As we all struggle to make sense of a world rapidly changed by technological disruption, the institutions that preserve cultural memory are becoming even more important. Their nature, form and offerings are inevitably changing with the times.
The Smithsonian Institute, as one of the preeminent museum systems in the world, is profoundly engaged in capturing our culture's digital transition. On Monday, that institution hosted the inaugural Smithsonian Ignite in the "attic of the country."
The Ignite format, pioneered by my colleagues at O'Reilly Media, provided a platform for innovators from within the Smithsonian and museums from around the globe to share how their work is changing. As with every Ignite, each speaker had 5 minutes and 20 slides to communicate his or her message.
"I was really gratified to see colleagues from all over the museum world, government, and unrelated fields propose talks," said Michael Edson (@mpedson), director of web and new media strategy for the Smithsonian.
"We don't normally get to do this kind of fluid event that flows across disciplines and organizational boundaries," he said. "It felt right. It's the role the Smithsonian should be playing: a convener."
There was no shortage of big ideas encapsulated in the Ignite Smithsonian talks, all of which will be available online individually over time. I captured a few of the themes at Ignite Smithsonian that resonated in the hour afterwards at O'Reilly Radar. Those themes include big data, rethinking museum websites, touchscreen virtual exhibits, citizen curation, augmented reality, and creating spaces for knowledge workers to be creative.
Ignite Smithsonian was livestreamed and then rebroadcast immediately following the end of the event. You can watch archived video of the event in the embed, below:
"The whole event was organized very quickly with zero budget, mostly through Twitter and our Web and new media strategy wiki," said Edson. "It was fun to see how far we could go, and how quickly, without needing to invoke the bureaucratic processes of the Official Smithsonian."
Working within those boundaries, the organizers created a wonderfully well curated Ignite -- but then the Smithsonian is well known for its curatorial skills. Ignite Smithsonian used poetry and video interludes between speakers, leavening the event with insight, humor and art that went complemented the slide decks of the presenters. Embedded below is a playlist that includes all of the interlude videos, plus few more:
"People seemed to really understand and appreciate the Ignite + the Smithsonian equation," said Edson. "Ignite stands for something in the tech and media industries, the Smithsonian stands for something in the broader culture, and putting them together resulted in something new and interesting. I'd like to do the event again and see what happens."