Hi all: Here's a bit of our history and experience with an in-house "new media" team.
I've been part of our "Technology and New Media" department for the past 3 years, coming into it just as the department was being created, as a merger between IT and the AV folks. At that time, almost all our new media content was being developed by contractors, not in-house. At the nexus of the IT/AV merger, we spent much of our time combining efforts to become more efficient at tech support, installation, and maintenance --just hardware and software. Once we streamlined IT and AV, we found time to train and begin doing our own content design (we started with video production), first for exhibition work and now finally web. Since we know the hard/software, we can now exploit its potential by making great content. At present, while still doing IT and AV, we develop our exhibit and web content in-house by a small team (e.g., Adobe Flash, HD video production, graphic design, and Drupal [web] admin). We found it more cost-effective and strategic to learn the latest skills or hire appropriately to do content design in-house, rather than outsource our content development and web project management. Our staff just tends to understand what we do, our strategy, and our audience better than contractors. By doing more in-house and learning on-the-fly, we're able to be more responsive to changing trends in the cultural arts sector and push for emerging standards because we understand them. As far as handling multiple channels, we're just now developing a web presence that conforms to mobile devices (via media queries). We're probably slower to implement standards than a skilled contractor would be, but we feel like we now own the decision making processes; I think that has real value. As part of our "new media" team, we're dedicating time and staff to learning digital asset management and the art of monetizing our image collections. Doing so will ultimately create more earned revenue and allow us to expand our expertise and perhaps staffing. Adam Carrier Web Manager The Mariners' Museum 100 Museum Drive Newport News, Virginia 23606 Phone (757) 952-0431 Fax (757) 591-7319 acarrier at MarinersMuseum.org www.MarinersMuseum.org America's National Maritime Museum -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Weinstein, William Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 3:12 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Do you have Digital and New Media Team? Please share your responses with the list. -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kate Woodall Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 8:57 PM To: Museums Computer Group; Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Do you have Digital and New Media Team? Dear all Do you have a Digital and New Media type team? If you do what does it look like? What sort of skills sets do you have within it? What sort work do these people do? What is it missing? In particular I'm interested in whether organisations have dedicated teams/people that look after areas such as: Content development and delivery for the web Development, production and delivery of content via other channels (i.e. social media platforms, mobile devices etc) Maintaining true dialogue over these channels Web development New media development and production Thanks Kate Kate Woodall | Snr Concept Developer Digital Projects Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa | PO Box 467 | Cable Street | Wellington Direct Dial: +64 4 3817079 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Visit the Te Papa website http://www.tepapa.govt.nz The email message together with the accompanying attachments may be CONFIDENTIAL. If you have received this message in error, please notify mail at tepapa.govt.nz immediately and delete the original message. The views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states them to be views of Te Papa. Te Papa employs strict virus checking measures and accepts no liability for any loss caused either directly or indirectly by a virus arising from the use of this message or any attached file. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.1901 / Virus Database: 2109/4778 - Release Date: 01/31/12 _______________________________________________ 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 The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
