Smithsonian 2.0

2.0 Enthusiasm Grows with Traveling Exhibitions

There's been a lot of discussion about putting all of our collections online since museum gallery space is limited and so few people will actually make the trek to Washington, DC, to see the real deals. This may indeed be the case, but we should be reminded that the Smithsonian travels outside the boundaries of the nation's capital--way outside. In fact, the Smithsonian's Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) brought SI collections, both big-ticket items and little-known gems, to nearly all 50 states last year. So, yes, we're out there in your backyard in a very real and tangible way.

Nonetheless, even the traveling exhibition service is working on doing a better job of connecting with people outside the Beltway. And in some ways, we're taking our lead from some of the museums out there that are hosting our shows, the folks who sometimes work on a shoe-string budget yet still manage to provide amazingly enriching experiences for their visitors, online and off. Take, for example, the University Museum, University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa; they hosted our satellite imagery exhibition Earth from Space last year. The university could have just followed the rules, unpacked their yellow crates, installed the exhibition, and planted a hard-bound visitor comment book at the door. But they went way beyond that, sponsoring a photo contest that centered around the major themes of the exhibition. The imagery was stunning and was truly a launching pad for discussion about sometimes unnoticed places in Iowa.

Inspiration from Iowa is now migrating to Arizona. Huh? Playing off the success of the Earth from Space photo contest, we've just launched our first public wiki in conjunction with Lasting Light: 125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography. Brand new for us and very low budget, it's really a pilot project. Hopefully, many other exhibition-related wikis will follow. We're getting there!

True stories behind the objects make a difference.

When I think about the experiences and expertise that the Smithsonian staff have regarding important scientific, cultural, historic and artistic objects as well as the context of those objects, I'm excited to learn that there's a desire at SI, and effort being made, to give me a taste of some of the treaures I can find there.

When I found Smithsonian images in the Flickr Commons, and ran across museums' group pages in Facebook, I came away with the feeling that SI is reaching out to me and my children.

I recently heard about meteorites at the National Museum of Natural History. It was by word of mouth, and the story has left me intrigued, wanting to learn more. It's not that I find meteorites visually stimulating; rather I've been gently confronted with the fact that what's buried inside them affected the course of American space exploration. SI, I'd like a few more gentle confrontations like that, please.

FYI - I get and give a lot of 'word-of-mouth' information at places like Flickr and Facebook. Frankly, more than I do with email or real face-to-face conversations. Thanks for putting some of your images there; it's triggered a real interest to learn more about what I've seen and to take a look at what else you have.

Cool Old People

This came up in one of our breakout sessions today and I just can't seem to get it out of my head. Turns out, teenagers want to talk to cool old people, and they don't currently have very good access to them. I think this really sums up one of the core things that the Smithsonian has to offer the world. We have a lot of cool old stuff, everyone knows that, but what they might not realize is that we have a LOT of cool old people. The experience of speaking with someone who has a passion for what they do and a lot of information to share, is a wonderful one. We need to figure out how we can translate this into an experience that anyone in the world can have. Tied to this is an idea that came up at the Plenary, which is that we need to digitize our people. Get them on the network and get them talking (and listening) to everyone else. Oh, and somehow give everyone in the world the chance to hold a meteorite, because apparently that experience blew folks away (how many do we have?)!

The conference begins, Smithsonian as new Pantheon?

The day started out with a welcome from Secretary Clough and his charge for us to ask the right questions and spark discussion as to how the Smithsonian can become the forefront in the dissemination of knowledge to the public.

Dissemination of knowledge was one of the topics that Bran Ferren of Applied Minds, Inc. addressed here in the S. Dillon Ripley Center.

The entire Library of Congress, he said, could fit within 10-20 terabytes—that's maybe 5-6 of some of the high end laptops available on the market, either now or within a few years.

So what's the Library of Congress to be for if we digitize everything (which we must do if the mission/vision is to disseminate information)?

Such were some of the mind-nudging questions and tidbits he threw at the audience of about half Smithsonian staff and half outside participants invited to take a look and engage in the discussion.

The real question was, Ferren suggested, is Smithsonian a fad? Will it be useful in 10 or 1000 years? Will it still be around or will it disappear? Is it CB radio (I think I'm too young to even know what that is...) or will it be fire (you know, with sticks and flames, provides heat and light...)?

He drew a wonderfully clear picture of time versus "something important" (be it technology, cell phone usage, or fraud on Wall Street, he said), depicting the curve of innovation versus the curve of how we respond to it.

Here it gets a little long and interesting, filled with digressions to the dome of the Pantheon, Ferren's own inspiration as an innovation in so many areas 1500 years ahead of its time.

But I took a picture of his whiteboard illustration.  It might be clearer if you check out the Web cast. Heh.

He emphasized storytelling. (And being a storyteller myself, I enjoyed that...)

Storytelling is how we remember things and see it.  Thus, this is one of the six things he mentioned for us to focus on.  (Either his numbering or mine is a little flaky, so the 5th or 6th might be confused...)

1. Vision.  This has to be re-interpreted for the 21st century. Diffusion of knowledge in the time of James Smithson is a totally different thing from what is it now. A la wikipedia, youtube, twitter...

2. Trust. It seems Ferren here is talking about a mutual trust. People have to trust the institution doesn't have an ulterior motive. And he also suggested that Smithsonian entrusts and gives away collections that are not virtually inaccessible and locked in dark rooms to the public. Have everyday citizens take care of them.

3. Talent. Attract the best and brightest of people, don't let them all go to Google. (He also mentioned Microsoft.  Personally I say Apple.)

4.  Embrace storytelling. (See above)

5. Crisis of education. Here Ferren talks about how a lot of school children aren't educated enough for engaging in the future.

6. Make it contemporary. Be the enabler for the next generation to disseminate information. Be what the Pantheon was for Ferren to the 9-year-olds with cell phones today.

So that was Ferren's comments in a fairly large nutshell.  Check out his whole lecture on the Web cast we'll be putting up. (Or have already?)

My thoughts, Ferren delivered a very appropriate lecture that sparked a lot of conversations and thoughts. He may seem just a tad idealistic in some of his statements, but shoot for the moon and we get somewhere far, right? And in lot of ways, his allusion to the Pantheon dome was just that, an idealism made into reality over 2000 years ago that continues to awe today.  Maybe it's not too ambitious to want the Smithsonian to come up with innovations that bedazzles the populace in 4000 years.

How exciting. See you in 7009!

So what are your thoughts? Do you see the Smithsonian as a fad or will it be (or is it) the next fire? How do we disseminate knowledge in a meaningful but also practical way? (Ferren does not really acknowledge much about intellectual property rights, copyright infringements, marketing, funding, etc. Though that wasn't really his task.)

What Visitors are Saying: A View into the Smithsonian on the Flickr Commons

On June 16^th, 2008, the Smithsonian Institution made its first foray onto the world of social photo-sharing websites as the fourth institution to join the Flickr Commons. The Commons is a special area of Flickr that gathers together photo collections from both national and international libraries, museums, and archives.

Here is a summary of moments that have excited, and frankly at times, baffled us. 

People really do like portraits of long dead scientists

If the truth be told, none of the members of the Smithsonian Commons team expected much response to the SI Libraries photo set, “Portraits of Scientists and Inventors.” Boy were we wrong.

The scientists hold 4 of the top 20 slots for ‘most viewed’ photos from the Smithsonian photostream (Smithsonian photos have received over 1.2 million ‘views’ to date). To be fair, 3 of the 4 photos are of famous scientists (Albert Einstein and Marie Curie) and the fourth is an intriguing shot of Felix Nadar (photographer and aeronautical scientist) in a hot air balloon.

 

Portrait of Felix Nadar (1820-1910), Photographer and Aeronautical Scientist,1910, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2583275097/

“America’s Attic” is relevant in social media environments

…especially when it hits on current events (the presidential inauguration) or issues (evolution vs. creationism).

The SI Archives launched a set of rare, previously unpublished photos to the Commons which document the Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes Trial, a.k.a. “The Trial of the Century.” Flickr members debated constitutional amendments, science, and religion.

Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial: The Seven scientists asked to testify for the defense standing in front of the Defense Mansions, 1925, by Walton Davis, Smithsonian Insitution Archives, http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2898310107/

We see historical record, they see creative inspiration

One flickr member, who happens to be a digital artist, was inspired by this portrait of Edward Gay from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art:

Reinterpretation of Edward Gay portrait (Smithsonian Archives of American Art) by Flickr user, "Lynchburg, Virginia,"  http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynchburgvirginia/3078329663/

Web communities, like Flickr, aren’t just distractions for the hip and wired

Since joining the Commons, we have connected with fish researchers (www.fishbase.org), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see their identification of artworks from the Met’s collection attached as a note on a photo from the SI Arhives of American Art), history buffs, and enthusiastic fans around the world. 

In a non-scientific survey of 61 visitors to SI on the Commons, they self-identified as ‘regular people’, photographers, bloggers, students, researchers, educators, librarians, and even one craftsperson. As a side note, 100 % of these respondents have a more favorable opinion of the Smithsonian because of our participation in the Commons.