I quite agree.  So-called 'distruptive technologies' can actually  
shake things up for the better.  That is, for the betterment of  
access to information (whether of collections or academic content or  
whatever) and also the betterment of the quality of access users can  
expect.  For example (and ones already cited), flickr and del.icio.us  
are used by 'amateur' and professional websites alike, as are blogs  
in general.  The levels of reciprocal participation between provider  
and user since these developments has been unprecedented.  Long may  
it continue.

I am interested in the extent to which museums and heritage projects  
will embrace (or not) the idea of folksonomies especially.  The world  
of cataloguing, documentation, terminology is always at the forefront  
of many museum discussions.  I am impressed at the Art Museum  
Cataloguing Project as it shows how such initiatives can  embrace  
users and 'sister' organistions too - an opportunity to work  
together.  And before anyone flings up their hands in horror, I am  
not advocating that folksonomies replace the more rigid and  
standardised documentation standards that we use for managing our  
collections, only that social tagging can be immensely useful in  
increasing real-time interaction with collections - and it's a lot of  
fun.

When I ran the Hantsphere digitisation project  
(www.hantsphere.org.uk) I was very keen on the teaching the  
cataloguers about how keywording needn't just be about describing the  
scene or solid matter in front of them but they could use 'social'  
terms such as "celebration" or "education" too.  We found in the  
tests we did that it was words just like this that many people  
(unprompted) used to retrieve information.  This very much took the  
concept of cataloguing (describing) for public consumption rather  
than collections management to heart.  The poor examples of  
digitisation projects that I've come across are exactly the ones that  
have selectively exported their MODES or equivalent records and  
expected the public to like it or lump it, or just look at the pretty  
picture.

Wishing us all the best,
Tehmina


On 2 Feb2006, at 19:39, S Keene wrote:

> Disruptive technologies go a bit further than that don't they -  
> they are of such a general scale they disrupt whole business models  
> and even industries. Two good articles in Guardian Online /  
> Technology detail the well known examples for the music and  
> photographic industries:
> http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1648837,00.html
> http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,16376,1654083,00.html
>
> I am delighted with the way that the academic research 'industry'  
> has been disrupted - nearly all journals online now. The next  
> interesting step is for universities to publish academic articles  
> online, bypassing expensive publishers, which is already on the way.
>
> The question is, is the museum industry vulnerable to disruptive  
> technologies? If so which functions? I'd like to think they will  
> force museums to open up their stores and make their collections  
> much more usable to the outside world.
>
> all best,
> suzanne
>
> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 
> ::::::::
> Suzanne Keene
> UCL etc
>
> http://www.suzannekeene.info
> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 
> ::::::::
>
> On 2 Feb 2006, at 10:23, Brian Kelly wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:42:02 -0000, Tom Goskar  
>> <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On 30 January 2006, Brian Kelly wrote:
>>
>>> "And, in addition to such disruptive technologies emerging from  
>>> the Web
>>> development community, within the UK HE sector JISC are committed  
>>> to the
>>> development of the e-Framework, based on a Service Oriented  
>>> Architecture
>>> (SOA) approach, to support the development of applications of  
>>> particular
>>> relevance to the HE sector such as e-learning, portals, digital
>>> repositories, etc."
>>>
>>> I'm interested in what is meant by "such disruptive  
>>> technologies". Is that
>>> in the sense that these technologies arrive with such speed they  
>>> upset
>>> current strategies / technology frameworks?
>>
>> Yes, that's what's meant in this context.  This happened when the  
>> Web first
>> arrive.  The Web then became mainstream and mission critical and
>> organisations procured CMSs, developed publishing strategies,  
>> etc.  However
>> Web 2.0 may result in similar disruptions - for example, existing
>> instituional strategies may be based on a publishing view of the  
>> Web, which
>> may not be applicable to a Web which focusses on colllaboration and
>> communication.  This is likely to lead to tensions between the early
>> adopters and innovators and the service providers.
>>
>> These issues are being addressed in a workshop on "Initiatives &  
>> Innovation:
>> Managing Disruptive Technologies" which will be held at the  
>> University of
>> Warwick on 24 Feb.  Details are available at
>>  <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/ucisa-ukoln- 
>> cetis-2006/>
>>
>> This event is aimed at the Higher Education sector.  This may be  
>> of interest
>> to some members of this list - but I wonder if something along  
>> these lines
>> may be of interest to the museums sector?  Do you, for example,  
>> ever face
>> any tensions over the things you'd like to do and the policies of  
>> your IT
>> Services department?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Brian
>>
>
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