Week 13

Readings from Bill Adair, Benjamin Filene, and Laura Koloski, Letting Go: Sharing Historical Authority in a User-Generated World (Philadelphia, PA: Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, 2011).

What we have seen throughout this semester is that historical knowledge roles that used to be fairly distinct (professor/researcher; librarian/archivist; museum professional; journal editor) appear to be getting all mixed up in the 21^st century in the context of the web. This week’s readings introduce in an explicit way how the public as consumers can merge into those roles as well. What are the implications of these developments for how we should training graduate students (and the public) and for how you think about your own careers?

• There is a wealth of opportunities in the digital age to make history meaningful to a wide variety of audiences. How do you pick your focus?
• You personally, in managing your career and avocation as a historian?
• A given museum, library, nonprofit organization, for-profit business, or other organization that you might work for/with?

Introduction

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of publicly curated museum content? Are there any special considerations for the web that are different from in physical museums?
• Why do they say that public curation demands more work rather than less from museums? If public content is professionally edited, then how public is it? What parallels with “reality TV” might reasonably be drawn?
• Ask someone with public history background to talk about Frisch’s idea of “shared authority.”

Nina Simon, “Participatory Design and the Future of Museums”

• If the web remains an open free-for-all, why shouldn’t museums continue to carefully select and present objects within an interpretive framework?
• What is a “folksonomy”?
• What is the difference between gatekeeping and curation?
• Why isn’t soliciting participation enough? Why must one also use the fruits of that participation?
• What is the “proximate model”? What are the shortcomings for taking such a business concept and applying it to a museum?
• The Human Library catalog

Steve Zeitlin, “Where Are the Best Stories? Where Is My Story?—Participation and Curation in the New Media Age”

• What happens if you invite participation and then don’t post what people share?
• http://www.cityofmemory.org/map/index.php
• Do you approve of reviewing and editing public contributions before posting? Should contributors be consulted about the edited version?
• Does the collector have an obligation to store the originals?
• What’s the difference between collecting the best stories and getting everyone telling stories (Alan Lomax and Pete Seeger story that ends the essay)? Is there room for both?

Matthew Fisher and Bill Adair, “Online Dialogue and Cultural Practice: A Conversation”

• What are the practical implications of running an exhibition “that never ends”?
• What are the strengths and weakness of relying on the wisdom of crowds, for example to recommend books through a “favoriting” system?
• P. 53: “mini curatorial interventions”: commenting, blogging, bookmarking, and favoriting

Matthew MacArthur, “Get Real! The Role of Objects in the Digital Age”

• You can’t collect and curate everything, even though everyone might have access. How can we make choices?