Holy cow, them's fighting words.

I think that the reason we don't talk a lot about it is that perhaps many
museums don't have the right staff that can run the web site, let alone
the online web exhibits you talk about.  Many times these online web
exhibitions are created by consultants and not in-house staff.  Another
reason is "Who will maintain it?"  Is it part of the curatorial staff, is
it exhibits staff, is it the education's dept. or the marketing people.
It may seem clear cut to you, but not to those who have limited staff, no
education departments, and absolutely no time since we may be doing the
work of two people already.  In my layman's language, there are technical
aspects that make some websites more sophisticated, others mediocre, hard
to navigate if you don't have the proper plug-ins, or proper browser to
read the stuff, universal standards aren't really universal in trying to
download stuff or view the stuff, and some of us are still working with
486 DX machines with 16MB of memory; others aren't even on the net!

The mission is always what drives the museum, and new technology vehicles
to drive that home is fine, but technology isn't the almighty last word;
online exhibitions are a small portion of the general outreach museum
people conduct to reach their targeted audience, or general visitors.  I
find that some people still find online exhibitons a novelty, and not the
real part of the museum.  And that may be the reason why online exhibits
are seen as a way to increase revenue as opposed to "educate," not at all
a mistaken goal, and not a bunch of crap as you put it.  Seeing online
exhibitions as a way to promote museum education concerns is valid,
however, the main goal is to bring in the actual person, physically, to
the museum.  Online exhibits cost money and space on somebody's server,
so it's not surprising that museum-L'ers "don't want to touch this."

O
Olivia S. Anastasiadis, Curator
Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace
18001 Yorba Linda Boulevard
Yorba Linda, CA  92886
(714) 993-5075 ext. 224; fax (714) 528-0544; e-mail:  [log in to unmask]

On Thu, 13 May 1999 20:17:12 -0400 Mark Friedman <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>I am surprised to see so little discussion on MUSEUM-L about the
>creation ( and the purpose, audience, funding, and evaluation) of
>online
>exhibits for Museum web sites.
>
>How can a Museum possibly create something electronic, while still
>achieving its agreed upon mission, without some sort of discussion and
>decision as to how to combine online exhibits and online educational
>materials. I constantly read postings about people wanting to know how
>to make money on their Museum and Library web sites - what a bunch of
>crap I think that is.  Nobody stands up at Museum-L to write "How can
>I
>make more money with my upcoming traveling exhibit" - but expect their
>web sites to perform better?
>
>Looking forward to some active and frank discussion on this topic.
>
>Mark
>--
> Mark Friedman                       "The fights are so vicious
> Manager of Information Systems       because the stakes are so
>    & Webmaster                       low."
> The Mariners' Museum
> (757) 591-7756 VOICE                 (757) 591-7311 FAX
> personal email: [log in to unmask]      http://www.mariner.org
>
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