+1 here. And congratulations to the BM (and Hunterian, amongst others)
for setting an example on this.
Jeremy
Jeremy Ottevanger
Web Developer, Museum Systems Team
Museum of London Group
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London. N1 7ED
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Matthew Cock
Sent: 08 February 2008 08:52
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MCG] APIs and EDL
Dear all,
Totally agree with John on this one. If we had waited until our data was
perfect before putting it online, we would be waiting many hundreds of
years. In fact we feel that visibility to the publix and peers might act
as a spur to curators to spend more time on documentation.
Matthew
Head of Web | Department of Learning and Audiences | The British Museum
| www.britishmuseum.org Sent from Blackberry: 07971433841
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Fri Feb 08 08:40:20 2008
Subject: Re: APIs and EDL
Hi Robert,
I'd have to say that this is not my experience at all. We've had
experience of putting very diverse kinds on catalogue records online, at
very varying levels of detail, quality, and traditional "accessibility"
online for many years now.
As long as you are clear that you're just offering what you have "as
is", and don't promise the Earth, any catalogue data (well, any I've
seen anyway..) are much better than none. At least some people will find
it useful, and are grateful that something is available. A catalogue
doesn't need to be glamorous, exciting, popular or even 100% accurate to
be useful to at least some audiences.
As long as it doesn't take disproportionate resources to deliver (a big
factor), I think we should be doing this by default. For public museums,
the data, whatever their state, in a sense belong to the public, and I
don't really think we should be too proprietorial about them. As a
sector we will never have the resources to make all our data perfect,
but nobody expects this, except possibly, people in museums.
In the long run, I don't think we have anything to lose by being open.
Cheers
John
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