Museum 2.0

APRIL 2, 2014

Beck''s project is unusual because he deliberately resurrected a mostly-defunct participatory platform: sheet music for popular songs. In his thoughtful preface to this project, I reconnected with five lessons I''ve learned from participatory projects in museums and cultural sites. Constrain the input, free the output.

Participatory 52

Participatory Arts Music Learning 52

Museum 2.0

APRIL 28, 2009

On Friday, I offered a participatory design workshop for Seattle-area museum professionals ( slides here ). We concluded by sharing the tough questions each of us struggles with in applying participatory design techniques to museum practice. I love this question. First, what do the right questions look like?

Technique 52

Technique Design Question Develop 52

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Last month, the Irvine Foundation put out a new report, Getting In On the Act , about participatory arts practice and new frameworks for audience engagement. It is framed as a kind of study guide; pop-outs provide questions that tease out opportunities and tensions in the narrative.

Participatory 50

Participatory Arts Report Case Study 50

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

This post shares some of the most interesting questions I''ve heard throughout these experiences. Feel free to add your own questions and answers in the comments! BROAD QUESTIONS ABOUT AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION 1. Are there certain kinds of institutions that are more well-suited for participatory techniques than others?

Museum 45

Museum Question Participatory Evaluation 45

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 3, 2018

It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. This way of working requires a different, more participatory leadership model and mindset that Allison Fine and I first wrote about in The Networked Nonprofit and others have written about called “networked leadership.” These are key questions of our times.

Participatory 116

Participatory Leadership Model Skills 116

Museum 2.0

APRIL 25, 2011

This post shares some of the most interesting questions I've heard throughout these experiences. Feel free to add your own questions and answers in the comments! BROAD QUESTIONS ABOUT AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION 1. Are there certain kinds of institutions that are more well-suited for participatory techniques than others?

Question 49

Question Participatory Museum Evaluation 49

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 18, 2011

We decided to approach the label-writing for these boards in a participatory way. We blatantly borrowed the brilliant technique the San Diego Museum of Natural History used to write labels based on visitors’ questions. Visitors have gone to town, writing both basic questions (“who made them?” “who how old are they?")

Participatory 48

Participatory San Diego Museum History 48

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Going beyond content delivery, I also use a lot of participatory and hands-on learning techniques to help students gain a deeper understanding. As part of our class, students composed a question and recorded a video related to their area of study and sent it off to Davos. Here’s how they combined the videos.

Learning 84

Learning Classroom Classes Student 84

Museum 2.0

MARCH 4, 2015

This week marks five years since the book The Participatory Museum was first released. Across the museum field, the questions about visitor participation have gone from "what?" I thought the pinnacle of participatory practice was an exhibit that could inspire collective visitor action without facilitation. and "why?" to "how?".

Participatory 20

Participatory Museum Empowerment Facilitation 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 7, 2014

Then I build out the content and discussion questions. In reviewing the data and themes from the audience input, some terrific questions about engagement popped out: How can we become better at using social media so that our channels experience more engagement and convert people to get involved? How can we get people to talk to us?

Social Media 101

Social Media Headline Media Social 101

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JULY 23, 2014

As you can see from the schedule overview , this is more of a participatory event versus the traditional conference with powerpoints and panelists. Of course that particular question will change, morph, and multiply based on the earlier session, but it will provide a rich framework for generating many useful and practical ideas.

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Registration Leadership Impact Change 128

Museum 2.0

MARCH 3, 2011

In 2009 , students built a participatory exhibit from scratch. Thirteen students produced three projects that layered participatory activities onto an exhibition of artwork from the permanent collection of the Henry Art Gallery. This winter, I once again taught a graduate class in the University of Washington's Museology program.

Participatory 51

Participatory Arts Audience Museum 51

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

NOVEMBER 3, 2015

It is always challenge to use participatory techniques when your participants are not native English speakers and you don’t speak the language. You have to think of your interpreters as extensions of your facilitation techniques. We allowed people to move from group to group once they go their questions answered.

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Facilitation Training Train International 50

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

OCTOBER 26, 2006

The book includes a "Connected Quiz, a set of reflective questions that can help an activist think about how well they or their organization is connecting with others -- something to think about before jumping into the tools. Expressions (media creation, mashups, etc). Circulations - shaping the flow of media (e.g. Performance ???

Participatory 50

Participatory Teen Vlog Mashup 50

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MARCH 1, 2016

This is a session where you’ll be an active participant in your learning and will leave ready to apply lots of practical tips and techniques that will give your trainings more impact. Group Polling Techniques and Tools. Facilitation Methods and Techniques. Design Thinking As Instructional Technique. Learning Styles.

Training 50

Training Train San Jose Instructional Design 50

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 3, 2014

I saw how participatory techniques were working in diverse museums around the world. Here are two observations about visitor participation: Participatory activities invite people to engage in new ways that may disrupt traditional norms of interaction. In this frame, any kind of participatory activity could work, anywhere.

Culture 49

Culture Participatory New Zealand Museum 49

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 15, 2012

This design was a participatory process and was intended to provide an opportunity for deep reflective process. Here’s a few facilitation techniques that I learned from documenting the session. Kalyani also facilitated a participatory curriculum development process using different techniques. Fish Bowl Exericse.

Rwanda 113

Rwanda Social Media Training Train 113

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JANUARY 5, 2018

1) Review the Year: For as long as I can remember, I have kept an annual professional journal, using a variation of bullet journal technique. This year I used a new tool recommended by colleague Alexandra Samuel, the “ Year Compass, a free downloadable booklet that provides a set of structured reflection questions.

Professional 0

Professional Finland Journal Reflection 0

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 15, 2009

Over the past year, I've noticed a strange trend in the calls I receive about upcoming participatory museum projects: the majority of them are being planned for teen audiences. Why are teens over-represented in participatory projects? The first of these reasons is practical.

Teen 24

Teen Participatory Experiment Museum 24

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

The specific practice skills include these three: Ask empowering questions. Ask Good Questions. As you can see from the above list, leaders that have solid listening skills know how to ask good questions that inspire people to think in new ways, expand their vision, and enable them to contribute more to a team or project.

Skills 50

Skills Build Technique Language 50

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 16, 2010

Read about the Human Library in chapter 3 of The Participatory Museum by searching that term here.) Generally, offering people balloons shaped like question marks to carry if they would like to talk about questions about the art. Tags: design participatory museum. Where are the social hotspots in your institution?

Museum 41

Museum Technique Taiwan Social 41

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 26, 2015

I also wanted to experiment with translating some facilitation techniques I use for face-to-face meetings (like sticky note facilitation ) to virtual meetings. Designing A Participatory Hook for a Virtual Meeting. For this meeting, we asked two questions: What makes a meeting a good, productive use of your time?

Facilitation 50

Facilitation Virtual Arts Participatory 50

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 19, 2015

So having a few brainstorming facilitation techniques to use with your team, is useful. My question, what is the first step you can take towards building this continuous improvement process in your organization? What tools, techniques, or work flows work for you? It starts with ideas and brainstorming.

Social Media 50

Social Media San Antonio Content Strategy 50

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

The Leading Change Summit was more intimate (several hundred people), participatory and interactive, intense, and stimulating. That’s hard if deadlines are looming, but essential to have a session to explore questions such as: What is your facilitation style and philosophy? I’ve written about these techniques here ).

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Reflection NTEN Change Facilitation 124

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JULY 14, 2010

Clay’s book talks about the implications of a society shifting from passive consumption of media to creators of media or being participatory. How much of that social change are we going to grasp?&# (That is a question that the Networked Nonprofit asks.). The question is what we’ll do with those opportunities.

Participatory 95

Participatory Lesson Social Media Review 95

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 11, 2012

For years, I'd give talks about community participation in museums and cultural institutions, and I'd always get the inevitable question: "but what value does this really have when it comes to dollars and cents?" And the next time someone questions the benefits of letting audiences actively participate, send them to Santa Cruz.

Audience 47

Audience Museum Participatory History 47

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 31, 2011

This leads to another question: How can you transform anecdotes into useful data? Last week at the Packard Foundation, I participated in a conversation with Peter Laugharn, the Executive Director of Firelight Foundation about participatory learning agendas.

Story 121

Story Data Analysis Measure 121

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SEPTEMBER 29, 2015

I was thrilled to work with the Brainerd Foundation staff to help design and facilitate a design lab using techniques based on Luma Institute methods earlier this month. In some ways, a design lab can be thought of as “participatory research and testing.”. Why Use One?

Design 50

Design Strategy Facilitation Advocacy 50

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

The convening used participatory methods to identify topics for small group conversations related to the theme and was expertly facilitated by Allen Gunn from Aspiration. ( I wrote a reflection last week about the facilitation techniques here ). We discussed some of the social media monitoring tools.

Social Media 100

Social Media Channel Data Media 100

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

OCTOBER 30, 2009

One of the tools for better understanding networks are visual diagnostics and mapping techniques. Key is a participatory development process. This is part 1 of a series of social networking analysis techniques. This another area of Steve's interest and expertise.

Map 86

Map System Profit Guatemala 86

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 27, 2015

Start by focusing your assessment on the outcomes that your app or platform is most directly designed to produce (such as increased trust between neighbors or resident contributions to a specific local decision-making process) rather than on very broad overarching goals like “strengthening participatory democracy.”

Metrics 50

Metrics Method Tech Government 50

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

What does the word "participatory" mean to you? This isn't just a rhetorical question. The various definitions of participatory projects can lead to confusion and misunderstandings. The scientists control the process, steer the data collection, and analyze the results.

Public 36

Public Research Participatory Report 36

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

NOVEMBER 14, 2007

We talked about Cambodia and one of the questions was (an excellent one), what do teachers need to think about if they are doing an over the web collaborative project with a classroom in the developing world. The question forced me to reflect on my experience last summer. How do you know if a charity is legit?

Reflection 50

Reflection Conversation Develop Cambodia 50

Museum 2.0

MAY 2, 2012

It’s been a wild and wonderful year—without question, my most challenging and stimulating yet. We went through a dramatic financial turnaround and redefined our relationship with our community through a series of experimental participatory projects and new programmatic approaches. It is incredibly rewarding work. I feel lucky.

Museum 55

Museum Director Participatory Culture 55

NTEN

OCTOBER 12, 2011

This leads to another question: How can you transform anecdotes into useful data? Last week at the Packard Foundation, I participated in a conversation with Peter Laugharn, the Executive Director of Firelight Foundation , about participatory learning agendas.

Story 74

Story Data Analysis Structure 74

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

Recently, I was giving a presentation about participatory techniques at an art museum, when a staff member raised her hand and asked, "Did you have to look really hard to find examples from art museums? I was surprised by her question. Aren't art museums less open to participation than other kinds of museums?"

Museum 29

Museum Difference Participatory History 29

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 30, 2013

My biggest question for these social psychologists is this: how do we apply their lessons to our work? We have some strategies for tackling this: convening diverse content advisors, incorporating anti-bias educational approaches in our design, developing participatory opportunities for visitors to connect past to present.

Measure 47

Measure Arts People Museum 47