useum

March 20

Comments

What if we treated the Museum leadership page the same way?

Chicago Tribune Twitterizes masthead

March 17

Comments

An update on our Flickr Plant Project experiment…

So far, we’ve published 17 pictures of our plants on Flickr. From those 17 photos there have been over 1600 views, 100 comments and 9 favorites. When we started the “flickr plant project,” there were zero photos on Flickr tagged “flickr plant project” and now there are 120. The most popular plant so far is the Angel’s Trumpet, which has received over 200 views, 4 favorites and 15 comments.

March 12

Comments

Measuring Social Participation in a Science Museum

Inspired by both Peter Morville and Gene Smith, I created a honeycomb diagram for our science museum’s social participation as a way of measuring the success of the social experiments we’re conducting.

Gives a sense of place. Connects user to the physical space of the Museum, perhaps even redefines what the Museum’s space is for that person.

Educates. Teaches the user something they didn’t know (or didn’t realize they knew) before. Could be about themselves, their world or the Museum itself.

Encourages sharing. Incites the user to share (thoughts, media, etc.) either with the Museum or with their friends on behalf of the Museum.

Builds a relationship. Provides a way for the user to know the Museum or another user better through participation/interaction.

Fosters dialogue. Creates, establishes or otherwise encourages commentary and the back-and-forth of ideas and opinions. Can be synchronous or asynchronous.

Establishes transparency. Gives user an intimate view of the inner workings/strategies of the Museum.

Science as a way of knowing. Encourages curiosity and highlights science as a way to satisfy it. Demystifies the traditional assumptions people make about science.

Pictured above is how I’ve used the honeycomb so far, labeling each one as a different experiment we’re conducting and coloring in the areas I feel are strengths. I’m also handing out “coloring books” for other staffers to rate projects from their perspective.

Download a PDF of this worksheet for yourself.

March 6

Comments

Martha Stewart tweets to her 50,000+ followers asking if she can get her “tech guy eliad” to tweet for her on occassion. Glad to see her tweet a few hours later that she’ll be the only one doing the tweeting @MarthaStewart.

February 27

Comments

The Institution: I am the voice of the institution. You may or may not know who I really am. e.g. @lifeandscience, @REI_CoOp
100% content institution-related

The Staffer: I work at the Institution and most of my content is Institution-specific, but I am decidedly an individual, not an institution. e.g. Tony @Zappos, @WillAtWork
75-100% of content institution-related

The Fan: I may be a staffer or a customer, but you know me as a fan of the Institution or an insider in some way. e.g. @elizabef, @troybur
<50% of content institution-related

The Customer: I talk about this institution (might be good, might be bad) but I am clearly unconnected to the inside. e.g. visits who tweet about their visit
>0% of content institution-related

Agree/Disagree? Who am I forgetting? I used Twitter because it is easy to link to examples, but it is only one example of a socialite… bloggers, commenters, Facebook users, etc all apply. Please discuss.

February 27

Comments

“ Today, almost one in four younger Boomers are active in social networks, up from 15% in 2007. How to Reach Baby Boomers with Social Media - ReadWriteWeb

February 27

Comments

I love behance.net’s rating system. You only have one option (thumbs up), it’s called “appreciate” and you are thanked for your contribution w/o any page reload.

Simple, nearly effortless and helpful.

February 26

Comments