, I invited you to join this project. Now, a month tired-er, I still want to invite you.

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Museum Virtual Tech Second Life 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 12, 2009

About three months ago Beth Kanter wrote about the Crowdsourcing of Vision at the Smithsonian Museum. Many nuances and constraints have been applied to Surowiecki’s original ideas, and examples advanced wherein the ideas work more or less effectively. That's where this post about crowdsourcing came out of it!

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Aggregator Model Leadership Method 82

Nonprofit Tech for Good

APRIL 5, 2021

If you are a location-based nonprofit, such as a museum or zoo, then also add your address. Tag Partners and Corporate Sponsors. Partners and corporate sponsors are notified if they are tagged in your posts. Verified Badges. In addition, apply to get verified. Utilize Geotags. It helps build your location page.

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Practice Nonprofit Avatar Social Media 363

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 25, 2009

Answers will differ depending on who's asking, but they are also influenced by the designed environment in which questions are asked. The outcome of our conversations is dependent on the diversity of designed environments in which they occur. "Where were you last night?" If someone asked you that question, how would you answer?

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Design Goal Difference Platform 31

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 22, 2009

Elizabeth Merritt is the director of the Center for the Future of Museums , a new project of the American Association of Museums (AAM). When I was given the opportunity to found the Center for the Future of Museums (CFM) I had been working for nearly 10 years with Museum Assessment and Accreditation at AAM.

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Museum Game Lecture Model 22

Museum 2.0

JULY 21, 2009

I’ve often wondered why I’ve never seen a museum with a punch card system. But many large museum membership database systems are dismal at tracking members’ or visitors’ repeat attendance. But many large museum membership database systems are dismal at tracking members’ or visitors’ repeat attendance.

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System Museum Los Angeles Children 26

Museum 2.0

MARCH 8, 2010

This morning, in less than fifteen seconds, I saw live video of: a guy on the phone, lounging in front of his computer a guy taking a photo of me while ignoring simple questions a guy who used a mirror effect to look like an alien a penis The penis was the last straw. Tags: Talking to Strangers.

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Interaction Giving Museum Internet 26

Museum 2.0

JULY 22, 2008

A platform for museum staff to serve as facilitators of safe spaces for difficult conversations? The Living Library was conceived in Denmark in 2000 as a way to engage youth in dialogue about ending violence by encouraging people to meet their prejudices and fears in a safe, fun, facilitated environment. I think so.

Library 20

Library Model Museum Europe 20

Museum 2.0

APRIL 22, 2008

Why discuss gifting on Museum 2.0? One of my greatest interests is the "p articipatory museum," in which there is substantive, unfacilitated visitor-to-visitor interaction. When I heard the tollbooth story, I started thinking about gifting as a model for participatory experiences in museums. No, I'm not angling for a present.

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Gift Participatory Museum Model 23

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 8, 2007

One of the most obvious places to seek out this kind of experience—in a good way—is the museum. I’d love to find myself rapt, ogling some exhibit or artifact with no regard for the school groups and sound effects swarming around me. Why isn’t Al Green coming over the mental stereo in the museum? Tags: design.

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Public Museum Environment Arts 20

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 24, 2007

Pop quiz: How much does it cost to go a museum? Museums can range from free to about $30 for admission. But even more than this confusion, I believe museums suffer from a lack of consistent expectations when it comes to price and purchase options. So why can’t museums do it? How much for a family? How much for a student?

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Movie Museum Culture Free 20

Museum 2.0

JUNE 25, 2009

In this guest post, Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology at the Denver Art Museum, shares his process for developing interactive technologies to extend familiar experiences in art museums. You may remember the Denver Art Museum from this post about their newest (highly interactive) exhibit space, Side Trip.

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Experiment Technology Denver Artist 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 28, 2008

Why should museums care about customer support? While I’ve never heard of a museum with such a heavy call volume that they’ve outsourced their front desk to Bangalore, many museums, small and large, suffer at the phones. The reason museums resist peer-to-peer visitor support is fear of erroneous and unvetted information.

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Support Museum Chapter Yahoo 20

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 30, 2007

This week, we're looking at the first section, Talking Back and Talking Together , which features comment boards, talk-back walls, and discussion forums at a variety of museums. At the Boston Museum of Science's video kiosk on wind power, 3/4 of people were most interested in making their own video (as opposed to watching others).

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Voice Museum Lesson Pledge 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 17, 2007

The interview includes stories about some of his projects, and a delving into questions about what makes viral content compelling, how to draw people into an uncomfortable environment, and ways that art--or museum content--can become more pervasive by being hidden in the corners of life. What do you think has made you successful?

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Discussion Game Oklahoma Museum 20

Museum 2.0

JULY 1, 2010

Then I received this commentary from Elaine Heumann Gurian, a museum hero of mine who has been following the book club--and I had to include it. I had became convinced (around 1996) that there was something important about museums as socializing spaces that should be further explored. I was excited.

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Museum Place Discussion Argentina 26

Museum 2.0

JUNE 8, 2007

Yesterday, I turned in my keys and said goodbye to the Spy Museum and to Operation Spy, the narrative, immersive game experience I've been developing/building over the last two years. Adventure is a slice of a large museum, and it's been closed to the public for the last few years (only available to be rented for special events).

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Museum Game Indiana Facilitation 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 23, 2007

Museum membership is not nearly as healthy as that of Weight Watchers. Museum members aren't ideological, like members of a political party or a movement. Today's museum members are mostly "value" members, people who join based on a calculation of savings in admissions fees over a number of yearly visits.

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Museum Model Group Benefit 27

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 30, 2008

but still, a programming environment. More generally, ScratchR relies on the community to largely self-police via the Flag as Inappropriate tag. Again, the ScratchR team is promoting use of Scratch and community-building around the programming environment. Tags: Technology Tools Worth Checking Out web2.0 Does it work?

Education 20

Education Generation Remix Community 20

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 26, 2009

This exhibition uses RFID tags to allow visitors to save their work throughout the space--something that many institutions have been experimenting with for almost ten years now. The personal webpage has many adherents, and some institutions, like The Tech Museum in San Jose, have been offering them for almost a decade.

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Personal Museum Pledge San Jose 34

Museum 2.0

MARCH 2, 2009

Many museums are experimenting with “back channel” platforms that allow visitors and staff to chat and share content while onsite at the museum. I noted three distinct, valuable uses of back channels at WebWise: To communicate socially in an environment that does not permit open dialogue. 380 posts on Twitter by about 40 users.

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Channel Museum Conference Education 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 18, 2008

In many museums, comment cards are currently the most "participatory" part of the visitor experience. In other words, comment cards aren't effectively organized for use. These services could be a powerful, cheap alternative to comment cards--especially those that are focused towards making suggestions about the museum.

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Comment Tools Museum Conversation 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 14, 2008

Many museums have jumped into the middle level—producing their own content—without starting with commenting. Consider the path of the Bay Area Discovery Museum. Jennifer Caleshu, their director of communication, is a museum talker extraordinaire. Both are museum-run forums for visitors to post their own content and opinions.

Museum 20

Museum San Francisco Myspace Comment 20

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 15, 2008

Today, we take a page from Wallace Stevens and look at some alternative ways to structure museum admissions and pricing. What if visitors could stream into the museum, with the expectation that at some point they would encounter a staff member who could facilitate the purchase of admission? Get rid of the admissions desk.

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Museum Movie Local Model 28

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 6, 2007

Robert Garfinkle of the Science Museum of Minnesota commented at ASTC that the cacophony of voices from videos in the exhibition RACE make people feel more comfortable talking about the issues the exhibition raises, since they are in the environment of other people's words. The effect is to let you watch yourself as you speak.

Voice 20

Voice Museum Vietnam Music 20

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 19, 2008

Every museum has a number for its operating cost per visitor. Most museums don't strategically set this number--too many operating costs are fixed by building needs--but they can use it to assess how expensive each visitor interaction is and evaluate the efficacy of programs. So where do online initiatives fit in?

Virtual 20

Virtual Museum North Carolina Evaluation 20