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| It's Museum Week on Twitter | It's Museum Week on Twitter |
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| If you are a twitter fiend, as I am, and if you are passionate about museums, galleries and other cultural institutions, as I am, then you will be thrilled to learn that today is the first day of Museum Week on twitter. This community event runs from 23-29 March and has two main goals: to encourage the public to participate in a fun community initiative and to bring a global dimension to this event. Although it has not gone global yet, Museum Week is international: more than 800 museums, galleries and cultural institutions from across the UK, Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania -- 29 countries in total -- are officially participating in this, the first ever international Museum Week on twitter. | |
| This event was started by you. For years, museums and galleries have struggled with how to deal with a public that is increasingly well-armed with smartphones, digital cameras, online encyclopaedias and other digital paraphernalia -- how to prevent us from sneaking photos of their precious collections? How to ensure that everyone enjoys the collections, whether they carry a camera phone or not? How to protect the collections from being “loved to death” by the public? How to attract a paying public to special exhibitions that took months or years of painstaking effort to research, design and assemble? | This event was started by you. For years, museums and galleries have struggled with how to deal with a public that is increasingly well-armed with smartphones, digital cameras, online encyclopaedias and other digital paraphernalia -- how to prevent us from sneaking photos of their precious collections? How to ensure that everyone enjoys the collections, whether they carry a camera phone or not? How to protect the collections from being “loved to death” by the public? How to attract a paying public to special exhibitions that took months or years of painstaking effort to research, design and assemble? |
| Instead of shouting at rule-breakers with camera phones, more and more museums around the world are starting to embrace the twitter crowd by removing their restrictions on photography and by providing free institutional wireless access so we can snap-and-live-tweet photos of their collections. This was an important decision because everyone knows that a few tweeted photos can provide only the tiniest taste of reality, and for that reason, often serve to lure in more inquisitive people rather than fewer. | Instead of shouting at rule-breakers with camera phones, more and more museums around the world are starting to embrace the twitter crowd by removing their restrictions on photography and by providing free institutional wireless access so we can snap-and-live-tweet photos of their collections. This was an important decision because everyone knows that a few tweeted photos can provide only the tiniest taste of reality, and for that reason, often serve to lure in more inquisitive people rather than fewer. |
| Museum Week will feature a special theme each day that is suitably broad to accommodate those interested in the sciences and the arts, history and culture. Each day’s theme has its own twitter hashtag, which is shared by all the participating institutions, so you can contribute material to the twitter stream from your own institution and see what others are sharing too: | Museum Week will feature a special theme each day that is suitably broad to accommodate those interested in the sciences and the arts, history and culture. Each day’s theme has its own twitter hashtag, which is shared by all the participating institutions, so you can contribute material to the twitter stream from your own institution and see what others are sharing too: |
| Additionally, the #MuseumWeek tag will be used all week on twitter to facilitate online discussions between the participating institutions and the general public about a variety of topics as well as each day’s special theme. I look forward to seeing what all you museum-fiends will add to this international discussion about your favourite cultural institutions, and I plan to participate, too. See you all on twitter! | Additionally, the #MuseumWeek tag will be used all week on twitter to facilitate online discussions between the participating institutions and the general public about a variety of topics as well as each day’s special theme. I look forward to seeing what all you museum-fiends will add to this international discussion about your favourite cultural institutions, and I plan to participate, too. See you all on twitter! |
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| GrrlScientist is very active on twitter @GrrlScientist and lurks on social media: facebook, G+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. | GrrlScientist is very active on twitter @GrrlScientist and lurks on social media: facebook, G+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. |