The MyMuseum Challenge

We invite you to participate in the My Museum challenge this January.

A group of Museum staff are developing a concept called MyMuseum. Loosely based on the MyMuseum aspect of this very website, we are challenging anyone to have a go at designing a MyMuseum experience, during January 2010, that incorporates both the physical aspects of the Museum (specifically our current exhibitions) with the virtual ones we offer through our website.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it ...

The Museum’s mission is to Inspire the exploration of nature and cultures. Through a program called MyMuseum we aim to integrate the physical experience (such as the exhibitions at College Street) and the virtual experience (via our website) we offer our large and diverse range of visitors.

For the purposes of this exercise visitors have been categorised as:

• Ants – move methodically from object to object or page to page
• Butterflies – move back and forth, alight on some displays or web pages
• Grasshoppers – chose specific objects, web pages and hop from one to the other
• Fish – glide in and out of exhibitions with few stops, they will browse the website, again gliding in and out of content, they like to play
• Elephants – loyal visitor, repeatedly visits both physical and website often and are probably members of both sites, also display aspects of other categories

Our challenge to you is to design a MyMuseum experience that uses the real items you encounter around the public areas (objects, text, graphics, exhibits, people, etc, etc) combined with the technology that visitors will bring with them in their pockets (e.g. smart phones; mini laptops; game boys/PSPs etc). Think of it as the ultimate mash up. It could result in something like a PSP/Xbox game, a downloadable iPhone application, a self-guided tour, a virtual staff member/Museum guide, a TV/radio show, etc, etc. Your only limits are your imaginations!

The first step is to join the Museum's website and get a feel for how the MyMuseum aspect works. Then, physically visit the College Street site and design an integrated experience/s that addresses each (or all) visitor category.

The best idea/s will win a $50 Museum Shop voucher.

More resources that may help you are on the right-hand side of this page, including a post about how (and why museums categorise visitors).

Contact Lynda Kelly for more information or leave your comments/questions here.