Survey results: issues facing museum technologists

In August 2010 I asked museum technologists to take a survey designed to help me understand and communicate the challenges faced by other museum technologists (as reported in 'What would you change about your workplace? A survey for museum technologists', and as promised, I'm sharing the results (a little later than intended, but various galleries and my dissertation have been keeping me busy).

There were 79 responses in total, (49 complete responses, the rest were partial).  According to SurveyGizmo's reporting the survey had responses from 10 countries.  The vast majority were from the UK (36%) and the US (49%), possibly reflecting the UK and US focus of the email lists where I publicised the survey.  Respondents were based in a wide range of art, history, science, local authority/government, university and specialist museums (in almost any combination you can think of) and had a variety of roles, including content, technical, project managers and managerial titles.  As reported originally, for the purposes of the survey I defined 'museum technologist' as someone who has expertise and/or significant experience in the museum sector and with the application or development of new technologies.

I've done my own coding work on the results, which I could also share, but I suspect there's more value in the raw results.  I'm also sharing the results to the first two questions as CSV files (compatible with most applications) so you can download and analyse the data: CSV: As a museum technologist, what are the three most frustrating things about your job?, CSV: List any solutions for each of the problems you listed above.  Please note that the data in these files is alphabetised by row, so you should not correlate responses by row number.

My thanks to the people who took the time to respond – I hope there's some value for you in this sampling of the challenges and joys of digital work in museums.  I'd love to hear from you if you use the results, either in a comment or via email.

Question 1: As a museum technologist, what are the three most frustrating things about your job?

First response box:

An institutional culture that values curatorial opinion over the expertise of technologists

Bad management

Becoming impossible to do new work AND maintain existing sites.

Bureaucracy

Central ICT department not being supportive

Colleagues who think of things digital as somehow separate and of lesser importance

Committees

Convincing administration of the value of new technology

Difficulty accessing social networking sites/FTP/etc through Council systems

Funding (lack of)

Going over the same ground again and again

I spend a lot of time doing non-tech work, or helping people with basic IT issues

IT department not implementing effective change management and training.

IT dept walls

IT infrastructure – restrictions and problems

Image rights

Institutional IT provision

Justifying new technologies

Lack of Resources (People)

Lack of clear copyright procedure hampers the greatest ideas

Lack of committment reuslting in long drawn out meetings that never go anywhere

Lack of communication

Lack of decision making from senior management at early stages in the project

Lack of interest in updating technology

Lack of planning

Lack of power to influence major decision making

Lack of resources for web tools/infrastructure

Lack of understanding of what we (as technologists) are trying to achieve

Lack of updated skills in co-workers

Lukewarm funding

Overcoming bureaucracy and overly cautious policy to try new technologies in a timely manner

Pace of sign off

People assuming I know everything about every technology

Senior managment attitudes

Trying to encourage change for the greater good

Unreasonable objectives

Varying age of equipment

Working within IT limitations

Working within existing budgets

bureaucratic oversight

clarity & simplicity of goals

data migration

dfdf

fear of change

getting buy in from people who don't understand the technology

imprecise demands

insufficient staff resources

lack of communication between team members

lack of vision

lengh of time from concept to implementation (it is too long)

mmmm

no $$ for training

not being included early enough in planning processes

not enough time

reactionary IT managers

too many stakeholders and a very conservative attitude to sign off

unrealistic expectations

Getting the management of the museum to take the web seriously and use it themselves to try to understand it

The decentralized culture of our Museum. Each department is doing their own thing, which makes it difficult to access needs, plan for improvements, allocate resources and staff efficiently.

The little understanding colleagues have of the challenges faced (e.g. building a professional website is doable in 1 week with a 300€ budget)

Lack of understanding of digital audiences, trends, issues and technologies by those commissioning digital projects (I call it 'and then it needs a website' syndrome

The organizational structure of the museum. The IT Department should be for networking, desktop support and infrastructure but instead they end up being the ones who call the shots about applications and systems.

Integrating our technologies and ideas into the museum's IT infrastructure e.g. wireless hubs, installing software, updating software etc.

Second response box:

"shiny new toy" syndrom

Assortment of operating systems

Bureaucracy

Changing priorites

Enforcing efficient use of storage space (delete your DUPES!)

Excessive review cycles

Gaining buy-in from overworked staff who need to contribute to tech project

Getting curators to take the web seriously and want to use it

Having other people re-invent things I invented 10 years ago

Institutional IT provision

Institutional blindness to the outside world (i.e., "nobody actually trusts Wikipedia")

Interdepartmental Workflow

Internal "Ownership" of information

Justifying the expense/time of trialling and sharing new ideas

Lack of Finance

Lack of appreciation for the amount of work involved

Lack of funding

Lack of medium/long term visions

Lack of shared museum assets (inter and intra)

Lack of understanding of digital media by senior executives

Lack of understanding of my role at more senior levels and by my peers

Non-existent budgets

Ph.D syndrome.

Some staff negativity about integrating new technologies

Stodgy curators

Tempering desire with reality

Time to just 'play' with new technologies

Too many egos

Too many people involved

Too many tasks seen as top-priority without enough support to get them done.

Understaffed and underfunded

Unwillingness to try small cheap ideas (on the understanding that if they don't work you stop)

Upper management not grasping value of online outreach

Working in isolation

board and execs who are focused on shiny objects, not mission

dealing with the ramifications of technology decisions made by non-technical employees

entrenched views on how things should be done

funding and management structures that lead to short term, siloed thinking

inability to ack quickly and be flexible (cumbesome review process ties up projects)

inablility of coworker to understand projects

institutional resources

lack of staff time or positions alotted to technology (two minds are better than one)

mmm

no say over even how our web page is designed

not enough money

poor instructions

sparse training

tendency for time to get sucked into general office work

unprofessionalism

unreasonable expectations

unwillingness to fund projects

Lack of understanding in the wider museum of the work that we do and the potentials of technologies in learning.

People in museum administration often know less about technologies than their counterpart in the private sector.

Lack of training offered on national scale for those who are beyond beginner level with technology but not an expert

Not having admin rights to my computer and not being allowed to connect my own laptop to the work network

The expectation of a high-impact web presence without making the appropriate content available (in time)

Never knowing what others departments are doing, but still being expected to "fix" whatever when it goes down.

The little commitment others (even people asked/hired to do so) have towards social media, even after tons of workshops.

Turf wars – different staff not working toward a consensus; arguments are recycled and nothing is ever finalized

redundancy–for example, entering metadata for an image from an external source and entering it into our DAM

Funding is spread unevenly. New galleries might come with big pots of money but it's much harder to fund work on existing sites and sections.

Lack of IT understanding by other staff in the museum and in some cases a negative attitude to putting stuff online

Third response box:

"non-profit" pay and no insurance

Always defending my position to condescending curators

Assortment of learning curves among staff

Balancing the demands of day to day tasks with the desire to expand IT use

Bending commercial products to our own needs.

Communication barriers

Conflicting messages about the purpose of online – is it to generate income or provide access?

Cross departmental walls

Cultural stigmatism

Curators/educators living in the dark ages!

Difficulty finding funding/support for less visible tech projects (content architecture, etc.)

Division between web/curatorial/education/etc.

Everyone is scared

Explaining complex systems to co-workers with limited tech background

Getting "sign off"

Hard to sell technology (APIs, etc) to staff who just want their event on the homepage.

Institutional IT provision

Keeping up with web science/standards

Lack of by in by senior management

Lack of change management at institutions

Lack of communication

Lack of professional development

Lack of support

Little allowance to "try out" tech tools/software/web

No time to experiment and try out new things

Projects never finished

Reliance on external consultants

Secret stakeholders appearing late in the production cycle

Software provider lack of focus on end users and Web

That every bit of the organisation has to be involved in every project

Too much dependence on content producers, e.g. curators, gallery authors, education staff

Trying to get other colleagues involved in technology!

Willingness of colleague tech adoption

capacity of organizations to take leaps of faith

dealing with art historians

defining projects in terms of ROI

frequent interruptions during thought-intensive work

lack of adminstrative support in the way of $$

lack of forward planning

misunderstanding of implications

mmm

not enough focus on early prototyping before the tech comes in

not enough staff

not enough staff and too many things to do…

not enough time

passive/aggressive behavior

resistance to new technologies on the basis of their perceived danger/risk

strong aversion to risk-taking, which hampers innovation

supporting software that was incorrectly chose (e.g. retrofitting a CMS to act as a DAMS)

user incompetence

wide range knowledgement needed

Magical thinking about technology: somehow hoping projects will be cheap and cutting edge with few resources devoted to them

There's a web/multimedia team, but all the exhibition design is outsourced, so it's difficult to mount integrated digital projects (that work both online and onsite)

disconnects between depts in larger museums, that make it hard to get all those who could contribute to and benefit from digital projects really engaged

Irrational fear of open source; irrational fears concerning access to collection information and even low-res images.

The fact that doing "online stuff" means you have to solve every problem related to technology ("My iPhone doesn't synch my music, help!")

Convincing staff to use project results (this is true for some staff in key positions. Other staff happy to use the results)

my department uses a DAM system, but others outside my department won't use it but want access to the content archived there

Question 2: List any solutions for each of the problems you listed above

First response box:

$$ for training would be easy to get

Better IT training and also digital awareness training for all staff

Better investment

Better organisational understanding of the importance of project management

Better qualified staff – training

Circumnavigating IT when they sya can't do and supporting it all ourselves.

Cloud based

Creative use of budgets – taking parts from several budgets to make a whole

Education

Fewer and smaller

Focusing on the benefits of the new technology when presenting changes to staff

Good management

Greater funding support for equipment

Hiring further staff

IT managers who are less about security and NO and more about innovation

Improve communication by removing large egos

Keeping to meeting agendas and ensuring people involved are enthusiastic about the project

Long term strategy agreed at top levels to ringfence time and money for non-project based work

Lots of demonstrations

Make responsibilities of depts clearer

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

More independence from IT

More staff!

Much clearer policy on approach to copyright, possibly by museums supporting one another

New, professionally trained management

Sack the lot of them and start again

Strict procedures and continuously stressing how things work and how they don't.

The acknowledgement at senior levels of competence and experience further down the scale

Training in Project Management

Upgrade technology to a consistent level

Willingness to learn

come up with your own

educate administration, show them how other museums are taking advantage, find funding

fundraising

no foreseeable increase in staffing, so no luck here

none in sight

planning

solutions that we have found or solutions we wish for? The questions is confusing.

steel myself to do it once more in a way that means they can't forget it

umm..if I had a solution I'd be rich :)

Adjust the expectations by explaining the process more in depth and always provide more conservative time estimates, and times that by 150%

We are now submitting a business case to our IT department for us to have access to these sites. Hopefully this will be widened in the future as Council's become more aware of the essential part technology plays in museums.

reallocation of institutional resources to recognise changing technological and social environment

Having highly-placed technologists who are trusted by the museum involved in projects at an early state can help significantly to teach the institution the value of technological expertise.

Advocate your work to anyone who will listen, get involved in projects from the beginning – and try not to let technology lead, only support good ideas

Rethinking contracting policies–especially for Web 2.0 services that are free–and approval processes

Look to private sector technology vendors for workflow and project management techniques and tools or hire consultants (voices from outside are often heard louder than those inside).

Second response box:

$$ we are given we do not always get

Allowing staff to make their own decisions

Cost effective training or events or 'buddying up' to share expertise and experiences

Crossover training

Don't tell, stay away from committees until you have something (good) to show

Encouraging positive comment and activity from outside

Establish an agreed level of autonomy and freedom for web projects

Fix to IT issues that take up so much of my time!

Fundraising specifically for technology as an ongoing need–not just project by project

Involvement of Technologists before design

More educated staff about abilities and weaknesses of technology

More funding and resources for projects

More rewarding work environment

More tech-savvy upper management (happened recently)

More training being offered via bodies such as Museums Galleries Scotland

More trust in teams

New, professionally developed board

Outside normzl dept relationships

Priorities either need coherent justification or to be realigned.

Reassigning permissions

Recruit more staff and do more work in house

Remove large egos

Request more specificity and detail

Speaking to people to explain the complexity and time necessary for project?

Streamlining Project Management

The creation of roles at a senior level with understanding of technology

Training for staff

Trying to get a pot on our web page for e-learning which displays and advocates our work.

agreement on acceptable standards for public facing databases

occasionally half-successful compartmentalization of time spent on specialized and general work

question assumptions

shoot the current managers

sponsorships

strong compromise with staff training

technology being an embedded part of the work, like education

would require a wholesale change in Museum culture – not likely to happen quickly

institution-wide training in Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc AND in newer more interesting tools for presentations (eg Prezi), data visualisation (ManyEyes, Wordle) etc

Increase levels of digital literacy through out organisation and sector by training, workshops and promotion

Write in the importance of technology projects to accomplishing the mission in strategic planning and grant documents and form interdepartmental teams of people to address technology issues and raise technology's profile and comfort level within the institutional culture.

make sure to 'copyright' my own inventions and publicise them before anyone else needs to re-invent them

Show them that colleagues in their field are using the same technology, once they're willing to listen, show how the results will help them, then make participation as easy as possible for them.

If, for every bit of unfounded, unresearched opinion, the technologist can counter with facts about how people actually behave in the world outside the museum, over (large stretches of) time this problem can be gradually allayed.

Presenting the case for how technology can do certain things really well and how it is best find the better fit than to force technology to be what it isn't

Our institution could benefit from professional training on effective communication, but it's not in the budget.

Organising lunches and other team activities to continuously explain and inspire people about new and social media

Third response box:

(Sadly) winning awards

Admin-down promotion of tech initiative adoption

Agreement on stakeholders and sign off processes up front – and sticking to that

Be very strict with project deadlines!

Better communications from the top

Developing a Museum Service strategy for everyone to use IT – like V&A have!

Education

Ensuring that people at senior levels support digital projects

Go and do. Prototype to prove point

Good management

Hired more competent users or remove technically-involved tasks from users

I think we need new ways of demonstrating value other than £s or people through the door

Identify internal skills before commissioning outside consultants

Improved communications – more vision

Informal brown-bag lunches where ideas are pitched and potential explained.

Inventiveness!

Longer timelines, adequate staffing levels

Look for oppurtunity to learn more and implement new systems that help with the day to day work

Make it as easy as possible to use the results

Museums need to start thinking more like libraries

No idea how we can make LA central ICt departments more helpful

Outsource all IT relating to web projects

Professional development for staff

Remove large, scary egos

Smile, help them, and complain in silence.

Some inovative young blood in these roles

Technologists in upper management

Try something small as a pilot to reveal realistic benefits and pitfalls

act of God

bringing techies into the development process earlier in a new exhibit etc.

ditto

effective allocation of scarce resources

rewriting job descriptions to incorporate tech initiatives into everyday tasks

specialization

there is no solution for art historians except possibly to keep them out of museums and galleries

time-shifting certain kinds of work to early morning or evening, outside regular hours

Trying to find public outputs of infrastructure-related technology can help with this problem. The way some museums have begun using collections APIs as, in essence, a PR tool, is a good example of this approach.

Selected responses to Question 3: Any comments on this survey or on the issues raised?

Some comments were about the survey itself (and one comment asked not to be quoted, so I've played it safe and not included it) and didn't seem relevant here.

• Would like to know what other museum staff feel, but am guessing response may be very similar
• There is still some trepidation and lack of understanding of what it is exactly that digital technology can play in display, interpretation and education programming. Though there are strong peer networks around digital technology, somehow this doesn't get carried over into further advocacy in the sector in general. In my learning department there is some resistance to the idea of technology being used as a means in itself working across audiences, and it instead has to be tied in to other education officers programmes. The lack of space to experiment and really have some time to develop and explore is also sadly missed as we are understaffed and overstretched.
• Not enough time, money or staff is true of most museum work, but particularly frustrating when looking at the tools used by the private sector. This imbalance may be part of the source of unreasonable expectations – we've all seen fantastic games and websites and expect that level of quality, but museums have 1/1000th of the budget of a video game studio.
• The interdepartmental nature of many tech projects has challenged us to define under whose purview these projects should be managed.
• In my organisation I find the lack of awareness and also lack of desire to do things online difficult to comprehend in this day and age. It is not universal, fortunately the Head of Service gets it but other managers don't. I'm fed up hearing 'if its online they won't visit' and I'm afraid I've given up trying to convince them, instead I tend to just work with the people who can see that putting stuff online can encourage visitors and enhance visits for visitors.
• Being a federal institution, we receive funds for physical infrastructure, but rarely for technical infrastructure. I would say fear around copyright of digitized collections is a barrier as well.
• Until the culture of an institution of my size changes at the top, it will continue to be a challenge to get anything through in a timely manner.
• Funding and resources (staff, time, etc.) are the main roadblock to taking full advantage of the technology that's out there.
• There needs to be a way to build a proper team within the museum structure and make silos of information available.
• I think the frustrations I raised are exactly the reason why some of us are in the museum sector – for the challenge.
• We are fortunate in that we have a very forward-looking Board of Trustees, a visionary CEO and a tech team that truly loves what they do. But we – like any non-profit – are always limited by money and time. We've got loads of great ideas and great talent – we just need the means and the time to be able to bring them to fruition! We have actually rewritten job descriptions to make certain things part of people's everyday workflow and that has helped. Our CEO has also made our technological initiatives (our IVC studios, our online presence, our virtual museum….) part of our strategic plan. So we are extremely fortunate in those respects!
• I am a content creator, rather than a technie, but as my role is digital, everyone assumes I understand every code language and technological IT issue that there is. And I don't.
• why is it that those who are not involved in our work have so much to say about how we do our work down to the last detail
• One of the largest problems faced by IT staff in museums is the need to push the envelop of technology while working within very limited budgets. There is always a desire to build the newest and best, but a reluctance to staff and budget for the upkeep and eventual use and maintenance of the new systems. That said, working for a museum environment offers more variety and interesting projects than any for-profit job could ever provide.