A THEORY OF THE MUSEUM EXPERIENCE

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Permalink Reply by Peter Gale on July 10, 2010 at 10:37am

Emily, your survey could be relevant, and I'd like to be informed about the findings. I went to the survey, but did not participate, because I'm no longer a regular user of Twitter (for various reasons). Should your survey consider or factor in, somehow, those people in the museum realm who 'got into' Twitter initially for one or more reasons, and are now not users? I appreciate that you are surveying regular users. Their 'experiences' could be interesting. Any possibility that users who have stopped using this system might be included or factored into the results, so that there might be some indication from them as to why museum-oriented people may have stopped using Twitter? Some indication may be possible given the existing survey questions, but perhaps certain survey questions could cover that more effectively?

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Permalink Reply by Emily Smeaton on July 10, 2010 at 9:58pm

Thanks for your thoughts Peter, you make a good point! The immediate use for my survey is my thesis and therefore needed to be quite ruthlessly focussed on my research question and the framework I've set out from which to address it. Having said that, understanding why users have left the service would, as you say, no doubt say a lot about experience. I will definitely bear this in mind.

I'll drop you a line once it's all complete to see if the findings are still of interest to you. Thanks again.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Gale on July 11, 2010 at 8:14am

Thanks Emily. The use of Twitter is an important matter, and not just for museums. I look forward to seeing the results. No doubt I am pushing into areas that interest me (or I'm curious about, ever since I learned that various systems like Twitter were being used by museums (and others) largely for marketing events of all (too many?) sorts. That was one of the reasons I eventually sort-of lost interest in it. However, I see that the current journal issue from the Canadian Museums Association features "Online Social Media: Who Are You Reaching" submitted by Katie Urban (MA, Leicester). It may be of interest to this Museum 3.0 group.

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Permalink Reply by Emily Smeaton on July 11, 2010 at 8:30am

Absolutely. I think it is such an exciting platform for museums if they learn how to use it sympathetically. Twitter for Museums, published by Museums ETC, is a really great resource for museums (or anyone) interested in using Twitter and making the most of the democratic transaction / interaction it can promote.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Gale on July 11, 2010 at 8:56am

I am regularly stimulated by the ways that new technologies are variously used and re-newed, and not just by museums. Twitter was, at its start-up, both interesting and a challenge. Having lost my interest in the way it was initially being used, I now realize that I would like to know how people use it today.
Although you are probably right to suggest, as I think that you do in the survey, that users need not indicate their age, I can only imagine that it is an important factor, and one for which the results will provide an opportunity for analysis.

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Permalink Reply by Emily Smeaton on July 11, 2010 at 9:13am

I think age is important, yes. Nearly all respondents so far have answered this optional question so i'll be interested to see how my results relate to other age-demographic data for Twitter (which as I understand it points towards an higher age-group than other social-networking sites, namely Facebook) and for museum visitors.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Gale on July 11, 2010 at 3:43pm

Your survey could then help to indicate whether Twitter is, indeed, being used by a 'higher' age-group than others (as other sources have suggested or implied in the past, at least in this realm).

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