Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Web 2.0--A New Frontier for Museums?

The latest issue of AAM's Museum News features an article about Web 2.0, a new generation of web-based sites and tools that focus on social networking and interaction. MySpace, YouTube, Flickr are all Web 2.0 applications, and are some of the new venues that museums are exploring as ways to reach out to new audiences. What do you think of these applications as gateways for museum experiences? Has your museum established a presence on any of these sites? Many museums are finding success, but there are also issues with control over the content that gets tied to museum postings through comments by "visitors." How can we explore this new frontier without risking our accuracy?

2 comments:

Heather Widener said...

Along the same vein, I would love to hear from any museums that are currently involved in creating interactive, online resources for visitors, schoolchildren, etc. Along with the universal Web 2.0 tools, it seems that another trend is towards putting interactive learning experiences related to a museum's mission and collections online to extend the experience for those who have visited, and to create a 'virtual' experience for those who are too far away to visit. Any thoughts on that?

Muse Chair said...

Announcing the 2008 AAM MUSE Awards
Recognizing outstanding achievement in museum media, the AAM Media and Technology Committee announces the 19th annual MUSE Awards competition.

The 2007 MUSE Awards competition received nearly 200 applications from a wide variety of museums in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Entries included audio, cell phone, and interactive handheld tours, interactive kiosks and multimedia installations, podcasts, blogs, games, Web sites, online collection and image databases, videos, and e-mail marketing campaigns. This year we are expecting another exciting round of projects that reflect innovation in the museum media community.

We will accept online applications on the AAM Media and Technology Web site from December 3, 2007, to January 11, 2008. Only $25 per entry.

Visit http://www.mediaandtechnology.org to enter your project.

We look forward to your participation!