6 social media trends in culture according to you

Photo by Simone Schoutens of Mediamatic.

Most of the workshops I run I conclude with a simple and effective game I call Bag It or Bin It*. Simply put I ask participants to summarise the main ideas of the workshop and put them into two categories: the ideas they will follow up (these go in the bag) and the ideas they never want to hear about again (these go in the bin). The result is a nicely coloured co-created do’s and dont’s list for the participants.

Minke Havelaar, with whom I run a series of workshops for Mediamatic’s Kom Je Ook?, has made a summary of a couple of Bag It or Bin It games we played about social media marketing strategy with cultural institutions. The result reads like a trend list for social media development in the cultural and non-profit sector. Especially interesting is what people put in their bags regarding the strategic use of social media.

So, what do our colleagues focus on when it comes to social media? Here’s 100s of ideas summarised in six clear trends:

1. Quantity versus quality of content
   Do’s include writing Tweets and Facebook updates according to best practices (short, images, etc.), the 9-1 rule for writing more about others than about yourself and thinking more strategically about each piece of content.
2. Measuring and analysing
   Participants planned to focus on metrics and tools such as Google Analytics, but also on writing reports about social media successes and outcomes for management and coworkers. Read the rest of this entry »

28 low-budget, easy-to-do things to do with new media for cultural institutions

Update 09/17/2010: Added 4 new things to do contributed by readers of this blog. Thanks!

Last week some of my colleagues and I hosted a new media afternoon with workshops for participants in the Week van de Geschiedenis (“Week of the History”). During this annual event hundreds of cultural institutions in the Netherlands organise activities related to history. Over 250,000 people all over the Netherlands visit debates, tours, lectures, special exhibitions… I believe this week has an enormous new media potential.

Quite some of the participating institutions have zero budgets, work with volunteers and have limited or no experience with new media. Some of the visitors of the new media afternoon asked me what they could do with new media – taking into account their limitations. I composed this list of 28 simple things to do with new media for small cultural institutions to help them.

If you know of other low-budget, easy-to-do new media activities, please add them. It’s highly appreciated by the many small cultural institutions taking their first steps in new media.

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The Lego-factor: Checklist for new media and technology project proposals

Photo by Oskay on Flickr.com

While checking proposals last week for new media and technology projects, I devised a checklist to understand myself why I like certain proposals, and others not. I call it the “Lego-factor”. Lego is one of the greatest things ever invented, in my opinion. A project that scores well on the Lego-factor, therefore, might be great too.

(The checklist is under construction, as I try to put my finger on why certain proposals are great and others not. For me this often comes down to a gut feeling, rather than to be something tangible I can name and rate. Please add your thoughts, so we might build a useful checklist. Thanks!)

Checklist for new media and technology project proposals

1. Does the proposal sparkle my imagination?
   Lego is all about imagination, about creativity. Design cars and houses, play stories, live in other times. A proposal based on the audience’s creativity and imagination is a good proposal.
2. Do I immediately think about what else I could do with what the proposal offers?
   Before I opened a new box of Lego, I had already thought about a hundred ways in which I could use the new bricks other than to build the thing pictured on the box. A proposal that keeps enough options open to do other things with it is a good one.
3. Is the proposed project as simple as it can be, but not any simpler?
   The basics of Lego are really simple: bricks that can be put together almost in any thinkable way. However, it’s not as simple as regular bricks. The studs on top of a brick give strength; the hollow design keeps your buildings light but sturdy.
4. Can I use the proposed project both alone and together?
   You can play with Lego on your own and it’s great fun. You can play together with friends and it’s great fun. Neither is more fun, though. Every good new media project should provide value to the individual user and be just as fun to do with others.
5. Does the proposal add value to other things I have?
   When you buy a new box of Lego, your old Lego increases in value, as you can do more things with the collected amount of Lego. A proposal that adds value to existing things (and gains value by using other things) is a good one.
6. Is the proposed easy to use, but endless in its uses?
   Everybody can use Lego. However, the more you use it, the more interesting it gets. It’s never boring, neither for a beginner or a pro. New media and tech projects that achieve the same are good.
7. Is it ageless?
   Recently I played with Duplo (Lego’s younger brother) with a one-year-old and it was fun, for both of us. I think that, even if you aim at a specific age group with your proposal, it should be fun for everyone to work with it.
8. Does it answer a need or unobtrusively create a reasonable new need?
   This one is tricky. It might be better to ask, “Does the proposal not create irrelevant new needs such as virtual farm land?” I really believe that unless you have a really great and innovative idea a proposal should be aimed at answering existing needs rather than creating new ones.

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7 lessons about storytelling and museums – Wrap up of the Kom Je Ook? 5 conference

Today was the fifth edition of Mediamatic’s Kom Je Ook? conference.* Today’s topic was storytelling. Storytelling seems to be hot. As some of the speakers at today’s conference pointed out today, however, it’s nothing new. Virgil’s Aeneid and Homer’s Iliad used to be told as stories. That’s a long time ago. Storytelling once was the only real source of information sharing we had. The Moroccan storytellers who still tell the stories of A Thousand and One Nights are one of the many examples of this ancient tradition, still present today.

So, what we’re doing is trying to reinvent an old tradition. Fortunately, most of today speakers showed that we haven’t thrown away X million years of experience with storytelling. Actually, we might have made some small steps forward. Or regained some lost skills.

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10 things I learned about new media, technology and innovation in museums in the last year

Photo from the Flickr Commons (Field Museum Library)

I’m relatively new to museums. Apart from a short intermezzo in an ecomuseum, the last year has been my only year within the walls of a museum. I do new media and technology. We do a lot of innovation. This is what I learned last year.

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