Many thanks Susan.
This is genuinely a brilliant idea, fabulously executed by all concerned
and the video is very much appreciated by those of us who could not make
it this year.
Congratulations! Let's post this widely (I am doing this now) so people
outside the MCN bubble can see what a special event these confs are.
Regards,
Simon
On 29/11/2010 21:06, Susan Chun wrote:
> This year, the MCN conference's closing plenary was a formal debate,
> featuring two teams of debaters considering topics of broad interest to the
> museum community.
>
> Our debate propositions and teams were:
>
> 1. Museums that are not run as businesses will ultimately fail.
> For the motion: Erin Coburn and Rob Stein; against the motion: Nancy Proctor
> and Bruce Wyman
>
> 2. Engagement with online visitors is as important as engagement with those
> on site.
> For the motion: Rob Stein and Len Steinbach; against the motion: Beck Tench
> and Bruce Wyman
>
> The debates were hard fought, sharply argued, and lots of fun. For those of
> you who weren't able to be there, Rich Cherry's team at the Balboa Park
> Online Collaborative captured and edited the event. Thanks to Rich for
> arranging the videotaping, to Scott Granger for the video capture, and to
> Chris Borkowski--BPOC's newest staff member--for editing the footage. A
> four-minute digest of the event has been posted on the MCN website at:
> http://www.mcn.edu/great-debate
>
> One of my favorite aspects of the debate was the participation of the
> audience. Audience members not only voted for the winners (the speakers who
> persuaded the most people to change their minds during the course of the
> debate*), but also asked really smart, thoughtful, and relevant questions
> during the event's cross-examination section. The digest version of the
> debate doesn't include the audience questions, but a full-length video, which
> will be posted shortly, does.
>
> Thanks to our debaters for their fearlessness, preparedness, and wit--and
> their willingness, in some cases, to debate a position that they didn't
> necessarily agree with! Thanks, too, to everyone who attended, added to the
> discussion with questions, and took place in the voting.
>
> *For the record, the winners of the debates were Erin and Rob, arguing the
> affirmative side of the proposition, "Museums that are not run as businesses
> will ultimately fail," and Beck and Bruce, arguing the negative side of the
> proposition, "Engagement with online visitors is as important as engagement
> with those on site."
>
>
>
>
>
--
Simon Tanner
Director, King's Digital Consultancy Services,
King's College London,
Centre for Computing in the Humanities,
26-29 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5RL
Tel: +44 (0)7887 691716 or Admin: +44 (0)20 7848 2861
Email: simon.tanner at kcl.ac.uk
http://www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/
