[MCN-L] MCN 2010 Conference: What are the must-attend topics?

[Proctor, Nancy]

Hi all,
As program chair for MCN's fabulous conference in Austin, Texas (Oct 27-30, 2010), I'd love to get your help on setting the conference theme.

Below are some ideas from the MCN board and SIG chairs. I've posed them on a Conference Program Planning Wiki where we can add to and amend the list more easily: http://mcn2010.pbworks.com/

Since great minds think alike, there's a fair amount of overlap so this is not necessarily the only way to divide up the concepts. But you may also have other and better suggestions for what will make the conference most useful to YOU, what will make you, your stakeholders and funders say, "Can't miss MCN 2010!" - and we want to hear them! So please join the discussion on the wiki, in the listserve, or feel free to contact me directly if you prefer.


 1.  The Museum Inside-Out/Outside-In or Transparency: Turning the Museum Inside Out or "Radical Transparency" (Max Anderson)
    *   Exposing to our public what were previously internal activities: not only showing the finished result, but in fact also how we got there.
    *   The "commons" idea: most of our work and resources have an increased value when they're shared, rather than jealously guarded
    *   Supporting local and global audiences
    *   What is our responsibility to "non-visitors"? What can museums realistically, honestly and helpfully offer or promise them about a museum experience in which they never come into physical contact with the collections?
    *   Is the online experience unique in some way?
    *   Avoiding over-emphasis on the physical visit (and starving the online presence of content - because the only thing Web sites are good for is preparing for your visit, and following up after a visit, right?)...
    *   ...While emphasizing that online interaction is but one of many possible engagement scenarios available to museums, and that "technology" assists in making every one of those scenarios possible.
 2.  Open Source, Open Content, Open Learning
    *   Democratizing Access (from SI's Commons proposal)
    *   Finding ways to be open and inclusive of multiple voices without compromising our authority and trustworthiness, which is one of our most valuable assets.
    *   Trust and Reputation (as in, what do these things mean for museums in the post-Wikipedia age)
    *   Process/Immediacy (as in "Process Journalism," meaning telling stories as they happen, rather than summarizing after the thing is over)
    *   How museums are embracing user generated content, as well as controlling or being gatekeepers of it.
       *   The new authoritative (expert) voice of online users in our community: will museums accept the expertise and content generated by its online users?
       *   See Nina Simon's post:  http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2008/10/future-of-authority-platform-power.html
       *   IMLS recently released a guide on the Future of Museums and Libraries, in which one of the discussion themes is dedicated to shifts in power and authority http://www.imls.gov/resources/resources.shtm
    *   OpenID
    *   Generative Assets (Kevin Kelly's term for assets that can't be cloned, replicated, or reproduced)
 3.  Bridging the Digital Divide
    *   Back-of-house challenges
    *   The increasing costs associated with digital collections
    *   The divide, perceived or real, between on-line visitors and in-person visitors
    *   DAMS solutions for small museums
    *   Integration: e.g. solving problems with dedicated software systems (CIS, CMS, ticketing, membership, e-commerce, DAMS, etc.) that in many cases are not well integrated and result in multiple sets of data about the same things, along with other headaches. User-generated content further complicates the information architecture.
    *   CMS <--> DAMS information flows
    *   Unified vision for communication strategy: easier said than done! The lines between "old" and "new" communication are blurring, some fading away, some emerging, some being re-invented.
    *   Big split between the print and the online way of thinking, mostly based on a staff person's professional comfort level with online technology

Here are the MCN themes from previous years (thanks, Rich Cherry!):

 *   2009 Museum Efficiency: Doing More with Less!
 *   2008 LET'S DO I.T. RIGHT!
 *   2007 BUILDING CONTENT, BUILDING COMMUNITY: 40 Years of Museum Information and Technology
 *   2006 ACCESS TO ASSETS: Return on Investment
 *   2005 DIGITS FUGIT! Preserving Knowledge into the Future
 *   2004 Great Technology for Collections, Confluence and Community
 *   2003 Balancing Museum Technology and Transformation
 *   2002 In it for the long haul-technology programs that go the distance
 *   2001 Real Life: Virtual Experiences New Connections for Museum Visitors
 *   2000 none? (or "Las Vegas: WhooHoo!")
 *   1999 Access for All: Integrating Cultural Heritage, Media and Technology
 *   1998 Knowledge Creation, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Preservation

--
Nancy Proctor, PhD
Head of New Media Initiatives
Smithsonian American Art Museum
MRC 970 PO Box 37012
Washington DC 20013-7012
USA

t: +1-202-633-8439
c: +1-301-642-6257
f: +1-202-633-8455

http://www.americanart.si.edu
http://eyelevel.si.edu/