Alex Wright

The Times is running an article of mine this morning exploring the impact of social media on museum collections.  Briefly, the piece goes looking for examples of museum Web initiatives that go beyond the surface level of guestbooks and photo galleries, to invite Web users into the broader curatorial process.

This is a big topic that was difficult to do justice within the confines of a newspaper article.  Fortunately, there's no shortage of additional reading out there on the Web.  So for anyone who's interested in exploring the subject further, here are a few additional pointers:

- Nina Simon's Museum 2.0, a thoughtful blog exploring the evolution of museum collections, written by a sometime curator and museum consultant (I interviewed Nina for the piece).

- Smithsonian Commons, a Wiki-based collaboration among Smithsonian staff members and the interested public to explore the evolution of the institution in a Web world.  It's worth a look at this exploratory prototype, which includes videos of a few paper-prototype exercises.

- And a few of the sites I mention in the article: The Virtual Shtetl, Make History and Fill the Gap.

- Elsewhere, I also have an interview with Make History designer Jake Barton in the latest edition of Interactions (unfortunately, the full article is available only to ACM members/subscribers).

There are lots more examples out there, and I'm sure I've overlooked more than a few projects of note.  If you know of an innovative Web-based museum project out there that's deserving of attention, drop me a line.

Previously: The Territorial Enterprise