Dr Russo and Dr Kelly c.2008 – longtime collaborators and lifetime pals!
After attending the MCN conference in 2019 and hearing the same old problems (!), I started to revisit some of the work our team did at the Australian Museum in the early days of museums, social media, Web 2.0 and website redevelopments. Given all that’s happened in the world since, what seems a lifetime ago, I never got around to posting it.
Until now. Thanks to a lazy (!) tweet from @Indigo_H_J, asking about the origins of digital participation, I finally got around to hitting the publish button. I do think that this work still has resonance for today’s practice, and may contribute in a small way in answering your tweet Indigo!
So, just for you, here’s some writings from 2009-2012, plus a list of relevant publications that also reference much of this early work.
Blog Posts
[Note some links referenced in these posts are now broken but you’ll get the drift from the post title]
2009:
- Developing the museum’s social media strategy: https://australianmuseum.net.au/blog-archive/museullaneous/the-museums-social-media-strategy/
- All About Evil: Exhibition development using social media https://musdigi.wordpress.com/2015/11/26/evil-torture-tbt/
2010
- How Web 2.0 is Changing the Nature of Museum Work: https://publications.australian.museum/how-web-20-is-changing-the-nature-of-museum-work/
- Mr Blobby: https://australianmuseum.net.au/blog-archive/museullaneous/natural-history-specimens-as-social-media-stars-mr-blobby/
- Five lessons we learned using an open system https://australianmuseum.net.au/blog-archive/museullaneous/social-musings-5-lessons/
2011
- The world of museums: https://australian.museum/blog-archive/museullaneous/the-world-of-museums/
- Responsive web design and museums: https://australianmuseum.net.au/blog-archive/museullaneous/responsive-web-design-and-museums/
- ASTC presentation: https://australianmuseum.net.au/blog-archive/museullaneous/astc-2011-presentation/
2012
- Where are we at with mobile? https://australianmuseum.net.au/blog-archive/museullaneous/where-are-we-at-with-mobile/
Publications
- Kelly, L. (2016). The (post) digital visitor: What has (almost) twenty years of museum audience research revealed? In N. Proctor and R. Cherry (Eds), Museums and the Web 2016: Selected papers and Proceedings from Two International Conferences (pp. 237-246). Silver Spring: Museums and the Web.
- Kelly, L. (2013). The Connected Museum in the World of Social Media. In K. Drotner and K. Schroder Museum Communication and Social Media: The connected museum (pp. 54-71). Routledge: London.
- Kelly, L. and Fitzgerald, P. (2011). Cooperation, collaboration, challenge: how to work with the changing nature of educational audiences in museums. In N. Mockler and J. Sachs (Eds) Rethinking Educational Practice Through Reflexive Inquiry. (pp. 77-88). Springer: London.
- Kelly L. and Russo, A. (2010). From Communities of Practice to Value Networks: Engaging Museums in Web 2.0. In F. Cameron and L. Kelly (Eds) Hot Topics, Public Culture, Museums. (pp. 281-298). Cambridge Scholars Publishing: London.
- Kelly, L. (2010). How Web 2.0 is Changing the Nature of Museum Work. Curator, 53(4), 405-410.
- Jensen, B. and Kelly, L. (2009). Exploring Social Media for Front-End Evaluation. Exhibitionist, Fall, 19-25.
- Russo, A., Watkins, J., Kelly, L. and Chan, S. (2008). Participatory Communication with Social Media. Curator, 51(1), 21-31.
- Russo, A., Watkins, J., Kelly, L., Chan, S. (2007). How will social media affect museum communication? Nordisk Museologi, 1, 19-29.
- Kelly, L. and Russo, A. (2008). From Ladders of Participation to Networks of Participation: Social Media and Museum Audiences. In J. Trant and D. Bearman (Eds) Museums and the Web 2008: Selected Papers from an International Conference (pp. 83-92). Toronto: Archives and Museum Informatics.
Museums | Digital | Research | Learning 
Why is it that we still have so many problems when social media is such a useful tool and digital technology can be a real asset to museums. Is it because it’s still an afterthought or an add on rather than integrated and supported?
Couple of things I think. Upper management doesn’t value SM; many folks think anyone can do social media so don’t value it as a separate skill set; SM managers are getting frustrated and I think that’s showing through so they’re largely being ignored; and the physical experience rules. Even through COVID the main panic was to re-open physical sites when they could have just taken a break and go virtual for a few months. I know this is a tad naive but places re-opening at great cost and environmental expense (eg having few visitors per day but still having to run air conditioning) is not a good use of resources IMV.