Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 18, 2011

We’ve been doing a little experiment at our museum with labels. The Santa Cruz Surfing Museum recently loaned us some fabulous surfboards that tell the co-mingled history of surfing and redwood trees in Santa Cruz. We decided to approach the label-writing for these boards in a participatory way.

Participatory 48

Participatory San Diego Museum History 48

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 11, 2012

For years, I'd give talks about community participation in museums and cultural institutions, and I'd always get the inevitable question: "but what value does this really have when it comes to dollars and cents?" We're hearing on a daily basis that the museum has a new role in peoples' lives and in the identity of the county.

Audience 47

Audience Museum Participatory History 47

Museum 2.0

MARCH 20, 2009

In my continuing quest to find elegant ways to integrate technology into the museum experience, we come to interpretative material and the simple question, "How can you create natural ways for visitors to retrieve the information of most interest to them relative to an artifact or exhibit?" Here's one lovely answer: Meta.L.Hyttan.

Environment 20

Environment Content Model Sweden 20

Museum 2.0

APRIL 2, 2014

In his thoughtful preface to this project, I reconnected with five lessons I''ve learned from participatory projects in museums and cultural sites. The fact that there is no original recording by Beck of the Song Reader songs, no model upon which "covers" would be based, frees the reader to imagine the songs in any number of ways.

Participatory 52

Participatory Arts Music Learning 52

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 4, 2015

If people on the street are talking about X, the museum should be talking about X too. Now" is not an easy business model to chase--especially for institutions rooted in permanence. I used to work at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA. Interpretative techniques. Other times, grounded in the museum's collection.

Content 20

Content San Jose Museum Miami 20

Museum 2.0

APRIL 1, 2009

On Monday, I gave the keynote at the Museums in Conversation conference in Tarrytown, NY. Greed, because creative greediness motivates us to hunt down and steal the best design techniques the world has to offer, and generosity, because giving those great ideas and applications away is the only way to change the larger cultural landscape.

Museum 20

Museum Conversation Columbus Local 20

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 12, 2017

A cheerful curly-haired deli owner stands in front of 30 of us and shares a quote he loves: "Artists live in the present and write detailed histories of the future." In the Zingerman's model, visioning is for everyone at all levels of the organization. A vision is a detailed history of the future. WHAT IS A VISION?

History 26

History Pennsylvania Michigan Indiana 26

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 8, 2011

These boiled to do: Lack of strategy, capacity issues, adoption issues, and lack of measurement techniques and approaches. I used their problems to share a few points about how to begin to address those challenges, holding the space for other participants to add their knowledge.

Knowledge 97

Knowledge Seattle Social Media Measure 97

Museum 2.0

MAY 4, 2007

If anyone out there is considering creating an industry catch-all site for museum-related content, I highly recommend Gamasutra as a model. Can museums afford to indulge in this kind of fantasy? It drives me nuts when I’m in a museum that has made a half-hearted attempt to thematically connected galleries or exhibits.

Game 20

Game Storytelling Lesson Museum 20

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 21, 2007

No one would contest the idea that most museum exhibitions, art shows, films, books, in short, most content experiences, have value both for the new and return user. We’ll spend the least time here, since these are the people who are presumably being served well by the co-creation models at hand. First, the newcomer.

Experiment 20

Experiment Create Museum Amazon 20

Museum 2.0

MARCH 14, 2011

In 1990, educator and cultural critic Neil Postman described a museum as "an answer to a fundamental question: what does it mean to be a human being?" Without an explicit "I" voice, the museum's perspective on humanity is oblique to say the least. Welcome to Pine Point is not a museum project. It tells layered personal stories.

History 43

History Museum Sound Voice 43

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

DECEMBER 16, 2010

Last month, I heard a talk by author Jonathan Salem Baskin about his soon to be published book, “ Histories of Social Media.&# The book looks at social media concepts and ideas, asks is this really new? The technology tools certainly are, but history provides a context for every behavioral quality of new media.

Measure 96

Measure Fund Impact Minnesota 96

Museum 2.0

APRIL 30, 2007

James Yasko is writing an article for an upcoming issue of Museum News on museums and Web 2.0. Here's the question: What advice do you have, as one who keeps up with technology as it relates to museums, to a group looking to incorporate Web 2.0 technique/application that will fit those goals. into their repertoire?

Museum 20

Museum Advice Interview Web 20

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 22, 2008

There are lots of things visitors can’t do in museums. But what about the things that museum professionals can’t (or feel they can’t) do? This week at the ASTC conference, Kathy McLean, Tom Rockwell, Eric Siegel and I presented a session called “You Can’t Do That in Museums!” And so my question is, why are we keeping them away?

Museum 20

Museum Professional Teen Map 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 24, 2016

We learned about the country’s history, political complexity, religions, people, and ancient and contemporary life. While the trip was a rich and deep experience, I using this post to reflect on the instructional design of the exercises and small group facilitation techniques. Exercise #1: Herding Sheep.

Leadership 50

Leadership Develop Exercise 50

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

As many of you know, I’m writing a book about participatory design for museums. The book is intended to be a practical guide to participatory museum experiences focused on design strategies, case studies, and activities. I want them to get good, meaty techniques, not just more inspirational talk. And there’s a third reason.

Participatory 26

Participatory Design Museum Wiki 26