Sunday, November 04, 2007

Happy Birthday, Museum 2.0! ...And Some Post Sorting Tools

Museum 2.0 is celebrating one year in the blogosphere. I started blogging in 2006 after ASTC as a way to continue exploring the intersections between Web 2.0 and museums discussed at the “Hot Topics in Exhibit Design” session. A year later, and it’s been an incredible learning experience for me (and hopefully has had some benefit for you, too). I offer a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has read, commented on, and supported this highly non-academic researching, poking, and wandering.

As you know, Museum 2.0 isn't as focused on late-breaking news as most blogs are. There's a lot of useful content in the archives. But there are now 177 posts on this blog. Sheesh. That's a lot. And Museum 2.0 is still drawing a large number of new readers. Where should you start? Which is the good stuff?

To aid you in your search, I'd like to point out a few tools.

First, at the very top left corner of this page, there's a search box. You can enter any term or phrase there, and Blogger will return any posts that include that term in the title or body of the post.


Second, there's the topic list on the right, which allows you to see posts tagged with a certain subject keyword, like design or virtual worlds.
I've added four new tags that are more general: Core Museum 2.0 Theories, Technology Tools Worth Checking Out, Museums Engaging in 2.0 Projects, and Unusual Projects and Influences. Let me know if there are other groupings or tags that might be useful to you (I wish I could let you tag the posts... sigh).

Finally, there are the most popular posts, as well as a chronological list of posts.

And I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize a few posts made better by your challenging and thoughtful comments:

Warning: Museum Graduate Prograns Spawn Legions of Zombies! The Most Contentious Post (and Most Commented Upon). This post spawned intense debate, a few friendships, and teaching engagements at JFKU, where the debate, thankfully, continues.

Talking Through Objects 2: The Rollercoaster Conundrum The Most Educational Post. Wherein I learned from you all kinds of theories about why people slap each other's hands on rollercoasters, including a particularly gross one involving saliva.

Participation Through Collaboration: Making Visitors Feel Needed The Most Religious Post. In which rabbis, biblical archaeologists, and laity take their seats at the commenting table and get to the core of whether 2.0 is good or not.

PostSecret: Lessons in Meaningful User-Generated Content The Most Famous Post. In which Frank Warren, originator of PostSecret, made a comment.

Finally, two good posts worth catching: one on the
Creation Museum, and another on the value of floor staff.

Again, I thank y
ou for your comments, critiques, questions, and lively discussion. You make this a wonderful experience--hopefully for other readers, and certainly for me. Please leave a comment if there are any ways that I--and we--could make this a better blog. In particular, I'd love any suggestions on how to make the site more user-friendly as a resource.

Here's to the next year!

3 comments, add yours!:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Museum 2.0 What a great provocative read this blog has been! Here is to another year of blessed writing.

Anonymous said...

thIs ten days later too late to comment on a blog post? I hope not.

Congratulations on your first year of M2.0, Nina. I still recall that day, some 52 weeks ago, when you posted a note about it on the ASTC listserv. Yes, a lot has changed since then. Heck, according to the Creation Museum, Earth is something like 14% older than this time last year, right? Stores stopped selling XP and loaded up on Vista, our occupation of Iraq became cool...no, wait, it didn't.

A fair amount has changed in my world, anyway. I'm glad that our paths cross occasionally.

Cheers.

- !

Anonymous said...

somehow "th" got in front of "Is"

Should be "Is ten days later..."