The keynote discusses digital collaborations at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) and their influence on the museum. Several collaboration projects are highlighted, including Decoded1914, Collections Dive, and Half Memory. These projects engaged new audiences, provided alternative perspectives, and explored untested ideas. The digital program at TWAM is focused on seeding a culture of collaboration both internally and externally. Collaboration is used as a way to test new ideas and probe the practice and public value of the collections. The speaker emphasizes guiding principles of openness, enabling reuse, and being generous to outside ideas. Success is measured by fewer people saying they had no idea the museum could be used in

1. BRIDGING GAPS,
MAKING CONNECTIONS
UKMW15 Museums on the Web
KEYNOTE

2. Finding space for the
experiment:
digital collaborations and their
influence on the museum
John Coburn | @j0hncoburn | Tyne & Wear Archives &
Museums

5. The Digital programme is 100%
internal and external
collaboration

6. Collaboration as probe into the
practice of the museum

7. Collaboration as probe into the
public value of the collections

9. “Digital in the museum can be a
Trojan horse through which we can
legitimately test the ideas we might
have been afraid to try out under
any other departmental name”.

10. access museums
objects innovation
collections
galleries catalogues
digitisation preservation
technologies visits
engagement

11. storytelling questioning new human
experiences design for user
behaviours meaningful
experimentation untested ideas
latent potential of collections
objects as source material reuse
new curatorial practice

12. Collaborations:
projects, case
studies.

13. Collaborations:
projects, case
studies.
Reflections: their
influence and
learning for
TWAM.

14. Principles: supporting
collaboration, broader
enquiry into
collections, public
reuse.
Collaborations:
projects, case studies.
Reflections: their
influence and learning
for TWAM.
Digital programme
as ongoing R&D

15. Guiding principles:
Seeding a culture of collaboration demands we
start from a position of openness
(Release collections
Enable reuse
Be generous to ideas from outside TWAM)

16. Guiding principles:
We can inspire new public engagement
with collections by enabling new and
imaginative articulations of their value

17. Metric for success
Fewer people saying
“Wow, I had no idea I could use
the museum in this way”

18. http://decoded1914.org.uk

21. 11,000 people visited and participated with the
produced work/events in museums and public
spaces,
3,500 people experienced the work online.

22. Gaps in a collections as a jumping off
point for creative enquiry

23. Alternative perspectives on where the
public engagement happens

25. http://collectionsdivetwmuseums.org.uk
Collections search does easily support
broad thematic enquiry

26. http://collectionsdivetwmuseums.org.uk

27. Fatigue with prevailing historical themes
&
a drive to push beyond the usual
museum interpretations

28. http://twmuseums.org.uk/half-memory

29. 8000 listeners from 26 countries
listened for an average of 14
minutes

30. Total number of public hours contributed to the project:
491

31. http://tributaries.org.uk

40. Imagining new museum experiences

41. “Eerie and haunting. Listening to
the voices I forgot where I was and
was taken somewhere else”.

42. “I want HISTORY, not art or music
or the other stuff that gets in the
way”.

43. The challenge:
increasing creative space
and freedom in the
museum

44. “The nature of creativity is to make
space for things to happen…we can
drive it out with our busyness and
plans”
Iain McGilchrist

45. All of these projects are cross-departmental
Creating a synergy between like-minded
people who see the benefit of sharing, not
work make
TNT

46. All of these projects are cross-departmental
Creating a synergy between like-minded
people who see the benefit of sharing, not
work make
TNT
TNT
(Try New Things)

47. All of these projects are cross-departmental
Creating a synergy between like-minded
people who see the benefit of sharing, not
work make
TNT
Meaningful experimentation, not “digital” first and
foremost.
Pilot questions or methodologies innovative to
practice of TWAM.
Public engagement & new audiences focus.
Learning is transparent and shared with colleagues.

49. Can the museum collect and
interpret public biometric and
socioeconomic data as new
format of social histories?

51. “Leading (the most effective change) does not mean
coming up with answers and then motivating
everyone to follow your messianic vision. It means
having the humility to grasp the fact that you do not
yet understand enough to have the answers and
then to ask the questions that will lead to the best
possible insights”.
Jim Collins, Good to Great

52. Thank you
@j0hncoburn
john.coburn@twmuseums.org.uk