Timing is everything – When do people consume your museum’s new media activities?

Photo by Diana Hammond.

With the rise of new media a paradigm shift has occurred in the time when people “consume” museums. In the old days people would pick a specific moment to visit a museum. Maybe dress up a bit, make it a day out. On an average they would pick two, maybe three moments a year to spend time with museums. Nowadays, using Twitter and Facebook, we try to make people interact with museums twenty-four seven. They don’t even have to be dressed to “visit” a museum.

By doing so, we’ve entered into the battle for attention of our consumers. And it’s a crowded battlefield.

Timing is essential when it comes to getting an optimal response to your cries for attention. As a museum that is closed on Sundays will miss out on a lot of visitors, a tweet send when all followers are asleep or busy is lost forever. So, when are people most likely to consume a museum’s new media activities?

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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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Erik Schilp on the Canon of Dutch history and the museum of 21st century

March 23rd Erik Schilp, CEO of the Dutch Museum of National History (the institution I work for) gave a compelling speech on the Canon of Dutch history and the museum of the 21st century. He gave his speech “The Dutch Canon as guiding principle for the new National Museum of History of the Netherlands?” at the Euroclio Conference in Nijmegen. And, fortunately for non-Dutch speaking readers of this blog, his speech was in English. You can read the full text of his speech as a PDF.

I full-heartedly agree with Erik’s thoughts and ideas about the role of museums in society and the changes they have to make to meet the new demands of visitors. Some excerpts:

On new media and technology:

(…) the influence of new media and technology has changed the concepts of museums even more rapidly and radically. With the whole world at their feet, at least digitally, people are making other demands on public institutions. They are better informed of the possibilities, are more emancipated and demanding and, on the whole, are also more inquisitive and have a greater appetite for information. The focus of attention is no longer the collection, but the visitor. It is not the collection that is important, but the story behind it. The collection serves as an illustration of the story to be told, and sometimes of what a visitor may wish to convey to other visitors.

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