Sharing the R+D load with other museums

Richard Urban at Museumatic rightly brought up the issue of inter-museum competition in a recent post. Understandably, some museums emulate others when bits of good practice come along, but wouldn't a more collaborative approach get us all further faster? The point is:

Working together to develop a community-wide research agenda that can then disseminate information and resources out to the community as a whole seems like a responsible and ethical way to approach this problem.... A research lab seems to be something we are seriously lacking here in museumland.... Who am I missing that does this kind of research on other kinds of museumtechnology issues?

Well, in the UK context, the London Museums Hub captures some of this collaborative spirit. The LMH is a partnership between 4 London museums (including the London Transport Museum, where I work), designed to share skills and improve capacity, with the aim of disseminating shared learning to other museums in the region.

Perhaps an even more radical approach could be taken, where more energy is devoted to shared R+D work. What I mean is a kind of think tank approach, where partners even take part in combined brainstorming, and envisioning of museum futures. I have to come clean and say that I'm not really fully in the loop here: it may be that this kind of thing is already going on, either/both formallly or/and informally. If it hasn't been formalised, then there is clearly an opportunity here.

If we think creatively beyond the competition for funding, there may be a way to have our cake and eat it. The whole point of sharing is that the more you do it the better it works. What is unique about any given museum? It's collections. If we work together to develop technologies that can drive improvement in the user experience--even beyond the framework provided by LMH, new and productive combinations might be possible. The growing museum blogosphere is evidence of a collaborative ethos. Let's make the most of it. Overly idealistic? Maybe. Worth thinking about? Definitely.

All Change - British Museum, London

Some really interesting and inspiring ideas were flying around at this conference yesterday, focusing on how to "adapt and thrive in the digital age."

John Dolan (Head of Library Policy at MLA) reminded us that public libraries have traditionally been about opening access to users, so web 2.0 isn't anything too revolutionary for the mla sector--it's just an extension of what we've been doing for years.

Our institutions, he said, have an important role (almost therapeutic) in helping people to cope with that state of "informed bewilderment" that is life in the digital age [at least on one side of the digital divde anyway].

Brian Kelly of UKOLN stole the show with his energetic and informed challenge to received wisdom, leaving me (and many others I'm sure) with no excuses about taking web 2.0 forward in some way, shape or form. Every organisation needs to look carefully at their needs and what users actually want, but it's clear that the challenges aren't primarily technical.

At London Transport Museum, we're coming to to the end of a £20m+ transformation project and we'll be launching a brand new website to go with it. With more and more web users coming to expect 2.0 features, we'll be missing a trick if we don't take some calculated risks and make a start.

And, by using RSS technology, or having a myspace or facebook presence, or a few flickr galleries, museums can send a message that they're not standing still. Not to mention leveraging these web platforms at little cost to themselves.

In a way, this is just an extension of the sort of outreach and community programme work that museums have done for a long time.

In the 19th century, pioneers like George Birkbeck in the UK and Josiah Holbrook in the US advocated "mutual instruction", where small groups of workingmen educated one another, taking turns leading discussions about topics from mathematics to bricklaying to horticulture. A precursor of knowledge communities and discussion forums on the web today?

So, it seems there's nothing new here.

I'll be looking more closely at Brian Kelly's blog later--but this is definitely one to watch.