Jon,
I've been doing my best to follow this thread. As far as the social
tagging is concerned, have you heard of http://steve.museum ?
It's a folksonomic research undertaking led by a consortium of US
museums (The Met, Guggenheim, Brooklyn, Cleveland et al.) that is in
the middle stages of development. We've built some open-source
prototypes one of which is available on Source Forge. You may want to
check it out.
- Ray Shah
Think Design, Inc.
http://www.thinkdesign.com
Jon Pratty wrote:
> Nick, Brian et al
>
> Here are some suggestions about the practical way forward (through this web 2.0 whirlpool) based on my current research:
>
> 1 - we could consider adapting present site designs to present Google-borne cultural web users (who are using instinctive or casually generated keywords) with plenty of content on their searched-for theme. This will maximise the quality and relevance of the 'enquiry pathway' these users follow on our sites.
>
> 2 - we could try to make sure our smallest 'atoms' of digital content 'explain everything about themselves' when encountered out of original publishing context. So (as well as their content) they should have Creative Commons info, originating institution branding, a kitemark or logo denoting quality and safety, agreed semantic tagging values, and some navigation or contextual linking information to other stuff on the same subject, or to other stuff from the same original museum source. (and of course, Dublin Core values too)This is a big suggestion, impacting on the way we currently specify digitised collections.
>
> 3 - we could possibly propose to the search giants that some sort of research into 'structured search' would be cool for us and beneficial to them. Specialised cultural searching would just be another flavour of niche offering to Google, easy for them to sort, but it would win governmental brownie points in a much less controversial fashion than their current attempts to move into archiving.
>
> 4 - we could propose some well defined research into social tagging and how we might as a sector respond. If we don't, we risk getting left behind by users.
>
> Jon Pratty
>
> Editor
> 24 Hour Museum
> 01273 820052
> 07739 287392
> [log in to unmask]
>
> The National Virtual Museum
> Britain's Best Museum and Gallery website - Web User Magazine
> Best Educational Website, New Statesman New Media Awards, 2005
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nick Poole [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 02 February 2006 18:02
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Electronic Museum news - Feb 2006
>
>
> Brian, Jon et al,
>
> This idea of 'atoms' of publication which are aggregated and disaggregated
> in different ways to suit different user requirements is a really
> interesting one for me.
>
> When I sit down to write something, I usually have a pretty good idea of who
> I'm writing it for, the format in which it will be read, the context in
> which it will appear. This tacit understanding of physical and conceptual
> context is pretty essential if the thing I'm writing is going to end up
> making sense.
>
> Similarly, when museums are writing content for KS3 Romans, there is a whole
> set of editorial assumptions which contribute to the 'voice' in which the
> content is written.
>
> If that information is atomised and fed into a completely different context,
> all of those editorial and contextual assumptions go right out of the
> window.
>
> That's ok if it's a library catalogue because the information is pretty
> narrative-free. It's a set of more or less factual bites of data about a set
> of resources. This kind of information is 'ruggedised' by merit of its
> simplicity and already atomised by its nature. It's a different matter if
> it's a set of freetext descriptions of how a collection illustrates the
> relationship between the German Workers Party and the Communists in the rise
> of National Socialism in the 20s.
>
> I completely agree with Jon that the challenge will be to associate granular
> 'authority' metadata with chunks of knowledge, but it is going to be equally
> important to ensure that we preserve the integrity of the original context
> and narrative.
>
> Nick
>
>
>
> Nick Poole
> Director
> MDA
>
> The Spectrum Building, The Michael Young Centre,
> Purbeck Road, Cambridge, CB2 2PD
>
> Telephone: 01223 415 760
> http://www.mda.org.uk
> http://www.collectionsforall.org.uk
>
> The revised edition of SPECTRUM, the UK museum documentation standard, is
> now available. Download it for free at:
>
> http://www.mda.org.uk/spectrum.htm
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon
> Pratty
> Sent: 02 February 2006 15:49
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Electronic Museum news - Feb 2006
>
> Brian
>
> It may have been Lorcan, but it's also been one of the key phrases we've
> used about RSS for the last three three years - we're taking content out to
> meet the user, rather than trying to attract the user towards the content.
> As you say, Brian, this all sounds simple, but if you think about the
> implications of it, we're now getting into a situation where we are
> publishing 'particles' of content to be discovered in search engines. This
> calls for new kinds of marketing techniques. Yes, we need to consider how to
> brand the content in this new digital environment. We need to signify it as
> coming from an accredited museum or gallery source; it needs to stand out in
> a Google search as being trustworthy and 'official'.
>
> So the challenge for all cultural publishers, as I see it, in this Web 2.0
> era, is to find ways to imprint on published objects at the tiniest, lowest
> level, metadata clues to things like institutional identity, museological
> values and agreed semantic connective terms or tags.
>
> Jon Pratty
>
> Editor
> 24 Hour Museum
> 01273 820052
> 07739 287392
> [log in to unmask]
>
> The National Virtual Museum
> Britain's Best Museum and Gallery website - Web User Magazine
> Best Educational Website, New Statesman New Media Awards, 2005
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Kelly [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 02 February 2006 13:35
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Electronic Museum news - Feb 2006
>
>
> On Wed, 1 Feb 2006 16:01:24 -0000, Jon Pratty <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>
>> Brian, Nick, Mike et al.
>>
> ...
>
>> I'm producing a paper for Museums and the Web (yes, I know it's late!)
>>
> about some of the ideas raised in this thread. Have a look here:
> http://www.archimuse.com/mw2006/abstracts/prg_300000787.html
>
> Hi Jon
> I like the title "The Inside Out Web Museum". Was in Lorcan Dempsey who
> talked about "the library going to the user rather than the user going to
> the Library" in a Web 2.0 world (soory I can't find the reference). Anyway
> your article seems to have some similarlites with that thought.
>
>
>> Worrying about whether certain technologies are 'stable' is important.
>>
>
> But let's not forget that Web 2.0 isn't just about technnologies - it's a
> descriptive term (just as terms such as "Blairite" or "Thatcherite" aren't
> formal definitions, but may help to provide a shared understanding).
>
> So as regards the hype over 'mashups', let;'s not get too worried about
> whether the technologies are mature - let's remember that the Library world
> has been working on combining catlogues for many years and has a great deal
> of experiences in both the technocal aspects and the social/human aspects
> "But I'll lose my library's branding").
>
> Brian
>
>
>> Jon Pratty
>>
>> Editor
>> 24 Hour Museum
>> 01273 820052
>> 07739 287392
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>> The National Virtual Museum
>> Britain's Best Museum and Gallery website - Web User Magazine
>> Best Educational Website, New Statesman New Media Awards, 2005
>>
>> **************************************************
>>
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