How to create the right digital mindset in your museum (in an hour)?

Photo by J Brew on Flickr.

1. Yesterday I hosted the return day of a DEF workshop at the Danish Museum Association in Copenhagen. After enjoying an insightful presentation about the digital strategy of SMK and a thoughtful presentation about digital at the National Museum, we discussed some of the most pressing issues that hindered the digital potential of Danish museums. Number one among these issues: the digital mindset (or lack thereof) with colleagues in the museums.

We carefully broke the idea of a ‘digital mindset’ down to its core behaviours: what does a person do when he or she has a digital mindset? The answers varied widely between people and institutions: A colleague with a digital mindset shares ideas, uses the right tools for the right challenges, is present on social networks, asks and answers questions, etc. etc. For most participants, a digital mindset had little to do with digital tools and much more with a 21st century way of working: open, collaborative, lean, proactive…

Breaking down a complex idea like ‘digital mindset’ into simple behaviour you can observe helps to find opportunities towards this idea that address understandable things, rather than abstract concepts. One of the things we figured out in Copenhagen was that talking about a ‘digital mindset’ might be the wrong way to get your colleagues to develop the desired mindset. ‘Digital’ causes resistance, while the ideas behind it may be easier accepted.

2. Which brings me to an important question I need your help with (which is why I emphasised it so outrageously): Read the rest of this entry »

Sign up now to present at the MuseumNext Ignite session

Photo by Mari Ce on Flickr.

MuseumNext, Europe’s biggest conference on innovation in museums, is just over 2 months away (12-14 May, Amsterdam). This year you’ll have the opportunity to join the many great speakers on stage in a high-energy and inspirational Ignite session! I’ll be curating the session (with some help) and would love to start collecting your suggestions.

If you’re coming to Amsterdam, please take this opportunity to share your story with an audience of enthusiastic peers. Sign up using the Google form.

Rules of the game

• You’ll need a MuseumNext badge to get in. Register now!
• An Ignite talk is 20 slides, 15 seconds per slide, auto advance. That’s 5 minutes to share your story. Watch some examples to see how this goes.
• I will reserve some spots for different format presentations (video, personal story) as long as they are under 5 minutes long.
• Selling from the stage is OK, as long as you sell fresh ideas, new insights, funny anecdotes, indecent proposals or anything else that is of genuine value to the audience. Project or product presentations preferably zoom in on a noteworthy detail.
• Your presentation will be run from a central computer that has Powerpoint and keynote installed.
• Deadline for submissions: 14 April, 2013.
• I’ll let you know before 21 April, 2013 if you’re in.

I have fond memories of every Ignite session I’ve been part of and made many friends because of them. If you want, we can do a test run prior to the conference (as long as it’s in Amsterdam:-) ).

Please share this message with your friends. See you in May!

Some great Museum Ignite Talks (share your favs in the comments):

Scaling skunkworks projects in museums: radical innovation and sustainable business

One of the (two?) heavily-debated topics at last week’s Sharing is Caring conference in Copenhagen was on how to organise teams to spur innovation. (The other, which I might reflect on in a future post as I have done in the past, on that not every position in a 21st century museum needs a PhD as the best candidate.)

In the keynote in conversation with Shelley Bernstein of the Brooklyn Museum I expressed my belief in small teams working on a tight schedule, limited budget and in relative freedom from organisational politics on huge challenges. A lot of the really worthwhile projects in museum innovation I know of have been achieved in similar situations and it’s certainly the way I like to work. Michael Edson of the Smithsonian quickly replied:

@jacob_wang@dan_andreasen The risk of “skunk works” innovation model is that it can alienate colleagues, and it doesn’t scale #sharecare12

— Michael Peter Edson (@mpedson) December 12, 2012

Certainly, there are risks with such projects, but I disagree with Michael that these projects don’t scale. At night, during dinner, (watch out: namedropping!) Lene Krogh Jeppesen, innovator at the Danish Ministry of Taxation, Sarah Giersing of Copenhagen Museum, Jacob Wang of the National Museet and others continued the discussion. Are skunkworks projects scalable and if so: how do we both spur radical innovation and create sustainable businesses? Read the rest of this entry »

Quick note: Two opportunities worth considering: Intercom and MuseumNext

Panel discussion at MuseumNext 2011 in Edinburgh. Photo: MuseumNext.

Simply put I get my energy and inspiration to do the work I do from three things: long distance running, sumptuous dining and attending conferences. Regarding conferences there are two great opportunities that need action right now that I think you should know of:

1. Intercom 2012. From 26-28 November in Sydney some of the world’s brightest museum innovators will discuss the challenges museums face nowadays. Amongst many, many others my idol David Fleming of Museum Liverpool will talk about museums and human rights, and Marsha Semmel of the Institute for Museum and Library Services will discuss the 21st century skills for museum professionals. I’ll be part of a panel and running a masterclass on digital strategy. Add great social events in a beautiful city and this is an event not to be missed!
2. Proposals for MuseumNext 2013. The biggest European museum innovation conference is coming to Amsterdam, my hometown, on 13-14 May 2013. MuseumNext’s programme is participatory, which means you can tell the world about your very best project, idea or experiment and have feedback from 100s of professionals. From experience I can tell that MuseumNext can be a turning point in a career and project. The deadline for submissions is 1 November, so make sure you’re in!

Nothing beats spending some time away from a computer and if – as with conferences – this time is shared with bright and friendly people, this time might be more productive than office time as well. If you want me to convince your boss of this, drop me a line, I’d love to see you in Sydney or Amsterdam!

All the good stuff comes from Sydney – Looking forward to Intercom 2012

Photo by Dave Griffith on Flickr.

When I started working in museums, some three and half year ago, one of the first things I discovered was Sydney. A significant number of the cool things going on in the world of cultural innovation come from the not-even-capital of a tiny nation lightyears away from ‘the old continent’. In November this year I’l finally get to see the magic of Sydney with my own eyes, and hopefully meet many of the great people whose work has inspired me, at Intercom 2012.

Now I don’t know the magic of Sydney, yet, but I’d like to share some of the products of it with you, and maybe you can tell me what it is!

• The Sydney Opera House, of course, is more than world famous. What had me fall in love, however, is not its signature architecture, but the Ship Song project. I still use this beautiful video to encourage participants in my workshops to think about the strengths of culture and (performing) arts.
• The driving force behind much of Sydney’s innovative museum force for a long time has been Seb Chan, who (un)fortunately left to turn Cooper-Hewitt into an intergalactic example. I can wait to see ‘his’ Powerhouse Museum. If you have no idea who he is (which, surprisingly, sometimes happens), see his TedxSydney talk from 2 years ago. Read the rest of this entry »