Interoperability -what is it good for

Collections, 2004

Documentation forms the basis in which museum collections are ascribed meaning. Practices, many of which are rooted in nineteenth century empiricist modes of thinki ng, have not been revised at the speed that ideological, practical, and tech nological transformations are taking place in other areas of museum practice. At this point an op portunity exists fo r radical changes not only in the manner objects are documented, but also the way they are perceived as forms of evidence. This article, drawing on the findings of the Knowledge Objects project and the writing of leading museum theorists, and historians revisits the acquisition and documentation process. It proposes the incorporation of new principles, practices, and structures that acknowledge objects as polysemic entities-as holding multiple meanings; the meaning of narratives and classificatory systems as products of cultural, disciplinary, museum, and curatorial opinion; the role of a diverse range of users in the cycle of knowledge making and the responsibilities of curators and collection managers as knowledge experts and brokers.

2014

Before turning to a web-based information system, E stonian museums used a system called KVIS (Information System for Museums and Antiquarian Ins titutions) that shared the same software but worked only locally at each individual site. KVIS w as created in 1993 with a goal to create a database that would allow users to document and explore obje cts related to the various human disciplines (archeology, art, history, ethnography, numismatics , etc.) and belonging to different periods of hist ory.

Ulakbilge, 2020

Corona, Lara. International University of Catalunya, Department of Humanities, "Museology and Communication within the virtual Museum". Ulakbilge, 44 (2020/1): s. 26-31. Abstract. Anyone thinks to know what a museum is. However, despite the common thoughts, a museum is an institution which is constantly evolving nowadays. The present work aims to highlight the link between the "museum" entity as an institution and changes in society. This adjustment affects the museum communication. Today, communication is said to be a particular current topic due to social evolution. Indeed, it leads to new challenges arising from globalisation, and new opportunities offered in terms of technological innovation. We live in a historical moment characterised by great social and economic changes that see technology as the main protagonist. So what is the role of this technology in the institution and the "museum" institution? In this paper, we consider the results of the changes in society in terms of technology and how they affect museums and their manners of communication.

In this modern electronic era museum objects of both conventional and digital help us to understand our past and relevant for teaching and learning. Access of these objects is different in many ways. Therefore, it becomes a crucial task to handle these items for learning and teaching purposes. To fulfill these task museums, cultural heritage institutions pay more attention on museum objects to provide better understanding of them. Hagedorn-Saupe (2012) stated that digital medium and the digital reproduction of the objects in it open up completely new possibilities for users, both experts and general public, to work with the digital objects: the digital object reproduction can be adapted into one’s own digital-work space and can be studied, analyzed, commented and to some degree even “changed” (eg. when working and drawings). Hagedorn-Saupe clearly described the close relationship among digital objects and the user and how digital objects facilitate users to study them in user’s own work –places though they are expert or not. This gives a clear vision of future museums in digital environment. International Committee of Museums (ICOM) has defined that a museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment (ICOM, 2007). This definition has unpacked by Geser & Niccolucci (2012). According to them the application of digital technologies is widely recognized to be helpful in fulfilling its function in novel and effective ways. Further they described the conceiving a museum that does not avail of some of the technologies that are such a great part of our everyday life would be as anachronistic as thinking of a museum without electricity or heating. It is crystal clear that digital technologies have become a dynamic part of the museums and future museums have no life without that.

Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Kul'turologiya i iskusstvovedenie, 2017

This paper studies the recent evolutions in digital cultural mediation for museums. It aims to show the convergence of recent socio-technological trends and their social appropriation by museums towards the building of an "open museum" based on the paradigm of collaboration and open access to culture. In the last fifteen years, museums developed policies to make digital cultural resources available. To facilitate the dissemination and circulation of cultural contents, they adopted the media habits of their audience by relying on electronic artefacts and digital data. They began with local indoor installations, then extended them to websites and social networks and finally went digitally mobile with specific apps. This innovative digital communicational policy blurs boundaries between in-situ physical museums and their digital resources. Museum contents are displayed on external platforms developed by industrial stakeholders whose core business was not initially the cultural field. This new configuration allows individual access to cultural content inside and outside the museum by combining the discovery of physical locations and digital resources. In this perspective, we investigated cultural Linked Open Data, in particular the opportunities offered by the social construction of an inter-museum cultural space leading to free circulation of knowledge. We showed that the notion of museum is being extended to include digital social networks, digital mobility and cultural Linked Open Data. This conception of a museum extending beyond its physical space to digital spaces is what could be called an "open museum." Our approach is based on three studies: a) a qualitative analysis of a corpus of professional publications by American and European museums during years 2012-2014; b) five case studies based on interviews with professionals from five American museums; c) one specific example, "Musée d'Histoire de Marseille" in France, in which one of the authors was involved.

CIDOC ICOM, 2017

As a result of an initial exploratory investigation of temporary art exhibitions in Brazilian metropolitan areas, it has been detected that general guidelines regarding documentation processes and its diffusion are not clearly enunciated. The result, as often observed, has been inadequate or poor outcomes that in many cases do not fulfill its own goals. A base ground for a proper documentation process on contemporary scenarios should consider not only the potential range assured by virtual media technology, but the variety of publics apt to benefit from structured and systematized documentation practices. The idea of a “live museum” pursued by many Brazilian institutions must take into account its duty to build up its contents as important knowledge fields, mostly by making its events accessible to the local and global community. All aspects of the diverse specialized work involved on the production of a temporary art exhibition, with its particularities regarding space, time and formats, must be properly registered as multiple sources of information and expertise, suited to be appropriated by different subjects: children, students, professionals, technicians, researchers. This practice alone is able to multiply the possibilities of “cross-border, cross-sectoral networking of museum documentation to support research, education and presentation”. Based on this perspective, this research project hosted at the Post Graduate Program of the Architecture Faculty of the Presbyterian University Mackenzie (São Paulo, Brazil) (www.up.mackenzie.br/en/stricto-sensu/architecture- and-urbanism) in collaboration with the Brasiliana Institute (www.institutobrasiliana.org), aims to set out documentation parameters for temporary exhibitions in Brazilian art museums.

2019

Although museum automation emerged in the mid-1960s, American and British art museums continue to have a difficult relationship with digital technology. Indeed, within the broader cultural heritage network, art museums have been particularly reluctant to disseminate their missions online. Particularly since the eighteenth century, art museums have remained beholden to certain perceptions of authority that are tied to the authentic object. Yet, as new technologies offer more efficient and cost-effective ways to store and disseminate information and promise greater accessibility, these museums have continued in their efforts to incorporate digital methods into their practices. The following document considers the role of information organization in the creation of knowledge and value within and beyond the space of the art museum by interrogating two major scholarly products of the well-endowed, early 21st century Western art museum’s ecosystem: online catalogues and online exhibitions...

As technology evolves it does not only affect everyday aspects of our lives, but it also affects many cultural institutions. The tremendous impact of applying new technologies is obvious when it comes to museums. From using new technologies in the actual buildings and their structure to their presence online and their new form, their nonmaterial, intangible digital representation. Internet is nowadays a basic part of our lives as it has progressed from an expensive commodity to a daily necessity. This paper will demonstrate the reasons why and the ways internet has transformed museum from its presence in the world to its evolution into an unsubstantial cultural institution.

This document describes the work done within the Virtual Museum Transnational Project (V-MUST.NET), and specifically within the Work Package 2, dedicated to the creation of a common language in the Virtual Museum domain. This deliverable describes the adopted methodology used to build an on line common database that collects terms and definitions. It also defines the main 8 categories chosen to initially classify the domain and used as “glossaries” to collect related-terms.