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Should I have been so surprised when about 15 out of 150 people from the museum sector raised their hands in answer to the question: ‘Whose museum has a blog?’ I was attending a seminar entitled “Exploiting the Potential of Blogs and Social Networks” at the Museums and Heritage Exhibition 2008 in London. It was speaker Brian Kelly of UKOLN who asked the question. After the talk I asked him if he was surprised and he replied No, adding he thought it was to be expected because people were there to for the exhibition. I thought it was a lot.
It’s really exciting to witness different sectors picking up on the possibilities offered by the social web. In six out of the six half-hour seminars I attended (on the first day) every single one mentioned the marketing benefits of web technologies such as blogs and social networks.
He told the packed crowd sitting and standing in the small theatre at Earls Court Exhibition Centre that www.museumblog.org lists about 270 museum blogs. Other speakers cited their team’s use of blogs and social networks such as Facebook in their marketing campaigns. As good examples, Brian Kelly listed the Brooklyn Museum in the USA, Powerhouse Museum in Australia, English Cut tailor’s blog and Bowers Museum Blog.
Where will it all end? Brian Kelly says it’s too early to tell. He says there’s a conflict between getting collections digitised and online and investing money and resources elsewhere in things such as marketing, exhibitions etc. So, they’re all vying for the same pot of cash. He can’t mask his faith in the value of information sharing (enabled by the social web). There is a multitude of ways in which museums can do this, but it’ll be some time before they all converge and create synergies.
