Digging into Cultural Futures
Why do you go to the museum?
As part of my foray into the domain of museums, I spent two weeks in November attending Museum Computer Network's virtual conference courtesy of my incubator, NEW INC. The conference covered a wide range of topics from digital asset management, ethics, social justice within the workforce, and the effects of the pandemic. In addition to this diversity of discussions, I met many new faces and even reconnected with someone I hadn't seen since high school. The breadth of the conference was a great entry point into this complex landscape, but I was most impressed with the depth in the discourse.
One topic in particular that strikes my interest is called Open GLAM. GLAM stands for galleries, libraries, archives, and museums. Open refers to the digital copyright principles known as Open Access. GLAM institutions have been and continue to increase Open Access of their collections. Supported through Creative Commons, Open GLAM aims to create best practices for this process. It has me thinking and looking into what kind of experiences are made with these datasets?
My next steps are to reach out and interview many of the people I met at the conference. I'll also be interviewing other curators, administrators, and directors on the topic of Open GLAM. If you or someone you know is interested in this topic, I would love to talk.
Thankful for this community and the opportunity to ask questions,
—Jono