This document discusses experts and non-experts in tagging museum objects digitally. It raises several questions about whether experts add more tags than laymen and what kinds of tags each group provides. Specifically, it questions whether experts add more tags overall, more unique tags, use different types of tags, and include more informational tags, compared to laymen. The document also discusses challenges in digitizing museum collections and getting more objects online for the public to see.

1. Experts and Non-experts
Harry van Vliet - Utrecht University of Applied Sciences
6-7 December 2011 - Ghent - New Technologies for New Audiences

2. Trending Topic Trending topic
Illusions rule!

4. “Nowadays people are experiencing more
stress due to all
the new networks that are arising.”

5. “Nowadays people are experiencing more
stress due to all
the new networks that are arising.”
1896, Erbs

6. “Adding a computer to a boring exhibit,
is a boring exhibit with a computer”
Mintz, 1998

7. “Adding social media to a boring exhibit,
is a boring exhibit with social media”
van Vliet, 2011

8. http://www.leocaillard.com
The relationship between museums
and visitors changed due to the
influence of technological developments
such as the Internet and mobile
services this last decade.

9. There are a lot of objects in depots hidden for
the general public

10. Still in a digitization process: about 4 out of 10
objects is digitised

11. Department Modern Art
Title The Innocent Eye Test
Classification Paintings
Artist Mark Tansey, American, born 1949
Date Label 1981
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 78 x 120 in. (198.1 x 304.8 cm)
Credit Line Partial and Promised Gift of Jan Cowles and Charles
Cowles, in honor of William S. Lieberman, 1988
Accession 1988.183

12. Tagging entails assigning labels and/or keywords to a
specific item.
E.g. the word ‘beautiful’ or ‘Cow’

18. What the institutions say: What the data tells us:
1. On average 66% of all 1. it is 97%
photos are tagged
2. it is 41%
2. On average 46% of all
photos have a comment 3. It is 8%
3. On average 19% of all 4. It is 19 out of 56 (34%)
photos have notes
4. 1 institute out of 26 had
more than a million views
(4%)

19. Tags Contribution Top 20
31% 57% 5
69% 89% 15

20. What are people REALLY doing?

24. Do experts add more tags than laymen?
Do experts add more unique tags than laymen?
Do experts use different kind of tags?
Do experts use different words compared to laymen?
Do experts add tags containing more information?
Do laymen add tags which are suitable for the retrievability of
objects?

26. Bringing the past to the present in
Greenland

31. THANK YOU!
Harry van Vliet
Utrecht University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands)
Faculty of Communication and Journalism
Research group Crossmedia Business
Room 0S142 / Crossmedialab
harry.vanvliet@hu.nl
www.crossmedialab.nl
www.museumkompas.nl