Hi Nick
> Brian, Jon et al,
>
> This idea of 'atoms' of publication which are aggregated and
> disaggregated in different ways to suit different user
> requirements is a really interesting one for me.
>
> When I sit down to write something, I usually have a pretty
> good idea of who I'm writing it for, the format in which it
> will be read, the context in which it will appear. This tacit
> understanding of physical and conceptual context is pretty
> essential if the thing I'm writing is going to end up making sense.
>
> Similarly, when museums are writing content for KS3 Romans,
> there is a whole set of editorial assumptions which
> contribute to the 'voice' in which the content is written.
>
> If that information is atomised and fed into a completely
> different context, all of those editorial and contextual
> assumptions go right out of the window.
>
> That's ok if it's a library catalogue because the information
> is pretty narrative-free. It's a set of more or less factual
> bites of data about a set of resources. This kind of
> information is 'ruggedised' by merit of its simplicity and
> already atomised by its nature. It's a different matter if
> it's a set of freetext descriptions of how a collection
> illustrates the relationship between the German Workers Party
> and the Communists in the rise of National Socialism in the 20s.
Yes, this is all very important. Even within many areas which may be
perceived as objective, there will be contextual aspects. For example,
consider Web accessibility. What should the ALT text (i.e. the metadata) be
for an image of the Mona Lisa? One can quickly see that there is a context
to this. (As you know this is an area of strong interest, and you'll be
pleased to hear that myself, Dacvid Sloan, Lawrie Phipps, Andy Heath, Helen
Petrie and Fraser Hamilton have had a p[aper on Contextual Web Accessibility
accepted at the W4A workshop which precedes WWW 2006 in Edinburgh in May.)
However rather than arguing whether there should be one authoratitive view
or multiple equivalent views, I thinnk the challenge with be in merging
authoratitive metadata with community-doveloped metadata - so it's not a
question of, say, formal toaxonomies vs folsonomies but of ways of combining
both in order to provide enhanced services.
> I completely agree with Jon that the challenge will be to
> associate granular 'authority' metadata with chunks of
> knowledge, but it is going to be equally important to ensure
> that we preserve the integrity of the original context and narrative.
Yes - I suspect we are not disagreeing.
Brian
> Nick
>
>
>
> Nick Poole
> Director
> MDA
>
> The Spectrum Building, The Michael Young Centre, Purbeck
> Road, Cambridge, CB2 2PD
>
> Telephone: 01223 415 760
> http://www.mda.org.uk
> http://www.collectionsforall.org.uk
>
> The revised edition of SPECTRUM, the UK museum documentation
> standard, is now available. Download it for free at:
>
> http://www.mda.org.uk/spectrum.htm
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Jon Pratty
> Sent: 02 February 2006 15:49
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Electronic Museum news - Feb 2006
>
> Brian
>
> It may have been Lorcan, but it's also been one of the key
> phrases we've used about RSS for the last three three years -
> we're taking content out to meet the user, rather than trying
> to attract the user towards the content.
> As you say, Brian, this all sounds simple, but if you think
> about the implications of it, we're now getting into a
> situation where we are publishing 'particles' of content to
> be discovered in search engines. This calls for new kinds of
> marketing techniques. Yes, we need to consider how to brand
> the content in this new digital environment. We need to
> signify it as coming from an accredited museum or gallery
> source; it needs to stand out in a Google search as being
> trustworthy and 'official'.
>
> So the challenge for all cultural publishers, as I see it, in
> this Web 2.0 era, is to find ways to imprint on published
> objects at the tiniest, lowest level, metadata clues to
> things like institutional identity, museological
> values and agreed semantic connective terms or tags.
>
> Jon Pratty
>
> Editor
> 24 Hour Museum
> 01273 820052
> 07739 287392
> [log in to unmask]
>
> The National Virtual Museum
> Britain's Best Museum and Gallery website - Web User Magazine
> Best Educational Website, New Statesman New Media Awards, 2005
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Kelly [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 02 February 2006 13:35
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Electronic Museum news - Feb 2006
>
>
> On Wed, 1 Feb 2006 16:01:24 -0000, Jon Pratty
> <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> >Brian, Nick, Mike et al.
> ...
> >I'm producing a paper for Museums and the Web (yes, I know
> it's late!)
> about some of the ideas raised in this thread. Have a look here:
> http://www.archimuse.com/mw2006/abstracts/prg_300000787.html
>
> Hi Jon
> I like the title "The Inside Out Web Museum". Was in
> Lorcan Dempsey who talked about "the library going to the
> user rather than the user going to the Library" in a Web 2.0
> world (soory I can't find the reference). Anyway your
> article seems to have some similarlites with that thought.
>
> >Worrying about whether certain technologies are 'stable' is
> important.
>
> But let's not forget that Web 2.0 isn't just about
> technnologies - it's a descriptive term (just as terms such
> as "Blairite" or "Thatcherite" aren't formal definitions, but
> may help to provide a shared understanding).
>
> So as regards the hype over 'mashups', let;'s not get too
> worried about whether the technologies are mature - let's
> remember that the Library world has been working on combining
> catlogues for many years and has a great deal of experiences
> in both the technocal aspects and the social/human aspects
> "But I'll lose my library's branding").
>
> Brian
>
> >Jon Pratty
> >
> >Editor
> >24 Hour Museum
> >01273 820052
> >07739 287392
> >[log in to unmask]
> >
> >The National Virtual Museum
> >Britain's Best Museum and Gallery website - Web User Magazine Best
> >Educational Website, New Statesman New Media Awards, 2005
> >
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