Museums in CyberSpace--to MySpace or Not to MySpace?

[MuseumFlavor]

Ben Rogers, Director for New Media at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, recently gave a talk at the annual CAM conference in which he mentioned that he was not in favor of museums themselves having a presence on MySpace. He thinks that it makes more sense for specific museum events, such as Sonic Scenery at his own institution, to have MySpace pages. Personally, I see nothing wrong with expanding a museum's visibility and visitor-base by having a MySpace profile and friending people left, right and sideways? How do other people feel about the museum/MySpace issue?

[Anita Cohen-Williams]

Unless the museums want to appeal to the 18-24 set, MySpace is not a very professional area.

However, I think that have a virtual exhibit at SecondLife.com might be very interesting.

[Kat]

I'm glad you think so! The museum I help found in 2005, the International Spaceflight Museum, ONLY exists as a virtual museum, and at present is only in Second Life. That might change in the future as we expand into other virtual worlds, but I can't see us ever trying for a bricks and mortar establishment.

I agree that MySpace is probably not the right venue for more than a limited-scope museum's online presence, and anyway it doesn't have the opportunities for rich 3D environments available in interactive virtual worlds.

That said, using sites similar to MySpace, particularly Twitter and Facebook, seems to be a thing a number of museum, university and government agency pros I know are doing now to keep in touch with one another.

[Joshua]

It should be up to the individual curator to make those decisions. The internet itself does seem to attract a younger crowd and they are all on myspace so naturally listing your museum on my space would attract a younger type of interest. I see nothing wrong with that as museums need younger people to find something there to identify with, after all they are the future (cliche). The important thing is to make sure your myspace page really reflects the collection and the museum, not to fall blunder to make yourself "hip". Also do not advertise at the museum that you are "NOW ON MYSPACE" just let people find you there and then maybe make some sort of pilgrimage to actually see the work at the museum!

[Carolina]

I think Myspace brings up interesting opportunities and challenges but more oppt than not. Social Networking as popular as it has become as a form of communication is growing beyond the teen and young professional age. Many universities, museums, and educational institutions are experimenting with their presence to reach these audiences using web 2.0 tools such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Flickr, and Ning. Although some are better than others in their approach it is a risk that museums should take even if it doesn't work the first or several times upon initiation. It should not be a one department effort but various departments whose voices jointly aiming for the same objectives and should include at least the Marketing, Education and curatorial departments in their planning phases. Through such strategies can the museum learn to widen their scope in terms of audience outreach to the public and to audiences especially to the college and young professional age range. One of our Educators still thinks about how we can make our museum a more "date friendly" place and I think with Facebook and Myspace as popular social networking hubs it is a musuems opportunity to expand to a growing community of learners. Museum Education programs that target teens may learn a lot from both MySpace and Facebook tools and already we are seeing both being used as a way to reach teen audiences. Just as any use of new technology, there is always a certain amount of risk to take but museums should not let it sit on the back burner for too long or they may lose a very important audience that we want to educate and reach in terms of art appreciation and art education. The Brooklyn Museum and the Library of Congress have already tapped into these social networking and Web 2.0 tool such as facebook application "ArtShare" and "Flickr" and I think with their examples can other more "traditional" museums see an opportunity for experimentation. I think its wonderful to think that we can tap into a global community of learners both in virtual and face to face environments that can bring enthusiasm to potential visitors and museum enthusiasts beyond the amount that comes through our museum doors.