Evaluation

The next session I attended was titled Innovative Applications, Innovative Evaluations. Presenters from the Getty and Ontario Science Center talked about their recent Web 2.0 projects. The Getty's was a project for kids in a social network environment (run by a third party) involving games and an opportunity for participants to look at art. The evaluations on this project were iffy; they wanted and tried to quantify number of visits back to the Getty main site, yet these tangible statistic were not reliable enough. They hosted web chats and interview sessions with the kids in the environment, which was anecdotally valuable and rewarding but not measurable. What they came away with was an understanding that measures need to identified before a project begins. The Ontario Science Center is very involved in You Tube and the community of “tubers;” they hosted a “meet up” of this community, making the virtual community actual. This is a novel idea and the numbers were measurable, but the value back to the museum is questionable.

The afternoon session included one on the semantic web, and how the Met is in the midst of a project to implement it. I definitely have a clearer understanding of what it is and what it can do now, along with a list of suggested resources.
The last session of the day was titled Digital Curation; it did not turn out to be what I thought. I thought it would be about projects, but it turned out to be a big call for a specific type of graduate degree. It was the only session so far I have been really disappointed in.

For fun:
I went to the National Archives during lunch today.
Keith Pille (remember him?) is here. Along with John from MIA.
I met some friends at Old Ebbitt's Grill across from the White House for dinner. It was full of wonks and totally fun.