Mark's right - this is a great thread.
It touches on key themes for many of us in the sector; how do we get any
sort of online presence? How do we stand with social media versus authority
(ie a museum?) How do we manage that tricky local government interface?
I'd like to pull together the contributions from all angles and put them in
one place - perhaps on the MCG website or I guess it could be a great theme
to explore in the next MCG newsletter (coming real soon!)
In addition, the spring MCG meeting in Bath would be a good opportunity to
unpack and explore some of the things people have been mentioning; I'll make
sure we look into getting something into the meeting about it; alternatively
UKMW09 could maybe explore these avenues later in the year.
All the best
Jon Pratty
MCG newsletter editor
Journalism: arts, heritage, technology and society
Digital publishing consultant to the cultural sector
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http://machineculture.wordpress.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark
Macleod
Sent: 23 January 2009 09:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Do any council run museums have blogs?
Perry
I am enjoying this thread being a blog fan. In answer to your question about
Local Authority museums in Scotland we have 32 Local Authorities and they
run roughly 125 museums among them all. Some seasonal etc, but it's a
starting figure if you are interested.
Pete did some great work in raising the use of technology in museums in
Scotland, I hope this thread can encourage some more participation in these
areas.
Mark
Mark Macleod
Membership Development Manager
0131 550 4118
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Bonewell, Perry
Sent: 20 January 2009 09:48
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Do any council run museums have blogs?
Thanks for that Peter - it is good to take a pragmatic approach, providing
you have that luxury.
The East Lothian blog was the only example by a council museum that I could
find via Google when I started looking into this.
It would be interesting to find out what proportion of MCG mambers and
subscribers to this list also work in local authority museums.
In fact how many LA museums are there in the UK - does anyone know?
Perry
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pete
Gray
Sent: 19 January 2009 22:56
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Do any council run museums have blogs?
I may have missed a response, but it looks like there hasn't been one so far
from a council museum with a blog. There is however at least one in the UK -
East Lothian Museums <http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/blog>
which started in January 2006. I should know as it was me that set it up,
but as I'm now in another job (and in New Zealand), I'm not sure that I can
strictly comment on the current reasons for it, though it does seem that
Sarah at least is keeping it going.
I set it up for a number of reasons, one of which was simply to see what
would happen (much the same reason I had for starting to use Flickr).
I'd been made aware on more than one occasion that not only did the public
have no idea what it was that we did, none of my colleagues in other parts
of the council did either (members of the public, for example were always
astounded when they found out how few of us there actually were). The main
reason ISTR was to have a way of talking about the stuff that we did in a
more informal tone of voice; that would let us talk about ideas, events and
the day-to-day reality of working for ELMS in a way that just wouldn't work
on either the main museum site or the corporate ELC site; and to do so in a
way that would enable a conversation with readers. And of course, one that
would avoid the po-faced gung-ho enthusiasm of the many corporate blogs that
were springing up at the time mostly written, it would seem, by their PR
departments.
I was also lucky in that at ELC I was able to have a separate web presence
for the museums service, and didn't suffer from the control-freak paranoia
that characterises most council IT and PR departments.
Was it worth it? I think so. But there so many other avenues we could also
have made use of if only we had the staff resources. For example, I wanted
to make use of Bebo rather than Facebook, because that's what all the
teenagers in East Lothian were using (you have to consider the demographics
of your audience). Staff participation in the end is the biggest stumbling
block. We tend to worry a lot about the specific technologies, applications,
delivery methods and so on, which in the end are trivial compared with the
problem of getting people to actually create the content.
By the way, if anyone's looking for a really easy-to-use for non-geeks
content management system, can I recommend Website Baker
<http://www.websitebaker.org/> - it's the best I've found and for ease of
use knocks Drupal, Joomla _and_ all the commercial CMSs I've used into a
cocked hat.
Best wishes from Wanganui
Pete
Pete Gray
Deputy Culture and Community Manager
Office of Community and Cultural
Wanganui District Council
Telephone Number: 06 3491000
FAX: 06 3490000
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www.wanganui.govt.nz
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PO Box 637
Wanganui 4500
New Zealand
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