Abstract
<p class="p1">This paper examines the role of digital collections and digital information in the democratisation process of museums. The paper focuses on ethical and ownership issues regarding Wikipedia’s online encyclopaedia initiative to widen access to digital images and knowledge through digital media, for the wider public. The paper draws on three cases of national museums in the UK, namely the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. The paper argues that notions of governmentality, power, authority, and control - which traditionally characterise national museums - are still dominant in digital collections. This occasionally results in tensions that revolve around the issue of ownership of digital images and digital museum objects as well as their commercial and non-commercial uses. The paper shows that recent disputes and discourse related to the use of digital images by Wikipedians (active users of Wikipedia) have raised issues of authority and control not only of physical objects but also of the information and knowledge related to these objects. The paper demonstrates that the level of collaboration with Wikipedia reflects to some extent the participatory nature, philosophy, and ideology of each museum institution.
Highlights
This paper aims to address the role of digital collections and digital information in the democratisation process of museums focusing on issues of ownership and ethics in three UK national museums
Through an analysis of relevant websites and blogs we will argue that notions of governmentality, power, authority, and control – that traditionally characterise national museums – are still dominant in digital collections; an issue that occasionally results in tensions with rapidly developing social media such as Wikipedia
Revenuegenerating activities need to be taken into account within the current economic climate, recent disputes and discourse related to the use of digital images by Wikipedians have raised issues of authority and control of physical objects, and of information and knowledge related to these objects; knowledge that needs, according to some museums, to be as neutral and accurate as possible, and distanced from conflicting and disputing issues
Summary
The argument above is reinforced by the fact that the core aim of digitisation within museums is not so much to broaden access and broaden ownership, but mainly to increase online visitor numbers and gain publicity, as well as to raise income and fund further digitisation activities within the museum.. The argument above is reinforced by the fact that the core aim of digitisation within museums is not so much to broaden access and broaden ownership, but mainly to increase online visitor numbers and gain publicity, as well as to raise income and fund further digitisation activities within the museum.2 This observation can be further validated by several museums’ business plans which set specific targets for physical and virtual visitors (see for instance the NMSI Business Plan 2011–12 which states that ‘In the coming year our target is to achieve 4.197 million physical visitors across all our Museums and 6.486 million virtual visitors’ (NMSI 2011)). This paper will demonstrate that the level of collaboration with Wikipedia reflects to an extent the participatory nature, philosophy, and ideology of each museum institution
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