Future of Museums

Here's a way for museums to invite the local community in...offering their unused/unscheduled spaces

options for improving personal futures: do-it-yourself homesteading (home as driver of economic value not respository for consumer goods) shared consumption employment: choice between making a living and creating a life

I recently returned from a family visit during which my 17 year old niece, who is heading off to college next fall, informed me she rarely uses her FB account anymore, and then only to send pictures.

Nina Simon in her blog poses some important questions concerning mission driven versus mission serving activities.

This blog entry and following discussion brings up some very important issues regarding how best to engage visitors when dealing with socially-charged issues, in this case slavery.

Noise filtered through generations of listeners eventually becomes melodic, offering insights into how our tastes evolved.

Venture capital for helping salespeople connect with clients via social networking. "We are offering a third space, between the sales team and a client, where they can come together," he said. Can museums use this model to connect with potential donors/members?

It is nothing new that museums have to scramble for funds. This article is great about looking at the long term so it's not a year to year scrabble.

Another museum serving visitors with memory loss.

Many businesses can be run successfully from anywhere in the world, using modern collaboration software and teleconferencing, but other businesses may need "an environment where people interact in person, and startups are a great example of that.

The vaunted "third space" isn't home, and isn't work-it's more like the living room of society at large.  It's a place where you are neither family nor co-worker, and yet where the values, interests, gossip, complaints and inspirations of these two other spheres intersect.  It's a place at least one step removed from the structures of work and home, more random, and yet familiar enough to breed a sense of identity and connection.  It's a place of both possibility and comfort, where the unexpected and the mundane transcend and mingle. And nine times out of ten, it's a bar.