If anyone honestly believes that museum users make no association between
museums and the local authority (who runs them) they are sadly misinformed.
Bear in mind we are talking about a council museum service, which more often
than not tend to be smallish affairs with support at a local grass roots level
by people who tend to be knowledgable about their own local heritage and the
issues surrounding this.
I think that as long as you keep your existing domain and redirect it to the new
site then the only issue here is administrative rights - and that issue can only
be resolved by addressing internal politics within the council itself.
Best regards,
Andy Wood
Quoting Rachel Cockett <[log in to unmask]>:
> Hi Perry,
>
> It sounds like you are at risk of losing your individual museum website not
> just the URL?
> I don't think the URL itself really matters as users don't pay much
> attention to this unless sending it as a link and in that case as long as
> it works it doesn't matter what it says, as long as it is made clear it has
> changed and users are redirected to the new URL that's not a major problem.
> But if you're at risk of losing your own website as a single entity that is
> a problem.
>
> I think it is really important that you can maintain a website that is, in
> appearance at least, an independent entity from the Council website (with
> clear links between sites and possibly some stylistic similarities in house
> style by all means). Museum users do not make any association between the
> council and the museums it runs (I had no idea that councils ran museums
> until I started to apply for jobs in them), so it not logical to expect a
> potential service user to log on to the council website to get a museum's
> opening time. A museum is seen as a separate entity and should have its own
> website as this is what users expect (and councils should meet user
> expectation).
>
> The council may want to feel that all it's services are encompassed within
> one site and may feel that the site can showcase all the services it
> provides boosting it's image etc, but this makes no sense if a user does
> not know that these services are all provided by one body. Also many
> people have negative views about councils in general (quite possibly
> wrongly), it's where they go to complain about the bins not being emptied
> etc. Obviously how you explain all this to your councillors depends on how
> sensitive they are to user perception of them and how good your museum's
> relationship is with them etc
>
> It is essential that you or/and other members of museum staff have complete
> autonomy over content/updating info otherwise you will have to forward any
> changes to someone in your IT dept or causing (major?) delays in info
> updating etc.
>
> Best Wishes,
> Rachel
>
>
>
>
>
> Perry Bonewell <[log in to unmask]>@JISCMAIL.AC.UK> on 16/02/2005
> 11:55:24
>
> Please respond to Museums Computer Group <[log in to unmask]>
>
> Sent by: Museums Computer Group <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> cc:
> Subject: Museum domains
>
>
> Hello there,
> Does anyone have experience of having to change their museum domain name or
> URL for any reason?
> The reason I ask is that the local authority I work for plans to absorb all
> public sites under one corporate web service, which could potentially mean
> losing autonomy. I am also concerned about the possibility of losing a URL
> that has been established for nearly ten years now.
> Apart from the practical issues of such a change is there any argument to
> be made from the Museums perspective about preserving an on line identity
> and if so where can I find further guidance on this matter?
>
> Many Thanks
> Perry Bonewell
>
>
>
>
>
>
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