"One Small Step..."

Click on the title and go to a site called "We Choose the Moon" -- a presentation on the Apollo 11 mission. This site was created for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Great animation, nice integration of mission information and interactive photo, video and JFK galleries. The mission is divided into 11 parts, and features the authentic sound of Mission Control communicating with the astronauts under the animation.

Smart Phone Scavenger Hunts

Greg Snyder and Myles Nye, aka the Wise Guys, operate a whole range of site-specific “scavenger hunt” style games in the Los Angeles area. Many of these games involve challenges that incorporate the use of smart phone (iPhone or Blackberry) QR tag-reading apps such at Neo Reader or BeeTagg. Check out their site.

Bad Projector Karma

1,

I’m so sorry I offended you yesterday. As the session organizer, I did all of the normal stuff you like. I assembled the participants in the room before the session. We connected all of the equipment ahead of time and tested it. We sat in a circle. We sang the “What Could Possibly Go Wrong” song as we ate lunch at the foot of the projection screen. All the normal stuff, right?

So what happened? Why did you have let 0 show up. I know you’re sensitive, but when you pout, you also get surly. You know 0 means a one-way ticket to equipment crash-ville. Don’t think I don’t know who caused that projector to overheat again and again.

I know calling the session, The Emerging Digital Museum, was like ringing a dinner bell for 0, but did you have toy with me? You’re the only thing between me and 0. You’re my only protection, so I can’t just blame 0 can I?

Look, I don’t want to blow this out of proportion. I am sorry for whatever I did or said. We’ve done a lot of great work together, but the truth is you’re just going have to thicken your skin. Yesterday was just the tip of the iceberg. This conversation is going to continue and people are going to say things that you don’t like.

But that’s no excuse to serve them up on a platter for 0. You know that part of you just wanted to see me run around that room like a crazy person. I guess it was kind of funny.

Anyway, do you want to go to that Apple store this weekend? Do you think the new 15-inch MacBook Pro would make me look fat?

Mark

Final AAM Questions

These are the final questions used to start the conversation at the Emerging Digital Museum session at AAM on Sunday, May 3, 2009:

How do we define the concept of the emerging digital museum?

Can we adapt traditional museum content development techniques to meet the needs of our changing audience?

How will recent participatory, contributory and collective trends be capitalized on by museums?

How will we use web 2.0 and 3.0 to link physical spaces to virtual communities and worlds?

What trends in formal education will influence how we plan future museum experiences?

Is mobile access to information making the world more museum-like?

How will the emerging digital museum change staffing needs for museums?

Will museums in the near future become oases away from the hyper-linked world around us?

What Does Shane Battier Have To Do With Museums??

Shane Battier plays basketball for the Houston Rockets. He “is widely regarded inside the N.B.A. as, at best, a replaceable cog in a machine driven by superstars.” His scoring average is nothing special, nor are his other stats. Yet according to the New York Times Magazine article (click title of this post), Shane Battier might be as valuable to the Rockets as Yao Ming. He should be an All-Star. Why? The author, Michael “Moneyball” Lewis says...

“When he is on the court, his teammates get better, often a lot better, and his opponents get worse — often a lot worse. He may not grab huge numbers of rebounds, but he has an uncanny ability to improve his teammates’ rebounding. He doesn’t shoot much, but when he does, he takes only the most efficient shots. He also has a knack for getting the ball to teammates who are in a position to do the same, and he commits few turnovers. On defense, although he routinely guards the N.B.A.’s most prolific scorers, he significantly reduces their shooting percentages. At the same time he somehow improves the defensive efficiency of his teammates — probably...by helping them out in all sorts of subtle ways.”

Battier’s problem is that, until very recently, NBA teams have had no interest in measuring what the author calls “the right things” -- the intangibles that produce victory.

So what does this have to do with “The Emerging Digital Museum”? What if....museums could develop an entirely new way of measuring their worth to the community, and these numbers could be used for fundraising and promotional purposes? For example...

• # of guests who developed an enduring (lifetime) interest in the subject because of a museum visit.

• # of guests who shifted career goals because of a museum visit -- perhaps becoming a teacher, and influencing the lives of thousands of young people

• # of people who decided to move to a community because it boasted a such a great museum

• # of guests who formed life-changing friendships, meeting other people as enthusiastic about the museum as they were.

If all this sounds a big silly, so did the ramblings of the brilliant iconoclast Bill James when he began (self) publishing his “Baseball Abstract” back in the early 1980’s. When Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane began using James’s stats, Beane's Oakland team (30 million dollar payroll) often equaled or bettered the New York Yankees (180 million dollar payroll).

The digital world allows museums to measure guest interest in new ways (exhibit visits, time in museum, website hits, Facebook links, blogpost chatter, etc.) Is your museum the “Shane Battier” of the museum world? What statistics could prove that?

What "Digital Natives" Want In A Museum

A “digital native” is someone who has never known a world without networked computers, 279 channels of cable television, video games and text-ready cell phones. And -- I would argue -- one thing digital natives want in a museum is to “go deeper” -- to experience the meaning of exhibits and artifacts, as revealed in stories.

Last week Mark Hayward shared a story about the wildly successful “Titanic: The Exhibition” at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. More than 850,000 guests experienced this breakthrough event. Why was it so successful? Perhaps because people brought two sets of stories to the exhibit -- what happened aboard the actual ship, and what happened in the recent smash hit movie. The Titanic attraction satisfied a public hunger to remember both sets of stories, and to share them with friends and family members.

What if the Smithsonian had brought a modern “digital native” approach to their exhibition of the Enola Gay? The Smithsonian ran into a buzzsaw of criticism as it was about to put the Enola Gay fuselage on display as part of an exhibit, “The Crossroads: The End of World War II, the Atomic Bomb and the Cold War.” Groups like the American Legion and the Air Force Association objected to the sympathetic portrayal of Japanese casualties as opposed to the role the atomic bomb had in ending the war. Historians defended the exhibit, but in the end it was canceled. Today the Enola Gay is a major permanent exhibit at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum, with a purposely bland summary of technical data and virtually no history.

I would suggest that, in the 21st century museum, curators will welcome the “fight” (i.e. struggle to define historical meaning) the Smithsonian is evading. How can guests learn the meaning of what happened at Hiroshima on November 6, 1945 unless they can see it from all sides, and every perspective?

My understanding of those events is shaded by the stories my mother told me. She heard about the atomic bomb on the radio. She immediately knew two things. One, her husband (my father) would not be sent to Japan to fight (and possibly be killed) in a land-based invasion of Japan. Two, the viability of the human race had become more tenuous because of the unfathomable killing power of this amazing weapon.

Imagine an Enola Gay exhibit that included informed, thought-provoking input from the Air Force Association, Hiroshima survivors, military experts, American and Japanese historians, young people who have grown up in the shadow of terrifying super weapons...and my mother.

Might even be another “Titanic.”

"Indian Museum Will Put Entire Collection Online"

First some facts from the (clickable) Washington Post article above, then some questions.

FACTS:
• The National Museum of the American Indian has 800,000 objects in its collection. It currently displays about 1% of them.
• In four years, all 800,000 objects will be available to the public in its "Fourth Museum" (its website)
• The Museum will not only describe the objects. It will also describe how the object became part of the collection (as per requests from the public).
• The Museum web interface will allow people to contribute information about objects, increasing their "story power."
• Putting the collection online will allow millions of native peoples who will never visit the physical museum itself to discover and enjoy its riches.

QUESTIONS:
• What is a 21st century museum? Is it a place, or an experience?
• How would putting your entire collection online change your museum?
• What happens when visitors become participants in your curatorial process?