Wikipedia And The Museum

What can Wikipedia do for the museum, and what can the museum do for wikipedia?

Museums in Dialogue Seminar 23. september 2009

Nina Aldin Thune, Wikimedia Norge

Wikipedia and the Museum

What is Wikipedia?

A world, in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. (Jimmy Wales)

What is Commons?

A special project is Wikimedia Commons which is the media file repository in use for the Wikimedia projects.

What is a museum?

Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artifacts and specimens, which they hold in trust for society.

What is an encyclopedia?

An encyclopedia

• An encyclopedia is a comprehensive written compendium that holds information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge. Encyclopedias are divided into articles with one article on each subject covered.

Cabinets of curiosities.

Cabinets of curiosities.

• Early museums began as the private collections of wealthy individuals, families or institutions of art and rare or curious natural objects and artifacts . These were often displayed in so-called wonder rooms or cabinets of curiosities. Public access was often possible for the "respectable", especially to private art collections, but at the whim of the owner and his staff.

Encyclopedia

Cabinets of curiosities

Access!

No Access!

Access - the photo headaches

• Intellectual Property: Museums must respect diverse intellectual property agreements with donors and lenders, and in institutions where some artifacts can be photographed and others not, it's often easier to use the most restrictive agreements as the basis for the overall institutional policies.


• Conservation: Objects may be damaged by flash photography. Some conservators argue that if non-flash photography is permitted, light levels in the galleries may be increased to accommodate visitors' cameras, which indirectly damage artifacts. Not that many newer technologies may ease use of of low light environments.


• Revenue Streams: Museums want to maintain control of sales of "officially sanctioned" images of objects via catalogues and postcards. If people can take their own photos, they won't buy them in the gift shop.The actual revenue stream from gossips between previous visitors are often forgotten.


• Aesthetics of Experience: Photo-taking is distracting for other visitors. Looking at artwork through a lens means you are having a less rich experience. Visitors may make inappropriate gestures in photos with museum content, thus distorting institutional values and intent.


• Security: Photographers might take photos with intent to do harm; for example, with plans to rob the museum or stalk another visitor.

• Likewise, the webpages for the institutions has copyrights and I can't use the text or picture, or other content at Wikipedia.

An open photo policy

An open photo policy is a cornerstone of any institution that wants a visitor-centric platform for participatory engagement. An article in Wikipedia with pictures who show the artifacts will be much better than an article without any pictures, and maybe some of the readers wants to go to the musum to se the original item? Interest is something to be created, and an article at Wikipedia is one way to reach out to the visitors before they enters the institutions.

Share

• When people share their photos of your museum, they promote and spread your content to new audiences in authentic ways.

If it Doesn't Spread, It's Dead,

• In 2008, a team led by MIT media researcher Henry Jenkins published a white paper entitled, "If it Doesn't Spread, It's Dead," which argues that media artifacts have greatest impact when consumers are able to pass on, reuse, adapt, and remix them.

What is spreadable media good for?

• Instead of locking down access to the artifacts inside institutions, think about the institutions as a marketing issue within a new viral environment. Content is king, and make it spreadable - your unique asset is the artifacts and no shared media will ever conquer that.

Museums and Wikipedia

• I hope museums will be changing its traditional image-licensing model and develop a new business model for better access to digital content. The aim is to benefit the public and the education sector, whilst also experimenting with income streams and how they can utilise on-line communities so that the collections can reach a far greater audience. Wikipedia can help museums to reach the public with good articles about the museum and the artifacts .

How to work together

• Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. If museums and Wikipedia work together we can do something about that. The project Wikipedia builds free encyclopedic content in many, but not all, languages of the world for the purpose of education, study and enjoyment.


• Likewise the museums build encyclopedic collections of types of objects for the same purposes. Museums are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artifacts and specimens, which they hold in trust for society. Wikipedia use words and pictures, museums have the real things.


• Authors on Wikipedia want to write articles about museums and the artifacts they contain, but they need access to the museums and permission to take pictures. The museums themselves can upload pictures with a free license, but seldom do that. Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums - and Wikipedia - must try to find the common ground.

References:

• Wikipedia• Museum Photo• Open Licensing and the Future for Collections• If It Doesn't Spread, It's Dead• Wikimania Glam• Framtidas museum

Thank you for your patience!

Wikipedia And The Museum

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