Comments on: Who are you calling cheap? http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/wp/2006/08/25/who-are-you-calling-cheap/ The East Lothian Museums blog Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:32:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Behind the scenes » Blog Archive » My friend Flickr http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/wp/2006/08/25/who-are-you-calling-cheap/#comment-541 Behind the scenes » Blog Archive » My friend Flickr Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:13:37 +0000 http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/wp/2006/08/25/who-are-you-calling-cheap/#comment-541 [...] I wrote a little about this earlier, but now seems a good time to expound at slightly greater length. Like many museum professionals I have been wondering (for years now it seems) about the best way of providing online access to collections. The objective has always seemed, at least in part, to force visitors to come to your site, which then becomes the sole point of contact. But the great advantage of digital information is the ease with which it can be copied and the ability to deliver the same content through a variety of different media and in a range of differing contexts. Couple that with the fact that the World Wide Web allows content to be drawn in from anywhere, enabling the creative re-use of resources originally built for quite other purposes; the growth of ’sociable technologies’ like blogs, wikis, YouTube, MySpace and Bebo; and the widespread deployment of tools that mean creating online content is now easy and requires no (or little) technical knowledge beyond that required to use a word processor, and we can see that there is now a world of shared content out there already being created, used, re-used and re-shaped. Perhaps its time to stop thinking about re-inventing the wheel and to take a free ride instead? [...] […] I wrote a little about this earlier, but now seems a good time to expound at slightly greater length. Like many museum professionals I have been wondering (for years now it seems) about the best way of providing online access to collections. The objective has always seemed, at least in part, to force visitors to come to your site, which then becomes the sole point of contact. But the great advantage of digital information is the ease with which it can be copied and the ability to deliver the same content through a variety of different media and in a range of differing contexts. Couple that with the fact that the World Wide Web allows content to be drawn in from anywhere, enabling the creative re-use of resources originally built for quite other purposes; the growth of ’sociable technologies’ like blogs, wikis, YouTube, MySpace and Bebo; and the widespread deployment of tools that mean creating online content is now easy and requires no (or little) technical knowledge beyond that required to use a word processor, and we can see that there is now a world of shared content out there already being created, used, re-used and re-shaped. Perhaps its time to stop thinking about re-inventing the wheel and to take a free ride instead? […]

]]> By: Pete http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/wp/2006/08/25/who-are-you-calling-cheap/#comment-458 Pete Tue, 29 Aug 2006 12:59:23 +0000 http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/wp/2006/08/25/who-are-you-calling-cheap/#comment-458 That's a very good point, though I guess even that limited information (a range of different tags) would be somewhat useful. I was also interested in the facility to add comments as well as tags. Something like <a href="http://del.icio.us/" rel="nofollow">del.icio.us</a> would give us better quality information, but flickr remains a good way of getting images and information about the collections out there. We'll see what transpires, and if people save any of the images to del.icio.us. At the moment it's in the nature of an experiment. No doubt at some point we'll work out the best way of doing this. Any suggestions? It also occurs to me that I'll now have to add in all the views of the flickr images to our Statutory Perfromance Indicator totals... That’s a very good point, though I guess even that limited information (a range of different tags) would be somewhat useful. I was also interested in the facility to add comments as well as tags. Something like del.icio.us would give us better quality information, but flickr remains a good way of getting images and information about the collections out there. We’ll see what transpires, and if people save any of the images to del.icio.us.

At the moment it’s in the nature of an experiment. No doubt at some point we’ll work out the best way of doing this. Any suggestions?

It also occurs to me that I’ll now have to add in all the views of the flickr images to our Statutory Perfromance Indicator totals…

]]> By: vanderwal http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/wp/2006/08/25/who-are-you-calling-cheap/#comment-444 vanderwal Fri, 25 Aug 2006 13:47:33 +0000 http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/wp/2006/08/25/who-are-you-calling-cheap/#comment-444 Flickr will give decent results, but not greatly helpful as it only provides a single tag on the object and does not capture an identity (can be cloacked). To get really good value want something closer to a del.icio.us three dimensional tagged approach. This will show popular/common tags, allow for following an identity/screen name across items (such as an identity calls most everything of high value a vase, even paintings). Tagging should include the object being tagged, the individual tags applied to the object, and an identity for each tag. This will show that most people call an object a pitcher few call it a vase, which will have more value than a Flickr approach that will show only two tags (pitcher and vase). Flickr will give decent results, but not greatly helpful as it only provides a single tag on the object and does not capture an identity (can be cloacked).

To get really good value want something closer to a del.icio.us three dimensional tagged approach. This will show popular/common tags, allow for following an identity/screen name across items (such as an identity calls most everything of high value a vase, even paintings). Tagging should include the object being tagged, the individual tags applied to the object, and an identity for each tag. This will show that most people call an object a pitcher few call it a vase, which will have more value than a Flickr approach that will show only two tags (pitcher and vase).

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