Through the Looking Glass: Museums and Internet-Based Transparency

Dr. Maxwell Anderson
Melvin & Bren Simon Director and CEO of the Indianapolis Museum of Art
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Ring Auditorium)
Washington, DC
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
2:304:30 pm

As museums adapt to the potential of social computing, the old-school website focused on facilitating physical access and rudimentary collections information is fast becoming a necessary but insufficient front door for museums online. By opening museums to public participation, and by revealing operational details that are normally kept confidential, museums have the potential to animate strategic planning, anticipate outcomes-based inquiries from governance authorities and funders engage a new generation of users, mollify a prying press, and encourage philanthropy. This presentation will present some ways in which the Indianapolis Museum of Art is striving to open itself in unexpected ways to the general public.

Author of many publications and an internationally known speaker, Dr. Anderson is a leader in moving museums toward incorporating web mediated technology in their daily lives. His publications on museums and technology have promoted greater transparency among institutions, and his advocacy led the Indianapolis Museum of Art to launch, in 2007, the first real-time museum dashboard, revealing over 50 fields of sensitive financial and performance data and soliciting commentary from the general public about the museum's commitment to openness.

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Education

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