Museums and the Web is an
annual conference that draws together about 500 of the world's top museum
web designers, directors, and educators every year. In 1999, I chaired a
multimedia panel presentation with speakers from Brazil, Kenya, and the
U.S addressing the theme of Content and Communities. Our session
examined the ways in which museums are beginning to establish genuinely
interactive web content that reflects--and is a product of--their communities.
The museum team from the
Museum of the Person in Sao Paulo, Brazil, recounted their experience as
they seek to preserve and transform the life stories of ordinary people
into organized information (interesting histories--and even more interesting
considerations of empowering the individual when suddenly a laborer realizes
his or her story is worth telling).
A second group from the
National Museums of Kenya discussed issues of connectivity, collaboration
and culture and offered a new perspective on the difficulties of developing
a web site in a country that is itself still developing--not only dealing
with power outages and modems that disconnect when an incoming call bumps
them off-line, but explaining their work within the larger context of getting
funding for museum/web projects in a place where issues of health, clean
water and enough food, and deadly tribal divisions affect daily survival.
And a third team from the
University of Michigan presented their work in broadening access to Native
American Collections, offering a virtual museum prototype that encourages
museums to consider the role of ethnic communities and incorporate
multi-generational voices and tribal input into exhibit/collection development.
As chair, I used my introduction to place the experience of these very diverse
communities into the larger context. I talked about how, as museums invest
in providing content to new (as well as existing) audiences via the internet,
they are also beginning to investigate how this new venture affects what
they need to collect in order to "tell the story."
Clearly, it's no longer necessary to possess the object in order to tell
the story.
Content
and Communities
Introduction delivered at Museums
and the Web
March 12, 1999, New Orleans, Louisiana
(Wear headphones)
Good afternoon! And welcome
to Content and Communities, a session that deals with museums in
the new age--museums that not only welcome input from their communities
but that would not exist without those contributions.
You probably wonder why
I'm wearing these headphones. I have to admit, I panicked last night when
I realized I was going to have to get up in front of an audience and introduce
an internationally renowned and respected panel. I am, after all, a shy
person. I'm a writer (a storyteller of sorts)--and I also do a radio show
back in Ithaca, New York, where I'm from. It's called Nonesuch, and it's
a program that features "folk music and music in the folk tradition"--I
love talking on the radio and getting calls from listeners, but that's different:
I don't have a roomful of people staring at me, waiting for me to deliver!
So I thought I'd wear these
headphones, and pretend I'm just talking in front of my microphone in a
quiet little studio--you guys can all pretend you're listening on the radio,
OK?
(Wait)
You know, the other day I was listening
to the radio, (take off headphones here) and I heard someone talking about
technology and science creating problems--in this case, he was talking about
political problems--and he pointed out that very often these difficulties
can be overcome and resolved by the very same tools that technology and
science produce.
I don't remember his name,
but he'd been a former U.S. diplomat in the Middle East, and as I listened
to him talk, he made me think about the dilemmas negotiators and diplomats
have skillfully dealt with as they attempt to get opposing sides to sit
down together at the same table and allow different voices to be heard.
Sometimes it's the size of the table; often it's the relationship of chairs
that can be major sticking points in negotiations...
These days, the diplomat
said, a news network like CNN can play interpreter between, for example,
Iraqi leader Tariq Aziz and his enemies--with technology providing the interface
live, in real time, as negotiations progress. Recently, this type of CNN
diplomacy put U.S. Congressman Lee Hamilton and Tarik Aziz virtually face-to-face
for a spirited debate. Just because there are no travel or table placement
issues, of course, does not mean that the job of the diplomat has been taken
over by technology in the role of ostensibly neutral mediator.
But not surprising, the
diplomat pointed out, the ability to have this kind of interaction has dramatically
changed the face of diplomacy.
As we listen to other speakers
at this conference, it seems pretty clear that as museums embrace the web,
committing resources to this new channel of information, the very concept
of what a museum is is beginning to change. As museums invest in providing
content--exhibits, images, sounds, and virtual experiences--not only to
existing audiences but to brand-new audiences, some of whom who may ONLY
encounter the museum's stories via virtual reality--they are also beginning
to investigate how this new venture affects what they need to collect in
order to "tell the story." With this technology, clearly, it is not
necessary to possess the object in order to tell the story.
I'm fascinated by all the
technical innovations, caught up in the creative uses of storytelling in
a new medium--but one of the most intriguing changes to me is really a political
one: it's about who decides what the story is--and how it's going to be
told. Increasingly, with on-line tools users can design their own paths
through the information, creating their own stories from the pictures and
words and images and sounds available. Now it's time to explore the next
step--and that's changing the way we think about what a museum "collection"
really is.
Thanks to the evil (and
wonderful) science and technology, museums can now easily "collect" items
that are not in their physical collection. Visitors--or maybe we should
say museum users, to encompass those who access museums in other ways than
just being there--can contribute their own input--and that, too, can become
part of the museum's virtual collection.
There is no one single
story anymore, no arbitrary view of what constitutes Great Art, no crystallized
explanation of what the past was "really like." Instead, it's a time to
explore how this new technology can allow multiple voices to be heard.
Today, we're going to hear
from representatives of three very interesting projects--perhaps political
trend-setters--who are exploring how the internet can broaden access and
involve whole communities in both developed and developing nations.
Our session is cross cultural,
covering Native American communities, Brazilian, and African experiences.
Our first presenters--Maurita Holland and Kari Smith from the University
of Michigan--will offer their view of how to make Native American collections
accessible via the Internet. They've developed a virtual museum prototype
that incorporates objects from many sources, a model that encourages museums
to consider the role of ethnic communities and include the voices of both
the old and the young in exhibit and collection development.
And then, from Kenya, Lorna Abungu, Lawrence Monda, and George Ambachi will
discuss the challenges they face in developing a web site for the National
Museums of Kenya. They will address ways to encourage community cooperation
through collaboration that crosses national boundaries. Karen Worcman, accompanied
by her colleagues Jose Santos Mato and Rosali Henriques, will explore a
very interesting Brazilian experience of a virtual museum--an institution
called Museum of the Person that only exists on the web and that aims to
tell the life stories of everyday people and their everyday lives...they
will discuss how the public uses--and might use--the 700 stories and
2,000 photos already available in organized form through the Museum of the
Person
We're going to start with
Maurita and Kari, so let me give you a little background: Maurita Holland
is associate professor and assistant to the dean at the University of Michigan
School of Information. She's in charge of an academic outreach office that
includes distance-learning technology. Her teaching and research involve
information access and use in the web environment. During the past three
years, she has worked extensively with museum and archives projects at Dine
College on the Navajo reservation located in Arizona and New Mexico.
Kari Smith is a special
project research intern at the Office of Academic Outreach at the University
of Michigan and project manager of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute.
Her current research focuses on using information technology for cultural
heritage education and preservation, particularly with Native American communities.
Prior to completing her masters at the University of Michigan, specializing
in archives and records management, she worked for two years as records
manager for the Chemical Weapons Destruction Support Office in Russia. Maurita...
Kari?
[full text of Maurita
and Kari's presentation: http://www.archimuse.com/mw99/papers/holland/holland.html]
Thank you Kari and Maurita.
We can take questions until (TIME)
We will hear now from the
Kenyan team of professionals who will describe their work on the National
Museums of Kenya web site. Lorna Abungu, who joined the National Museums
in 1989 as a coastal archaeologist and who has been involved with many exhibit
and public programs, now chairs the museum's internet/multimedia committee.
The group not only maintains a web site, but also provides staff training
on the internet and is responsible for database management and development
of new multimedia projects.
She is joined by George
Ombachi, a computer programmer who has been involved in developing archaeological
and ethnographic databases, software and hardware support and software development,
and computer programmer Lawrence Monda, who helped develop the NMK site
and is involved in systems analysis, hardware repair and daily maintenance.
Lorna?
[full text of Lorna's
presentation:
http://www.archimuse.com/mw99/papers/abungu/abungu.html]
Now let's hear from the
team that promises to give us a Brazilian Experience of the virtual person--The
Museum of the Person, which aims to register, preserve, and transform the
life stories of everyday people into organized information. Jose Santos
Matos is one of the founders of the Museum of the Person; he is a journalist,
a poet, and videomaker, and has done various documentaries based on
people's life stories. As a documentary maker he developed something that
he calls videocartas--video letters--in which people from different places
talk to each other. One of his prize-winning documentaries focuses on Brazilians
and Cubans exchanging ideas and impressions of each other's countries.
He is joined by Rosalie
Henriques, who is historian and archivist for the Museum of the Person as
well as its web master, and Karen Worcman, who is also one of the founders
of the museum and its director. Karen is a historian, with a master in linguistics,
who has been very involved in oral history work, including a project about
Jewish immigrants to Rio de Janeiro. She realized how oral history has the
potential not only to provide many perspectives--but also to give anonymous,
everyday people the opportunity to talk--and have the sensation of becoming
part of history. Karen?
[full text of Karen's presentation:
http://www.archimuse.com/mw99/papers/worcman/worcman.html
