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What a pity to have missed the discussion about museum-users as  
participants. Thank you Ian for sharing your blog from 1998. In the  
meantime, what are your experiences with projects on visitor  
participation in content creation?

In the context of an exhibition on how an encylopaedia is produced I  
am thinking of a part with a selection of curiosity-cabinet-like  
objects that visitors can use to build exhibition. By arranging,  
contextualizing and categorizing objects, knowledge construction is  
shown as an open-ended and social process. Does anyone know of any  
similar approaches and corresponding experiences?

The curator's objection is that people likely to visit an exhibition  
on encyclopaedias in the national library would'nt want to play with  
objects.

Any thoughts about this?

Thank you and best,

Hanna Sathiapal


fingertip hands-on stationen
birchlenstrasse 10, ch-8600 dübendorf
+41 43 355 92 70, www.fingertip.ch

Am 10.11.2006 um 00:47 schrieb Ian Russell:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology  
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related  
> institutions.
> ********************************************************************** 
> *******
>
> At 19:12 09/11/2006, Nina Simon wrote:
>
>> Dear museum smarties,
>>
>> Like many of you, I was energized, inspired, simultaneously over- and
>> under-whelmed by ASTC this year.  I was particularly motivated by  
>> some
>> discussions about ways to more meaningfully bring visitors into the
>> museum as users--active participants in content creation.
>>
>> So, I've started a blog, Museum 2.0 (http:// 
>> www.museumtwo.blogspot.com),
>> to explore some of these ideas.  The web is amazing for its  
>> ability to
>> evolve and adapt, and web 2.0 applications give users high-value,
>> personalized content based on their social participation in them.   
>> Why
>> can't museums do the same?  Can this model of visitor/user engagement
>> work in our halls and programs?  How far can/will/should we go?
>
> I've just had a strange experience!
>
> Reading Nina Simon's message, I recalled chairing an online  
> discussion about the same great question, back in 1998 as an  
> official, 'virtual' part of that year's Museums and the Web  
> conference in Toronto http://www.archimuse.com/mw98/abstracts/ 
> russell.html under the title, 'Symmetrical Transactions'.
>
> I searched Google to see if any vestiges of that discussion still  
> remained in cyberspace. I discovered that it's all still there,  
> fossilised in a long-forgotten, unlinked corner of my OWN website.  
> http://www.interactives.co.uk/graffiti/
>
> It felt peculiar to read again through this stimulating discussion  
> lasting less than a month over eight years ago.
>
>
> [log in to unmask] * http://www.interactives.co.uk
> *
> Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour.
> Awaken curiosity and they feed their own minds for a lifetime.
> *
> Ian Russell
> ********************************************************************** 
> *
> More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
> Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http:// 
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fingertip hands-on stationen
birchlenstrasse 10, ch-8600 dübendorf
+41 43 355 92 70, www.fingertip.ch




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