Thursday 10 April 2008
Sarah Eades
Today was a good one, so much information at the conference and such great presenters.
I won't go into all the details but the main draw for me was a talk by Sebastian Chan and Angelina Russo on Planning Social Media in Museums (blogs, wikis, digital stories...). How to use it, when to use it and how important it is that museums and galleries become part of this online world, and online communities. In fact the word “community” was a major factor in the presentation.
The idea that there are ready-made communities of users that you can tap into or give a voice to online is fascinating. We concentrate so often on the physical visitor, the idea of building a community online or a group of communities seems something that is worth considering as it bypasses any problems physical sites have in regard to location (the internet is everywhere), access (most people are online in some form or another, disabilities can perhaps more easily be provided for than on an onsite location) and speed of growth (an online community can grow incredibly fast by word of mouth internationally). In turn this online community ma become onsite visitors, or may still experience the institution online in a rewarding way.
Just my thought for the evening. Love to know what you think?
image: www.digitalmediagalaxy.com/ category/podcasts/feed