The readings for this week focused around the idea of the public being able to tag and label electronic museum exhibits. There were some who were proponents of the idea because they feel it will get the public more involved with the museums and will pique the public’s interest. This could in turn lead to an increase in the number of visitors to the museum. On the contrary, those opposed to allowing the public to tag and label online museum exhibits seemed to worry that it would take away from the respectability of the curator. Afterall, it is the curator who has the training to carry out these professional duties. Opponents actually feel this type of open access tagging could lead people to lose trust in what museums are displaying.
I guess I fall somewhere in between. I think it would be a neat project for my students to have to research and label images that are part of an online museum exhibit that correlates to a unit we are studying. I can understand how this might get more people interested in what museums have to offer. It would also be interesting to be able to blog back and forth about the labels and tags people choose to post. I also think there needs to be a clear distinction between what the curator posts and what the public is writing. I’m not sure exactly how this could be set up, but it would be interesting to have the two types of labels be completely separate so that once a student, or a member of the public is done tagging the images, they could then find out what the actual curator had to say about them. I think this would be a great interactive type of activity for high school students.
So much these days is becoming open source on the web. I don’t think that museums should abandon the idea of allowing the public to tag their exhibits, but I do think there needs to checks put in place so that the viewing public can see what the curator has to say versus what the amateur has to say about an item.
I totally agree! Just because the public is participating does not mean that the curator no longer has a voice. I am sure it would be quite simple to serparate the “professional” from the “amateaur.” I also believe it is the job ov the curator to monitor what is being written. You are right, they are still the professionals, but they need to keep and open mind. They can certain edit if something is incorrect or inappropriate.
I believe there should be collaboration between the public and the museum. Both sides will be able to contribute a significant influence on a particular collection.