Dear Peter et al,
This is really useful, many thanks. And yes, please do send through the
methodology and focus group meetings once you have them!
Thanks too to all those of you that have responded off-list. This line of
enquiry seems to have struck quite a nerve and I am really grateful to you
for the valuable info. Do please keep 'em coming!
Best regards,
Nick
Nick Poole
Chief Executive
MDA
The Spectrum Building
The Michael Young Centre
Purbeck Road
Cambridge
CB2 2PD
Tel 01223 415 760
www.mda.org.uk
www.collectionslink.org.uk
www.culturalpropertyadvice.gov.uk
MDA (Europe) Ltd. Registered company number 13000565.
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter
Davies
Sent: 15 May 2007 13:35
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Local Authority Museums & URLs
I am just starting a museum website redesign and redevelopment project
for our council museum service.
After the successful launch of our Favourite Things website, which is
externally hosted, we have now secured money to do the same for the
museum service main website. This hasn't been easy to negotiate with
the council, and I will be conducting both user and non-user focus
groups to determine whether or not a separate identity and url is the
best action to take, or whether simply redesign is the best course of
action for our service. At present the service owns a number of URLs
which account for the 6 different museums, and all point to the coucnil
webpages, but these are all co.uk addresses, which I myself believe are
the wrong suffixes to use.
At present the 'templated' features of the council CMS is very
restrictive, and coloured branding of pages and the CSS restrictions
make the content dry and unappealing. I will therefore be particularly
looking at moving away from the council branding, and to the museum
identity across the service and the Internet.
Nick, I will email you the results and methodology of the focus group
meetings if you feel this would be of any use - we are looking at around
mid summer for these to take place.
Regards
Peter Davies
Outreach Officer (City Museums)
tel: 01227 475 203
email: [log in to unmask]
website: www.favourite-things.org.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Nick Poole
Sent: 15 May 2007 11:57
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Local Authority Museums & URLs
Dear All,
MDA is doing some work at the moment on the issue of URLs for museum
websites, and particularly those which are under the control of a Local
Authority IT services team.
Specifically, we would like to know about the experiences of museums who
have successfully negotiated a distinct web presence/URL from the Local
Authority website - how did you approach the discussion? Were the IT
services team supportive? How did you make the case that your museum
needed a distinct identity to address your target audiences?
The reason we are interested is that there seems to be considerable
anecdotal evidence that a museum website with a distinct URL and
identity will fare better than one which is based on a Local Authority
root URL and template, but we lack any concerted evidence to make this
case. If you would like to keep your response confidential, please
contact me offlist at [log in to unmask]
Any information we publish on this subject following this inquiry will
be anonymised unless you expressly indicate that you are happy for your
museum to be identified.
Many thanks,
Nick
Nick Poole
Chief Executive
MDA
The Spectrum Building
The Michael Young Centre
Purbeck Road
Cambridge
CB2 2PD
Tel 01223 415 760
www.mda.org.uk
www.collectionslink.org.uk
www.culturalpropertyadvice.gov.uk
MDA (Europe) Ltd. Registered company number 13000565.
**************************************************
For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, visit
the website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk
**************************************************
DISCLAIMER:
This email and any files transmitted with it may contain privileged or
confidential information. It is intended solely for the person to whom it is
addressed. If you are not the intended recipient please destroy or delete
the content of this message immediately and notify the sender by reply
email. Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that does
not relate to the official business of Canterbury City Council shall be
understood as neither given nor endorsed by the Council.
This message has been checked for all known viruses.
**************************************************
For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, visit the
website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk
**************************************************
**************************************************
For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, visit the website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk
**************************************************
|