Knowledge management in museums

1. Cultural heritage: Tradition,
Museums and Wikis
Knowledge management in museums
Thomas Tunsch

2. Content
 Collaborative Communities
 Information and communication structure
 Data in the publication process today
 From idea to publication
 Collaborative Communities
– Methods
– Subjective information
– NPOV
– Scholars, knowledge and community
 Complex cultural context
 Museum activities and wikis
 Wiki communities
2008
Museums and Wikis
2

3. Collaborative Communities
 collecting objects
 providing documentation
 creating knowledge about
objects and the representing
fields of expertise
 presenting objects and
information to the public
 collecting data and
information pieces
 documenting discussions,
citations and sources
 generating articles,
assembling categories,
building portals
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2008
Museums and Wikis
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4. Information and communication structure
 Information chains
– published information ⇒ research ⇒ exhibition
– sources ⇒ research ⇒ publication
– research ⇒ documentation ⇒ web portals
 Networks
– links, nodes, hierarchies
– backbones: ontologies
 Wikis
– links, categories, discussions
– semantic MediaWiki
2008
Museums and Wikis
4

5. Data in the publication process today
Jens Klump: The Benefits of
Cross Linking: The
International Continental
Scientific Drilling Program
(International Conference
Knowledge by Networking,
Berlin, June 21-22, 2007)
Library
Private
Files
Publication
Manuscript
2008
Data
Museums and Wikis
Metadata
5

6. Museum and Wiki
From idea to publication
Idea
Research (Scholar)
Articles
Conferences
Databases
Books
Idea
Publication
Colleagues
Web Resources
(Book, Catalogue,
Website)
Single use of resources
and references
Start-End process
Publication
Research (Scholar)
(Book, Catalogue,
Website)
MuseumsWiki
Multiple use of resources and references
Scholar as part of Community (Publication, Structures, Ideas, Developments)
Network process
2008
Museums and Wikis
6

7. Collaborative Communities
Methods
 Discussion page
 Conventions, manuals, standards
– community process
 Methodic instruments
– creating
– changing
– discussing
 Keywords
– collaborative
– colleagues
– communication
– community
2008
Museums and Wikis
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8. Collaborative Communities
Subjective information
subject
Scholar
Information sources
field
experience
Colleagues
Libraries
ORIENTED
MULTIPLE
subjects
fields
specific channels
unspecific sectors
experiences
MuseumsWiki, Wikipedia
2008
Museums and Wikis
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9. Collaborative Communities
NPOV
My Point Of View
sources of
information
POV
POV
POV
Community
(University, specific field, Wiki)
Neutral POV
2008
Museums and Wikis
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10. Collaborative Communities
Scholars, knowledge and community
 public access to Expert
– knowledge
– expert’s
knowledge
field of expertise
Expert
specific field
Generalist
MuseumsWiki
Wikipedia
2008
specialization
accessibility
general knowledge
Museums and Wikis
10

11. Complex cultural context
Robert L. Stevenson
The Bottle Imp
Honolulu
Ballroom
Heinrich Berger
Letters
Royal Hawaiian Band
Kingdom of Hawaiʻi
 “Thither he went, because he feared
to be alone; and there, among
happy faces, walked to and fro, and
heard the tunes go up and down,
and saw Berger beat the measure,
and all the while he heard the
flames crackle, and saw the red fire
burning in the bottomless pit.”
King Kalākaua
Molokaʻi
Leprosy
Leper colony
Father Damien
Hoʻokena
Haole
2008





Literature
Music
History
Geography
Language
Wikipedia:
“The Bottle Imp”
Historical and
cultural background
Kōkua
Museums and Wikis
11

12. Museum activities and wikis
 Which museum activities can be
seen as appropriate to Wikis
with mutual benefits for both
communities?
 How can scholars be part of
these activities?
2008
 museum documentation (e.g.
objects, controlled vocabulary,
exhibitions)
 research
 public access (exhibitions, visitor
information, …)
 publications (catalogues, websites,
…)
 educational material
 Scholars (academic activities)
– ontologies and reference
techniques
– methods to verify information in
museum documentation
– critical use of sources
Museums and Wikis
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13. Wiki communities
Wikipedia
MuseumsWiki
Custom Wiki
general audience
museum
professionals
specific
size, popularity,
success
wide spectrum
flexibility
multilingual
international
community,
technology, methods
2008
Museums and Wikis
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14. See also
Museums and Wikis
Thomas Tunsch

15. Lizenz / License
 Creative Commons
Namensnennung - Weitergabe
unter gleichen Bedingungen 4.0
International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
 Diese Datei ist nicht gemeinfrei
und die Verwendung über die
Lizenzbedingungen hinaus ist
eine Urheberrechts-verletzung.
 Als Rechtenachweis ist
anzugeben:
© CC BY-SA Thomas Tunsch
(ThT)
2008
 Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
 This file is not in the public
domain and use of this file
outside of the licensing terms is
a copyright violation.
 Please credit authorship as
follows:
© CC BY-SA Thomas Tunsch
(ThT)
Museums and Wikis
15