Museums in the Twitterverse

Tweet tweet, twiddle twiddle . . .

Okay, I admit it: Twitter has been a bit of an enigma for me, and so this post is more 'thinking out loud' than it is any given advice about the now 5 year-old microblogging platform. I am slowly becoming a Twitter convert, though, and see it as a valuable tool for museum folk.

Twitter all began for me when I created my account on November 15, 2008, and opened with this oh-so-obvious tweet:

Always a little bit of an adventurer, including how to use technology, I was interested in this new form of communication, how it worked, how I could participate and add it to ways to talk to people about museums. And so I poked around for a few days, specifically looking for British Columbia museums. I found none. I did find some 'big name' American museums, and started following them. And so my second tweet?

Ya, clever . . . I needed to do some research. I lurked and only sporadically twittered once or twice a week for my first year on Twitter. I was slowly finding museum people and organizations by using the search bar, and then looking at who they were following, often adding who they followed to my list. It was in January of 2009 when I started following the Vancouver Police Museum as well as the Creston Museum — my first BC museums. I also started to find active museum bloggers — I believe this is where I came across one of my favourites, Nina Simon's Museum 2.0 blog. Specific to what I was doing here, I found Nina's open letter to museums on Twitter particularly insightful. What has stuck with me from this post is a comment from a museum worker that followed Nina's first rule for museums: 1. Don't use Twitter to spam me about visiting. 

The last thing I would want is someone to think that our twitter account was just another marketing vehicle which . . . Twitter is not about. People can sniff out blatant marketing in a second, and will lose interest instantly.

Wise words. 

And I guess I should explain about my name "Owl_". As mentioned, I first joined Twitter to find and follow BC museums. I was hesitant about putting my whole name out there — not sure why, because I am not afraid of doing so on Facebook or LinkedIn — and so I chose to this avatar as a homage to the BC Museum Association's lost owl (see my blog post on that topic here). I twittered, rather oddly, in the voice of Owl; now I see that might not have been the way to go. When I recently got four comments in one week asking 'just who are you??' I decided I should attach my name to my account, to take ownership of what I was saying. It was the right move — but now, of course, I am having the mental debate if I should change it to something that parallels my name. (Any thoughts on this would be most appreciated!)

Anyway, in 2010 I was over-run with work and abandoned Twitter. Oops. I'm not sure I missed it because I was so busy, but this January I dove back into the stream of information, going deeply into it as if it were my mid-winter master class. I wanted to learn more about it, specifically about the 'so what?' part that I could apply to museum work. And I am so very happy to be back! I still find that Twitter can be overwhelming, but I am continually learning something amazing about how it all works - in fact, I just 'got' paper.li the other day from a great post on museum professional development by Susan Spero. Now I have two newspaper-like ways to follow my feeds - one for all I follow, and the other on my list of BC museum tweets. It's one way to help me feel like I don't have to be watching my feed every moment of every day, which is very reassuring as well as sustainable long-term.

But fundamentally what blows me away about Twitter is that people ARE paying attention to what you are doing and saying — I am never sure if we what we say is noticed, but I think on Twitter, when used correctly, it is. Maybe it's the condensed form of 140 characters that makes people more succinct, and therefore gives equal-opportunity discussion time, whether your one loan individual or someone who works for a Smithsonian organization. I really found this out when I started listing the people I follow, putting them into my own personal categories. People commented, were happy to be listed. Cool. And I guess that's why I am always so happy when I am able to engage in a conversation right there and then. We're not alone in what we like to do, and you can find that evident when you go on Twitter. That feels good!

What has hooked me in the past few weeks, though, is going to 'live' events.  I have to say, being on Twitter during a chat event can be much like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time, but it is worth it. I had the most fun having my dream interpreted by artist Man Bartlett. He was sitting by a computer, waiting for the hashtag #24hrclerk to appear via Twitter, and reading the tweets aloud. A person behind him typed out the dream, and he put a monetary value on it and placed a sticker on a scale with all the other interpretations. It was mesmerizing . . . check it out. He did this for a full 24 hours, so one of the points, to me, was to participate and then try. to. look. away. It made my day to be a part of the experience, I have to say. And who could ask for more from social media? 

More directly related to museums, I also attended the Centre for the Future of Museums 'twebevent' with the hashtage #CFMtrends and got some great resources on demographics and diversity. CFM blogged about the event here, which helps me to go and review what actually transpired during the hour. And on March 17, I attended part of the #nytmuseums chat, which was put on by the New York Times as part of their special section on museums that appeared the day before. Not only were there fabulous resources in the newspaper and their site, but the event spawned an incredible discussion reviewed by Hyperallergic, a forum about the arts and arts issues, with the hour's 1400 tweets logged by Bill Lefurgy. It was like I found the fountain of museum knowledge. Amazing.

Bottom line is that Twitter can be just a little mind-blowing, with its power to gather people and provide opportunity for rich, rich conversation for a focussed time online. Especially during events, it's like access to an instant, intense networking conference/cocktail party, and a fantastic way to share a blitz of a conversation with museum colleagues all over the world. I am going to keep a look out for more Twitter events, for that's where I find much of Twitter's value, and certainly where I can easily interact online with my beloved museum Twibe. It has been well worth the effort of finding out what Twitter is all about — I get it now!

Finding Owl

The Owls are not what they seem  . . . 

. . . or are they?? With apologies to Twin Peaks, I must mention the whole BCMA Conference 2010 Owl-stravaganza before it all flies out of my mind! 

BCMA Owl, as last seen in Richmond 2007

As I mentioned earlier, Owl is the beloved mascot of the BCMA and s/he has been missing since the Awards Night of the 2007 BCMA Conference in Richmond. One of my own personal goals as Program Chair, being the crazy owl lady that I am, was to see that Owl returned during the conference when it was in Nanaimo last month.


I sent the question "Where is our Owl?" out to the BCMA listserv, and got a lead the the old Owl was likely up north in the province. When I sent a follow up email, it was not answered . . . and all leads ended there.  So although I was not successful locating this last Owl, I worked with the Program Committee to do what we could to conjure up the spirit of our fella.

One of the committee members, Buddy Williams, was willing to put part of the Owl effort together. He and I identified that there was an animal rescue agency near Nanaimo called The North Island Wildlife Recovery Association. This fabulous group of people work to protect and rehabilitate wildlife that have been injured, and have public programs that help build awareness about the mighty creatures around us. It just so happens they have two barred owls that they use in their program, and that we could hire them to attend our BC Reports evening in the conference.

They. Were. Majestic. 

Bardo at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre

Bardo greeted people as they went towards the main gathering area, creating quite a bottleneck of adoring fans. We were also lucky enough to meet Oliver, later joined by Bardo, in a quiet room where we could get a little closer, and find out more information on the organization as well as the owls themselves.  (Bardo and Oliver nearly brought tears to the eyes of one of my colleagues, for they have such a presence!)

Oliver

Bardo looked into my soul so intensely that I had to turn away!

. . . and take off my hat. (gulp - he got so wincey-eyed!)

Bardo

Yes, for me, Owl was with us in these beautiful birds!

We had more than our fair share of BCMA fun with the Owl sub-theme, as Program Committee members Kate Kerr and Kristin Fairbairn made sure of it! Kristin brought a lot of energy, plus owl mask-making material for the Awards Dinner. Kate, who is an exhibition tech at the Royal BC Museum, made an Owl form and brought a whole lot of glue, glitter and art materials for us to decorate our new Owl 2.0. We set him up in the gift shop in the Nanaimo Museum from the opening reception on the Wednesday night until Awards night time, when he was moved up to the party. This is how he developed:

The plain form.

The beginnings . . .

-

.... interesting....

Getting dressed for dinner!

Owl 2.0 at the BCMA Awards Dinner 2010

Now maybe it's just me, but I thought this was a lot of fun to do these crafty things. : )

But.

I am not sure this is The Next Owl for BCMA.

It was declared in the AGM at the conference that the Spirit of Owl had definitely returned / was here in Nanaimo. But as I was helping pack up our Owl 2.0, I was a little distressed that maybe he wasn't going to make it home. A colleague (actually the same one that was so moved by the live owls) assured me that Owl 2.0 would be safe, and that the next conference would have an Owl of sorts - maybe this one, maybe not, and that's okay.  She wisely told me that Owl will be what Owl needs to be for where the BCMA is at the time of conference - and to rest assured, s/he was here this year. And so with that, I let Owl free . . .

Me & Bardo

Have You Seen this Owl?

Ah, BCMA's Owl . . .

The British Columbia Museums Association is desperately seeking Owl at Conference 2010. Our mascot was last seen at the Richmond Conference in 2007, and has been missing ever since. There have been rumours that s/he (no one knows) was abducted, went on the town and…flew away never to be seen again. Or has s/he? We would really like for Owl to make an appearance Conference 2010, and plan to call Owl out with special events such as an opportunity to meet a local owl cared for by a wildlife rescue agency. We will also be adding in ‘owl-rific’ elements to our Awards Dinner and throughout the Conference by…oh you just come and see! Owl will come Home to BCMA during Conference 2010.

Opportunity: Program Chair for a Conference

British Columbia Museums Association Conference 2010 . . .

I am cheating a little bit here with this post, as this article is set to appear in the BCMA Roundup magazine this month... but thought it would make a good entry as I have volunteered a lot on this conference, and have put particular attention into making a strong theme that would appeal to our sector. I hope it works out!!

Anyway, here is the article:

This year’s theme for the British Columbia Museums Association Conference, I, Museum: Community, Technology, Opportunity, declares who we are as a sector in our community - I am the museum, and I celebrate what I do! It is also is a play on I, Robot, a science fiction book by Isaac Asimov, which discusses society's errant relationship with technology; museums know have new ways of relating, but we want to be certain that these tools don’t take over. Bringing these two ideas together, we (shamelessly) adapted the Three Laws of Museums, from Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, to read:

1. A museum may not abandon the past or, through inaction, allow the community and its material culture to come to harm.
2. A museum must embrace the future, except when it conflicts with the First Law.
3. A museum must protect its own existence as long as such protection doesn't conflict with the First or Second Law.

Such thought has gone into the theme because our sector has been – again – through a challenging time as of late: we need time to meet and regroup, have some great discussions and make a game plan for the future. Conference 2010 will help us do that by investigating and celebrating what makes museums unique (working with and for our community), how we can use technology to help us forward our goals (but not let it take over), and what we can do to survive and adapt to the changing world around us (by seizing unique opportunities). We also hope that we will have a little fun and success finding Owl (see the following post).

The Programming Committee has worked diligently since January to plan a fabulous program that will be relevant and engaging for the BCMA membership. We are lucky enough to have Nina Simon as our keynote speaker, who will talk about her book and museum ‘practice’ called The Participatory Museum, and how it can relate to what we are doing in BC museums. There are preconference workshops lined up that look at everything from discussing frontline strategies that make our visitors feel welcome, to updating current exhibitions on a shoe-string budget, to developing (and redeveloping) a museum gift shop. There are also over 30 sessions within the program that will discuss working with communities, review the latest in social media, as well as (gasp) look at entrepreneurial opportunities, including the économusée movement. In addition, Robert Janes will lead a germane plenary session that title “A Sense of Urgency: Museums at the Future”; we should all be there just for that, as it is an important discussion on strategizing what we have to do to keep moving our sector forward.

We are also looking forward to webcasting several events, to make them available to online subscribers. This use of technology should help to make conference content available to our colleagues who are not able to attend conference, and keep the discussions going after conference has closed.

Conference is a time to come together to network, reconnect, attend some sessions and, yes, celebrate that museums are still here and reinventing themselves to remain relevant, vibrant and sustainable. Please join colleagues in Nanaimo from October 27 – 30 to discuss and celebrate I, Museum: Community, Technology, Opportunity, BCMA Conference 2010. You can register by visiting the BCMA website. We will see you there!