Seth -- the ideal of providing many different layers of access to a museum collection isn't really a new one. it's what museums have done, all along: from access to a reading room, or storage facility for a scholar, to an exhibition with interpretation (that a visitor can 'use' or not), to a tour tailored for a particular age group. we've been doing very similar things on the web to -- trying to understand the strengths of various genres and, when a particular goal can be stated, tailoring an experience for that user community.
when we created the AMICO Library, for example, we positioned it as 'raw material' for teaching and research... and consciously called it a 'library' (rather than a museum or an exhibition) to emphasize this. the same can be said of the early (1970s and 80s) national inventory projects in Canada or in France; documenting collections provided information about them, without interpretive context. Other projects have focused on providing interpretive content witha particular communications goal: For example, take a look at last years, Best of the Web exhibition winner: Rembrandt-Caravaggio Webspecial from the Rijksmuseum, The Netherlands at http://www.rembrandt-caravaggio.nl?index_en.htm there's some tension in the discourse -- if you take a very long view -- between investing in good content (documentation in text, image and multimedia), and investing in good applications (that present that content in meaningful ways). what's interesting is that the needs of user communities have changed (developed, become more sophisticated over time). The ArtsConnectEd work comes to mind here... where the target moved from providing teachers lesson plans, to providing tools to create lesson plans, to working with teachers to identify evolving needs). an api is one more way to provide a particular kind of access to a part of the content that museums make available online. i don't expect there will be a single museum api, but many, offering lower-level access to the various kinds of information museums distribute (you only have to look at the IMA dashboard to see the breadth of possible content there!). but relying on that level of access alone belies the interpretive mandate of the museum, and assumes a technological sophistication on the part of all users that may not be there. /jt At 3:21 PM +0100 3/19/08, Seth van Hooland wrote: >Dear all, > >One of the issues I'm exploring within my phd on digitized cultural >heritage, is the difficulty within our application domain to define >and "guess" the user needs regarding digitized heritage collections >and the interfaces we build around them to provide access. It's >relatively easy to find examples of projects that failed due to the >lack of interest for user needs when developing a project, but I am >specifically looking for cases where institutions really did their >best to define their audience (and their needs), but where at the end >they were still surprised by different types of users and uses that >showed up in practice and that they didn't think about... Please drop >me a line when you think of any interesting cases and people I might >contact. > >A recent development within this discussion is to adopt and radicalize >the idea that an institution can never predict user needs, and should >therefore concentrate on offering data and metadata in "use-neutral" >manner, in combination with an API so that external parties can >develop services upon your data and users can "hack" your data and >have a standard toolkit to their disposition to fulfill their >specific needs. A simple but illustrative example is the widget that >the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam) has launched in 2005 >(see http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/widget?lang=en) >. Shortly after the launch of this widget, an ICT student hacked the >non-public XML stream to offer an RSS feed (see >http://breyten.livejournal.com/111482.html) > that is now know as the "informal" museumfeed of the Rijksmuseum >(thank you Saskia Scheltjens for pointing out this example!). > >I'm sure quite some people have an opinion on this issue, so please >contact me with your remark and/or links to specific projects that I >could use to illustrate theses issues within my research. > >Thank you! > >ULB - Facult? de philosophie et lettres >Dpt SIC - fili?re STIC >Av. F.D. Roosevelt, 50 CP 123 >1050 Bruxelles >B?t. DC.11.203 >+32 2 650 40 80 >http://homepages.ulb.ac.be/~svhoolan/ >skype username: sethvanhooland > > > > >_______________________________________________ >You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the >listserv of the Museum Computer Network >(http://www.mcn.edu) > >To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu > >To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: >http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l -- __________ J. Trant jtrant at archimuse.com Partner & Principal Consultant phone: +1 416 691 2516 Archives & Museum Informatics fax: +1 416 352 6025 158 Lee Ave, Toronto Ontario M4E 2P3 Canada http://www.archimuse.com __________
