Short notes from Transformations Conference

By: Dr Lynda Kelly, Category: Museullaneous, Date: 16 Apr 2011

Here are my quick notes from this conference held in Melbourne on 14-15 April.

UNCONFERENCE SESSION 14 APRIL

After several short presentations/provocations we split inot three groups for discussion. Here are my notes from the feedback.

Topic #1: Freemium models

we've been doing this for a long time with our physical programs - remember that
but can gets lots for free on the web now
gaming environments use the freemium model - get in the game and buy things within it (Farmville also uses this idea)
SLV develop progam and put online for free for everyone, what teachers pay for is to come and have a staff memeber deliver the program
what people are paying for is convenience, can get content already online, pay to have it packaged and delivered to their mobile device
pay for social, emotional, face-to-face contact with people / a person
Many still object to paying (perhaps those who still have moral objection), different orgs have different ideas (eg libraries will always be free, yet MoMA charging premium for everything
Different business model blog post here

Topic #2: Collaboration vs competition

Partership vs collaboration
We are all offering similar programs etc and can be seen to be competing
share mailing lists
can be easy to collaborate at the optional/grassroots level but not at the senior management level - need a receptive top level of managemnet
Need to answer: What's in it for us?
Trust can be hard
Often we thnk products compete but they can complement (eg SMH Good Food Guide book + app found this)
Dont get tied up with the branding issues - the end user usually doesnt care!

Topic #3: Social media /social inclusion

"Outreach" - is that what we're talking about now?
Digital storyteling still a vey robust way to connect and reach out to audiences
Context for connection? How give them a reason to connect via social media?
Access issues (technology)
Digital divide - how to engage those with limited understanding/use of the tech
Print is not going out of fashion
Tech often doesn't work
dont always need to use tech - manual methods sometimes work just as well!
who actually has access and how do they use it?
"future already here but is unevenly disributed"
continue to build community with whatever tools make sense

MORNING SESSION 15 APRIL

Nancy Proctor, Smithsonian

We’re in the midst of a mobile bubble – most apps don’t generate revenue, not much ROI. Quotes the Great app bubble article
Costs of mobile – developing the platform, onsite infrastructure, project management/staff time, content development, marketing + maintenance (new content, new platforms)
How to achieve a better ROI?? Think outside the audio tour box, from headphones to microphones From we do talking to we help you do the talking” (Chris Anderson, Wired) “from interpretation to conversation” (Max Anderson)
The multiplatform museum – exists far beyond physical walls. Museum is a distributed network.
The people’s institution idea is not new, Smithsonian doing from the day it opened, we still have volunteers (also see post on crowdsourcing since 1847)
Use mobile to recruit the worlds to increase and diffuse knowledge, enlist collaborators globally to undertake the work
Chris Anderson webcast: The best curators won’t be working for you. Create a Wikipedia of the physical world
How do we turn apps into a true conversation and collaboration – how do we manage that internally?
Mobile metrics: accessibility, quality, relevance, accountability, sustainability
Are we using mobile as truly radical social media to connect people not just re-tweets?

Max Anderson – most of our resource is taken up in caring for collection
Exhibitions offer experience of objects, web gives access to data cloud –museums are storytellers
Mobile pushes us to think about museums as more than physical experience to offering a hybrid cross-platform experience
We will be offering new services new customers and new users
Transform the customer’s notion of what a museum is and what a museum does – more than just exhibition halls
Museum visitor journey – pre is www; during is gallery handheld, post in mobile world, must build in re-visitation
5.67% of PHM Sydney traffic is on mobile device
Mobile is all about context
Problems are encouraging take-up and appropriate content production
Great opps for mobile but need organisational change in structures and ways we think about what we’re offering visitors

More about the conference is here and the twitter stream was very lively. Look for #tcc11 on Twitter.

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