New Digital Technologies and Museums in South Africa:

Challenges & Opportunities !

Grant McNulty

Digital Technologies - Global Context"

Interoperability"

Access"

Digital technologies - South Africa"

Legacy of the past "

Going Forward

Outline

I) InteroperabilityInteroperability - ability of diverse systems and organisations to work together (inter - operate)"

Benefits:

Wide network of collective knowledge"

Convey ideas about curatorial and conservational practices"

Share digitised materials, content for exhibitions"

Location and identification of materials for research

Open Source Software: An Enabler of Interoperability

A community of developers"

Ability to switch service providers if you are not satisfied "

Ability to customise the code and functionality "

Free software – no recurring licence fees!

Accommodates documents, audio, text, & video"

Advanced searching capabilities"

Dublin Core metadata"

Online exhibitions "

User - friendly Interface"

Smithsonian, New York Public Library, CCRRI

Open Source Software Example: Omeka

CCRRI

CCRRI

!

Access - to gain access to; make accessible or available"

Benefits

Wider audiences"

Improved public profile:"

Search Engine Optimisation"

New Platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr Commons, Google Cultural Institute)"

Stimulates engagement with collections / pre-visit engagement

II) Access

!

Mobile phone usage in Africa, upwards of 70%"

98% penetration in South Africa"

Mobile browsers & 3G"

39% of urban / 27% of rural South Africans"

Smartphone Penetration: 80% by 2014"

Mobile Access

!

How might digital technologies contribute to addressing past imbalances and including previously excluded histories?

How might these technologies facilitate a more inclusive and democratised mode of recording and sharing our past?

The South African Context

!

Legacy of categorisation, ordering knowledge and exclusionary racial bias

Cannot just digitise: will digitised collections be significant to vast majority who were excluded from, and by, museums?"

Public Perceptions:"“where they keep old stuffed animals”

“a place for dried giraffes”

Addressing a Legacy

!

Strategies for addressing social disenfranchisement and cultural inequality "

More representative and comprehensive heritage "

More inclusive society"

New roles for museums as agents of social inclusion

New Roles for Museums

Representation - the extent to which an individual’s cultural heritage is represented within the mainstream cultural arena;"

Participation - the opportunities an individual has to participate in the process of cultural production; and"

Access - the opportunities to enjoy and appreciate cultural services

Social Inclusion

The Ulwazi Programme

The Ulwazi Programme increases access to the municipality’s cultural resources"

Allows people to represent themselves in the mainstream cultural arena"

By providing opportunities for individuals to participate in the process of cultural production

Ulwazi & Social Inclusion

Does not mean giving up all authority as a museologist or curator"

Does not mean letting the general public dictate what appears on a museum website"

Does mean creating a space for public to access & discuss museum collections"

Does mean creating a space for dialogue & multiple perspectives

What does this mean?

The past is not complete"The past is not neutral"We produce the past

Three Grounding Thoughts

A critical understanding of the history and transformation of museums in South Africa"

An appreciation of how we mediate the past, museum artefacts and collections"

How we might be hospitable to others’ perspectives"

How we might work together to address some of the legacy of our collective past

Going Forward: Digital Strategy

More Information

CCRRI - http://ccrri.ukzn.ac.za

Ulwazi Programme - www.ulwazi.org

McNulty Consulting - www.mcnulty.co.za