Dear Ian,
Many thanks for this. I admit 'fare better' is a pretty loosely-defined
concept, but it is about more than just traffic.
The real issue is the extent to which a museum is able to present a
clearly-identifiable identity in its own right and independently of their
Authority. The audiences for a museum are very often different from those of
the Council, and many users would not think to go to the Council website to
find out about or use heritage services.
This is a difficult point, partly because the two communities can sometimes
come from very different points of view. A councillor recently said to me
'the museum is the council, the council is the museum. They're the same
thing'. While this may be axiomatic from a service delivery/administrative
point of view, it presents a challenge for any museum that is trying to
market a clearly-expressed offer in a competitive marketplace.
A URL is much more than an address. It is a token of ownership and identity.
It is not simply about having a market-facing, user-friendly address for use
on flyers. Very often it is emblematic of the degree of ownership the museum
feels over its own site. Brand names are as much about creating a tractable
product internally as they are about communicating it externally.
I often encounter museums which have a very tenuous link to their own web
content, or where web delivery is strongly localised within one department
or individual. We have often said that museums are becoming more like
publishers, and any publisher which has a secondary link with the delivery
of their content faces a fundamental challenge in delivering their core
business.
I don't want to typecast the situation, or do a disservice to the many
excellent and standards-compliant Council/museum sites, but for those
museums that need to emancipate their websites for reasons of marketing,
technology, economic development or self-identity it is essential to be able
to put forward a compelling case.
In this world where the content layer is separate from the presentational,
and the network is enabling the dynamic repurposing of content across
different channels, it should be possible to create services which face in
many directions and satisfy the needs of both Authorities and their museums.
Have I got a reputation for writing long, boring emails yet?
Nick
Nick Poole
Chief Executive
MDA
The Spectrum Building
The Michael Young Centre
Purbeck Road
Cambridge
CB2 2PD
Tel 01223 415 760
www.mda.org.uk
www.collectionslink.org.uk
www.culturalpropertyadvice.gov.uk
MDA (Europe) Ltd. Registered company number 13000565.
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ian
Edelman
Sent: 15 May 2007 17:56
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Local Authority Museums & URLs
I am not sure I quite understand what Nick means by fare better with a
distinct URL... in what way? I guess by getting more traffic
than one that doesnt? How can this be measured?
I believe that a website which sits on a local government server is likely
to be more frequently indexed by search engines regardless of domain name,
and certainly better than one residing elsewhere. At Hampshire County
Council we have museums content which sits under the corporate
hants.gov.uk domain. Provided it starts www.hants.gov.uk I can select what
comes next.
We have one museum with its own URL chosen, a number of years ago, to give
it a distinct marketing identity. Our current policy is not to build any
websites with their own domains but if appropriate to allow a marketing-
led domain to alias to the corporate address. This allows more memorable
URLs which look better on leaflets and posters, but I doubt we will be
producing any such web addresses in the future. We have not gone down the
dot.museum path.
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