IMO: because although this kind of meta-system sounds like a good plan from a distance, up-close you'd never get to anything that was a one-size-fits-all. Just as an example from our POV: we build museum websites all the time - and although, yes, most of you guys want "events" and "objects" and "galleries" and a contact form and other things that are common across pretty much all museum sites, there are endless edge cases: no, you don't want your calendars to do X but Y, the template needs to scroll in Z way, the collections data has ABC fields and not JKL fields...you want A to happen on a mobile rather than C, the thing most people call "object" is actually "artwork" in X instance, etc etc.. - and this is actually what makes it exciting, not just for us and you but obviously also for the end-users too...

Another example - when we built http://cultureobject.co.uk/ the whole point was to make a modular, "anyone with WordPress can use it" tool for helping orgs get object metadata on the web more easily - but we really didn't want to make a thing with a defined set of object fields. I'm old enough to know this stuff just doesn't work in practice, however much it should in theory.

Then once you step back from the one-size-fits-all thing having realised it could never work, you then start thinking "framework" and once you think "framework" then you're in the land of FOSS tools like WordPress or Omeka - or at a layer above, Bootstrap or Foundation - and that's the land we're in already. From a granular point of view, there might be some mileage in making a "museum WordPress theme" - and I've thought long and hard about this - but so far I've erred on the side of not...

oAo

Mike



_____________________________


Mike Ellis 

Thirty8 Digital: a small but perfectly formed digital agency: http://thirty8.co.uk  

* Workshops, courses and free downloads: http://trainingdigital.co.uk *

On 5 January 2018 at 16:54, Phil Blume <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi Jon

This is an interesting thread exploring the fault-line between heritage and technology, between social media and websites and, perhaps also between audience and content.

I say fault-line, because the interaction seems to be one of constant movement, friction and disruption.

This leads me to wonder if  there is a place for a ‘GLAM’ template or theme in an open source Content Management System such as Drupal?

Here I am imagining an off-the-shelf website framework that would incorporate the widgets that any curator, keeper, promoter and storyteller might need.

By design, this would include the tools to present collections and associated metadata, it would enable the efficient harvesting of linked metadata by cultural content aggregators and it would include social media connectivity to easily enable the posting and collecting of comment.

(Perhaps, controversially, it might also replace a Collections Management System, making it unnecessary to maintain two systems side-by-side.)

A system that enables core components of to be updated centrally then disseminated to the user community can maintain interoperability with social media and content aggregators without users needing to pay individually to do this, else fall by the wayside.

I’m sure this must have been discussed in the past, perhaps you can tell me what happened to the ideas and why they failed?

Cheers, Phil

On 4 Jan 2018, at 17:24, Jon Pratty <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Happy New Year! 
 
I’m currently writing some text about a potential gap in public sector digital strategy, questioning what I see as increasingly successful but increasingly commercialised and packaged social media platforms, apparently dominating our lives and our devices. In GLAMs we’ve enthusiastically adopted many of these, from the early days of Del.icio.us through Flickr and Vine and now to Storify. 
 
Jo Fell recently posted a useful MCG query about the closure of Storify and what to do next, and other list members came up with some alternatives; but Mike Ellis came up with the obvious long-term, relatively nuke-proof intervention. He suggested, as GLAMs, we could and maybe should be setting up local hosting as a long-term legacy measure. (It’s the Battlestar Galactica option, if you are a sci-fi fan!)
 
But this is not just about social media apps and tools. More importantly, Facebook is spawning ever-larger audiences within their closed content network, at the same time as building giant income streams and – maybe – locking those audiences into the platform. What are the consequences for cultural heritage organisations, with long-standing values around scholarship, archive policy and educational connectivity in this context? 
 
Clearly we may well want to use event listings on FB and to trail shows and content; but does the apparently unstoppable tide of people moving from the old vanilla web to the world of Snapchat, Pinterest and FB mean that monolithic websites are now endangered? 
 
I would like to hear from people working at funder and stakeholder level, and from arts and heritage organisations who might now be considering the need to develop digital forms that fit within the Facebook environment. WikiMedia is an obvious example of a more benign mass environment, so are you considering that, too?
 
Is the only alternative to stay ‘outside’ that FB environment and risk isolation from mass audiences? Where does investing in Linked Open Data fit into this? Is LoD compatible with FB APIs? 
 
All pointers and research tips appreciated…
 
Jon
 
 
Jon Pratty, FRSA
 
 
 
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
 
**************************************************************** website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/ Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/****************************************************************

Phil Blume
Technical stuff

The Brunswick Town Charitable Trust,
a charity registered in England, No. 1012216.

Place of business:
The Regency Town House,
Telephone: +44 (0)1273 206306 

Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/A4TpgMaoCVE2

For tours, events and volunteering see: http://www.rth.org.uk/
For local history research see: http://www.mhms.org.uk/
For silhouette history see: http://www.profilesofthepast.org.uk/

**************************************************************** website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/ ****************************************************************

**************************************************************** website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/ ****************************************************************