Cute, fun but how is it useful?

Okay so I took a quick look at mashups. My initial reaction was, "Okay this is a fun way to waste a little time but what good is it?" . . . and then I thought about it a little and it presents s0me interesting possibilities for interactivity with Society collections . . . how, well, here's my thought . . .

Say in the lobby we setup a kiosk that has some type of menu option for "scavenger hunts" in the gallery. One of the options is the mashup to "spell with flickr" - someone enters a word, say their name, and gets a quick printout of a selection of collection pieces, on display in the galleries, that spell out their name . . . then they have to go find them. An interesting option for getting people to take a look around at what we've got on display . . .

You could do the same sort of thing with the flickr picker color . . .

The best part about all of this is since its technology and web based, you don't per se have to give them a print out at all . . . they could just download it to their phone, their Blackberry, their home computer, etc. . . . or perhaps have terminals in the galleries themselves, where they can check off items as they find them . . . and get a print out at the end, only after they've located all them items . . .

So apparently, some interesting possibilities after all. Maybe not traditional museum experience but if it gets them in the door and into the galleries maybe they'll stay a while. And even if they only stay 20 minutes, isn't a 20 minute visit better than no visit at all?

Keeping up is hard to do . . .

I love technology . . . seriously. In many ways its makes things VERY convenient. But keeping up with it all . . . that's a bit more challenging.

So I created a Flickr page . . . I've got a big one pictures but here it is . . .

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nhspider97/

For those of you who know her, this was taken at the party held at the hotel after the reception for Alicia's wedding . . . there's a back story on the hat . . . but you'll have to bribe me to tell . . .

As to the technology, Flickr seems like a great way to share pictures, or in the case of the VHS, digital images of any number of things in the collection . . . but I wonder about the ability for people to post comments. I know a concern that's gone around regarding patron comment books and so forth is how you handle comments that are inappropriate, inflammatory, offensive, etc. The same applies here. On our own website obviously we can have oversight and filter any comments that we think would be more harmful than helpful. But do we have the same level of control over items we post on Flickr?

And then, if you start filtering comments, you start getting complaints that you censor things in your favor . . . so then you have to figure out how to combat that issue . . . but as a sharing method its certainly very attractive, especially since, with the tagging system, you can group items according to theme, exhibit, etc.

Okay, now let's see if I can work on the Week 3 stuff before the Week 4 stuff gets announced!!

I'm all over it today . . .

So I've looked into micro-blogging and signed up for Twitter . . . I've even got it setup to use on my cell phone. I do wonder sometimes if being this connected is always a good thing . . . I feel like people begin to expect you to always be available, so you never get any down time. I guess it puts the ball in your court to ignore the technology when you want to be "away"!

From a VHS standpoint, Twitter could have potential as a way to announce that ticket sales for events are now available (I've heard of this being done for concerts - usually sent out by the band or group) or that we've hit a particular milestone (a campaign goal has been reached). It could also be very useful as a safety and security resource . . . in the event we have to shut down the building or get everyone to the building in an emergency, Twitter could be used to relay that information . . .

Next up is flickr . . .

Playing catch-up . . .

Okay, so I'm mainly getting with the 21st century due to an opportunity at work to learn more about emerging technologies, the web, etc. Last week was a little haywire so I'm catching up on our assignments today. I've fleshed out my blog profile a little today, added a picture (no I didn't take it but I have been there) and some more info about me . . . next up are microblogging, twitter, and flickr . . .

I love technology . . .

. . . in theory. My problem is it doesn't seem to like me! :) The IT guy where I work generally forbids me from standing near new equipment because it all seems to malfunction when I'm near by . . .

But I'm gonna try to get with the 21st century anyway . . .