WMA 2008: Live-Blogging Paul Doherty of the Exploratorium

The Exploratorium is one of the first museums in Second Life to have simultaneous events in real and Second life. They also have "ride-able" exhibits in Second Life. Of course despite the fact that it is "virtual," you still can actually get motion sick.

One of the big questions: even though there are controls you can exercise if you own your own space in Second Life, however, does that require a 24 hour presence moderating? Is it okay to let go and see what happens without controls or moderation? Where should the boundaries be--between taking a hands-off approach and letting people interact with your space as they will and structuring their experiences in order to ensure consistency and maintenance of the image that your museum has worked to establish?

(It goes without saying that virtual worlds offer many opportunities for growth in the legal profession...)

WMA 2008: Live-Blogging Jeff Clark of the Rasmuson Foundation

As with all aspects of marketing and programming, and one of the keys to a good branding strategy, when creating a presence in Second Life, you *must* integrate and coordinate it with your "real life" presence. One of the values of using Second Life as an extension of real world working life is "meeting people where they are."

"Second Life is an incubator of creativity encouraging new levels of social networking and interaction."

The Rasmuson Foundation Gallery of Alaskan Artists is definitely a front-runner/early adapter with a beautiful space in Second Life that is well integrated with their mission and their website and their physical presence.

WMA 2008: Alternative Spaces for Programs and Marketing in Second Life

"If you are offended by flying genitalia, you probably should leave the room."

[EDIT: I should have mentioned (and I do apologize) that our intrepid guide through this virtual space--and the source of that memorable quote--was Springs Coronet, aka Melissa Rosengard, Museum Consultant (and serious advocate) and former Executive Director of the Western Museums Association.]

All giggling aside, MMOGs are now becoming so well-recognized and acknowledged that AAM is now in the process of developing their own MMOG through the Center for the Future of Museums in conjunction with the Institute for the Future. The game will be "Superstruct." Email superstruct@iftf.org by Sept 22, 2008 in order to join Oct. 6, 2008.

Perhaps one reason why museums are becoming interested in virtual reality MMOGs--or should be--is that content creation allows for economy to develop. Virtual fundraising is even more in its nascency than the virtual worlds themselves, but even so philanthropists, foundations and economists have been expressing an interest in the philanthropic value of virtual worlds for at least a couple of years.

There actually two overlapping economies: the real economy in which the game designers make money and then the economies within the games. There is a $15 billion annual goods market.

eMarketer predicts the number of teen Internet users visiting virtual worlds will jump to 20 million in 2011.

Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Verizon are all conducting job fairs and interviews in Second Life. For-profit and nonprofit organizations are holding meetings in Second Life (often on "Conference Island"). Classes are held in Second Life. This is why it is important to maintain boundaries and retain a certain degree of professionalism--unless you have an "alt" avatar as well (that cannot be traced back to you).

Perhaps one of the most interesting uses for museum purposes is illustrated by the Van Gogh Museum in Second Life, which is not affiliated with the real life Van Gogh Museum, where you can actually enter the paintings and explore those spaces.

The social value of these alternative realities have given rise to whole new research disciplines and research specialists, including ludologists and narratologists. What's more, these realities are a valuable outlet for those with disabilities, for example providing the opportunity for a wheelchair-bound man to dance with his wife.

Although there are many, many MMOGs in existence, many have already folded and many, many more will in the future. Eventually these worlds/games will consolidate until a few have risen to the top.

The data is not great right now, but there are currently 30-60 million active MMOG users (this includes 10 million in WoW and 15 million in Second Life). These numbers are all little tricky to decipher because there are some users who play everyday and others who login once a year, however, these numbers are all for people who are actively engaged in the MMOGs. On average, there are 42,000 people logging in to Second Life at any given point in time.

Who's in Second Life?
Harvard Law School
Mormon Church
H&R Block
NASA
Ben and Jerry's
Amnesty Int'l
Illinois Alliance Library System
Major League Baseball
Exploratorium
Rasmuson Foundation of Alaskan Artists
State Library of Kansas

What's in the future? Multiverse Places makes use of FaceBook and strives towards interoperability.

AAM Conference Session: Expanding the Hive

While the panelists of "Expanding the Hive: Blogs as Engines of Community Formation"--including blogger extraordinaire Shelley Bernstein from the Brooklyn Museum--all agreed that blogging was a viable tool for community building, they had some important distinctions to make between blogs that will succeed at this function and blogs that will not. Perhaps the most crucial distinction centers around the manner of communication used in a blog--is it a uni-directional monologue or is it an inclusive dialogue? The point of the panelists was that dialogue blogging was more likely to inspire comments, resulting in community formation. Blogs should not be newsletters. If you do re-purpose news and press releases for your blog, be sure to personalize the item so that it will be a post that inspires dialogue rather than just provides information.

What are some of the most comment-inspiring blog posts you have seen? What made them worth commenting on? Do you agree with the panelists that blogs can be useful as community building tools? Is it desirable that blogs be used in this manner?

AAM 2008 Conference Session: Lobbying in the Lead

"Lobbying in the Lead: New Ideas for Strategic Fundraising" focused heavily on an update on federal earmarks. Currently, earmarks are fairly controversial and there is a movement to declare a moratorium on them, but so far that has not happened and in fact earmarks still seem to be somewhat necessary in order to get appropriations passed. They have, however, been greatly reduced--by about 43%. There are now about 11,600 earmarked projects, or $17.2 billion in earmarks out of $3 trillion budget. Roughly $7 billion of those earmarks are for defense, leaving a little over half of the earmarked funds for everything else. There is $18 million in earmarks in the IMLS budget, down from $40 million.

In a nutshell, what all this means is that while earmarks are still an alternative for funding, they should be seen as supplemental rather than a staple.

The good news is, however, that transparency rules now mean that museums can find out more quickly whether they get their earmarks and see who has sponsored various earmarks.

In addition to earmarks, lobbyists are another alternative for museum fundraising. A couple of key points to remember when engaging a lobbyist are to use your other strategic partnerships and sponsorships to help strengthen your case for lobbying and that lobbyist fees are generally $70,000-$350,000 annually and lobbyists are generally paid on a quarterly basis.

AAM 2008 Conference Session: Corporation and Museum Partnerships

To say that I have been preaching corporate partnerships for museums as a form of revenue generation would be a bit strong, but not too far off the mark. So I was excited to attend the "Corporation and Museum Partnerships: Understanding and Meeting Each Other's Needs" session, which offered these basic, yet important key points for helping museums to understand the needs of corporations.

-- Museums must understand how corporations work in order to successfully ask for support.
-- Museums should be strategic in their requests; demonstrate how their needs fit the needs of the corporations.
-- When competition for money is fierce and the economy is tough, it is crucial to engage in strategic partnerships that will result in strong marketing opportunities. Marketing on the other hand is not considered "tangible value" according to the law.
-- The Sarbanes-Oxley Act mandates (among other things) that public companies be able to demonstrate to shareholders how corporate donations benefit the company's bottom-line.
-- However, corporations recognize that philanthropy does contribute to a healthy economy, thereby contributing to the bottom-line.
-- In the past, corporate sponsorships and donations were considered separate activities, but that seems to be changing.
-- Museums must be willing to adjust the "fixed menu" of benefits available to corporations--they are not interested in more fancy dinners.
-- Offer the corporate name in the name of an event sponsored by the corporation, because unless the name is part of the event itself, the media will often neglect to mention who is sponsoring the event.

AAM 2008 Conference Session: Networks and the Changing Natural History Museum

A question posed to the audience at the "Networks and the Changing Natural History Museum: Expansion or Extinction?" session was truly revealing: all of the grants written by audience members in the past year involved collaboration in some form or another.

This is revealing for two reasons: first, it is consistent with reports that granting agencies are more and more interested in and likely to fund collaborative grants. But second, it is indicative of a shift that the panel was highlighting, that we are now in a "networking economy" in which museums must become hubs in national and international learning networks.

In this regard, the session was very similar in premise to the "Re-Imagining the Museum" session at CAM that I blogged about here and here.

The AAM session pointed specifically at two critical points. The use of the Internet is definitely a part of the shift from individual museum to hub in a vast network, but that the Internet is only a tool rather than a means in and of itself, and that there are other factors that are just important to the shift. In fact, perhaps one of the most integral factors in successfully navigating this transition is a complete re-evaluation and often rewriting of the museum's mission statement.

Both of these points make a lot of sense in terms leading museums into this new "network economy" (my new favorite buzzword--I'll be looking more into this in the near future), described by the panel as "global, intangible and interlinked--in other words, the opposite of museums."

What fascinates and excites me the most about both of these sessions is that they really are describing a huge change in the very nature of what (natural history) museums do and are all about. Fifty years from now, will we even be able to recognize the institutions called museums? Will what we currently conceive of as museums be an historic and obsolete entity relegated to the annals of history? Is anyone else excited about this potential shift?