> I've just listened to the East Lothian podcast and look foward to
> seeing the video. I love it!
>
I passed this on to Andrew, who is now looking unbearably smug. :-)
> It's so refreshing, both as a professional and museum user to see the
> creative use of online communities and technologies that are
> available. With a bit of imagination such things need not a) cost the
> earth, b) require strategic national guidelines to be set or c)
> surrender the jurisdiction of the organisation over their information.
>
> I have repeatedly come across all three of these as reasons not to
> 'give it a go'.
>
Absolutely. In fact as I was reading your three points above I found myself saying 'Yes!' after each one (out loud as I am alone in my office, so talk to myself a lot).
> At the moment I am partly working in academia and the thought of
> podcasting our regular research seminars, many of which are very
> informative and entertaining, is totally alien - almost laughable
> (because none of them have tried it themselves...), as is publishing
> even a modicum of articles online.
>
> How do you persude the powers that be in your organisation to not be
> so scared/paranoid about sharing their information in these ways? How
Just do it and don't tell them?
> do educate them, for example, about the realities of Creative Commons
> and how liberating it can be for the organisation as a whole, and so
> persuade them to get over their antiquated fear over copyright
> violation (and thus not want to readily share anything at all)?
>
Interestingly, I contacted our corporate legal team here and they were quite comfortable with CC once I'd pointed them to the .uk site and they'd had a look.
> Does anyone have any tips in how to be persuasive in the face of
> ill-informed and reactionary bosses?
What's that phrase? "You can get more of what you want with a kind word and a gun, than you can with just a kind word."
On the whole I don't know that I can be too helpful here, as it seems that I have fairly enlightened bosses who are only too happy for us to experiment in this way (particularly as it doesn't cost much), and corporately the Council seems at ease with using external web sites for what you might call 'non-standard activity' and letting people get on with their jobs. In fact I think from the network managers' point of view it's better this way as there's no risk to the corporate network if something goes horribly wrong.
Mind you, although we have video on YouTube, we can't actually look at it through a corporate PC as YouTube is blocked - I'm leaving it to Education to fight that one though, as the Head of Education is really keen on opening up all these opportunities to schools. It would help, perhaps, if YouTube would, like Flickr, deliver pages and images with the 'friendly' url so we could unblock material by url. I think in the end they are just going to have to bite the bullet on this - it's all about trusting staff, not assuming they are all lazy wasters who will abuse their access for non-work purposes.
We recently did a quick survey because we wanted to use Flickr on a joint project, and we found that most of the local authorities were blocking Flickr - though none could actually give a reason for so doing. Sigh. I need to do the same again with MySapce, Bebo, etc, as they are filtered here (you can click through if it's for work purposes), but I'm willing to bet that most of our partner councils have them completely blocked. Part of the problem is that no-one who works in the public sector ever got fired for saying 'no' to a new idea. The converse, however...
Best wishes
Pete
(still awaiting a reply from Bebo)
>
> On 03/01/07, Gray, Peter <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > East Lothian Museums have stuff on Flickr here:
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/eastlothian
> >
> > And on YouTube:
> > http://www.youtube.com/museumservice (not my choice - blame Angus)
> >
> > Not MySpace, as most young people round here use Bebo, and
> I'm awaiting a response regarding setting up a Bebo site
> (terms of service imply that it's for individuals).
> >
> > We are working on podcasts (I say 'we' but I actually mean
> 'Andrew, our Education Officer') - first one here:
> > http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/wp/?p=28
> >
> > ...more in train working with a couple of schools (must
> chase him up on that when he gets back).
> >
> > As Andy Wood noted, we use MP3 players (as well as mobile
> phones) for the audio tour at Prestongrange (and you can
> download it too).
> >
> > We certainly qualify as a smaller museum, too. Feel free to
> get in touch if you want to know more.
> >
> > Best wishes
> >
> > Pete
> > --
> > Peter M Gray
> > Museums Officer
> >
> > www.eastlothian.gov.uk/museums
> > www.eastlothianmuseums.org
> > www.prestongrange.org
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > Dear All.
> > >
> > > I am in the process of organising a Museums Association
> > > conference exploring
> > > the potential of every-day technologies - MP3 players,
> > > digital cameras,
> > > mobile phones, the Internet - to create more personalised visitor
> > > experiences and am seeking feedback / help on two
> particular issues:
> > >
> > > 1. On PodCasting, which UK museums are running in-house
> PodCasting
> > > programme? Are any "smaller" museums using this medium, and
> > > / or do people
> > > find that most museums are using external companies to
> > > produce the PodCasts?
> > > Certainly my experience appears to show a preference for
> the latter.
> > >
> > > 2. And on the museum use of existing internet
> communities - MySpace,
> > > Flickr, YouTube, etc. - who (individuals or museums) are the
> > > leaders in this
> > > field, and could anyone point me towards particular trials /
> > > programmes that
> > > exist?
> > >
> > > Any help on the above two points greatly appreciated, though
> > > feel free to
> > > contact me with other ideas / museums (especially if
> > > regarding a non-London
> > > museum) but ASAP is of the essence - I am under quite a tight
> > > deadline to
> > > set the programme!
> > >
> > > Best, Loïc.
> > > [log in to unmask]
> > >
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