by Diane Zeigler and Isabelle Lutterodt, Dept of Museum Studies, University of Leicester
UK Museums and the Web is a low-cost Museum ICT conference organised by the Museums Computer Group held at Leicester University each year. For the last three years the conference has been sponsored by 24 Hour Museum. Each year, around 100 participants from around the UK museum and gallery web sector attend, from tech staff and developers through web writers to decision makers and funders.
2007 keynote speaker Sebastian Chan, from Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, was already planning to be in Canada working with museums there and generously agreed to come over to the UK for UKMW 07, combining it with some in London with National museums.
Seb explored the uses of social tagging as a way of bridging the semantic gap and increasing audience engagement with online collections. Social tagging allows his team to not only provide a more accessible museum resource, but track and change the website in accordance with the most popular searches.
Six months after social tagging was launched at Powerhouse, there was a 55 percent increase in the number of users who accessed the collection through the website.
Remarkably, the project was completed by four members of staff in their spare time. Seb stressed the importance of balancing daily duties with more experimental and innovative undertakings and attributes the success of social tagging to its unveiling to the public at its early stages of development as they received constant feedback throughout its conception.
Our second keynote speaker was Michael Twidale, University of Illinois, who had attracted lots of attention presenting with Paul Marty at Museums and the Web in San Francisco in April.
“Second Life is not a game,” stated Twidale at the start of his fascinating talk. Second Life is not really used for gaming, but more precisely, as a medium for constructing experiences. Because museums are being created in this format, Twidale urged museum professionals to see what is being developed and possibly use Second Life as a tool for collaboration.
He stressed that museums should not use technology because it is there, but because it can be used to effectively achieve objectives or solve real problems. The Exploratorium (San Francisco) was noted for their conversion of their physical exhibitions onto the Second Life format.
Nick Poole put minds at ease with his session, The Ethical Web, regarding the legal implications of the Web 2.0. According to Nick, there is almost no cultural precedent for this new environment, which makes some in the museum world uneasy.
He suggested museums should continue to move forward by balancing the risk of legal, economic, reputation and operational ramifications, as the possible outcomes and uses of Web 2.0 are worth the risk.
The role of the museum as moderator of user-generated content was discussed in regards to the limited protection for site owners whose users upload material which infringes copyright. Poole saw Web 2.0 as creating a common-sense environment where the user understands the museum is exposed and the user respects this relationship.
From the floor, audience members added that radical trust is deeply ingrained in museum culture already and should be extended to Web 2.0. Journalism and publishing ideals were paralleled to the museum as these professionals know just where the ethical line is and how to tip toe up to it. A watchful eye, which is knowledgeable of these issues, could be a valuable tool for museums.
Following on from Nick Poole, Alex Whitfield from the British Library outlined steps taken at the library to ensure their online exhibition, Sacred, about treasured religious objects was responsible in cultural, legal and moral terms.
Alex showed some sumptuous slides and revealed intricate solutions found by the BL web team when they found that religious concerns would preclude them from displaying certain sacred images online.
In ‘The Rewired Web’ Jon Pratty, Editor, 24 Hour Museum, suggested taking a holistic approach to issues regarding technology. As was a theme throughout the day, first identifying a challenge in the museum field and then formulating the technology to tackle it rather than being focused on the latest advancements for innovation sake was the preferred application of technology.
Looking for themes and key trends can be helpful in effectively utilising technology. Similarly, Paul Shabajee from HP Labs showed a case study applying the semantic web to enrich resources and collate multiple data sources with metadata spread across the web for a teachers’ resource in Singapore. He found educators were most excited about the subject specific ontology incorporated into the programme and fondly called it a “mini encyclopaedia.”
Q: What happens when web people/programmers from museums spend a day together? A: A lot of mashed-up stuff. In The Mashed-up Web, Mike Ellis from the Science Museum, London, reviewed the previous day where, during ‘the Mashed-up Museum’ invited participants from UK museum web departments and private sector software developers spent seven hours mashing data and brainstorming ideas. Many interesting concepts surfaced exploring how technology could be utilized to shape the users’ online experience.
The range of mash-ups created demonstrated the enormous creative thinking of the people present once they are given an opportunity (ie. time!) to get away from their email inbox and play. Several examples of mash-ups were shown including ones generated the day before, with extra suggestions with the benefit of hindsight from Mike.
What does it mean for a website to be accessible? Moreover, with all the undeniably cool web 2.0 applications now possible, how can museums make everything accessible to all users? In The Accessible Web, Brian Kelly from Bath-based UK Web Focus raised questions regarding what accessibility means and how museums can meet new standards without compromising on concept, design aesthetics or technology.
Using the Tanogram as a metaphor, Kelly suggested that there are multiple solutions for any given problem. The audience was encouraged to think broadly when trying to find ways to make their website accessible in spite of limitations due to funding or lack of staff.
UKMW 07 was a day packed with new insights and new ideas. "The Mashed Up Museum pre-conference day was an interesting and creative new direction for the Museums Computer Group, and what happens next with this hothouse approach to idea generation will be really interesting," said Jon Pratty, Editor of the 24 Hour Museum, one of the MCG's UKMW 07 organising committee members. The Mashed Up Museum was sponsored by ICT developers Eduserve.
Blitz Games sponsored lunch on the main conference day and they presented a very impressive 3D plasma screen rendition of some of their work. Blitz now have a big presence in the museum and heritage sector since they merged with The Virtual Experience Company, recently winners of a Jodi Award which is also an MCG partnerhsip project.
