Nick Poole wrote:
> I don't think it's a lack of imagination - look at it the
> other way round: Why should they? There's no impetus to do
> it, other than the tech community promising some pretty
> loosely-defined long-term benefits. To drag out the old maxim
> 'what gets measured gets managed' - nobody's looking, so why
> should the majority of museums bother (particularly when
> there are so many other things which *are* measured these
> days).
That's pretty much what I was thinking about it this morning. Project
and staff time is always tight, and even if management had heard of the
latest *mumble* *acronym* *mumble*, we (as techs) haven't yet sold them
on the benefit, and there's not an existing visible or vocal community
of users out there demanding it.
And it's hard for the geeks to tinker with it in their spare time (even
with data that's already digitised and online) because it's hard to
explain the benefits and to reassure management that it doesn't somehow
expose the organisation to risk.
> http://www.InstitutionURI/CollectionURI/ObjectURI (don't
> click on it, it goes nowhere) - where 'ObjectURI' is a
> persistent identification scheme that is applicable (and
> applied) to physical and digital objects.
Hooray! I also think it's important that the sector plan and do this
properly - URIs should obviously be implementation- and
technology-neutral, but ideally they should also be able to survive the
change of name of the local authority that runs museum X, or the
re-branding of a family of museums.
cheers, Mia
Mia Ridge
Database Developer, Museum Systems Team
Museum of London Group
46 Eagle Wharf Road
London. N1 7ED
Tel: 020 7410 2205 / 020 7814 5723
Fax: 020 7600 1058
Email: [log in to unmask]
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