Another UK Museums on the Web conference (organised by the
Museums Computer Group) has happened, and since I was much less involved in the organisation this year, I can say, without bias, that it was brilliant! You can
view
full programme or
view slides
from all presentations should you so desire. These notes are just a fairly brief summary of some of the main things that I took away from the conference. Apologies for any mistakes or misrepresentations, do let me know if you're a speaker and you think I need to change what I've written here.
Make data-based decisions
This was a key message that came out of several different
papers, i.e. use your Google Analytics data to inform what you’re going to do
next – what’s popular? What’s happening at the moment? When do people look at
your material?
Examples:
·
The V&A plan their website subject pages
around what people are searching for
·
The Guardian now carry out ‘day-parting’ (a word
they’ve made up) – looking at the patterns of website use throughout the day.
They’ve spotted particularly interesting patterns of mobile use (see below).
Integrating digital into all areas of the Museum
Strategy
·
The V&A have separated out content processes
into:
§
‘business as usual’ - can go live without
approval from digital media department
§
projects for the Digital Content Programme
needing Content Commissioning Group approval,
§
projects affecting or changing V&A
technology needing Digital FuturePlan approval (see slides
for flow chart of how this all works)
·
Rather than write a strategy which would soon go
out of date, the V&A created a framework of guidelines for content (see slides
for examples of kinds of guidelines).
·
Visibility of the new processes and decision-making is key to
organisation change – small things like making minutes of decision-making
meetings avaialble on the intranet can be very important
· Evolution of Tate’s website and web strategy over the past
few years has been as follows:
§
Initially a brochure (self-explanatory)
§
Moved to being a channel - commissioning content
specifically for the web for the first time rather than re-purposing content
from the galleries and building up an editorial team (e.g. Tate Kids)
§
It's now a platform - multiples blogs, holding debates
online, building community, participation projects and social media
§
Tate’s 2010-12 strategy was about:
·
The need for a transformation project
·
The need for an audience-centred approach
·
An outline of areas that needed to be addressed
§
Digital Strategy 2013-15 (currently being
produced) is about how digital is a dimension of everything – every other
department now has digital in their strategies
· Digital audiences do not exist as a neat
package, there is no one-size-fits-all silver-bullet solution to providing for
their needs.
· Nick Poole: ‘A digital culture will get you
through a time without a digital strategy much more than a digital strategy
will get you through a time without a digital culture’
· Katy Beale: Emphasise people and process over
products – this can lead to longer-term strategic change
· Katy Beale: There is little flex for innovation
when a strategy focuses on a fixed amount of time
Governance
· The V&A have changed the make-up of their
FuturePlan team to include more digital people. They’ve also set up a Trustees’
Technology Strategy Committee. It’s role is as follows:
o
Ensure best practice in digital
o
Agree, review and steer projects with an
overarching digital programme
o
Check design integrity of digital output
Mobile
·
The growth in mobile last year was 170%
(according to Let’s Get Real project research)
· Tom Grinsted: Mobiles are arguably the most
physically contiguous part of us these days – it’s becoming the predominant way
of accessing the web
· Patterns of mobile use (as spotted by the
Guardian):
o
When we wake up
o
When getting coffee / filling time on the
commute – this means that people are consuming MORE content than they used to
because of mobile
o
Between 9 and 11 at night
o
People sitting at home, with a laptop next to
them, still reach for a mobile – their motive on a mobile is usually searching
Collections online and data sharing
· Paul Rowe (keynote): Share what you have and
consider licenses which allow for re-use
· Paul Rowe (keynote): Copyright is a very complex
issue, if necessary it’s worth sharing collections data without an image
· Collections Trust have been playing ‘top trumps’
with different ways of sharing collections.
Presentation
slides have more info.
· Collections Trust are looking at lots of
different ways of sharing data, and are also gathering lots of anonymous information
from Picture Libraries about the realities of how much revenue comes from image
licensing.
User-engagement and digital research and development
Claire Ross and Jane Audas did a talk on the realities of
digital R&D (research & development) with the IWM Social Interpretation
project as an example.
Key messages about R&D projects:
· R&D projects often seen as a rapid, new and
effective way of developing new material in museums. The reality, is very, very
different.
· Museums find R&D difficult because they’re
not agile institutions
· Evaluation is a continuous process
· Funding for digital innovation is great, but
expecting it to happen in a year is unrealistic – change takes time
· Make sure you’ve got it before starting an
R&D project – e.g. make sure digital images of objects are available
· Advocacy for a project internally and externally
is key to R&D projects
· Always plan in a marketing budget
· Think carefully whether R&D is what you
really want to do
Key messages about user engagement:
·
QR codes don’t work
·
Deeper engagements happen online than in-gallery
·
Weird and emotive material gets the best
comments
·
Provocative questions that bring the visitors in
is also key to getting good engagement with people
·
post-moderation (i.e. not moderating before
comments go live) works – just because people can abuse something that’s freely
available to edit, doesn’t mean that they will.
· Radical trust is important – people will write
inane comments but they won’t write abusive comments
Can't wait for UKMW13 now!
Labels: MCG, UKMW12