As part of my postgrad I did a bunch of research and thinking about social media, ruminating very seriously about its democratic potential for museums to engage with their audiences and share knowledge, smashing the hierarchies of old and ushering a new era. This was a while ago now, when social media still had a utopian glint in its eye, peddling its potential before the rest of the world worked how to make money from it.
Read MoreCrowdfunding has created exciting opportunities for artists and entrepreneurs, but what sort of opportunities does it offer to GLAM institutions? I believe crowdfunding provides a way for museums to engage with communities and interest groups and give those communities a sense of ownership of a project from the outset of the project.
Read MoreTo look at it in terms of who it represents, the internet provides a broad and deep snapshot of contemporary Māori life. The accessibility it affords us to understand our people as we are right now is unsurpassed. It is therefore imperative that we find ways to record how we are living online, and it is through this representation that we may avoid some of the gaps in knowledge that were perpetuated by our collecting forebears.
Read MoreThe New Zealand Fashion Museum (NZFM) is New Zealand’s first specialised fashion museum and it presents a radical new model for museums. Founded in 2010 by Doris de Pont, the NZFM is dedicated to documenting New Zealand fashion. This includes New Zealand designed garments, garments manufactured in New Zealand, as well as those worn by New Zealanders.
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My manager @adamrmor and I were recently discussing the difference between his use of Twitter and my own. He’s a professional user and I’m a sharing professional.
I was recently reading an article in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, of all places, in which a “personal digital brand” was defined “as a strategic self-marketing effort, crafted via social media platforms, which seeks to exhibit an individual's professional persona” (Kleppinger & Cain, 2015).
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LB4106, Coturnix novaezelandiae, © Auckland Museum CC BY
In our industry, we're very careful to rely on thoroughly-vetted primary resources, which is important when producing an authoritative text. But I am also learning that it is critical not to second-guess the value of more "informally acquired" information, which can provide a different kind of insight to that gleaned from a published work.
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