Photograph: Leonard GrenOne thing that cultural institutions have to regard when entering the world of social media is the change of roles and relations between institutional experts and the surrounding world.
When using interfaces like Flickr, collections, information and knowledge are made accessible to a larger audience. Places, subjects and people, connected with and buried deep in different collections, are easily searched through a few clicks on your PC. Driven by a special interest a person can go scavenging through cultural layers searching for new information and knowledge on a topic of special interst. Often an interactive moment has been built in to the interface. As a novice I can contribute to information by telling where a photo is taken or who is depicted on it. The accessibility makes it possible for me to become an “expert” and add to the collective memory.
This goes for all the ”experts” in the world who has spent an entire life learning everything there is to know about majolica, butterflies or old houses. For these “experts” the Internet offers a new arena where information and knowledge can interchange and instead of a hierarchical relationship between the institutional expert and the common novice we get a more equal relationship where they meet on a digital, creative common.
This is a very interesting development where roles take on new meanings and where the communicative landscape is re-written.
When using interfaces like Flickr, collections, information and knowledge are made accessible to a larger audience. Places, subjects and people, connected with and buried deep in different collections, are easily searched through a few clicks on your PC. Driven by a special interest a person can go scavenging through cultural layers searching for new information and knowledge on a topic of special interst. Often an interactive moment has been built in to the interface. As a novice I can contribute to information by telling where a photo is taken or who is depicted on it. The accessibility makes it possible for me to become an “expert” and add to the collective memory.
This goes for all the ”experts” in the world who has spent an entire life learning everything there is to know about majolica, butterflies or old houses. For these “experts” the Internet offers a new arena where information and knowledge can interchange and instead of a hierarchical relationship between the institutional expert and the common novice we get a more equal relationship where they meet on a digital, creative common.
This is a very interesting development where roles take on new meanings and where the communicative landscape is re-written.
