Introduction
In Munich, the guiding principle [of the kunstkammer] was to strive against a mere
conglomeration of objects and create instead a sumptuous display of the heterogeneous and
wide ranging contents (Seelig, 1985, p. 81).
In this house you can circulate everywhere as there are no separating walls (The report
of Bohemian traveler Friedrish von Dohna 1592-3 reflecting on the kunstkammer, quoted in
Seelig, 1985, p. 81).
The descriptions for the early 16th/17th-century
‘wunderkammer’ (‘wonder cabinet’) and ‘kunstkammer’ mirror
with precision some elements in the current rhetoric of cyberspace. In the creation (or
recreation) of cross-disciplinary heterogeneous museums resources, through the
developments of on-line information meta-centers*, the
principles and philosophies of the wunderkammer are again invoked. This paper discusses
the Australian Museums On-Line (AMOL) web site (http://amol.org.au/) as both a museum information meta-center and a
‘wunderkammer’.
In a three-part document this paper spans issues in museology, design theory,
information architecture and web production. Part 1 will briefly review the history in the
developments of museum meta-centers, and the genesis of the distributed model for access
to heterogeneous information bases.
Part 2 of the discussion will introduce the history and mission of the AMOL web site
and describe the resources it gives access to. Discussion includes the real-time
communities and museums that are part of the network flourishing across the country.
Part 3 of the paper will focus on the design processes and the ability of electronic
systems to ‘morph’ in response to both internal and external stimulus. I will
introduce the principles of pragmatic design as foundations for examining processes of
expansion, revision and re-design of the AMOL web site.
In March 1998 the AMOL contract was re-let to new developers (the current AMOL
Coordination Unit). By charting the transition of the web through this relocation I will
examine some of the problems specific to inherited architecture. The web site employs a
metaphor, the ‘wunderkammer’, to give a matrix for the divergent resources
contained in this meta-center.
By way of conclusion the new projects on the AMOL network will be described. These
initiatives witness the evolution of the web site in response to its bureaucratic,
conceptual, and architectural structures. The projects include:
- the CIMI meta data test-bed;
- a cross disciplinary peer reviewed journal produced in partnership with a university;
- the extension of the core data to include more complete knowledge in an intelligent
system; and
- a demonstration of how the internet can give witness to curatorial process and
collections in the making.
*Meta-center: term used by the Canadian Heritage
Information Network to describe integrated state of the accessible or available
information. It is not a centralized collection of information but a series of
relationships established among multiple information resources (Neimanis and Geber, 1998).
[return]
[table of contents]
Part 1
Genesis of the meta-center
A number of studies have examined some of the different approaches taken by cultural
organizations to the design of web museums. These range from web sites replicating aspects
of the contemporary museum and exhibitions in a virtual mirror (‘brochure
ware’), through to dynamic inter-organizational collaborations, and those between
organizations and individual users (for example McKenzie, 1997; Piacente, 1996, Mouseion
project, 1997).
Most museum web sites have a number of objectives. They offer the services of a shop,
information such as the opening hours and contacts for staff members. However, museums in
the networked environment have continued to act as 'stand alone' entities reflecting their
status as centers of exclusivity. Zorich notes: "As more and more individuals and
organizations become information providers on telecommunications networks, the power of
any single site risks diminution" (1997: p. 176).
Also, the increasing concerns expressed over authenticity, visibility and authority of
museum resources in this environment of stand-alone models where they compete with other
forms of entertainment and media (for example Bearman and Trant, 1998, http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/mirrors/dlib/dlib/june98/06bearman.html).
From the debates that started with MacDonald and Alsford (1989) to more recently
include Stam (1993) and Teather (1998), we can see how the theoretical basis of New
Museology supports the integration of museum information resources in an electronic
environment. As Stam notes, New Museology seeks to use the museum information base, which
is: "the full complex of data supporting institutional activities ranging from the
pragmatics of acquisition to the abstraction of interpretive display" (cited in
Teather, 1998, p. 6).
The producers of the Mouseion project (1997) have defined the ‘networked
museum’ to be a constellation of hypermedia that:
- is derived from the works and objects in a museum;
- is specific to themes referring to works and objects conserved in museums;
- is reflective of the disciplines associated with work in museums;
- includes forums, lists of museological and museographic matters, or themes connected to
the area of research of any museum;
- provides general information about hours and services; and
- includes services on offer such as the sale of publications (The Mouseion project, 1997,
http://nerve.itim.mi.cnr.it/mouseion/home.html).
The networked museum is then: "...not an imitation, much less a substitute for a
real museum. It is a specific information object, with its own identity within the
network..." (id.).
The increasing concerns of museum resources visibility and authority on the internet,
together with New Museology and the dynamics offered by the internet for networking,
contribute to an environment that supports the establishment of multiple institutions
working together.
This opportunity for collaboration is reflected by the growing number of initiatives
around the world that seeks to integrate cultural information resources for the benefit of
the museum community, the public and researchers. These are the networked museums.
Most countries now offer gateways to listings of their museums and cultural resources.
Some of these projects also seek to give access to the distributed digital resources
contained in many museums. These sites are the foundations of the open intuitive systems
of the information meta-centers as described by Neimanis and Geber (1998):
Theoretically, an information Meta-Center is the integrated state of the accessible or
available information. It is not a centralized collection of information but a series of
relationships established among multiple information resources. It involves managing the
process of communication or relationships among the components and constantly re-building
the network of connections. It is intimately linked to a group of resources, in close and
continuous communication, and it classifies the similarities and differences among them.
Thus, through a cumulative process of experience, the Meta-Center has the potential to
build up a more complete knowledge of the information environment, acting as a specialized
gateway or access agent (Neimanis and Geber, 1998, p. 4).
[table of contents]
@ the meta-center
Australian Museums On-Line is one such web site of integrated information resources and
parallels a number of other major government initiatives, most closely the Canadian
Heritage Information Network (CHIN, http://www.chin.gc.ca/)
and the Arts and Humanities Data Service (http://ahds.ac.uk/index.html).
The aforementioned are webs that integrate heterogeneous data sets. They can be
distinguished from other networked initiatives to digitize museum resources for
redistribution that use disciplinary based data (e.g. art museums and image libraries and
libraries per se). These other networks include for example: Getty Information Institute (http://www.gii.getty.edu/);
the Museum Educational Site Licensing project (http://www.gii.getty.edu/index/mesl.html);
the American Museums Network (http://www.amn.org/);
and the Art Museum Image Consortium (http://www.AMICO.net/)
incorporating its site licensing initiatives, to name just a few.
All gateways to the distributed information and data stored at multiple museums and
repositories face particular challenges that include:
- aggregating a critical mass of digitized information;
- developing and implementing standards for the exchange of museum information and
- understanding the audiences for museum information (Zorich, 1997, pp. 182-188).
Blackaby (1997, pp. 203-229) also notes that in addition to technical difficulties
(hardware, software and data standards) for the integration of information resources,
bureaucratic structures and inter-institutional relationships also present potential
blocks in the ‘free flow’ of information.
In addition I observe that:
information and communication may appear to be freely flowing around the world,
unimpeded by borders and boundaries, in reality this is a highly controlled activity,
designed to promote not a global village, as McLuhan and others so romantically put
thought, but global marketplaces, where information as a commodity is brought and sold for
profit (Birch, 1998: p.95).
However, non-profit support organizations and education-based initiatives have been
established to help integrate networks of cultural material. They include:
Within the research and development of integration techniques cultural organizations
are increasingly moving from pre-organized information to a more open approach. At the
Museums and the Web Conference 1998 (http://www.archimuse.com/mw98) we heard details for a transition in
CHIN ‘architecture’ and ‘behavior’ from a central resource to an
information meta-center.
In the CHIN analysis, user access is affected by the 'context', 'behavior', and
'architecture' of the information. ‘Context’ refers to the environment in which
cognitive activities occur through the integration of contextual material;
‘behavior’ to the dialogue between the users and the knowledge environment,
while ‘architecture’: "is the reflection of the knowledge domain, mirrored
by the arrangement of the components to form patterns different from that could occur by
chance" (Neimanis and Geber, 1998, p. 4).
CHIN has subsequently developed an intellectual access tool called the Integrator (for
example see Artefacts Canada, http://daryl.chin.gc.ca/Artefacts/e_MasterLayout.cgi)
for the production of knowledge artifacts (ibid. p. 6) addressing the needs of users faced
with a large number of returns in a search across multiple databases. They have also
implemented search assistants such as thesauri and vocabularies (for example Getty’s
Art & Architecture Thesaurus, http://www.gii.getty.edu/vocabulary/index.html).
Also, recent developments in different search scenarios (such as image database that
can be queried along colour or content descriptions and associations) can provide
maturation of functionality for meta-center projects. Research following on from these
projects is also vital to their evolution (for a critique of image based search methods
see Schietse, 1998).
With these encompassing views of the difficulties and possibilities of the meta-center,
the paper will now focus more closely on the development of the AMOL web site. While the
importance of systems integration and data standards are recognized, the continuing
discussion will concentrate on the design processes and the stimulus for change in the
information architecture. It will reflect on these processes of design and web site
evolution as expressed through the principles of cybernetics, and will draw on the
relationships to ‘pragmatic design’ for computer based works. [table
of contents]
Part 2
Facts
The goal of the AMOL project is to dramatically increase access to the cultural
resources of Australian museums via the internet, and to provide research and
communication tools for people both inside and outside the museum communities. It involves
over 70% of museums in this country.
First initiated in 1993, the concept was seeded from the Working Group of the Cultural
Ministers Council's Heritage Collections, producing the first comprehensive national
strategy for the management of Australia's heritage collections. Through the activities of
this Group (now the Heritage Collections Committee) and their Online Working Party, the
web site pilots and site prototype were designed at the National Museum of Australia
between 1995 and 1997. In 1998 the web site was put out to tender and currently resides in
Sydney at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. Funding for the project is provided by
the museum community through the Heritage Collections Council and Federal Department of
Communication, Information Technology and the Arts (http://www.dca.gov.au/). AMOL is also a major participant of
Australia's Cultural Network (http://www.acn.net.au/),
the gateway to information about Australian cultural institutions and their programs.
Through the AMOL project the museums and galleries of Australia are invited to provide
information for a national directory, and to contribute information and images of their
five most significant items to a directory database. In addition, item level records of
objects from museum collections management systems may be included in the AMOL database.
The data may be stored on the AMOL server directly, may reside on local servers (and
remote indexed), and/or become part of the regional server network which act as host
platforms for smaller museums. AMOL specifies a minimum core data set for the description
of the objects to allow for the distributed searching.
One of the primary political agendas driving AMOL is to ensure that smaller, regional
and specialist museums participate as equal partners alongside higher profile, larger
organizations. This arises out of the recognition that they hold collections of national
significance but require support in their care of their collection (Hallet et al., 1998,
p. 4). The widespread involvement of regional and smaller museums has recently prompted
collection management software vendors to include an additional function that exports a
subset of the collections data to the AMOL standard fields (for example Collections
Mosaic, Western Australia; and proposed for inclusion in Inmagic, Queensland
http://amol.org.au/craft/regional_mus/software.asp).
Since its inception, the information resources available on the AMOL web site have
grown to include:
[table of contents]
Real time community
"In virtual communities...space becomes a metaphor and emotions become icons"
(Digital Thinking, 1998, http://www.feedmag.com/95.08dialog/95.08dialog1.html)
I note the recent philosophical debates CHIN has had in re-envisaging the access to its
information base where "the maker, the user, the artefact, technology and intuition
have gradually been united in a participatory creative process or ‘global
consciousness’"(Neimanis and Geber, 1998, p. 3).
The AMOL web site is predominantly made up of members from the regional Australian
museum community. It is these groups as opposed to larger institutions that have most
enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to become part of the project even when they
have limited information and technological infrastructure. We believe that this is partly
due to the reduced levels of bureaucracy that these smaller organizations have, and a more
relaxed approach to the ownership of information and copyright issues. By embracing the
internet the regional museums of isolated rural Australia are able to renegotiate
distance. They now have the opportunity for a low cost interpretive program.
What also appears most significantly in the documentation of AMOL, (in the letters from
the regional museums to the coordination unit, and in meetings with a large number of
regional museums), is the forum that AMOL offers is as much about an on-line virtual
community as about the real time connections it has stimulated. The AMOL Coordination Unit
is increasingly involved in workshops, seminars and coordinating regional museum
collaborations.
I note: "Through combining material and expertise that resides at different
locations virtual museums allow for building a community among individuals who have not
found a common meeting ground with others in a physical place (Marcum, 1996, p. 204).
As Mitchell (1998) points out we are inaccurate to think that virtual communities and
real networks are mutually exclusive. He says:
this question [of virtual community] seems to suggest that we must choose between
participating in place-based communities and joining electronically supported, virtual
ones -- that it's one or the other. But that's just not the case. It's more accurate to
say that oddly presence and telepresence now play differing and potentially complimentary
roles in sustaining the connections that matter to us. (Mitchell, 1998, http://www.feedmag.com/95.08dialog/95.08dialog1.html).
In this sense we see how AMOL supports Teather’s view that the web
may actually be able to posit that the museum is a dynamic, complex and variable human
endeavor, an entity which has shown over time adaptive qualities as it transforms to new
societal developments… (Teather, 1998, p. 7).
[table of contents]
Part 3
Process of morphogenesis
As Van Alystene outlined at the closing plenary session at Museums and the Web 1998,
cybernetics has applications not only to the patterns and signals of the web itself but
also the system of social and professional communications that create and sustain the site
as an enterprise.
From the perspective of second order cybernetics, the web site, along with the agents
that go into sustaining it, is a complex adaptive system, and in this regard may be
considered a living organism. The key concept is the emergence of new forms through the
result of positive feedback, in which forces that cause desired deviations are amplified
(Van Alstyne, 1998).
Further, as described in the web dictionary of cybernetics and systems, a morphogenic
system is "capable of maintaining its continuity and integrity by changing essential
aspects of its structure or organizations" (Cybernetics Dictionary, 1998, http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/Morphogenes.html).
[table of contents]
Pragmatic design
Coyne explores models for conservative, pragmatic, critical and radical design.
‘Conservative design’ he considers "an intervention or manipulation…
that presupposes our ability to declare our needs" (Coyne, 1995,. p. 10). In this
environment technological artifacts conserve the meanings and intentions of their
creators. It is method-centered and proceeds from an undesirable situation to a desirable
one. We can see how this design process is inherently inflexible in terms of the
responding to the principles of cybernetics.
The dynamics of cybernetics is most closely aligned to the ‘pragmatic’ design
process where pragmatism is concerned with "the primacy of human action, the
practicalities of human involvement, the materiality of the world, the interaction of the
senses, and the formative power of technology" (ibid., p. 17).
‘Pragmatic design’ is considered "not so much as addressing needs as
projecting expectations. These expectations have less to do with individual genius than
with community" (ibid. p. 11). Within this framework, notions of the individual are
replaced by considerations of authority, legitimacy, responsibility and the interweaving
of roles, practices and technologies. Most importantly to the intent of this paper is
Coyne’s thesis that pragmatic design is: "a kind of reflection in action’-
needs are commonly identified in retrospect or during the development of the design rather
than at the outset of the design process. Design is an exploration…." (ibid., p.
11).
When considering AMOL and other museum information gateways each reflect elements of
the ‘critical’ theme in their design. Coyne defines ‘critical design’
as a political activity where the design itself is subject of critical scrutiny. He uses
the example of architecture, urban design and planning where users (of new urban
developments for instance) are helped to "formulate and realize their own
expectations". While recognizing community, there is the overall control of a few who
use mission statements couched in vogue rhetoric. We are all familiar with these
statements which herald the universality of computer and communications systems for
grassroots entitlement.
‘Radical design’ centers on the principles of deconstruction and "is
subversive of entrenched structures, assumptions and oppositions" (ibid. p.10). We
can see expressions of this in the earlier theoretical dialogues that spoke of usurping
traditional power structures within museums through the transformative power of the
internet, and the renegotiations of museum spaces and the authority of the object (for
example see Witcomb, 1996; Kenderdine, 1996,1997).
As Witcomb goes on to note however:
postmodern perspectives on museums tend to forget the long history that media has had
to play in the democratization of cultural production. Internet activity and the
introduction of electronic medium to museums per se are not new in the attempts to break
down hierarchical structures (Witcomb 1998, p. 23).
[table of contents]
Rationalist vs. Pragmatic
Coyne offers a rigorous analysis of the design of information technology in the
postmodern age. He maintains that whereas rationalist design gives privilege to theory
over practice, pragmatic design theory is woven into the practice itself (op cit. p. 17).
Pragmatic design avoids a hierarchical view of knowledge whereby the practical always has
the involvement of the community. Coyne acknowledges the philosophy of John Dewey
(1859-1952), Marshall McLuchan (1911-1980) and Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) as fundamental
to the use of pragmatism. The current wave of popular and accessible computing is largely
of a pragmatic orientation.
With these background thoughts I examine the thrust of the AMOL re-design process as it
forms the foundation for the everyday flux of large-scale web sites.
[table of contents]
Inherited architecture
The current AMOL Coordination Unit inherited the web site in March 1998 from the
National Museum of Australia. As new caretakers of the web site we encountered a host of
difficulties in the inherited legacy of code. These points listed below are not criticisms
of the work by previous contractors but an acknowledgement of piecemeal developments and
evolving policies that make up the earlier history of AMOL.
The principles problems stemmed from the:
- piece-meal work by multiple developers which resulted in an incoherent/illogical
information architecture;
- scant documentation and absence of original data sets from regional museums database;
- inherited proprietary software which continued to require funds for servicing while the
project was requiring different solutions;
- a database designed with a maximum number of possible entries;
- use of non-compliant dates;
- inherited server (UNIX) conflicted with the rest of the data sets stored in a Windows
environment;
- code itself that contained so many patches that any alterations could start an avalanche
of other code conflicts; and,
- the core data set for AMOL contains five fields. It has been increasingly recognized
that the provision of this subset of museum information was devoid of context and meaning.
Within the framework of the contract were stipulations to re-design the interface, and
to implement a series of new projects. This gave an opportunity to revise the information
and system architecture and to improve navigation and functionality of the web site. The
following discussion focuses on the information architecture, interface and navigation,
and the development of new projects within the AMOL network. The importance of technical
issues within the complex system architecture warrants in-depth analysis and discussion
not possible here. I refer you to Hofmann and Miller (1999, http://www.archimuse.com/mw99/abstracts/prg_1128.html)
in respect of metadata and AMOL‘s involvement in the CIMI metadata test-bed as a good
introduction to some of the issues involved in connectivity across distributed server
environments. [table of contents]
The 3 cabinets
Figure 1: AMOL home page
Prior to the re-design, analysis of AMOL showed the existence of multiple user groups
with distinct needs and orientations. It was decided to break the pre-1998 AMOL web site
into three streams (Figure 1):
To view the information architecture please refer to the AMOL web site (http://amol.org.au/about_amol/design/amolflow.htm).
The new design was finalized with relevant content being taken from the old site and
reworked for the new web site. The remaining material was archived and made available on
the new site.
Each step of the design process was previewed before museum audiences throughout
Australia, and with the input from the Heritage Collections Council’s On-line Working
Party (made up from senior museum bureaucrats and advisors). Difficulties appeared where
political agendas threatened to impinge on the navigation of the web site itself, and
where personal aesthetics intruded on clear thinking about information architecture. It is
a difficult but interesting client/developer relationship that negotiates a range of
viewpoints throughout the Australian museum community through its design. [table
of contents]
Method and metaphor: the wonder cabinet
There are many debates in the computer interface design over the appropriate use and
application of design metaphors. I support the use of metaphors as familiar access points
to information matrixes. They can promote and enhance interpretation and navigation of the
web site itself. Rather than advocating trivial trashcans and blinking folders, I am more
interested in the holistic design metaphor. As Aristotle noted: "the discourse must
be made to sound exotic; for men are admirers of what is distant, and what is admired is
pleasant" (quoted in Coyne, 1995, p. 254).
Coyne demonstrates that commentators frequently appeal to some new metaphor to promote
the ideas of computers. "Laurel promotes the idea of the computer as theatre; Turkle
as Rorschach inkblot; Kay as medium; Nelson as moviemaker, Weiser as ubiquitous
facility-pens, paper, and the electricity grid" (Coyne, 1995, p. 253).
The overall conceptual metaphor used for the AMOL interface and information
architecture was drawn from the origins of the museum 16th century
‘wunderkammer’ or 'wonder cabinet'. As Graziose Corrin notes (in her analysis of
Mark Dion's installation work based on critique of the ‘collector’ mentality,
and modes of museum classification) the form of the wonder cabinet allowed:
"...arbitrary visual arrangements [which] seemed natural and capable of revealing
knowledge that was at once empirical and metaphorical without the need for accompanying
texts" (Graziose Corrin, 1997, p. 53.)
Further, in the birth of the museum as a field of specialized disciplines such as art
and science, we have seen the: "amputation of the limbs of inquiry from the body of
knowledge and experience [which] marks a decisive rupture in the concept of the nature as
infinitely variable and uncontainable" (Graziose Corrin, 1997, p. 54).
I believe that many of the debates that are circulating through New Museology and
internet commentary seek to recreate that juncture of ideas represented by the 'wonder
cabinet'. The purpose is to reintroduce interdisciplinary and cross-referenced access to
collections. Using a traditional museum icon such as the wonder cabinet provides a
familiar access point for the user but in an environment where the user has autonomy and
authority to access the variety of resources. [table of contents]
New projects
The key projects to be implemented on the new AMOL web site during 1998 reflect the
pragmatic design approach and engagement with the opportunities to meet museum needs,
together with the guide of the On-line Working Party. Some of the new initiatives are
described below. [table of contents]
A. Metadata at the meta-center
"Although we often hear that data speak for themselves, their voices can be soft
and sly" (Monsteller et al, 1983, Beginning statistics with data analysis in Tufte
1997, p. 26).
Using metadata tags (commonly described as 'data about data') it is possible to make
the information on web sites and stored across disparate database more visible to a
variety of search engine queries. This attribute exists alongside those of:
- enabling material to be retrieved in context;
- expanding the uses to which data is put;
- enabling multi versioning;
- data use in legal issues and the tracking of rights and reproductions; and
- in supporting preservation through the migration across computer systems; and
- as a way of providing benchmark data about systems that allows for re-design and
enhancement in a cost-effective manner (Gilliland-Swetland, 1998, pp. 6-9).
A valuable discussion on the implications and quest for metadata and resource
interoperability and discovery can be found in Introduction to Metadata: pathways to
digital information (Baca, 1998).
The AMOL Coordination Unit is now mapping all its data to the Dublin Core profile (in a
world wide test-bed project involving 21 museum members run through CIMI, http://www.cimi.org/documents/metafinalPD.html).
AMOL Coordination Unit will markup subsequent information created for the site with author
generated descriptions of the web site resources, to provide access to AMOL’s
heterogeneous resources. The purpose of the test-bed project is to define museum resources
in a standard that will be supported by major software vendors, search engines and by the
whole spectrum of world museums. For a further description please see Hofmann and Miller
(1999, http://www.archimuse.com/mw99/abstracts/prg_1128.html).
The AMOL Coordination Unit is also investigating the use of XML in relation to future
work on the web site.
[table of contents]
B. Knowledge domain
The core data set for AMOL contains five fields. However, it has been increasingly
recognized that the provision of such a subset of museums information is devoid of context
and meaning (for example see recent arguments put forward by CHIN, 1998). The core
collections records database will now be supplemented with cross-reference to more
extensive contextual information. The knowledge domain will expand to contain an
encyclopaedia of museum stories, associated media files, and author details.
[table of contents]
C. Creation of stories
Behind the scenes of AMOL is a wealth of people in regional museums who wish to express
what they value and what they preserve for the collective memory of their communities.
AMOL is bringing this material together for the first time in the form of on-line stories
(http://amol.org.au/guide/stories_index.asp).
A review of the submissions that are sent to AMOL reveal aspects of Australian culture
that have hitherto been restricted to a small number of on-site visitors.
The project structure ensures that contributing museums have a sense of ownership in
the development of their material. Also, the on-line environments support equal status for
the stories negating domination by museums of high national profile. The stream of stories
and resources is cumulative, possibly mutating and cross-linking over time.
[table of contents]
D. Open Museum Journal
The Open Museum Journal (http://amol.org.au/craft/omjournal/journal_index.asp) publishes
scholarly and applied research and commentary on museums. It is a collaborative venture
between the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage (http://www.curtin.edu.au/curtin/dept/rich/)
at Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia and AMOL.
There are very few opportunities for those with an interest in the way Australian
cultural heritage is managed and interpreted in our museums, galleries and historic sites
to publish the results of their study. This is the case for both academics working in
museum and cultural heritage studies departments, for heritage practitioners working in
museums, galleries and historic sites themselves and for postgraduate students working at
Diploma, Masters and Ph.D. level on museum related topics. The Open Museum Journal
provides a low cost opportunity for this (for recent debates on the viability of on-line
academic publishing refer to the recent conference on Scholarly Communications and
Technology, http://arl.cni.org/scomm/scat/).
The Journal operates a fully double blind peer review process. The various files
related to each article are contained in a database. The database has a web interface to
allow all members of the distributed editorial committee to upload and have access to the
relevant files and articles.
[table of contents]
E. The Pandora Chronicle
AMOL’s most recent project has been the live broadcast of the Pandora
shipwreck excavation. The Pandora Chronicle (http://www.amol.org.au/pandora/pandora_index.asp) daily diary
(February 28, 1999 until the end of March) for the excavation was uploaded via satellite
phone to the AMOL server. With the excavation taking place two days steaming off the
Queensland Coast this project demonstrates the internet as a space that can offer provide
access to museum processes that most people do not have the opportunity to experience.
[table of contents]
AMOL Futures
There has been a 70% increase in users since the re-launch. Analysis tracking the user
has tended to confirm that users are adapting to the new navigational structure in a
predicable way. A formal study has been commissioned of the web site that hopes to draw in
traditional forms of museological evaluation (similar to the approach taken by Teather,
1998, 1999).
After 2001 the original funding support for AMOL finishes. Having now reached a
threshold of data that makes for a viable and valuable resource decisions have to be made
how best to structure the organization to ensure the collective operations. There is a
need also to examine the role of bureaucracy and how it impacts on the design and
management of the site itself.
Investigation into possible markets for expansion of the AMOL model overseas (say the
Pacific Ocean) could also be researched. The development of the model, its scripts and
functions as defined by the current web site could usefully be developed to help other
initiatives offshore.
There are numerous other avenues for development both theoretical and practical that
warrant further research. Theoretical arguments that seek to define the museum within the
electronic environment are beginning to be published (for example New Media Australia,
1998). AMOL now holds a large core of information resources for interpretation. I believe
one of primary functions could be in research and development of tools for the greater
museum community.
[table of contents]
Acknowledgements
The views expressed by the author are not necessary those held by the Department of
Communication, Information Technology and Arts, nor the members of the Heritage
Collections Council. Many thanks go to all the museums that are part of the network, to
Allaire for the sponsorship of the Cold Fusion development environment, and to
Alexa Moses, Gina Shrubshall, Tim Hart and Thomas Hofmann of the AMOL Coordination Unit.
[table of contents]
References
Allaire, Cold Fusion, (1999). consulted on January 14,
1999. http://www.allaire.com.
American Museums Network, (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://www.amn.org/.
Art Museum Image Consortium, (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://www.AMICO.net/.
Arts and Humanities Data Service, (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://ahds.ac.uk/index.html.
Australian Museums On-Line, (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://amol.org.au.
Australian Museums On-Line, (1999). Guide to Museums. consulted January 14, 1999. http://amol.org.au/guide/guide_index.asp.
Australian Museums On-Line, (1999). Museum Craft. consulted January 14, 1999. http://amol.org.au/craft/craft_index.asp.
Australian Museums On-Line, (1999). Open Collections. consulted January 14, 1999. http://amol.org.au/collection/collection_index.asp
Australia's Cultural Network, (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://www.acn.net.au/.
Baca, M. (1998) (Ed). Introduction to metadata: pathways to digital information.
Getty Information Institute, USA.
Bearman D. and Trant, J. (1998). Authenticity of Digital Resources: Towards a Statement
of Requirements in the Research Process. D-Lib Magazine, June 1998. consulted 6
November 1998. http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/mirrors/dlib/dlib/june98/06bearman.html.
Birch, D. (1998). Communication Policy in Asia: limited democracy and the public
sphere, Media International Australia. No. 86, February,1998, pp. 87-102.
Brandon, P. (1996). Marketing museum intellectual property, paper presented at Museum
Computer Network/Canadian Heritage Information Network 96 Conference, Ottawa, Canada,
October 30 – November 2.
Canadian Heritage Information Network, (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://www.chin.gc.ca/.
CIMI projects (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://www.cimi.org/projects/index.html.
Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Information, (1999). consulted January, 14,
1999. http://www.cimi.org/.
Consortium for the Interchange and Documentation (1999). consulted on 5 January 1999. www.cidoc.icom.org/cidoc98/schietse.doc.
Coyne, R. (1995). Designing Information technology in the Postmodern Age: from
method to metaphor. The MIT Press. Massachusetts, London.
Cybernetics Dictionary (1999). consulted November 23, 1998. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/Morphogenes.html.
Daedalus (1996). Books, bricks and bytes. The proceedings of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Vol. 125, No. 4.
Department of Communication, Information Technology and the Arts, (1999). consulted
January 14, 1999. http://www.dca.gov.au/.
Digital Thinking (1998). Public Life in Electropolis: part 1 of feeds dialogue on
virtual communities. consulted on January 9, 1999. http://www.feedmag.com/95.08dialog/95.08dialog1.html.
Dublin Core, (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://purl.oclc.org/dc/.
Franklin, (1997). Diversity of the species. .e-mail to MUSWEB-L. consulted on February
4, 1997. available e-mail: MUSWEB-L@NRM.SE.
Getty Information Institute (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://www.gii.getty.edu/.
Gill, T. (1998). Metadata and the worldwide web. In Baca, M. (Ed) Introduction to
metadata: pathways to Digital Information (pp. 9-18). Getty Information Institute,
USA.
Gilliland, A. (1998). Defining metadata. In Baca, M. (Ed) Introduction to metadata:
pathways to Digital Information (pp. 1-8). Getty Information Institute, USA.
Graziose Corrin, L., Kwan, M. and Bryson, N. (1997). Mark Dion. Phaidon Press
Limited, London.
Hallet, M., Hofmann, T., Mac-Andrewartha, S., and Reeves, A. (1998). Australian Museums
On-Line: local museums on a global network. Paper to CIDOC, Melbourne October 12 to 14,
1998.
History Trust of South Australian, (1999). Icons project. consulted January 14, 1999. http://www.sa.regional.net.au/icons/.
Hofmann, T. and Miller, P. (1999). Implementing the Dublin Core for Museums. Museums
and the Web 1999 Workshop. consulted January 15,1999. http://www.archimuse.com/mw99/abstracts/prg_1128.html.
Impey, O. and MacGregor, A. (1985). (Eds). The origins of museums: the cabinet of
curiosities in sixteenth & seventeenth century Europe. Claredon Press, Oxford.
Integrator (1998). Search tools for Canadian Heritage Information Institute in
Artefacts Canada. consulted January 14, 1999. http://daryl.chin.gc.ca/Artefacts/e_MasterLayout.cgi.
International Council of Museums/Consortium for the Interchange and Documentation.
(1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://www.cidoc.icom.org/.
Kenderdine, S. (1996). ‘Diving into shipwrecks: aquanauts in cyberspace’, Spectra,
Vol. 24, No. 1: pp. 32-42.
- (1997). Sailing on the silicon sea: the design of a virtual maritime museum, Masters
thesis submitted for Master of Arts (Design), submitted to Curtin University of
Technology, Perth, Western Australia.
- (1998a). Inside the meta-center: a cabinet of wonder. Hawkins, G. & Thomas, J.
(Eds), Media International Australia, culture and policy, Museums and New Media. 89:
November, 1998, pp.21-34.
- (1998b). Sailing on the Silicon Sea The Design of a Virtual Maritime Museum. Archives
and Museum Informatics, 00, pp. 1-21. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands.
MacDonald, G. and Alsford, S. (1989). Museums for the Global Village. Canadian
Museums of Civilisation, Ottawa, Canada.
Marcum, D. (1996). Redefining community through the public library, Daedalus,
Vol. 125, No. 4: pp. 191-206.
McKenzie, D. (1997). Building a virtual museum community. In Bearman, D. and Trant, J.
(Eds) proceedings Museums and Web 1997. Museum Archives and Informatics, pp. 77-86.
Mitchell, W. (1998). Digital Thinking. consulted June 6, 1998. http://www.feedmag.com/95.08dialog/95.08dialog1.html.
Mortiz, T. (1996). Museum Web Development: an overview. E-mail to MUSWEB-L. consulted
on June 24, 1996. available e-mail: MUSWEB-L@NRM.SE.
Mouseion Project, (1997). consulted on June 16, 1997. http://nerve.itim.mi.cnr.it/mouseion/home.html.
Murray, K. (1997). Museum Visits Real and Virtual. e-mail to MUSWEB-L. consulted on
January 22, 1997). available e-mail ICOM-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM.
Museum Computer Network, (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://world.std.com/~mcn/index.html.
Museum Educational Site Licensing project, (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://www.gii.getty.edu/index/mesl.html.
Museum of Victorian, (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://www.mov.vic.gov.au/.
Museums and the Web Conference (1997). consulted on December 1997. http://www.archimuse.com/mw97/mw97toc.htm.
Museums and the Web Conference. (1998). consulted on March 16, 1998. http://www.archimuse.com/mw98/.
Musweb listserv: MUSWEB-L@NRM.SE.
Neimanis K., & Geber, E. (1998). From "Come and Get It" to "Seek and
You Shall Find"; Transition from a Central resource to Information Meta Center. In D.
Bearman & J. Trant (Eds) Museums & the Web Proceedings. CD ROM. Archives
& Museum Informatics, 1998.
Perez, G. (1996). Web sites good or bad for museums?, E-mail to MUSWEB-L. consulted on
June 2, 1996. available e-mail: MUSWEB-L@NRM.SE.
Piecente, M. (1996). Surfs Up: museums on the world wide web. MA research paper,
Museums Studies Program, University of Toronto, 1996, p. 12).
Principia Cybernetica Web (1998). Parent node, Wed Dictionary of cybernetics and
systems. consulted December 13,1998. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/Morphogenes.html.
Schieste, B. (1998). Recherche d’images: indexation textuelle versus indexation de
content. Paper to CIDOC, Melbourne, October 12 to 14, 1998. http://www.cidoc.icom.org/cidoc98/schietse.doc.
Scholarly Communication and Technology (1997). Papers from The Conference Organized by
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation at Emory University April 24 to 25, 1997. consulted
January 14, 1999. http://arl.cni.org/scomm/scat/.
Seelig, L. (1985). The Munich kunstkammer, 1565-1870. Impey, O. and MacGregor, A.
(Eds). The origins of museums: the cabinet of curiosities in sixteenth &
seventeenth century Europe. Claredon Press, Oxford.
Slouka, M. (1998). Digital Thinking, http://www.feedmag.com/95.08dialog/95.08dialog1.html,
consulted 6 June 1998.
Stam, D. (1993). The informed muse: the implications of "new museology" for
museum practice. Museum management and curatorship. No. 12: pp. 267-283.
Teather, L. (1998). A museum is a Museum is a museum...or is it? exploring museology
and the web. In D Bearman & J.Trant (Eds) Museums and the web proceedings. CD
ROM. Archives and Museum Informatics, 1998.
Tufte, E. (1997). Visual explanations: images and quantities, evidence and narrative.
Graphics Press, Cheshire, Connecticut.
University Museums On-Line, (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://aumol.usyd.edu.au/.
Van Alstyne, G. (1998). Cybernetics, Modernism and Pleasure in the MOMA Web Site.
closing plenary session, second annual Museums and the Web Conference 1998.
Toronto, April 22 to 25, 1998.
Western Australian Museum, (1999). consulted January 14, 1999. http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/.
Witcomb, A. (1998). Beyond the mausoleum: museums and the media. Hawkins, G. &
Thomas, J. (Eds) Media International Australia, culture and policy, Museums and New
Media. No. 89, November 1998: pp.21-34.
Witcomb, A. (1996). Floating the museum: a cultural study of the Australian National
Maritime Museum, Ph.D. dissertation, submitted at the Central Queensland University.
Zorich, D., M. (1997). Beyond Bitslag: integrated museum information resources on the
internet. In Anderson, M. L., & Jones-Garmil. K. (Eds). The wired museum: emerging
technology and changing paradigms, American Association of Museums, Washington D.C.
1997: pp. 171-202.
[table of contents]
Figure List
Figure 1. Screen shot Australian Museums On-Line homepage.
Kenderdine, 1999. http://amol.org.au. [return]
[table of contents] |
