Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

I remember in 2005 the Global Voices Summit used IRC as a backchannel -- no so much for people in the room, but for remote participation. They appointed a person in the room as the "Backchannel Advocate" and the speaker would ask them verbalize questions from the backchannel. Tags: backchannel.

Reflection 69

Reflection Conference Resource Arts 69

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

Our archeology did not aim to uncover the hidden voice of my grandmother, but instead to begin an ongoing practice of recreation. People dig in, exchanging treasures with one another like tactile memories, constituting the personal as part of a public commons.

Collaboration 36

Collaboration North Carolina Museum Artist 36

Museum 2.0

MAY 29, 2009

Two weeks ago, I conducted a participatory exhibit design workshop with staff at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. While most of the voices represented are positive about a "Smithsonian 2.0" I am an impatient person. Tags: participatory museum professional development.

Slides 20

Slides Process Video Open 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 20, 2008

This blog often analyzes how websites, designed spaces, even dogs promote participatory experiences among users. Today, we look inward for a how-to on one type of participatory design as applied to museum exhibits. Second, unlike viral web experiences, the in-person pointer is setting up a social interaction with the pointee.

Design 21

Design Participatory Social Museum 21

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 3, 2019

As I imagined a world without Nina Simon ’s Participatory Museum , I felt sad about all the visitors whose voices (and post-it note comments) weren’t honored. This work might have seemed easy, but I assure you, being a museum social person is exhausting. The work is 24/7 and the pay can be 7/11.

Museum 21

Museum Work Social Media History 21

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 20, 2009

To me, an open photo policy is a cornerstone of any institution that sees itself as a visitor-centered platform for participatory engagement. If your argument is based on visitor comfort and distraction, it should be backed up by visitor research, not personal impressions. Tags: marketing usercontent visitors.

Museum 54

Museum Photo Policy Open 54

Museum 2.0

MARCH 15, 2010

It's not the extent to which they are participatory. Small museums, which are most likely to cultivate local, distinctive voice and approaches, often have an inferiority complex. Especially when it comes to small museums with limited collections, a distinctive personality is often the best thing the institution has to offer.

Support 41

Support Museum St. Louis NSF 41

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 26, 2008

People already know how to leave voice and text messages and don't have to grapple with a comment system to do so. This was surprising given that participants were required to do a lot more to post a comment on the voicethread than on the blog: they had to register an account, have a microphone, and record their voice.

Museum 20

Museum Audio Participatory Phone 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 5, 2009

Visitor Co-Created Museum Experiences This session was a dream for me, one that brought together instigators of three participatory exhibit projects: MN150 (Kate Roberts), Click! learning to enter open, personal relationships with participants. So far, most participatory museum design projects are heavily guided by the institution.

Slides 20

Slides Participatory Museum Children 20

Museum 2.0

MARCH 27, 2009

There is no dissonance between the museum’s formal voice and laminate and the visitors’ pens and paper. It’s a low-tech example of the way people feel comfortable engaging with strangers when the interpersonal element is somewhat removed from your physical person. Projects design participatory museum. We’re all together, man.

Denver 21

Denver Museum Arts Remix 21

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 25, 2009

We have different conversations on the phone than we do in person or in internet chat rooms. If your goal is to encourage visitors to share complex, personal responses to questions, consider offering private booths and progressive questions for visitor responses. A lone "What do you think?"

Design 31

Design Goal Difference Platform 31

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 2, 2008

blog in 2006 as a personal learning exercise about "the ways that museums do and can evolve from 1.0 Small, quirky projects like the public art geocaching exhibition in Bellevue, WA , and inspiring surprises like the Living Library program and book-drop based tagging at the Hague. Tags: professional development.

Museum 20

Museum Voice Minnesota Participatory 20

Museum 2.0

MARCH 17, 2010

This is the second in a four-part series about writing The Participatory Museum. Several hundred people contributed their opinions, stories, suggestions, and edits to The Participatory Museum as it was written. Several said things like, "I was curious to see how this kind of participatory, collaborative approach would work in practice."

Participatory 32

Participatory Museum Process Experiment 32

Museum 2.0

MARCH 24, 2010

This is the third in a four-part series about writing The Participatory Museum. This post covers my personal process of encouraging--and harnessing--participation in the creation of The Participatory Museum. They completely erased any bias I had against working with volunteers I didn't know personally. (It

Participatory 33

Participatory Museum Process Experiment 33

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 23, 2008

But as Nina notes, they are doing research from this experiment about the role of independence and influence in a participatory experience. Here's some artists personal blogs that support their gallery sites where they sell their work -- A Planet Named Janet , Self VS Self , PaMdora's Box and Jen Lemen. Another theme of web2.o

Arts 74

Arts Social Media Examples Artist 74

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

Yesterday, I had the delightful opportunity to participate in the 3six5 project , a yearlong participatory project in which 365 people write 365 journal entries for every day of 2010. The posts are short (365 words or less) and are intended to give a personal snapshot of that individual's day. It showcases diverse voices.

Participatory 34

Participatory Project Museum Journal 34

Museum 2.0

MARCH 10, 2010

This is the first of a four-part series on the behind-the-scenes experience of writing The Participatory Museum. Overview: Stages of Development and Participation Types The Participatory Museum was written over a 15 month period that began in December of 2008. Tags: Book: The Participatory Museum.

Participatory 21

Participatory Museum Statistics Process 21

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 7, 2008

Yes, the Exploratorium is also present in these arenas as a "talker" (more on that next week), but it is just one voice among thousands. Tags: Book Discussion: Groundswell marketing participatory museum. to make recreation decisions, reading blogs to form an impression, watching videos to get my feel for a place--these Web 2.0

Museum 20

Museum Teen Second Life Discussion 20

Museum 2.0

JUNE 6, 2008

People who work with non-professionals on participatory projects often talk about finding "neutral" sites for meetings or meeting on their (the non-professionals') territory. We had to be honest with them (and express our own personal frustration at changes we could not control) for this to not be a disaster.

Virtual 21

Virtual Tech Lesson Develop 21

Museum 2.0

JUNE 2, 2010

This post recaps those sessions and other personal highlights of the conference. This session was participatory in several ways, including interactive music-making machines in the audience and half the time reserved for Q&A. Third, museums as a "place to be heard"--to share your voice, your stories, your interpretation.

Slides 22

Slides Museum Los Angeles San Jose 22

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 8, 2008

I have a lot of conversations with people that go like this: Other person: "So, you think that museums should let visitors control the museum experience?" Other person: "But doesn't that erode museums' authority?" In these conversations, people often say, "don't expert voices matter?" It lets you be the only expert with a voice.

Authoring 42

Authoring Platform Museum YouTube 42

Museum 2.0

MAY 15, 2008

But we're trying to model a kind of conversation with important people, powerful people, but particularly knowledgeable people, where we say--YOU can go up to a person with a lot of knowledge and ask him "why?," A novice alone on an exhibit panel could be as isolating as any other single exhibit voice, and potentially more annoying.

Conversation 20

Conversation Arts Museum Voice 20

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 7, 2009

Every time a colleague tells me her museum has just hired a "community person," a part of me cringes. And second, the communities they manage often become unhealthily centered on the managers' personalities and abilities, causing problems if those community managers ever choose to leave. Why does this happen in the first place?

Community 40

Community Management Museum Aggregator 40

Museum 2.0

MARCH 14, 2008

Is it just an exercise in giving visitors a fake voice? Grappling questions" are not merely interesting or even provocative, but one where the adversaries exist as much in our own hearts as in the voices of those on the opposite side of the aisle. and answer based on their personal feeling. It just requires different linkages.

Question 20

Question Museum Participatory Voice 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 25, 2008

And while I'll visit museums out of professional (and occasionally personal) interest, I don't do it because of a deep emotional connection. There are many parallels between free-choice learning and participatory design. BUT we won't acknowledge their voices and their meaning. Tags: Core Museum 2.0 I go on hikes.

Museum 29

Museum Alternative Education University 29

Museum 2.0

JUNE 29, 2010

You can join the conversation in the blog comments and add your own voice to the debate. The ideal of third places, that attracts we cultural heritage types, is a democratic space where civic life is built collaboratively and at a personal level. Tags: Book Discussion: The Great Good Place guestpost.

Place 30

Place Discussion Library Museum 30

Museum 2.0

MARCH 6, 2019

While I originally wrote this post to advocate for more participatory practice (i.e. The Future of Authority: Platform Power (first published October 2008) I have a lot of conversations with people that go like this: Other person: "So, you think that museums should let visitors control the museum experience?" Me: "Sort of." Each Web 2.0

Authoring 44

Authoring Share Museum YouTube 44

Museum 2.0

JULY 17, 2008

But there are other times when the message isn't simple, and in those cases, visitor voices can help strategically shape multi-dimensional exhibitions. It can be uncomfortable or downright limiting to declare yourself and your single voice the authority on a complex or multi-faceted topic. No more personal preference.

Interview 21

Interview Minnesota Museum History 21