Douglas Hegley, Director of Media & Technology at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, summarizes key points from the report "Like, Link, Share" on developing a digital strategy for museums. The report stresses that digital should be a central, not peripheral, part of an organization's strategy. It also emphasizes starting with audience needs and engaging participants at multiple levels of involvement, from casual to in-depth. Developing digital strategies requires experimenting with new ideas, hiring curious generalists over specialists, and collaborating with other museums.
Digital Strategy & the Arts: A Reflection on "Like, Link, Share"
1.
2. Douglas Hegley
Director of Media & Technology
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
dhegley@artsmia.org
@dhegley
http://www.slideshare.net/dhegley
Museum Digital Strategy
Reflections on “Like, Link, Share”
January 8, 2015
Reference: http://likelinkshare.org/
4. Yes, I work in a museum
“… [a] gift to each child in the
world be a sense of wonder so
indestructible that it would
last throughout life … ”
– Rachel Carson
6. Minneapolis Institute of Arts
• 1883: Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts
• Jan 7, 1915: Museum opens its doors
• ~ 600k visitors per year
• Free admission (except Special Exhibitions)
• 90,000 works of art
• Spanning 5000 years
7. Technology at MIA
• 1990s: The Era of New Toys
– Creation of “Interactive Media Group”
– Interactive Learning Stations
– Just make it work
• 2000s
• 2010s
8. Technology at MIA
• 1990s: The Era of New Toys
• 2000s: Sharing What We Know
– www.artsmia.org
– www.artsconnected.com
– Stamp of authority
• 2010s
9. Technology at MIA
• 1990s: The Era of New Toys
• 2000s: Sharing What We Know
• 2010s: New Strategic Direction
– Engaging and interactive, audience-centered
– Content separated from technology
– Omni-channel integration
– Every single process
10. • Technology = Strategic
– Central (not peripheral)
– Essential (not preferable)
– Vital to the sustainability of the organization
12. Like, Link, Share page 7: “Overall strategy is the basis for digital strategy.”
13. Like, Link, Share page 3: “Taking full advantage of digital opportunities requires organizations to
… tailor the development of digital capabilities to their individual programming.”
14. Proactive adaptation
v.
“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future”
– Neils Bohr
Like, Link, Share page 7: “… strategy is not fixed. Strategy changes as conditions change.”
16. It starts, and ends, with PEOPLEIt starts, and ends, with PEOPLE
17. Like, Link, Share page 5: “Organizations whose physical structures have been described as
shrines and refuges are becoming platforms for participation and creation.”
Then: Partake
The Audience
18. Like, Link, Share page 5: “Organizations whose physical structures have been described as
shrines and refuges are becoming platforms for participation and creation.”
Now: Take Part
The Audience
19. Like, Link, Share page 23: “ …the tyranny of the purchase funnel.”
PARTICIPANTS
Surface swimming
Snorkeling
Scuba diving
Wading
20. PARTICIPANTS
Surface swimming
Snorkeling
Scuba diving
Wading
The majority of our audiences do not
come to us with deep prior knowledge
– nor is it their goal to achieve that
depth.
In order to engage as many of them
as we can, it is our responsibility to
deliver content that meets multiple
and varied needs.
23. Like, Link, Share page 21: “Digital disrupts the linear story and subverts authority.”
We have a paradox!We have a paradox!
Museums rank as the most-trusted institutions in the world (AAM 2001, IMLS 2010)Museums rank as the most-trusted institutions in the world (AAM 2001, IMLS 2010)
IMHO: Because the FOUNDATION is built on scholarshipIMHO: Because the FOUNDATION is built on scholarship
BUTBUT
Engagement is accomplished through delightful storiesEngagement is accomplished through delightful stories
ANDAND
Audiences want a voiceAudiences want a voice
Our challenge is to figure this one out!Our challenge is to figure this one out!
25. Like, Link, Share page 12: “Managers say they’ve looked for curious generalists,
not specialists, when hiring ...”
To repeat: It starts, and ends, with PEOPLE
This is particularly true with HIRING STAFF
Skills are pre-requisites
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”
– attributed to Peter Drucker
26.
27. Like, Link, Share page 1: “… ‘fail fast’ experiments … testing new ideas …
help inform stronger long-term capabilities”
“I don’t believe in failing often. I believe in building [minimum viable]
products that will test hypotheses”
– Koven Smith, Director of Digital Adaptation, Blanton Museum of Art
(MCN 2014, Dallas)
29. Like, Link, Share page 13: “Spend less on print display advertising”
Source: LaPlacaCohen “CultureTrack 2014”
30.
31. Well, that’s easy! The Ideal Characteristics
of a Museum Technology Leader:
Like, Link, Share page 15: “Chief Digital Officer positions are increasingly common”
32. Other Resources
Where to learn more:
www.mcn.edu
Museum Computer Network
2015 Conference is in Minneapolis (November)
www.museumsandtheweb.com/
2015 Conference is in Chicago (April)
http://www.nmc.org/nmc-horizon/
Horizon reports from the New Media Consortium
33. … and, of course, your colleagues!
There is tremendous power in collaboration
To the general public, we are all just branches of the same corporation
Thank you for the invitation to speak this morning, and a special thank you to Sarah Lutman & the Wyncote Foundation for this interesting and meaningful report.
I would like to focus on points of resonance, both in agreement and in healthy debate.
The true value of the report lies in the dialog that it will engender amongst all of us in the cultural sector.
Before I ventured into museums and technology, my formal background was in clinical psychology. What’s that got to do with the topic at hand? Plenty, I will argue, because at the heart of it all is PEOPLE (and not, gasp, technology).
I love this diagram, although I might argue that it’s too limited to the activities that seem more-immediately connected to digital. The truth is that ALL aspects of an organization, from core business processes to public interfaces, depend upon and can be maximized by effective digital technologies.
Digital Strategy v. Strategy Strategy: IMHO, it’s far superior to focus on the Main Thing; digital is in support of AND helping to drive that Main Thing
I would take this point even further – the strategy (and thus also the digital strategy) itself must be tailored to each organization AND its place in space and time. There is no easy formula, there is no textbook. It takes work, real hard work. And it starts with really listening.
How can you adapt to something that hasn’t happened yet?? The contradiction is (at least) made more possible by predictive trend analysis; and perhaps the more-realistic approach is to stay on the leading edge of understanding what’s happening in the field and how it will impact our specific organizations.
Another great graphic! Digital is everywhere. Denying that is, well, crazy (my professional opinion). Ironic story : my last big project at the Met was dividing IT and Digital; my first big project at the MIA was COMBINING IT and Digital! There is no one perfect structural model, but there are quite possibly some guiding principles, illuminated in this report.
This concept of Failing Forward is too-often imagined as whimsical or scattershot. What we strive for is much closer to the scientific method: hypothesis, test, analyze, conclude, repeat.
Communication channels vary by audience characteristics. My question for us: are we in a period of transition, or is this our “new normal”? How will we decide?