The Memory Book: Museum gathers content online

The Smithsonian Institution's museum dedicated to black history and culture, National Museum of African American History and Culture launched last month with an interactive website, "The Memory Book" - long before its building opens.

Blogging technology allow visitors to help produce content for future exhibits at the museum, with long essays, short vignettes of memories or recorded oral histories.

According to Lonnie Bunch, the museum's founding director, museum staff monitor the site for historical accuracy, and technical filters apparently block racist or inappropriate comments. Bunch regards the site as a "virtual museum" and a new source of research for curators and scholars.

Apart from the interesting use of social-networking technologies, I was intrigued by the navigation system: the first time I have ever seen an interactive 'link-web' diagram used as a navigation device throughout a website:



It's one of those applications of web technology that I classify as "Cool, but not very practical".

More information:
Memory Book Overview
Sydney Morning Herald article

museums + blogging, tag clouds & folksonomies

On 18 July 2007, I attended an interesting seminar at the Australian Museum, on museums + blogging, tags, tag clouds & folksonomies.

Here are some of my notes:

1. Museum Blogs
Mel Broe, Master of Design Science, Digital Media, University of Sydney

Museum 2.0 blog
(By the way, check out the YouTube video: a 3D -- or 4D, really -- recreation of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" - also here.)

Museum Journal, Mel's own Blog, contains some helpful definitions.

Fresh+new (Powerhouse Museum's blog):
"Discussion of issues in digital media and museums"
Check out their disclaimer: "This site is for discussion purposes only and does not represent the official views of the Powerhouse Museum. Any views expressed on this website are those of the individual post author only. The Powerhouse Museum accepts no liability for the content of this site." I raised the issue of whether or not this would actually have legal validity. No-one there was a lawyer, as far as I know :-). Probably the answer to this question would only be determined if the issue were tested in court.

Mel made the point that blogs are more effective, in that they encourage more involvement from others, the more "straightforward" they are (i.e. in their interface). This is one place where "plain", text-based interaction is better than attractive and "clever" design.


2. Tag Clouds
Roger Hudson, Web Usability

18th C: Carl (or Carolus) Linnaeus: often called the Father of Taxonomy = hierarchical classification systems
(e.g., for living things:
- Domain
- - Kingdom
- - - Branch
- - - - Phylum
- - - - - Order
- - - - - - Family
- - - - - - - Genus
- - - - - - - - Species)

1876: Melvil Dewey: created Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) System (also hierarchical)
Very conservative, Protestant, white, American (So, e.g. 200-299 = Religion & mythology, but 200-289: Christianity; 290-299: All other religions!)

1930s: S. R. Ranganathan: developed his faceted classification scheme to overcome limitations of DDC. A faceted system recognises that any given subject has many aspects, and tries to synthesise these aspects in a way that best describes the subject. (See the Mystic Seaport website for an article on "Ranganathan and Facet Analysis")
>> Precursor to tags (& metatags)
E.g.
Epicurious:
Individual recipes can be discovered by "cuisine", "course", "occasion", "preparation method" or "main ingredients"
Etsy:
Individual items can be discovered by colour, type, location of seller, or "connection" with other items
(By the way, check out the amazing find-by-colour page.)

"Folksonomy" (portmanteau word: folk+taxonomy): See vanderwal.net for a discussion of folksonomy.
Assumption: If enough people tag an object, interesting and useful patterns will appear.
On the other hand, there may be a danger of "tag swamp"
May be necessary sometimes to cull tags?

Tag clouds (e.g. del.icio.us/tag): a list of linked tags where text-size reflects popularity
However, this is still not commonly understood: approx. 1/2 of people assume that relative sizes reflect the site owner's priorities.

Australian Museum Seminar Series (audio + transcripts)