After my somewhat angst-ridden post last week about research questions, I've agreed with my tutor that my proposed 'big question' is ok: 'Can Wikis work for museums: the practical and conceptual challenges of wiki technology for the BPMA'. He says that it's important, however, that I 'unpack' this question a little. I guess basically this means thinking what other questions are inherent in this big question, so here goes:

1. What are the challenges?
2. Can the challenges be overcome (and how)
3. How are the challenges that have been identified by others relevant in a museum context?
4. What type of Wiki pages/topics particularly appeal to a museum audience?
5. How much work in involved in museums using Wikis?
6. How do you go about getting people to use a Wiki?
7. Is there an inherent contradiction if an organisation tries to lead on a Wiki when Wikis should fundamentally be egalitarian and democratic?
8. What does 'can wikis work?' actually mean - I guess basically can they achieve the goals they set out to, can they attract new audiences, can they enhance the BPMA website. I guess this will mean that my background section will need to look more carefully at what the wiki set out to do. (Steve - I know most of this but it reminds me that I must really get round to asking you questions about it a bit more formally!)

This gives me more of a focus I think and it makes sense in my head (finally) so hopefully now I can carry on as I was with writing the first few sections!

Refining research question(s)

I sent a progress report to my tutor a couple of weeks ago and at the weekend I got his response back. It was generally really positive which was encouraging - he was impressed by my bibliography and thought that I was asking pertinent questions etc. He raised an interesting point on research questions though because he felt that my report didn't quite make it clear what my research question was.

I had been intending to steer clear of starting out to answer the question 'Should museums use Wikis?' Rather I didn't want this to be the focus of my argument. I have noted in my introduction that, although the topic might end up helping people make that decision for themselves. As I have mentioned before, the BPMA Wiki was not my idea and by being in a position to run with an idea without being too precious about whether or not it works puts me in an ideal position to write quite a balanced dissertation.

Instead I have been roughly working to the idea of writing about the practical and conceptual challenges for museums using wikis. In writing this I was lead to look again at the original title Ross suggested, and realised that it was 'Can wikis really work for museums? The practical and conceptual challenges of Wiki technology for the BPMA' - or something like that anyway, I've changed a couple of words. This leads me to re-consider the section that I've put in the introduction about not being steered by a should we/shouldn't we approach.

I think I perhaps need to have a think about what questions I've really been asking myself in my preparation. So here goes:

1. What are the challenges?
2. How can they be overcome?
3. How are the challenges that have been identified by others relevant in a museum context?
4. What type of Wiki pages/topics particularly appeal to a museum audience?
5. How much work in involved in museums using Wikis?
6. How do you go about getting people to use a Wiki?
7. Is there an inherent contradiction if an organisation tries to lead on a Wiki when Wikis should fundamentally be egalitarian and democratic?
8. How do audiences behave on a Wiki?
   

I think maybe my tutor is right that 'Should museums use Wikis', or, for the sake of argument, 'Can wikis really work for museums?' is quite a broad topic. He made some suggestions of other questions:

1. do the risks/challenges to museums using wikis outweigh the opportunities?
2. can a wiki demonstrably contribute to the achievement of a museum's goals/objectives/mission?

I don't think my data really lends itself to the second one, I've really been working around what the challenges are and how to overcome them. Plus I think Ross originally steered me away from a topic like this when I originally suggested something to do with whether or not a Wiki could stand in the sted of a physical museum site. He said that there was a real lack in the field of a sensitive and thoughtful exploration of museums and wikis. Reading back on my first post about my conversation with Ross, I noted that I wrote: 'He suggested that I treat it as a story of how the BPMA have got to the position we are currently at with the Wiki and the issues that have arisen.'

I'm aware that my mind tends to gradually identify patterns and arguments once I start writing but it occurred to me that it might be valuable to try and work out what I'd be arguing with the current direction I've been heading in. I guess you could summarise the kind of themes that are coming out of my work and my data at the moment as:

1. Wikis involve a lot of hard work from the moderator
2. It's often quite difficult to get people to start contributing
3. Some topics work better than others in getting people to contribute
4. It's very important to consider the target audience and then push it to them (many of our newsletter readers, for instance, don't have a computer so too much newsletter coverage is probably pointless!)

If I need a more refined question, there is of course still the possibility that I outlined in another previous post of looking only at one challenge - namely how to get users to contribute to a Wiki. But the disadvantages that I raised at that point probably still stand - we haven't got a huge number of contributions yet to build a case on.

I feel like my brain is like pea soup at the moment and I have to really dredge out any thoughts. I guess I kind of set out to just sort of do an exposé/case study of the BPMA Wiki but I do think maybe I need a more specific question to answer. I feel a bit anxious now that I might have been trying to address too broad a topic but I can't really think how to refine it for the moment... Watch this space, hopefully I'll get inspiration soon!