Museum 2.0

Smithsonian 1.1 would involve a much more aggressive use of social\nmedia and technology that's already out there, to begin to take many\nsmall steps and make many small experiments using what is currently\navailable. The Smithsonian has already done some of this, of course:\nthe National Museum of American History has a blog, SI has a small presence on Flickr Commons, and museums have begun to tweet.

But these are relatively scattered, uncoordinated attempts,\nfrequently done by younger, tech-savvy SI staffers in their spare time.\nThe Smithsonian should be doing much, much more of this. For instance,\ngiven their expertise and excitement about SI's holdings, it seemed\nclear to the digerati that every curator should have a blog, even if\ninfrequently used, to recount tales of objects. While visiting the\nMuseum of American History's vaults, it was clear that a huge audience\nwould subscribe to a weekly or daily video podcast that covered\nincredible treasures that rarely see the light of day, such as Abraham\nLincoln's handball, or what the Smithsonian just collected and is\npreserving from the inauguration of Barack Obama.