The Online Museum

George Washington UniversityMSTD 297: Museums & Technology

The Online MuseumDana Allen-Greil

New Media Project ManagerNational Museum of American History

03/27/08

Online Collections

–“If visitors can access our digital collections using the Internet, will they still come to the museum in person?”

–“If people can look at pictures of beaches online, will they still vacation in Florida?”

Source: Paul F. Marty, "Museum Websites and Museum Visitors: Before and After the Museum Visit.“ 2007. Photo (Top): Curtiss JN-4D Jenny, Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum.

Physical and Virtual Visits Complement Each Other

A 2005 study found that:–70% of museum visitors specifically look for online information prior to a museum visit–57% say the information they found online increased their desire to visit the museum in person.

Online visitors use museum Web sites to: –plan visits to physical museums–learn more about museums after a visit

Source: Paul F. Marty, "Museum Websites and Museum Visitors: Before and After the Museum Visit.“ 2007.Chart: Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), InterConnections: A National Study of Users and Potential Users of Online Information. 2008.

Chart: The number of remote online visits is positively correlated with the number of in-person visits to museums and public libraries. (2007)

Who is on a Web site development team?

Some team members will be in-house, others may be contracted or be external partners.

– Curators / subject matter expert– Educators / interpretive planner– Project manager– Exhibition designer– Public affairs / marketing– Web staff

• Designers• Developers/ programmers• Project manager• Writer/editor

– Sponsors / Partners– Colleagues at other institutions

Process0. RFP (Request for

Proposals)

1. Discovery– Goals– Assets– Audience– Scope– Wireframes/

information architecture

2. Design– Directions (~3)– Homepage– Other key pages– Interaction design (i.e.,

what would the steps be for a user to do x activity)

3. Develop– Programming and

database development– Production (images,

animations, etc.)

4. Deploy– Beta test– Launch!

5. Maintenance– Site documentation– Original graphics files

Budget

– Call your colleagues for estimates on similar projects

– Work your Web budget into project budgets (e.g., exhibitions, partnerships)

– Cost keeps going up– Discounts / partial pro bono– Don’t forget maintenance and staffing! – Audio/video/image rights

Content, content, content

– Tell a good story and people will use the site

– Sometimes sites that aren’t high-design are still very popular (e.g., Between a Rock and a Hard Place)

– Web sites live a long time, keep that in mind when developing content…and watch your traffic grow over time.

ChallengesEvaluation

– It is very hard to gain knowledge about your online visitors• Who are they• Why are they coming / what do they want from you• How often do they come

Sustainability– Once you build it, they will come… and then you have to keep it updated and

working!• Content• Technology• Someone to pay attention to it

Funding– Often tied to exhibition sponsors– Harder to fun wider-reaching projects– Difficult to fund the staff you need

Accessibility– New technologies offer new opportunities but also new barriers for those with

disabilities– Neither assistive technology nor technology-specific accessibility standards

are keeping pace

Technology Planning:Questions to Consider

– Who needs to be at the table?• Skills (content expertise, audience evaluation, interpretive

planning, user interface design)• Departments (curatorial, education, exhibitions, technology)• Users!

– Which goals are most important?– What problem are you solving?– Who is the project supposed to serve? Is target

audience the same online as it is in other media?– How will you measure outcomes?– What expectations do you and your target audience

have for look & feel, aesthetics, navigation, usability?– Did this start as a Web idea or is it an adaptation of

another type of project (e.g., PR, exhibition, book, etc.)? How will you translate it for online media?

Technology Planning:Good Practices

1. Bring all the stakeholders into key decisions (including users).

― Design user-centered sites not institution-centered sites

2. Interpretive planning should include technology and media strategies. – Integration throughout planning, content development, and design of

exhibitions. Technology should not be segregated from other types of messaging media.

3. Be realistic. Museums have limited resources (staff, time, funding). What will give you the best return on investment (ROI)?

4. Plan for sustainability.– Who will maintain media component(s)? How will maintenance be funded?– How will it be updated over time (content/hardware/other technology)?

5. Collaborate.– With vendors– Educators– Other institutions– Users

For more about ROI, see: Leonard Steinback, “Analyzing Return on Investment: Process of Champions,” in The Digital Museum. American Association of Museums, 2007.

What makes the Web special

What can you do online that you can't do in the physical museum?

–Strengths of online media• Manipulation of artifacts• Getting up close/ details• Not restricted by time/place• Navigate any way you want to

–Weaknesses• …

Integration with other museum functions

― Exhibitions & collections

― Communications strategies―PR―Email communications

― Fundraising

― Other publishing media (e.g., print calendars, museum signage)

― HR, interns, volunteers

― Visitor services

Resources

–Museum Computer Network (mcn-l)–Museums Computers Group (mcg@jiscmail.ac.uk)–AAM Media and Technology Committee–Museums and the Web

SHOW AND TELL

Online Exhibitions

–Multiple ways to navigate content• America on the Move• http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/

(Exhibition, Collection, Themes)

Timelines

–http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/timelines/british/index.shtml

–http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm –http://americanhistory.si.edu/explorer/index.cfm

Online Collections

Zoom:–http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/earlyamericas/online/interactives.html

–http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/flash/exhibition_theme.cfm?theme=1

Dilemma: Publish everything as is or vet it first?

–Publish everything (with a caveat) vs. Publish vetted records only

• Publish everything: http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=4707&coll_keywords=&coll_accession=&coll_name=&coll_artist=&coll_place=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_classification=&coll_credit=&coll_provenance=&coll_location=&coll_has_images=&coll_on_view=&coll_sort=0&coll_sort_order=0&coll_view=0&coll_package=26233&coll_start=1

• http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/about_the_database.aspx

–Vetted only: • h

ttp://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search.cfm?keyword=By+Keyword&subject=&submit.x=14&submit.y=13

User-generated content: Tagging

• http://www.steve.museum/• http://photography.si.edu/participate.aspx#

(Create sequences, tag)• http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/

collection/database/ • http://www.flickr.com/photos/

library_of_congress/collections/72157601355524315/

My Collection

•http://americanart.si.edu/luce/index.cfm

•http://www.arago.si.edu/•http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/emuseum/code/login.asp?refer=emuseum.asp&lang=EN

Educational Games

–Games (costly)• http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/

games/

• http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/flash/game/index.shtml

Web 2.0

Your content will go online whether you post it or someone else does…•http://apps.facebook.com/causes/causes/1888?facebook_url=true

•Trip to DC: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LbeThFo50eM

Community Building

Brooklyn Museumhttp://www.brooklynmuseum.org/community/

Blogging

• http://eyelevel.si.edu/ • http://blogs.walkerart.org/index.wac • http://www.loc.gov/blog/

Mapping mashups

• http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/GoogleEarth/DataSetSelect.cfm (Google Earth)

• http://www.asia.si.edu/EncompassingtheGlobe/

• http://www.chicagoancestors.org/#tab-home

User-contributed content: Stories

• http://www.nasm.si.edu/americabyair/stories.cfm

• http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=22

• http://www.clarkart.edu/exhibitions/fifty/content/50favorites.cfm

• http://www.icons.org.uk/ • http://www.historyhappenedhere.org/

index.php

Merging the Physical and the Virtual

–http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMewv48E5oo (Flickr cascade at Denver Art Museum)

–http://blog.metmuseum.org/blogmode/ (Blogmode at the Met)

Social Networking

–http://www.facebook.com/pages/Washington-DC/The-Smithsonian-National-Museum-of-Natural-History/9974533229?ref=share (NMNH model)–http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=694270961 (Luce Center profile model)

Video

–Boston Pops contest http://youtube.com/group/popsearch07 –http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=oceanexplorergov –http://www.youtube.com/user/MoMAvideos –Podcasts/Vodcasts

• iTunesU

Wikis

GeoPedia http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/geopedia