How are museums as institutions receptive to collaboration – not only with equal institutions?

1. Collaborative Data Stories
The Intranet of the State Museums Berlin –
Ready for the Semantic Web?
12.07.2012 Thomas Tunsch

2. Data, Information, and Collaboration
 People provide data and information
– experts provide information of high quality
 Collaboration is more than cooperation
– sharing information continuously
– providing as much information as possible – even
ideas, unfinished papers, raw data ...
 Blurred boundaries between sender and recipient
– changing role of the concept “author”
 How are museums as institutions receptive to
collaboration – not only with equal institutions?
 Let’s have a look inside ...

3. The Project: Idea
 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
– Diversified museum organization: Archaeology,
European art, non-European art, ethnology
– Directorate-General with 5 departments
– Part of Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz
(Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation): Head
Office SPK
 Intranet until 2007: maintained by Department of
Information and Communications Technology (1
editor with half-time position)
 Maintenance of content as a collaborative project
of all employees?
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4. Intranet until 2007
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5. Intranet 2011
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6. Main page: Important Links und News
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7. Main page with current status of network
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8. Main page: Projects
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9. Thematic portals
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10. Thematic portal „Museum Documentation
System“ (MDS)
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11. Statistics
24.06.2010 14.10.2011
Articles in the article namespace 1.152 1.426
All pages in SMBwiki 4.751 5.623
Edits 23.009 29.565
Users 182 224
Administrators 2 3
30
25
20
15 Increase in %
10
5
0
Articles in the article All pages in SMBw iki Edits Users
namespace
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12. Use (without main page)
Employee Committee news
Current Events
Prussian Cultural Heritage
Foundation: Head Office
Seminar and workshop
suggestions for IT training
Notice Board State Museums
Status 24.06.2010
IT training
Status 14.10.2011
Latest News (Intranet)
Events
SMart (State Museums
exhibitions facilities dates)
News
Telephone and fax directories
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000
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13. Use (increase 06/2010-10/2011 in %)
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14. Share of edits in % (>1 %)
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15. Instructions for Readers
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16. Instructions for Authors
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17. Instructions for Pictures
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18. MediaWiki: Installation and Configuration
 Help: MediaWiki.org, Wikipedia.org
 Continuously documented in SMBwiki
 Experiences published in MuseumsWiki
– MediaWiki for a Museum
 Staff
– 1 administrator of the web server (installation,
adjustments PHP, MySQL)
– 1 wiki-administrator with experience in Wikipedia
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19. Categories and Wikipedia
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20. Templates and Wikipedia
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21. Lessons learned (1)
 Line organization
– limited staff time and resources for projects
– Support of hierarchy levels
– longer start-up time needed
 Patterns of interpretation in the humanities and social
sciences
– privilege of interpretation by curators
– high degree of specialization (experts)
– traditional publication process (linear, one-way)
(draft – editing – publication)
 Further training offered
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22. Lessons learned (2)
 Criticism  Hypertext
– too many links – Hypertext is text which is
– confusing not constrained to be linear.
– incomplete (What is HyperText)
 Questions – linear documents in the
humanities and social
– why should I write sciences (books, articles, ...)
– what to write  no experience with collaborative
– Is it allowed to write here communities
without consulting my
supervisor?
 Problems
– My text is not finished yet.
– This information is not
meant for everyone.
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23. But we don't give up ...
... and upgraded
to MediaWiki
version 1.18 in
March 2012
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24. Thank you for your attention
Comments and collaboration http://
museums.wikia.com/wiki/SMBwiki
12.07.2012 Data Stories (Lotico CSW - The Berlin Semantic Web Meetup)

25. Contents
 Data, Information, and Collaboration  Further training
 The Project: Idea – Instructions for Readers
– Intranet until 2007 – Instructions for Authors
– Intranet 2011
– Instructions for Pictures
 Main page
 Collaborative Communities
– Important Links und News
– Current status of network – MediaWiki:
– Projects Installation and Configuration
 Thematic portals – Categories and Wikipedia
– Thematic portal „Museum – Templates and Wikipedia
Documentation System“ (MDS)  Erfahrungen
 Statistics
– Lessons learned 1
– Use (without main page)
– Lessons learned 2
– Use (increase)
 But we don't give up
– Share of edits
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