New Media, Technology, and
Museums: Who’s In Charge
American Association of Museums
5/4/2009

• See related text version of this talk, with
references and footnotes.

• Michael Edson, Session Chairperson
Director of Web and New Media Strategy
Smithsonian Institution
• edsonm@si.edu
• Twitter
–#aam09
–@mpedson

“From law firms to libraries, from universities to
Fortune 500 companies, the organization’s website
almost invariably falls under the domain of the IT
Department or the Marketing Department, leading
to turf wars and other predictable consequences.
While many good (and highly capable) people
work in IT and marketing, neither area is ideally
suited to craft usable websites or to encourage the
blossoming of vital web communities.”
Jeffrey Zeldman
Let There be Web Divisions
http://www.zeldman.com/2007/07/02/let-there-be-web-divisions/

This was three years ago!

• 1.5 Billion Internet users
• 3.5 Billion mobile-phone subscribers

Half of US 70-75 year olds are online

“Everything we hear from people we
interview is that today’s consumers
draw no distinctions between an
organization’s Web site and their
traditional bricks-and-mortar presence:
both must be excellent for either to be
excellent.”
Lee Rainie
Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project

This session: a focus on
Emerging Professionals

Session Presenters
• Aurelie Henry, National Postal Museum
• Jeff Tancil (Tenement Museum)
• Cynthia Graville-Smith St Louis Science Center

Session Sponsors
• Media and Technology Committee
• Committee on Education
• Development and Membership Committee
• Museum Management Committee
• Committee on Museum Professional Training
• Public Relations and Marketing Committee

(Cynthia, Aurelie, and Jeff’s presentations)

Closing Thoughts

Higher Standards for Stewardship of New
Media
• I would like to press the AAM accreditation
committee to set higher goals and provide
roadmaps for the management and
organization of new tech in museums. A few
questions on the accreditation self-study
questionnaire is not enough.

Note: don’t hate your colleagues
• There’s a natural progression through these
evolutionary states
• …goes for everyone in the museum.
• You may perceive that they’re lacking
vision, “don’t get it”… but they probably just
haven’t had the ahah moment. Yet. There’s a
natural progression, and this stuff is HARD. I
do it full time.

Use your internal social network
• Success from having advocates in several
areas

It’s not over
• “It’s not over” - - it never is
• Slide: be transparent and consistent
• When bad decisions happened staff will
“know” what the NM team is and stands for.

Advocate for your vision
• “Advocate for your vision. Do it yourself.
Don’t cede this to others.”
• In a competitive environment, you have to
communicate effectively.
• The director isn’t going to (or don’t assume)
pick you to run new media if you’re not an
effective advocate, spokesperson, team
leader.

Don’t assume your Director is too busy
• Advice from Max Anderson
• Paraphrase “don’t assume the director is too busy” to
hear from you. He/she certainly wants to hear from
you now, rather than when failure has arrived.
• For most of us leadership and communication at the
senior management level does not come naturally. I
cringe when I think back on some of my early
conversations with Milo Beach who was Director
when I was cutting my teeth at the Freer Gallery of
Art. But that’s how you learn: do it, make
mistakes, get better.

Don’t obsess about how other people organize
• Advice from VP: “people obsess about how
other people organize. Pick a model that works
for you & where your organization is:
Ultimately…“It’s less about how you’re situated
in the organization and much more about the
conversations you’re having with the rest of the
organization and to what degree there is
strategic visibility at the CEO level,” says Greg
Foglesong, general manager of Home Depot
Direct, the e-commerce and catalog arm of The
Home Depot Inc.

Don’t confuse reporting structure with
leadership
• Says Victoria Portway who leads Web and
New Media for the National Air and Space
Museum (NASM).

Understand the natural evolutionary model
• This is what I’ve observed happening in
museums and private industry.
• Much thanks to Victoria Portway from NASM
for critical help with this model.

See next 5 slides…

Organizational Patterns
• Most museums and businesses follow a
natural, evolutionary pattern in organizing
their Web and New Media programs.
• See my “Good Projects Gone Bad: an
Introduction to Process Maturity” paper
http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/good-projects-gone-bad-an-
introduction-to-process-maturity

1. Ad Hoc (chaotic)
• web program started in a scientific
research group where the internet
connection existed (grass-roots, matter
of convenience & where the passion &
interest resides).
• Underground, success (but not
repeatable)
• Nothing measured
• Dependent on heroics

2. Emerging and Repeatable
• Separate Division, still small, position
& importance in organization uncertain
(special interest hobby shop, everyone
knows it is important but not sure to
what degree or how it works).
• Some measurement, explicit
responsibility to somebody, usually
lower in the org chart

3. Emerging: authority vested in some
semi-logical entity.
• Director level awareness of web
importance, uncertainty over purpose of web
& org. placement leads to internal power
struggle, debate over \"who owns\", multiple
reorgs.
• Mostly based on competence and/or
willingness, without regard to org chart
rationale.
• Lots of matrix and dotted-lines
• Corsely visible in
budgets, PD’s, planning, measurement

4. Emerging
• Professionalization of web, greater
awareness of role and key
stakeholders, integral part of organization.
• Formal organization, oversight. Usually in
the Director’s office to someone without
specific background
• Increasing cross-disciplinary
expertise/experience: the team is familiar
and broadly competent with each others
areas of expertise.

5. Mature
• There’s Formal ownership in the executive
suite
• [note: semantics different in every org]
• *note: “ownership” and “leadership” VP’s
story]
• Directors engaged (look at their appointment
book)
• Professional, full-time management
• Win/win scenarios with controlled innovation
and experimentation