A quick report and Storify summary from Wednesday's joint Museums Computer Group (MCG) and Digital Learning Network (DLNet) conference, 'Engaging digital audiences in museums ', which was held on 11 July 2012 at the University of Manchester. I'm the Chair of the MCG and was on the Programming Committee for this event so I make absolutely no claim to impartiality, but I thought it went really well – great speakers and workshop leaders, enthusiastic and friendly participants and a variety of formats that kept energy levels up during the day.
My notes are sketchier than usual as I was co-chairing some of the sessions and keeping an eye on the running of the event, so this is more of an impressionistic overview than a detailed report. There are already a number of other posts out there, and we'll have the post from our official event blogger and illustrator up soon for more comprehensive accounts.
For the MCG, this event was experimental in a number of ways – in running an event with another practitioner organisation, in the venue, in running parallel workshops, buying in commercial wifi, and in devoting part of the day to an unconference – and I'm curious to know what response we get in the evaluation from the day. (If you were there, our short feedback form is online .)
The event was designed to bring museum learning and technology staff together because we felt we were missing opportunities to benefit from each others skills and experience. I know technologists are grappling with measuring impact, and learning people with reaching new audiences in different ways – hopefully each group would have something to offer and something to learn, though it might mean seeing past each others jargon and understanding different views of the world. (This 'Interloper Report ' and comments from MW2012 provide some insight into the potential.) We planned the day as a mixture of inspiring talks and opportunities to get stuck into conversation about topical issues. It was also a day for making connections so we'd included coffee breaks, lunch and the unconference so that people could find others interested in similar things or to put faces to names from the MCG and DLNet lists and social media.generic learning outcomes have taken on a life of their own – for example, Rhiannon's post 'Generic Learning Outcomes – friend or foe? ' seeks to understand why non-learning people don't seem to like them.
I thought Nick Winterbotham 's presentation of the Group for Education in Museums (GEM) 'self-evident truths' was interesting, and some of his points were picked up and retweeted widely:
Our heritage is not about things it is about people
Everyone has a right to know about and be at ease with heritage
Heritage embraces the past and present of all cultures
Heritage is essential as the cradle of everyone's tomorrow
Heritage encompasses all literature, science, technology, environments and arts
The multiple narratives of heritage deserve respect
Learning is an entitled journey, not a destination
Heritage learning is an entitlement for everyone
The development of heritage learning skills must be a perpetual excellence
Learning is not simply a justification for cultural spending, it is THE justification for cultural spending
Nick advocated for a world where no-one hesitates at taking a risk in learning, and said that we love art, digital culture because of how we feel about it, not what we know about it. He urged us to focus on how your audiences live, learn and love your subject matter; to acknowledge the intellectual generosity needed; and find the big idea that will transform your organisation.
Matthew Cock talked about the challenges of audiences, particularly around mobile. The three-pronged model for audiences in museums: attract -> engage -> impact. He asked, when you see someone in a museum with a phone, what space are they in? Are they engaged, distracted, focused? Is it a sign of disrespect and disengagement or a sign of bonding with the group they're with? And how do you know?
He talked about the work
Morris Hargreaves McIntyre had done to understand their audiences and their varying motivations for visiting: social – museums as enjoyable place to spend time with friends and family; intellectual – interested in knowledge; emotional – experience what the past was like; spiritual – creative stimulation, quiet contemplation, etc. (See also MHM's
Culture Segments report). How does this connect to using mobiles to engage people? People have different activities – chat, read, recording audio or photo, playing media back, share something via social media etc. Each fulfills a different need. The challenge is to match specific things you can do on a mobile with your motivations for visiting. He referred to Maslow's hierarchy of needs to think about the needs a museum satisfies in our lives and the
experience economy .
People are seeking venues and events that engage them in a memorable (and authentic?) ways – we're shifting from buying lots of stuff to seeking unique and engaging experiences. The visitor wants to walk away with the engagement having effected a transformation (the impact point of the three-pronged model). Measuring that impact is really hard. Evaluation can look at lots of things but it's hard to understand the needs of our visitors and what works for them in this space.
Later I asked what Learning people like Nick could tell us technologists about measuring impact, but it seems like it's the holy grail for their field too. Nick did mention that we go from a stage of cognitive to affective impact over time after an experience, which is a good start for thinking about this. Judging from the response on twitter, I'm not the only one who thinks that measuring the impact of a museum experience and understanding whether it's ephemeral or lifelong is one of the big tasks for museums right now.
John Coburn 's presentation on the Hidden Newcastle app harked back to the buzz around storytellingmessy middle '. In this case, 'it's the story that creates the impact, not the object. The value of the object is as the source for the story'. I love that they wanted to create intrigue about the people and the times in which they lived and compel exploration.
It was a difficult choice but I popped into the 'tech on a budget' workshop where Shona Carnall and Greg Povey presented some interesting ways to use existing, readily available technologies to create interactive experiences.
I'll leave the detail of the other presentations to the storify below and other people's posts and skip to the unconference . Because time was short we asked for session ideas and votes from the podium, rather than letting people write ideas and put their votes up on a shared board. After the unconference we all gathered again to hear what had been discussed in each group. The summaries were:
Commercial side of commissioning cool things: reluctant to put a price on it, but UK has cultural expectations around free museums which makes it harder to charge. Digital is received as god given right, something that should be free. But how come the West End theatre is able to charge so much for a ticket? Museums providing paid-for entertainment not just a browsing experience. We pay for entertainment but we don't expect to be entertained in museums.
Learning outcomes: friends or foe? Attitude is sometimes that learning outcomes are rubbish – decided generic learning outcomes (GLOs) are a really good thing. It's not about shoe-horning facts into everything or pure knowledge transfer – it's also about inspiration, experience, skills, wonderment. The wondrous Romans! Trying to change the stigma about what learning actually is, it's an experience as much as formal education. Maybe 'aims and objectives' a better term than 'learning outcomes'.
How do you evaluate wonderment – with difficulty. What is it? Element of surprise, something being visceral, physiological responses. Are adults too cynical for wonderment? 'Smiling Victorians' – challenge expectations. Imagine writing a budget to get iris recognition to measure wonder! Hard to measure or evaluate it but should always aspire to it.
Coherent experience, call to action in gallery to online with mobile in gallery: talked about pressure museums are under to introduce next tech, be whizzy, or is it addressing a real need? Can you piggyback on software that's already out there?
Reaching different audiences: particularly teenagers: find out what inspires them, tap into that. What are the barriers to engaging them? They're creative, maybe we should work with them to create digital offers, empower them. Apps for apps sake – under pressure to deliver them.
Big ideas: intellectual generosity. (Goodness! There was a long list of the characteristics MCG and DLNet would have if they were an animal or a tool…) We are intricate explosions. Intricate – all the stuff we're talking about is detailed and a little fragile but explosive because the world will catch fire with what we're doing.
Failure confessionals: web content management systems – maybe simple is the way to go. Failure is a good thing, and at least we didn't screw up like the bankers.
Social media audiences: does it make sense just to have one FB, twitter, etc account per org? Keeping a brand together is good but it doesn't always make sense to lump all audience conversations into one channel.
And with the final thanks to the student volunteers, programme committee, unconference organisers and speakers (and particularly to Ade as local contact and Rhiannon as the tireless organiser that made it all happen), it was over.
We're already looking ahead to the MCG's Spring 2013 meeting, which may be an experimental 'distributed' meeting held in the same week or evening in different regional locations. If you're interested in hosting a small-scale event with us somewhere in the UK, get in touch! We're also thinking about themes for UK Museums on the Web 2012, so again, let us know if you have any ideas. [<a href="http://storify.com/mia_out/engaging-digital-audiences-in-museums" target="_blank">View the story "Engaging digital audiences in museums" on Storify</a>]<h1>Engaging digital audiences in museums</h1><h2>The joint Museums Computer Group (MCG) and Digital Learning Network (DLNet) conference, 'Engaging digital audiences in museums', was held on 11 July 2012 at the University of Manchester. Here's an overview of tweets from the day… </h2><p>Storified by Mia · Fri, Jul 13 2012 11:24:02</p><div>Keynote: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Nick Winterbotham, Group for Education in Museums (GEM)</span></div><div>'None of us is as smart as all of us' – @nickwinterbee kicks off with the first session #engageMDafydd James</div><div>#engagem love opening 'digital cognition' exerciseSarah Shaw</div><div>Fantastic nail balancing experiment from @nickwinterbee at #engageM http://pic.twitter.com/yYq5yvRhClaire Ross</div><div>Winterbotham: "Have you heard about the Big Society version of Cluedo? It's got no library in it" #engageMjoypalmer</div><div>"The most sucessful museums in the world have realised that museums are not about things, they're about people" Big debate there! #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>.@nickwinterbee: "Learning is not simply a justification for cultural spending, it is THE justification for cultural spending" #engageMjoypalmer</div><div>#EngageM Make this conference the most important day of your life so far – a call to be in the moment!Mia</div><div>Keynote: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Matthew Cock, British Museum</span><br></div><div>"When you see someone in a museum with their mobile phone are they present or absent?" @matthewcock #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>@matthewcock talking about the challenges of using mobiles in museum spaces – putting something between the user and the display. #engageMDafydd James</div><div>How does audience motivation fit into the use of mobiles?Can you match mobile functionality with motivation types asks @matthewcock #engageMClaire Ross</div><div>Why are your visitors coming? Social, intellectual, emotional, or spiritual motivations should feed-in to what we provide #engageMKieran Forde</div><div>How the Internet has RUINED Maslows Hierarchies of needs. We *need* it. Genius! #engagemLouise Sutherland</div><div>Amused by internet version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs mentioned by @matthewcock at #engageM http://bit.ly/LeGA5cAde Stevenson</div><div>#engagem seeking experiences from life rather than the buying of stuff. The experience economy. @matthewcockShona Carnall</div><div>.@matthewcock references theory of The Experience Economy http://bit.ly/MkcxXB. Interesting, new to me #engagemMartha Henson</div><div>Mobiles in galleries are clearly here to stay do how can we make them *useful* rather than a distraction? #engagemAmy Hetherington</div><div>Using mobiles during a visit should be carefully handled – a visit is a 'fragile ecology' according to @matthewcock #engageMDafydd James</div><div>How can you know if impact on visitors is ephemeral or lifelong? #engagemJane Findlay</div><div>Maybe mobile should stop emulating and trying to reproduce experiences from past?#engagemLucinda Blaser</div><div>Surely the greatest mobile opportunity for museums is doing things that don't require you to actually BE in the museum? #engageMFrankie Roberto</div><div>@nickwinterbee says that museums will (probably) always have their "quiet coach" space which remians untouched by technology #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>evaluation on site gives the cognitive, what they thinking long term gives the effective- how they felt #engageMJenniefer Gadsby</div><div>Mobile learning case study: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Discover Sessions – new ways of working, Lucinda Blaser</span>, Royal Museums Greenwich</div><div>@ldonnachie "if there was magic in the world what would you want to do in the museum?" thinking creatively but not tech led #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>#engagem @EHEducation Students like having control over their own learning which is where mobile devices can be usefulLynne Minett</div><div>Quizzes for Pupils in gallery = reading the answer not for learning. Case study on how to overcome this #engagemLouise Sutherland</div><div>#EngageM Challenge for mobile learning: it's difficult to get kids to look from the screen to the object (new version of label-readers prob)Mia</div><div>Those pesky kids! Asked what theyd want from a new interp tool: "I want to see the object in 3D" You're already at the damn museum! #EngageMBen Templeton</div><div>Mobile learning case study: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Hidden Newcastle- failed inventors and body dredgers, John Coburn</span>, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums</div><div>.@j0hmcoburn speaking about 'dredged bodies and failed inventors': mobile app for exploring hidden newcastle: http://www.hiddennewcastle.org/ #engageMjoypalmer</div><div>#engagem "no corpse no commission". Best quote so far from Hidden Newcastle app from @j0hncoburn & TWAMShona Carnall</div><div>app focuses on specific historical locations in Newcastle. @j0hncoburn argues that the story creates the experience, not the object #engageMjoypalmer</div><div>"Learning outcomes? We didn't have any…" @j0hncoburn being honest at #engageMDafydd James</div><div>Shouldn't always be about teachable elements,more about creating wonder and a spark of empathy. let people explore! I likes. #engageMClaire Ross</div><div>Love that @j0hncoburn & co's Hidden Newcastle app is about imagination, wonder & stories rather than 'learning outcomes' #engagemAnra Kennedy</div><div>Suppressing facts and encouraging wonderment. is that what museums should be moving towards? #engageMClaire Ross</div><div>#EngageM @j0hncoburn project about sharing compelling stories that create the impact; value of the object is as source for the storyMia</div><div>Shout out for @sebchan's blog about 'wonderment' at #engageM – http://www.freshandnew.org/2012/05/sleep-more-magic-immersive-storytelling/Dafydd James</div><div>#engageM is interesting for a number of reasons but no context for 'wonderment'? Wow. How many teachers are at the conference?Nick Dennis</div><div>important points about tyranny of explicit learning outcomes in @j0hncoburn #engageM talk on app for stories of NewcastleMartin Owen</div><div>@j0hncoburn quotes @NancyProctor @ #MuseumNext – we spend a lot of £ building apps + forget to promote them, involve marketers! #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>Evaluation and measuring engagement case study: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Beyond the survey: effective and fun ways to measure engagement and learning, Isabel Benavides</span>, Museum of London<br></div><div>@isabelinmuseums up now talking about evaluation beyond the survey. Effective and fun ways to measure engagement & learning #engageMClaire Ross</div><div>How to make evaluation fun for our audience & give us what we need. Cameras with under 4s. Fab #engagemLouise Sutherland</div><div>#EngageM Isabel – think more creatively about how you're evaluation – go beyond the survey. Try quizzes or give people camerasMia</div><div>#engagem enjoyment & inspiration – not all about knowledge & facts from family evaluation at museum of LondonShona Carnall</div><div>I don't think Learning Outcomes are bad thing. not the be all and end all, but certainly not just about shoe horning facts either #engagemRhiannon Looseley</div><div>@rlooseley regardless of how conventional or left-field KPIs are it's just important to measure so you can learn #failingforward #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>Great tips for evaluation with early years from @isabelinmuseums Talking maps new to me – eager to try this now. #engageMJane Findlay</div><div>Evaluation and measuring engagement case study: <span style="font-weight: bold;">The opium of the masses: Evaluating ‘High Tea', Martha Henson</span>, Wellcome Trust</div><div>#EngageM High Tea and other heritage game evaluation reports at http://museumgames.pbworks.com/w/page/44614098/Games%20evaluationsMia</div><div>#HighTea used GA UTM urls to track interaction wherever it was embedded, still trying to solidify this at RMG but getting there #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>High Tea game has had over 4 million plays. Make the most of 'opening weekend' when on front page of games portals #engagemMia</div><div>Distribution strategy for @ExploreWellcome's High Tea was beyond website. Resulted in huge traffic @marthasadie #engageMDafydd James</div><div>Really like distribution model of High Tea. Unhampered by IP concerns and seems to have been stunningly effective #engagemKevin Bacon</div><div>More evidence of social media as a rubbish referral tool. Lots of detail in C24 evaluation report about this http://www.culture24.org.uk/sector+info/conferences/art358182 #engagemJohn Coburn</div><div>Henson: marketing strategy was to 'seed' game on major gaming sites, not require users to come them. V. successful. #engageMjoypalmer</div><div>The parallel workshops<br><span style="font-weight: bold;">Engaging audiences digitally – on a budget, Greg Povey, Mudlark and Shona Carnall</span><br style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mobile Apps: Shiny new distraction or useful learning tool?, Alyson Webb and Lindsey Green, Frankly Green + Webb</span><br style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">How can we re-align museum practices to make more of changing technologies?, Pauline Webb, Museum of Science and Industry, Michael Woodward, York Museums Trust</span></div><div>It's parallel session time @ #engagem hearing about realities of evolving software Vs fairly static galleriesLouise Sutherland</div><div>Pauline Webb, MOSI talks about hard lessons learned re: sustainability; i.e. building a mobile experience for dell PDAs in 2007 #engageMjoypalmer</div><div>other sustainability issues: completely bespoke software & systems for interactive galleries #engageMjoypalmer</div><div>love this. Empty shops in York turned into exhibits/art: http://www.visityork.org/media/news/releases/NR-StreetFascias.Aug09.aspx #engageMjoypalmer</div><div>YMT Windows of Opportunity regeneration project for empty shop fronts – effective, simple use of web tech inc. 3rd party platforms #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>workshp Q: What next steps can we take to improve our museums' ability to make the most of technology for the benefit of our users? #engageMjoypalmer</div><div>Really interested in the Digital Volunteering project St York Museums Trust. Want to hear more #engagemLouise Sutherland</div><div>Some interesting questions coming out of the mobile app session. #engageM "what are apps useful/not useful for?"Claire Ross</div><div>Question raising more questions than answers! Who are your users? What are your business/operational/political/creative priorities? #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>Your biggest resource is your staffing, rather than getting new and simpler tech, maybe we should be working on digital literacy? #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>#engagem @MerelVaart asks about what happens to websites, social media after digital projects finish? Greg: finishing is hard…Mia</div><div>Are we forgetting to ask the question: Do our visitors need digital? Or even want it? #engagemAmy Hetherington</div><div>Anyone got links or info on funding for R&D for digital cultural projects? We think there is onebut forget who/what #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>@emmclean HLF digital announcement about funding too http://www.collectionslink.org.uk/programmes/hlf #engageMClaire Ross</div><div>#engagem had hoped discussions would be more up to date &beyond twitter / fbook. Maybe reflects where museums are with tech?Sarah Shaw</div><div>So, surely mobile is coming down to: Good Interpretation . Isn't this how it's always been? #engagemJames Grimster</div><div>Souvenir context. Take something away with mobile engagement. #engagemJames Grimster</div><div>For me, one thing rarely aimed for it seems is an immersive experience, where the tech is nearly transparent #engagemJames Grimster</div><div>The unconference planning was a bit retro:<br></div><div>Because we're a technology conference we're going to use *an actual blackboard* for the #engagem unconference planningMia</div><div>..but…</div><div>Unconference session planningmia!</div><div>It turns out blackboards kinda suck. Hoorah for technology! #engagemMia</div><div>The unconference themes and some sample discussion…<br></div><div>ideas for unconference: digital governance; commercial aspects; learning outcomes, friend or foe?; who to you evaluate 'wonder'?; #engageMjoypalmer</div><div>…reaching different audiences with tech, are we using tech for tech's sake?, MCG/DLNet's big idea, who are social media users? #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>creating coherent mobile exp; sharing biggest failures; engaging teens; users versus buzzwords; our Big Idea; social media working? #engageMjoypalmer</div><div>Is the lack of discussion between tech and learning departments down to lack of time? #engageMClaire Ross</div><div>When we use a telescope at a viewing spot, we happily put 20p in the meter, should people put 20p in an interactive to work it? #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>Why do we expect digital to be free? Google changed the model, maps cost money before they came along! #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>How do you get evidence of longitudinal impact of digital learning? #engageMClaire Ross</div><div>Deconstructing common triggers for "wonder" in museums is very, very hard. Immediacy, scale, incongruity, immersive (ness)?? #engagemJohn Coburn</div><div>public sector model is a million miles from business model, we spend every penny in our budget to ensure we get the same next year #engagemEmma McLean</div><div>Can we measure wonderment? Some good discussions in our corner of the unconference #engagem http://pic.twitter.com/TC7QJuM5SA Community History</div><div>So our group generally concluded that GLOs were useful as long as you don't think learning=facts. #engagemRhiannon Looseley</div><div>Interesting that resisting apps/tech/buzzwords for the sake of them is a theme underlying many unconference conversations #engagemMia</div><div>On reaching new audiences: 'We had lots of questions about teenagers, and it led to confusion' #engagemDafydd James</div><div>After planning the event for so long, it has been fun watching people make their way there…<br></div><div>Long slog up the M6 to Manchester to discover a fantastic turnout at #engagemNick Torday</div><div>attending the #EngageM (Engaging Digital Audiences in Museums) event at Uni of Manchester. Packed & buzzing room room in the Turing Buildingjoypalmer</div><div>Coffee & Registration @ukmcg #engagem http://pic.twitter.com/ZP42JqpESA Community History</div><div>today is the day #engagem. Enganging digital audiences with museums! Here we go!laura martin riesco</div><div>And I loved that people were able to watch from afar…<br></div><div>“@nesta_uk: Mobile app vs mobile website. Which one should you be focusing on developing? http://bit.ly/PLyFhn” >Timely – #engageM conf MCRMUSEUMSunlimited</div><div>I might be missing #amaconf, boo! but I'm at the @ukmcg @DLNET conf, yey! Some of you AMA museum peeps might want to follow #engagemMarge Ainsley</div><div>Really interesting debate about how museums can combine tech and learning and engage digital audiences. Check it out: #engageMGo ON UK</div><div>Wishing I was in Manchester at Engaging Digital Audiences in Museums with @ukmcg – keep those #engageM hashtags coming!Denise Drake</div><div>Blimey, #engagem is trending…Kevin Bacon</div><div>Watching #engageM from afar. UK conference on engaging audiences in museums with some good stuff.j trant</div><div>…but in a flash it was over…</div><div>We're going for a drink at Piccadilly station before trains if people fancy it. #engagemClaire Ross</div><div>Continuing the theme of the day, I'm enjoying a joint @dlnet @mcg drink after a full day at #engagem :) We're trending! http://pic.twitter.com/RxpD09JDJuno Rae</div><div>And if that wasn't enough, here are some other blog posts about 'Engaging digital audiences in museums'<br></div><div>Our rundown of the thoroughly entertaining and informative #EngageM conference (+ twitter poster): http://tdn.lv/ScbjAk (great hashtag too!)Thought Den</div><div>Continuing from yesterday's #engagem unconference, please comment on my blog post: 'Learning outcomes: friend or foe?' http://rhiannonlooseley.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/generic-learning-outcomes-friend-or-foe.htmlRhiannon Looseley</div><div>New Bloggage: Learning and Technology sitting in a Museum Shaped tree…#EngageM Take Aways http://wp.me/pBRjy-sGClaire Ross</div><div>Read my summary and thoughts on the @DLNET & @ukmcg Engaging Digital Audiences in Museums (#engagem) conference –> http://junorae.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/joint-dlnet-and-mcg-conference-engaging.htmlJuno Rae</div><div>SAM_0392mia!</div>