the problem


Technical teams within museums are beginning to understand the benefits of the "machine connected" approach to web development. Solutions around OpenSearch, REST and RSS - for example - are being demonstrated on various museum sites. Museums are beginning to use API-like solutions to connect resources together internally. Some sites are exposing these API's to the public as well, but this is rare and not widely communicated.

 

Individually, the contributors to this wiki understand the immeasurable benefits of this approach, but to date have relied on individual case studies which have come out of "under the radar" development to demonstrate the ROI.

 

Embracing the concept of a "machine connected" approach requires a series of steps which are challenging at best. Many of these aren't technical, but cultural, and touch on some of the most sensitive areas of museum content online: IP, authority and copyright, not to mention an examination of "new" ways in which people now use the web.

 

The perceived problem is this: Museum sites are still being built in silos, with an assumption that there is a tangible user who starts at "the beginning", has an experience and pops out at "the end". Although there are sites where this is a valid approach, we are all seeing the value of "off-site" content consumption. Images are being embedded, content is being repurposed, feeds are being consumed.

 

Furthermore, the community is missing a whole series of development advantages: instead of it being easy (even trivial) to re-purpose content to internal systems like kiosks and external systems like mobile browsers, we consistently find that it is nearly impossible.

 

In short, we need to find a way to communicate the benefits of the API approach in a non-technical language and format.