«Digital Collections Summit» by MuseumNext

Samantha Diamond, © MuseumNext «Digital Collections Summit» 

The Digital Experience Ecosystem

Museums are investing in digital experiences, even if "digital transformation" seems like an impossible, nebulous task. This is especially true with tight budgets and team bandwidths.

Traditionally, museums have pursued a project-based model. Each project was individually programmed, which is expensive and time-consuming in development and implementation.

In recent decades, projects have evolved into products. General functionality was standardized. The wheel did not have to be reinvented and reprogrammed from scratch each time.

Platforms are another development. They serve multiple purposes and enable interaction between people, objects, and content from different departments or sources in various ways.

Connected platforms form ecosystems. Systems and people are interconnected. Through this kind of integration, they help people and objects to carry out transactions and creations. Both continue to evolve with their needs and technology.

For example, the visitor goes on his "experience journey" to the museum's website to explore the collection and research how he can visit it personally. Once at the museum, he buys an admission ticket and is enticed to become a member.

While touring the exhibition, he uses a mobile guide for navigation and art description. He moves through the experience and shares it on social media. In the end, he goes to the souvenir shop and buys a book or poster.

The audience is already interacting with the technological ecosystem today, from content management systems to ticketing to interaction technologies in and around the exhibition.

This digital world of experience is ultimately a constantly evolving, never-ending project for museums.

Very exciting elaborations by Samantha Diamond in her lecture "How to Care About Digital Transformation when you Have 300 Emails in your Inbox" at the "Digital Collections Summit" by MuseumNext.

Let's build these digital experience ecosystems together!