I am researching online communities in the context of museums and would be interested to hear how re…

[Jonathan Bowen]

I am researching online communities in the context of museums and would be interested to hear how readers of this blog are using this and other online community facilities. Comments on what is worthwhile and what is not would be welcome. In particular, have you used or do you know of any wikis in a museum/educational setting. I am presenting a mini-workshop on museums and wikis at the next Museums and the Web conference - see http://www.archimuse.com/mw2008/abstracts/prg_335001743.html - so information gleaned here could be very useful for this.

Prof. Jonathan Bowen
www.jpbowen.com

[jonathan zilberg]

Dear Jonathan and Hsiang-Yi, I have returned to this discussion to see where it has gone over the last several months and find that there has not been much activity but have decided to leave a record of this visit in any event. Having read the abstract for the conference on museums and the web I was hoping that Jonathan might be prepared to make the results of his research available on-line for the mutual benefit of those in this e-network. Thanks. JZ.

[Alison Liu]

Jonathan,
I do have the very much similar interest with what you are researching now. I am also seriously pondering how (and to what degree) museum people as well as their potential audience value this kind of new communication channel. Sometimes I was wondering, people might enjoy using it (or not), but they don’t necessarily leave comments and tell others they benefit from it. It seems like a bit difficult to get feedback from online users as well as ordinary museum visitors because of the nature of informal setting that nobody is obligated to answer to a question (not like in a school). I am curious how many evidences (good or bad) can be retrieved when you can’t offer a ‘gift’ to exchange an answer sheet from someone, just like candies to the kids. haha. Just kidding.

But I personally guess it might just be because of the UNCERTAINTY of what kind of benefits museums and their target audience may receive from an online community that keeps them from investing time or staff on it. Although I don’t really have a good answer to your post, I am willing to contribute my ideas and hope they are of help to you. Personally, I would consider ‘what is worthwhile and what is not’ at least from two viewpoints: 1)the nature of the museum online community (e.g. a professional group, interest group, or social group) and 2)whether the facility of discussions/collaborations can kept capturing participators’ attention.

In the case of viewpoint 1, if I have to speculate on the degree of how much is worthwhile, I would guess the degree of Professional online network (e.g. staffs within a museum or between museums) ﹥(higher than) Interest group network (e.g. museum to the people, or teachers/ researchers/ artists/ scientists/ historians in the context of museums) ﹥(higher than) Social network community (e.g. people who enjoy talking around museum related issues). But it is just my quick guess, and still rests with specific situations.

In the case of viewpoint 2, I feel like there are so many variables involved with the ‘life span’ and ‘aliveness’ of an museum online community, which have lots to do with what is worthwhile and what is not. Like, whether there is a coordinator in charge of stimulating/hosting the conversation, the style of his/her articles, the frequency of posting a dialogue, the rhythm and levels of members’ participation … Plus, what type of museum online community is employed, like blog, wiki, listserv, CMS, LMS, flickr, youtube, facebook…(what else?), each one brings differently to their online users.

Perhaps we still need a definition about ‘what is an online community’ before ready for asking for a thought, as sometimes I become confused about the definition by myself when more and more different types of social technologies blur together. If people were not allowed to judge this within a specifically defined frame, will it be easy for them to come out with an answer to ‘what is worthwhile’?

Hsiang-Yi