I made this animation for the 2009 Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Webwise conference.
I was on a panel titled Online Communities and The Institution chaired by Nina Simon of Museum 2.0 with Shelley Bernstein, Chief of Technology at the Brooklyn Museum and Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian of Congress for Library Services.
Nina wanted us to be provocative and I thought this might be the time and place to, as @ulotrichous (Eli Neiburger from Ann Arbor Public Library) said, defuse "traditional arguments against letting go of content." I was a little worried about the presentation. I thought that either I was being too harsh in caricaturing those who have reservations about online content, or that Webwise attendees were already past objections like "if we put content online nobody will come to our museum/library/archive."
Far from the case apparently.
Deanna said she thought the animation "was filmed inside the Library of Congress" and many many attendees told me that the script cut very close to home.
I'm going to cross-post this to the Smithsonian 2.0 blog, Slideshare, and also put a linear video clip of the first part of the flash file on YouTube.
Love it.
Posted by: Frankie Roberto | March 05, 2009 at 12:12 PM
Crazy good and relevant to more than museum issues! Thank you.
Posted by: Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher | March 05, 2009 at 02:01 PM
Certainly relevant (and humorous). As long as the material being published/posted is agreed-upon and approved first, and not just sent out at whim. Allowing any employee to act as "spokesperson" on behalf of the organization can be problematic and hamper years of work on behalf of public affairs/marketing/communications staff.
Posted by: Emwhy | March 05, 2009 at 03:12 PM
This was my personal highlight of Web Wise. What a great way to kick off the conference. We all face the same barriers.
Posted by: Dana Mitroff Silvers | March 05, 2009 at 03:38 PM
Emwhy, you might want to read the Cluetrain Manifesto, which argues very persuasively indeed that non-marketing employees are the very best spokespeople for an organization in the Internet Age. Everyone can smell soulless marketing and branding from ten miles away; what they want are real conversations with real people.
But maybe it depends what you mean by "material." What *do* you mean by "material"? Blog posts? Pictures of the Smithsonian panda? High-resolution images of paintings or manuscripts?
Posted by: Amanda French | March 05, 2009 at 03:54 PM
this is great. tried to find on twoyube, shlidestare, etc...and it wasn't posted yet...wanna SPREAD.....let us know when it goes up!
Posted by: James G. Leventhal | March 05, 2009 at 04:14 PM
Love this.
I certainly agree with Amanda French that audiences love and respond to authentic voices. Marketing teams tend to want to control their turf just as collections staff want to control theirs, but their roles are changing as well. Yes, you can translate interesting content about the museum into public communications like newsletters and collateral. Yes, you can set up a great media relations strategy and dissemination policies. Yes, you have a huge role to play in design and image and in identifying and reaching audiences. But to make the mistake of stifling the authentic voices of museum staff is to rob the museum of its unique value to those people who want a relationship with it. This is just a judgment issue: sure there may be a few 'loose cannon' staff who should not represent the institution. But on the whole, the staff has very high buy-in, personal investment in success, and true enthusiasm. They are already presenting to the public daily and at conferences and seminars, and they are posting online too - just not necessarily in ways you know about. Establishing goals and guidelines for staff doing social networking, and then allowing them to develop your museum's voice - that can be the foundation for a truly meaningful and productive relationship with your institution.
I love getting Tweets from the Smithsonian, which are quirky and often funny. Other museums do this really well, too. I recently had a conversation with a history museum CEO who related a story about letting one of his curators blog. The curator mentioned that on the way to some program or other, he'd been pulled over...for speeding. The marketing staffer called the CEO in a panic - "We can't let him say that!" and the CEO thought for a minute and then replied "Well....why not?" Is there really a reason why all online presence has to be bland and devoid of personality? Does the pull-over story do harm, or does it humanize and democratize the museum and make it feel more familiar and personal? There is a lot of fear, but we are leaving an age in which we manage institutional images facelessly. And I think that's a good thing.
(The only unrealistic part of the video? It's supposed to be a museum, but the administrator, the web guy, and the 3rd person referred to are...all men. That isn't my experience of museum work, where women outnumber the guys 3:1. Credit where credit's due?)
Posted by: Michelle | March 05, 2009 at 06:46 PM
Michael,
You are awesome! Well done. I'm glad that I was able to meet and talk with you a few weeks ago. Helps me appreciate it even more! Keep it up.
Posted by: Chris Alexander | March 05, 2009 at 11:21 PM
OMG this is so awesome. Thanks for sharing this with all of us!
Posted by: rikomatic | March 06, 2009 at 01:33 AM
Thanks everyone! Crawling out of the fog of flu and catching up with messages.
re: Michelle & that they're both guys - - yes, I agonized about that but ultimately felt more comfortable ridiculing my own gender and ethnic group.
I just cross posted to the Smithsonian 2.0 blog at http://smithsonian20.typepad.com, which just might ruffle some feathers.
Posted by: Michael Edson | March 06, 2009 at 04:57 PM
"lose" not "loose"
Posted by: Account Deleted | March 08, 2009 at 02:59 PM
Loved it!!! Also true for Higher Ed.!
Posted by: Beth Harris | March 08, 2009 at 08:34 PM
re: "lose/loose" thanks MarketingMentor. Fixed!
re: Beth Harris "also true for Higher Ed.!" My first reaction was "great!" Then, after a few seconds, I realized "Oh, sorry to hear that ;("
Posted by: Michael Edson | March 08, 2009 at 08:49 PM
Sorry is right! You have no idea...maybe even worse...!
Posted by: Beth Harris | March 08, 2009 at 09:48 PM
This is the single most instructive and useful training tool I've seen in a very long time. Thank you!!
Posted by: Sonja Plummer-Morgan | March 09, 2009 at 12:07 PM
I'd love to see the same done from the other perspective.
Posted by: Adam Crymble | March 09, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Re: Sonja - - thanks!!!
Re: Adam - - In all honesty, I've been thinking of doing that. What would the rhetoric be? devoting resources to trendy, high-cost/low-impact "boutique" efforts at the expense of core services to core users?
Posted by: Michael Edson | March 09, 2009 at 01:12 PM
...And actually, I can think of sites i've been responsible for where we've put way too much effort into breaking new ground without spending any time on things like the "visit" page, effectiveness of search results, basic user experience.
Posted by: Michael Edson | March 09, 2009 at 01:17 PM