2009 MPMA Annual Meeting New West
Solutions in Old West Settings
October 5-9, 2009 - Cheyenne, Wyoming
MPMA 2009 Web Session, H5
Friday, Oct. 9, 9:00 am — 10:15 am
Economical Websites: Do You Need Help? Blogs, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace - Using Free Social Networks for Museums
These days, museum professionals are expected to know everything about websites.
Yet, many don’t monitor their museum’s website and pay others to make changes
to it. And, oh those pesky questions board members always ask: How can I see my
donation on the web? Why are you on MySpace -- MPMA Museums MySpace -- and not on a more “current” site? Why did our museum website address just become an on-line drug store? How can we save money by using email? Couldn’t you just do that blog in your extra time? Get answers to these questions and see how you can save money and be
more web effective.
A Second Life for Museums part of the session will include work being done at Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, by a group of students from a variety of departments working together to document Museum Life and respond with creative projects that are then rolled out through social networking sites. The project culminates in an installation/performance/video piece in Spencer's 21st Century gallery. Goal is that thousands will have viewed and interacted with the project via social networking. Spencer Museum of Art will have more virtual friends than walk in the front door. Second Life is a virtual reality social networking site. Spencer Museum of Art has received IMLS funding for some of their social network work.
Museums & Web 2.0: Slaying Dragons or Titlting at Windmills ? Blogs, YouTube, MySpace - Using Social Networks for Museums
As part of the continuing discussion of the role of technology within the museum field, this session will focus on certain web-based phenomena that have virtually revolutionized how people—particularly teenagers and young adults—use the Web. By examining social networking, self-promotion and “deep personalization” (via YouTube, and virtual reality lives (via Second Life) we will interpret the meaning of these technologies for museums: What exactly are these technologies? How do they function? How can museum professionals use them to reach new demographics?
Blogs, RSS, social networks etc. are free tools that help market and promote; but when you don't have the manpower or time to use them -- or find that marketing your blog or profile is as much work as your website -- what can you do? Use existing bloggers & social networks to broadcast your message, organization, even your existing press release for you -- in a way that generates excitement and isn't considered 'spam'. Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Technorati, blogging, podcasts, RSS -- not all Web 2.0 opportunities are equal, not in terms of time & ease of use nor in ability to reach your target audience. Discussion on how to identify & evaluate the bloggers, networks & other Internet methods that can help you meet visitors, volunteers and other museum supporters -- and meet your goals.
Museums & Social Networks: The Discorporation of Communication, Community, and Culture
A Second Life for Museums part of the session will include work being done at Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, by a group of students from a variety of departments working together to document Museum Life and respond with creative projects that are then rolled out through social networking sites. The project culminates in an installation/performance/video piece in Spencer's 21st Century gallery. Goal is that thousands will have viewed and interacted with the project via social networking. Spencer Museum of Art will have more virtual friends than walk in the front door. Second Life is a virtual reality social networking site. Spencer Museum of Art has received IMLS funding for some of their social network work.
Chair: George Laughead; President, Ford County Historical Society, Dodge City, KS; Manager, WWW Virtual Library @ www.vlib.us, and Kansas Heritage Group. In 2005, he was a member of Tim Berners-Lee's Virtual Library management committee. His hobbies include playing google as a computer game.
Presenters:
Robert Hickerson, Photographer/Database Project Manager, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS and is also the digital image workshop presenter at MPMA.
Deanna Dahlsad, Fargo, ND, has decades of marketing/community relations experience, including the non-profit sector, and a decade of hands-on Internet marketing experience. Along with running several websites and blogs, she is a freelance writer and a staff writer at Collectors' Quest.
Neal Smith, Start-Thinking, LLC, Wichita, KS, non-profit public relation web and communications firm; also graduate student, Wichita State University Public History program.
MPMA 2007 Web Session
MySpace, YouTube and OurMuseums: Using Social Networks for Museums -
Reaching Generation Why?
As part of the continuing discussion of the role of technology within the museum field, this session will focus on certain web-based phenomena that have virtually revolutionized how people—particularly teenagers and young adults—use the Web. By examining social networking, self-promotion and “deep personalization” (via YouTube, and virtual reality lives (via Second Life) we will interpret the meaning of these technologies for museums: What exactly are these technologies? How do they function? How can museum professionals use them to reach new demographics?
Second Life - Museums & the 21th Century: Spencer Museum of Art Project
A Second Life for Museums part of the session will include work being done at Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, by a group of students from a variety of departments working together to document Museum Life and respond with creative projects that are then rolled out through social networking sites. The project culminates in an installation/performance/video piece in Spencer's 21st Century gallery. Goal is that thousands will have viewed and interacted with the project via social networking. Spencer Museum of Art will have more virtual friends than walk in the front door. Second Life is a virtual reality social networking site.
Chair: George Laughead; President, Ford County Historical Society, Dodge City, KS; Manager, WWW Virtual Library @ www.vlib.us/
Presenter:
Jeremy Clark, Principal & Consultant, Orinda Group, a museum planning and consulting firm with offices in Los Angeles, Portland, OR, and Charleston, SC. Orinda Group principals have designed online exhibitions and museum websites since 1999.
MPMA Technology Committee
Continued formation of the MPMA Technology committee and announcements
concerning the developing MPMA Web Site.
All MPMA members are invited to join, or to submit issues and possible areas of involvement for the committee.
Suggested MPMA Technology Committee areas of interest:
MPMA Website: getting MPMA's website found throughout the Internet and obtaining first page results on related searches. This would involve linkage and other website issues, such as domain name selection and protection of names, and site security and backup. There would be ongoing recommendations for the MPMA website. New area of discussion is the social networking sites and MPMA and museum policies related to them -- and recommendations related to the non-domain status since users don't actually own these addresses.
MPMA Member Links: establish back and forth web links to the MPMA site from all Institutional Member sites. Make it part of the benefit of being an Institutional Member of MPMA. All Institutional Members will benefit from linkage, especially the least web visible museums. Linkage and content are the two main building blocks of search engine results. In other words, this is how your institution can be a top result on searches for your museum and your state museums.
MPMA business members/sponsors: links established back and forth to our site. They will benefit from items one and two, also.
Marketing: Amazon.com accounts and other accounts possible; company links with possible financial benefit to MPMA. There are many other ideas for marketing. This area will benefit from items one and two.
Development of future technology projects to help MPMA and the museum community. Digital conversion and storage issues and techniques are possible areas.
Public educational and facility opportunities for museums with new technologies is another possible area of interest for this committee.
Contact and connection with non-MPMA member sites, such as AAM's website, with important museum related non-MPMA member sites, and with AAM's website, etc. This would be a PR role for the committee, and would also involve building non-MPMA email contact with the broader museum community. National level organizations of all types could work with the MPMA on web issues.
Note to MPMA Members: Various WWW-VL: History sites are in need of new volunteer maintainers. No code work necessary. Contact me at MPMA if interested in being involved in the oldest WWW sites, and the most powerful non-commercial structure of pointers.
![[logo: WWW Virtual Library, copyright Sir Tim Berners-Lee, used by permission.]](www.gif){kind=small}
![[logo:Kansas Heritage Group]](heritage.gif){kind=small}