content strategy (abridged) 2017 · content strategy v 01 ... some of the ideas in this strategy...

CONTENT STRATEGY (ABRIDGED)

2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

About This Document .................................................................................................................................. 1

Mission and Rationale .................................................................................................................................. 2

Strategy at-a-Glance .................................................................................................................................... 2

Design and Engagement Principles ........................................................................................................... 4

Content Families ........................................................................................................................................... 6 Experience, Participate, Create ................................................................................................................. 6 Participants ................................................................................................................................................ 7 User Experience States ............................................................................................................................. 8

Three Platforms ............................................................................................................................................ 8

Impact Model – Awareness to Action ......................................................................................................... 9 Activation Goals ....................................................................................................................................... 10

Results at Global Scale .............................................................................................................................. 11

Forces that Frame, Spark, Drive, and Sustain Strategy ......................................................................... 13

Curation and Production ........................................................................................................................... 14 Working together ...................................................................................................................................... 14 Curation and Production Guidelines ........................................................................................................ 14 Content Development Roles .................................................................................................................... 15 Three Tiers of Responsibility .................................................................................................................... 15 Research and Public Engagement ........................................................................................................... 16 Learning to Curate Content ...................................................................................................................... 16

Special questions and notes ..................................................................................................................... 17

Production Roadmap ................................................................................................................................. 18 Phase 1: Building Capacity and Finding Friends ..................................................................................... 19 Phase 2: Building Value and Forming Bonds ........................................................................................... 19 Phase 3: Local Impact at Global Scale .................................................................................................... 19

Coda: How Can We Succeed? ................................................................................................................... 20

MUSEUM FOR THE UNITED NATIONS – UN LIVE Content Strategy v 01 (abridged) http://unlivemuseum.org [email protected]

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ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT This is an abbreviated version of the museum’s content strategy. A full version is available from [email protected]. This strategy has taken shape through months of collaboration, research, and reflection about how we, the Secretariat of the Museum for the United Nations – UN Live, should work with people around the world to translate our mission into content, programs, and experiences that will bring the museum to life and have a positive impact on billions of people for years to come. There are no hard and fast rules that determine what a “content strategy” should be — or even, for that matter, what a museum should be — so we’ve tried to take a practical ap-proach and focus on telling a clear and compelling story about content, participants, and outcomes that people can understand and act upon. We’ve tried to provide enough speci-ficity and direction so the strategy is actionable, but not so much that we close off possi-bilities for creative exploration with too many rules and guidelines so early in the game. To the greatest extent possible this strategy is based on research, dialogue with stake-holders and potential audiences, and consultation with experts, but to a large degree it is — as all strategies are — also speculative and aspirational: it makes a series of educated guesses about how the museum’s content and activities will affect the feelings and behav-iors of billions of real people dealing with the world’s most challenging issues, and many of these assumptions will turn out to be wrong. Some of the ideas in this strategy will turn out to be less important than originally thought, and others more so. Some will seem accurate for a while, but the creative process of work-ing with real people in the real world will reveal gaps, flaws, and weaknesses that force us step back and think in exciting new ways. And some ideas — perhaps even ideas that will change the world — will emerge from un-expected places or reveal themselves gradually over time as the museum comes to maturi-ty and our staff, participants, and partners become fully immersed in the joy and satisfac-tion that comes with working and learning together at a global scale. Therefore, this content strategy should be thought of not as a set of commandments carved in stone but as a call to action — a starting point, leading in a certain direction and describing a system of concepts, desires, and convictions that will require continuous ex-perimentation, nurturing, and refinement over time. Ultimately, the success of the Museum for the United Nations – UN Live will be determined not by the words on these pages but by the people they attract to join us and the deeds they inspire. As always, we welcome your feedback, questions, and support. This development of this strategy was supported, in part, by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.


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MISSION AND RATIONALE

MISSION

To connect people everywhere to the work and values of the United Nations and catalyze global effort towards achieving its goals

RATIONALE The UN does some of the world’s most difficult and important work The UN takes on the world’s most difficult challenges: peacekeeping, economic and social development, humanitarian aid, and climate change. Under the aegis of the United Nations the world community has agreed on 17 far-reaching Sustainable Development Goals. This work affects everyone, and its success requires individuals and organizations everywhere to find new ways to learn, collaborate, and act together. People need help to understand, engage, and contribute Today’s challenges are so big and complex that it is easy for people—and even many gov-ernments, NGOs, businesses, and civil society organizations— to feel overwhelmed and powerless; uncertain about what, if anything, they can do. With urgent challenges all around us, and in an age of “fake news” and declining trust in public institutions, the muse-um, as a new kind of convener, can help people understand, engage with, and contribute to the work of the UN. The museum as a platform for dialogue and change In this environment of both great need and great potential the Museum for the United Na-tions can act as a trusted convener and a catalyst for action at global scale. Through a dig-ital platform, physical buildings, and a network of public venues and partner organizations the museum can employ an almost limitless variety of content, events, and experiences to help people understand and advance the work of the UN. Culture, education, and empa-thy— brought together and amplified under the aegis of a visionary global museum—can help reach and inspire a new generation of global citizens and produce lasting change.

STRATEGY AT-A-GLANCE The cornerstone of this strategy is the use of convening power, museum platforms, and bottom-up, participatory processes to flip the script on traditional audience-institutional relationships, putting people at the center of the story and supporting dialogue and col-laboration on complex global issues at eye level with ordinary people. Through these processes the museum, with its partners and participants, will develop con-tent that helps move participants along a spectrum from abstract awareness of the work and values of the UN to a state in which they feel concrete personal and emotional connec-tions to the UN’s work and values and are actively leading and contributing to relevant ef-forts in their communities.


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The museum’s mission and results establish the basis and direction for the strategy by de-fining why the museum exists and its fundamental value proposition.

A collection of forces frame, spark, drive, and sustain the strategy. Curation and produc-tion provide guidance and energy across all aspects of content development.

Design and engagement principles describe the techniques the museum will use to create content that flips the script and uses participatory, bottom-up processes to work with au-diences at eye level.

Three families of content invite the public to experience, participate, and create together.

Three platforms (online, network, and physical) provide a series of stages for interaction, creation, and discovery.

The impact model describes how content, participants, and platforms are brought togeth-er to enable people to move across a spectrum of engagement from awareness to action.

The museum will create results at global scale in the areas of understanding of the work and values of the UN; contributing to the UN’s work through local action; increasing the creative capacity of communities around the world; and helping people become actively engaged with global challenges.

The content development process is divided into three, approximately 18-month long phases beginning in 2017 and concluding with the museum’s scheduled opening in 2023. The phases are distinguished by a gradual progression from exploration and network building; to community development and value creation; to actively creating impact for individuals and local communities on a global scale.

Content production will unfold through a large number of scalable, low-risk/high-yield public programs that will guide future development; attract and solidify a network of indi-viduals and organizations; and test and refine the museum’s value proposition in collabora-tion with real participants and potential partners and donors over time. The process will be fast, open, and participatory; and it will emphasize experimentation and engagement across a broad spectrum of participants and content types, platforms, subject matter, and geographic locations.


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DESIGN & ENGAGEMENT PRINCIPLES Ten design and engagement principles embody the museum’s vision and priorities and provide a reference point to help it create content and experiences that advance its mis-sion. The work and values of the United Nations and relevant UN agencies, and the mission of the museum, should always to be kept in mind when reading and applying these princi-ples.

Design and Engagement Principles

1. Flip the Script

2. Bottom-up and participatory

3. Connect with audiences at eye level

4. Connect across cultures

5. Design and plan beyond the museum

6. Embrace a learning model that emphasizes experiential learning, collaboration, and play

7. Shine light on people and communities

8. Create a bridge between awareness and action

9. Connect thin/symbolic participation with deep/impactful engagement

10. Create campaigns through three interconnected platforms

1. Flip the script Flip the script on the traditional relationship between people and institutions. Visitors and audiences are more than just passive consumers, they are the force that makes the work of the museum — and the UN — possible. They are the museum. Develop the creativity and potential of audiences in all stages of the creative process. 2. Bottom-up and participatory Use top-down curation and expertise, but match them with processes that are open, par-ticipatory, and bottom-up. Look for unconventional experts and expertise in local commu-nities. Use participatory practices to create dialogue and “co-learning” between organizers and participants. (See Research Reports, available upon request.). 3. Connect with audiences at eye level Use common language; clear, powerful prose; and first-person storytelling to communicate complex topics in ways that are meaningful to people who are not “experts” (in the West-ern academic and professional sense). Avoid jargon, acronyms, and institutional language wherever possible. Ask, discuss, and share, rather than tell.


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4. Connect across cultures Look for ways to include international and cross-cultural dialogue and collaboration in every project. Encourage partners, content teams, and participants to reach beyond famil-iar environments to make new friends and col-laborate with new people in new ways. 5. Design and plan beyond the museum Our audience is capable of knowing more and doing more than we can on our own. Every project and platform — even the museum in Copenhagen — is an opportunity to create a template or recipe that others can use in their own communities. Create a movement and support the work of existing movements. Em-power others to lead. 6. Embrace a learning model that emphasizes experiential learning, collaboration, and play Teach with all the senses. Invite people to col-laborate on authentic and consequential work — including the work of creating and running the museum and its exhibitions and initiatives. Playful learning, laughter, curiosity and joy can be our most important tools even when deal-ing with difficult and controversial subjects. 7. Shine light on people and communities People animate the work and values of the UN and its partners and give them meaning. Look beyond the UN as an institution and focus on the people who do its work and live its values whoever and wherever they are: make them the story.

8. Create a bridge between awareness and action Inform and engage people in unique and powerful ways, but don’t stop there; develop pathways between awareness of global challenges and ways to take action to solve and overcome them. Use the stories and examples of real-life innovators and change makers and give audiences many opportunities to see and participate in authentic work (and cele-brate their efforts and accomplishments when they do.) 9. Connect quick and shallow actions with sustained and deep participation Use participation that scales easily but is thin and symbolic, such as “liking” a cause on Facebook, as a gateway to actions that enable deeper thought and deeper commitments from participants over longer periods of time. Both kinds of participation and outcomes are important and valuable, but designing for, encouraging, and supporting “thick” en-gagement that leads to long-term impact and change may be a signature characteristic of the museum’s identity.

Bottom-up design The traditional way of developing con-tent for the museum would be to con-struct a building and hire a team of cura-tors, educators, and subject-matter ex-perts to fill it with exhibitions and public programs. Many successful institutions have been established this way and the museum’s future will almost certainly include some of this kind of activity. But the design/build approach — experts practicing their craft in private offices and then dispensing the results to audi-ences — seems insufficient to address the full scope of the museum’s mission and the full magnitude of its potential. As an alternative, the same desire for inclusion, engagement, and collaborative decision making that gives the museum so much of its founding energy can be used as a tool to explore, define, and validate its content strategy, develop its content, and establish its activities, out-comes, audiences — and ultimately its core value proposition over time. A bot-tom-up, distributed, audience-driven methodology is harmonious with the vision and spirit of the museum, and it is well attuned to best and emerging prac-tices in web development, innovation, and user experience design.


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10. Create campaigns on three interconnected platforms (physical, digital, and a network of partner organizations) Design projects as campaigns that take advantage of all three platforms together, as a unified whole. Use physical spaces and live audiences to create evocative public scenes, rich, multi-sensory experiences, and intimate 1:1 and small group encounters; use the net-work to bring diverse voices, viewpoints, and local contexts into play; use the digital plat-forms to achieve engagement and diversity at scale and to weave physical/network expe-riences into a cohesive whole. Create cross-disciplinary teams that include practitioners with physical, digital, and network expertise.

CONTENT FAMILIES

EXPERIENCE, PARTICIPATE, CREATE Three content families — experience, participate, and create — describe the types of con-tent and interactions the museum can create with and for its audiences. Content in these families is distinguished not by platform or technology but by the degree to which the content invites audiences to participate and act. The examples below are provided to enhance clarity and stimulate discussion. They are not intended to reflect actual plans or priorities for content the museum will produce Content that invites people to experience

These examples are closest to traditional forms of museum interaction, where the visitor is invited to experience and learn individually.

Content that invites people to participate

While many of these content types involve listening and watching, they convey infor-mation primarily as a means to facilitate dialogue and interac-tion between people.

Content that invites people to create

This content represents the highest degree of interaction and initiative asked of audi-ences. It invites audiences to create, to lead and take initia-tive, and sometimes to take risks.

Reading, listening, watching, & multisensory content ● News – independent and

trustworthy on global is-sues

● Data visualizations – an interactive map showing global energy consumption

● Print materials – how-to booklet on organizing local SDG action committees

● Lecture – guest lecturer on cross-cultural collaboration and community building

● Video – history of the Unit-ed Nations told through stop motion animation characters

Debating, teaming up, teach-ing, sharing ● Meetups – a local “across

borders” meetup for refu-gees and local community

● Forums (physical and digi-tal) – how to create and run a Model UN event

● Scholarly research – Sup-port for scholars working on UN history research

● Festivals – Music, perfor-mance, and gatherings

● 1:1 encounters – a ‘Human Library’ event that pairs people with UN staff

● Conferences – Multidisci-plinary meetings with a va-

Creating, tackling challenges, exploring ● Workshops – a “create a

world peace superhero” workshop for families

● Maker spaces – A shop and fabrication lab to prototype rural healthcare solutions

● Maker Faire – ‘Maker Faire, UN’ for sharking know-how on sustainable development

● Co-creation – design labs, curatorial fellowships, and artists in residence

● Innovation challenges – Incubator/design competi-tion for SDG-related inno-vations


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● Virtual Reality – A tour of the UN headquarters or a refugee camp in Jordan

● Augmented Reality – an app showing future effects of climate change on your home

● Performing arts – a play, by children, about bullying & social inclusion

● Exhibitions & pop-ups – A youth unemployment ex-hibit & dialogue, curated by youth

● Artistic installations Icebergs in the streets of Paris at the UN Conference on Climate Change (‘Ice Watch Paris’ 2015, Olafur Eliasson)

riety of perspectives ● Training – Training for

community organizers by the Center for Artistic Ac-tivism

● Education – a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) on social entre-preneurship

● Social media – Instagram /Snapchat channels for photographs by refugees

● Hashtag events – global campaigns such as #DayOfFacts & #myFree-domDay

● Blogging – a blog featuring the work of young change-makers

● “Hackathons” – Informal application development sprints using UN data

● Primary source materials and data – access to docu-ments and development da-ta from UN and NGOs

● Crowdsourcing – translating UN documents and data in-to local languages

● Gaming – a roleplaying game that involves kids in climate change problem solving

● Game-based and role-playing activities – Model UN

● Interactive graphs, maps, visualizations – interactive visualizations of SDG- relat-ed data

PARTICIPANTS Who will visit, use, and contribute to the museum? Rather than categorize visitors by na-tionality, education level, or with traditional demographic categories, the museum sees participants as multi-dimensional individuals with needs, interests, and learning styles that transcend typical labels. We expect individuals to assume different roles at different times and to move fluidly between passive and active modes, and local and global contexts. Passive participants will observe, study, and experience the museum on their own terms

Innovators and connectors will create, solve problems, and connect with likeminded individ-uals

Curious learners of all ages will widen their horizons through new ideas, lively play, and rich experiences

Subject matter experts will share their deep interest or expertise in such areas as environ-mental change, gender equality, or economic opportunity

Active doers will contribute and get involved in community projects, and volunteers work

Researchers and educators will find primary resources, create lesson plans, and seek knowledge that supports learning in both for-mal and informal settings


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USER EXPERIENCE STATES User experience generally refers to the mental and emotional state of a person using a product or experiencing a designed activity. Although the museum will develop a wide variety of content and experiences, some distinctive states of user experience, summarized by the five nouns below, will be prominent across the museum’s initiatives.

Curiosity Empathy Courage Playfulness Action

THREE PLATFORMS The museum is unique in its desire to be active and effective on three co-equal and mutu-ally reinforcing platforms: a museum, civic space and headquarters in Copenhagen, Den-mark; a network of partner institutions and public venues throughout the world; and a global digital presence. Thinking of the three platforms as a cohesive whole is a unique and distinctive feature of the museum’s vision and a core tenet of this content strategy. As stated in the Design and Engagement Principles, the museum’s content should be developed as campaigns that take advantage of all three platforms together, as a unified whole. Physical spaces in Copenhagen and across the network should be used to create public wonder and awe, rich, multi-sensory experiences, and intimate 1:1 and small group encoun-ters. The primary function of the network is to bring diverse voices, viewpoints, and local contexts into focus. Digital platforms will be used to make the activities of the network and building visible and accessible more broadly, to weave physical network experiences into a cohesive whole, and to achieve engagement and diversity at scale.

On the word ‘museum’

The Museum for the United Nations — UN Live will not have a permanent collection, but many mu-seums do not. Initial workshops indicate that the word ‘museum’ represents a public institution with a civic mission in which many kinds of content and experiences are possible. Workshops in Ethiopia and Brazil indicate that even in communities with little or no exposure to museums, the identity of “UN Live” as an educational non-governmental organization affiliated with the UN, and working with trusted local partners, would be a sufficient starting point for community dialogue. It appears that few people think about museums in the abstract: instead they think about specific institutions they know and have experience with. This was particularly clear in workshops with 10 to 13-year-olds in Billund, Denmark, where participants were negative or indifferent regarding the concept of “museums” in the abstract but spoke with enthusiasm about specific institutions they had visited and enjoyed. Over the long run, what seems to matter most to potential participants is not the label of museum but what the museum does and the kinds of experiences it provides for individuals, families, and communities.


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IMPACT MODEL – AWARENESS TO ACTION The museum will use a broad spectrum of participatory practices, cultural engagement, and museum craft to dramatically increase the number of people around the world who are actively engaged in tackling the world’s most difficult challenges. To achieve its impact, the museum will develop content and support interactions and ac-tivities that invite people to move through a cycle of content creation, engagement, acti-vation, and deepening scale.

Step 1. Curation and Co-Creation Working with the UN, partners, and participants, the museum will create, find, curate, and host content and experiences on all three platforms. The museum’s mission, design and engagement principles, and objectives give guidance about what kind of content and ex-periences should be created (what is in and out of scope) and how content and curation processes could unfold. Step 2. Engagement at eye level Through engagement and dialogue in their own local contexts, people build empathy and a personal connection to global challenges. Empathy and personal connections are im-portant parts of shifting people’s mental models regarding global issues and beginning a process of long-term engagement and change.

Step 3. Activation in communities Activities that combine playful learning and real-world problem solving, and opportunities for further action, help participants develop the skills and habits of global citizenship and

cross-cultural collaboration. A global network of communities supports people as they build

these habits and move between less and more active forms of participation.

Playful learning and real-world problem solving, and opportunities for further action, help participants devel-op the skills and habits of global citizenship and cross-

cultural collaboration.

1. Curation and co-creation

2. Engagements at eye level

3. Activation in communities

4. Many things at scale

Working with the UN, partners, and participants to create and curate content/experiences across all

three platforms

Growing networks of organizations and individuals create and spread change at both global and local

scales

Through engagement and dialogue in their own local contexts, people build empathy and a personal connection to global chal-

lenges


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Aware Active

Thin engagement Symbolic activities Isolated individuals Intermittent effort

Dependent on support Institutional context

Silence Empathy Learning

Thick engagement Impactful activities Connected communities Sustained initiatives Independent and self-sustaining Local context Dialogue Action Doing

Step 4. Many things at scale Growing networks of organizations and individuals create and spread change at both global and local scales. Individuals work with their peers, the UN, businesses, government and civil society to share knowledge and make progress on global/local challenges; new ideas and solutions feed the development of new content for the museum.

ACTIVATION GOALS Activation goals represent different points of the spectrum between relatively passive forms of engagement and interaction to more active ones. These are generalizations, as even the most “active” visitor will at some times choose to play more passive roles and not every person on every visit will (or will need to) move across the spectrum in order for them to gain from the experience.

Thin engagement to thick engagement People’s engagement with global issues and the efforts of the United Nations are often limited to thin engagements such as reading media headlines or “liking” causes on Face-book. The museum will create and nurture thick engagements that deal with these issues through problem solving, creativity, reflection, and collaboration.

Symbolic outcomes to impactful outcomes The Museum for the United Nations will give people opportunity to do something about global issues rather than merely liking and sharing posts about them. It will provide oppor-tunities for creating impact in diverse ways including through action, dialogue, play, and learning.

Isolated individuals to connected communities The museum will bring people and organiza-tions together to identify and solve problems, including ordinary people, NGOs, business, government, United Nations agencies, re-search institutions, museums, and civil society.

Intermittent effort to sustained initiatives Build a common platform for sharing and cel-ebrating good ideas and approaches so ef-forts are not reinventing the wheel. Further, support projects in local communities to en-sure that improvements made are lasting.

The role of passion

At a strategy workshop in Rio de Janeiro, after an exercise involving the Sustainable Development Goals, participants were asked if they thought there was a ‘missing’ goal. One participant, a man in his 40’s or 50’s, stepped forward and answered, “Love. In my experience, nothing worth-while in life ever happened without love. Love and passion are the force that moves all good things forward.”


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Dependent on support to independent and self-sustaining Many tools for creating content today are free or very low cost. The museum’s events, ac-tivities and content will enable people to go from initially taking part in funded and orga-nized activities to eventually doing their own events and fundraising for them.

Institutional context to local context From seeing the world from the perspective of institutions to seeing the world through the eyes of people in their local communities.

Silence to dialogue From communities and individuals that lack a strong voice, to communities and individuals with strong voices in dialogue with one another.

Empathy to action From understanding the feelings of others to taking action to improve the lives of others.

Learning to doing From a passive state of learning to learning by doing and putting knowledge to practical use.

RESULTS AT GLOBAL SCALE We believe that the Museum for the United Nations can help people solve the world’s biggest

challenges, foster a new sense of global citizenship, and create new bonds between the UN and the billions of people it was founded to serve. Through the actions of its staff, participants, and collaborators, the museum will work to-wards results in the areas of understanding, community, creative capacity, and change. These areas were chosen to project the desire of the museum to be outward looking and supportive of the work others; to provide guidance to designers, decision makers, and par-ticipants regarding the high-level purpose of the museum; and to indicate the museum’s desire to catalyze impact and change at a global scale. The target scale for each area is focused on the year 2025 to align the museum with the global effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Engagement, part-nerships, and training are imprecise terms in the current context, below: a rigorous meas-urement, research, and evaluation framework will be developed, tested, and refined from the first content activities onward. Understanding Create a thriving network of local and global communities and help people everywhere understand the work and values of the United Nations in the context of their own lives and communities.

Targets by 2025: 100m engagements/month on the museum’s 3 platforms; UN Live educa-tional materials annually reach 25m people.


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Community Create and support a thriving network of communities that collaborate across cultures and participate in the work of the United Nations.

Targets by 2025: 5000 local events conducted in total; 2 or more new museum buildings (for example: “UN Live” Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro) in development; Museum partners and events in at least 150 countries. Creative Capacity Increase the creative, innovative, and problem-solving capacity of individuals and commu-nities around the world.

Targets by 2025: Annually support 500 programs featuring cross-cultural dialogue and collaboration; 100,000 individuals trained in local facilitation/problem-solving; A network of 1,000 partners that collaborate, solve problems and create cultural engagements. Change Help people, especially youth, act as global citizens with empathy, courage, and compas-sion; help people shift from being passive observers of global challenges to being actively engaged with them.

Targets by 2025: Double the number of young people who self-identify with, and act upon, these values; Generate 10 million hours of effort/year towards the Sustainable Develop-ment Goals.

The importance of dialogue

Workshop participants in Addis Ababa and Rio de Janeiro repeatedly affirmed the desire for more dialogue in their communities. A general consensus in both workshops was that there are very few public platforms, welcoming to so-called ‘normal people’, that support dialogue and conversation about important societal issues. Furthermore, participants indicated that dialogue, in and of itself, was a critically important need and that the mu-seum could be considered successful if it was able to create and sustain inclusive dia-logue among and between people and representatives of government, NGOs, the UN, and civil society. In Addis Ababa, the need for physical security around institutional buildings creates strong barriers to dialogue, literally and metaphorically. In Rio de Janeiro, the director of one urban design NGO told us, “My job is to get the people on one side of the square to talk to the people on the other side of the square, and the people on this square to talk to the people on the square two blocks away. They don’t know how to talk to each other, but they want to. It is so important.”


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FORCES THAT FRAME, SPARK, DRIVE, AND SUSTAIN THE STRATEGY It is hard to predict what, exactly, will provide the force and energy for the museum, what will capture the public’s imagination or create the magical elements that lift our efforts out of the mundane and into the realm of greatness, but in many ways all other aspects of the strategy are just there to establish the conditions necessary to attract and inspire the peo-ple who will find and activate these magical forces.

FRAME The work and values of the United Nations constitutes a body of concepts and information that is complex and daunting even for many experts, let alone members of the public.

The concept of a “museum” serves to make the complex work of the UN seem more approachable and relatable by framing people’s expectations for how they will encounter these ideas and how they can expect to participate. The frame of a museum gives people a starting point — an initial mental container in which they can imagine learning about and working on global challenges in a safe, welcoming, and constructive public setting.

SPARK Once context and expectations are framed, several factors provide the spark of energy, public interest, novelty, and notoriety that start the arrow moving.

Public installations or events that create curiosity and delight, such as festivals or installations of public art, can provide this spark, as can the museum acting as a convener that makes explicit invitations for people and institutions to gather and participate. Clear and unambiguous invitations, asks, are important, as is giving invitees a clear sense of what kinds of participation are possible, and how the museum will help people have successful and fulfilling experiences.

DRIVE The museum is driven forward by the passion and activity of participants interacting with content and each other, sharing their experiences and know-how, and participating on the museum’s three public platforms.

Seeing the presence and successful experiences of other participants can create an emotional force that draws people towards the museum and compels them to become participants and contributors as well.

Passion, sharing, and positivity — joy — are not forces that can be called up on command: they emerge spontaneously through genuine satisfaction in the pleasure and empowerment of audiences and partners.

SUSTAIN Content creation, engagement, and progress towards outcomes is sustained by five forces. • Trust — trust that the institution is a reliable

source of information, that it will act in the public’s best interest, and that it will help participants to reach their own personal goals

• Quality — confidence that the museum will provide unique content and experiences of the highest quality, along with evidence of the impact created through its efforts

• Belonging — a sense among participants that the museum belongs to them, is re-sponsive to their needs and wishes, and that they have a direct role in its ongoing suc-cess

• Satisfaction — the emotional satisfaction of ongoing learning and personal develop-ment; gratitude for accomplishments and positive experiences

• Permanence — confidence that the museum will be an enduring institution and will stand by its commitments and support its rela-tionship with the public over long periods of time


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CURATION AND PRODUCTION Curation has three major purposes: it is a generative act of content production; a process to help decide what content should be “in the museum” and what should not; and a lead-ership function through which the museum’s staff, partners, and participants become uni-fied in their direction and purpose. The museum may have as many types of curators as it has types of content, and many different kinds of people will serve as curators for the museum, including,

• Volunteers and members of our community who earn their authority through some combination of training or experience, the commitment to abide by written stand-ards and codes of conduct, or evidence of their personal commitment to the goals and values of the museum community.

• Contractors or collaborators from partner institutions who assume the authority for production and decision making through contracts and formal agreements

• Full time staff members who have earned their positions through training and work experience

Working together and deciding what is in and what is out The museum’s curators, working with staff, volunteers and advisory boards, will have re-sponsibility for choreographing content creation and audience engagement to advance the museum’s mission. This involves setting guidelines for content production and audi-ence interaction, and it also involves leadership and dialogue to ensure that content and participants are working together and all voices are heard and respected. Members of the public, broadly speaking, should be involved in curation and decision making to the great-est degree possible.

Curation and Production Guidelines Guideline 1: Leverage research to understand principles of effective engagement The museum will use, and generate, in-depth research when developing content to ensure that the museum’s content can achieve its intended results. Effectively engaging with par-ticipants effectively is a learning process that will require continuous revision as new re-search and findings emerge through our activities. Guideline 2: Observe the values of the United Nations The voice, content, and actions of the museum must conform to core values of the United Nations, such as respect for diversity, inclusivity, and impartiality. Guideline 3: Exercise care with sensitive topics In the case of culturally sensitive topics, curators and community members shall take ap-propriate action to ensure that communication and content is respectful of relevant groups, communities, or cultures. This can be done, in part, by ensuring that community members and experts are consulted at appropriate points of the content development process, and by utilizing the experience and diplomatic expertise of UN staff. See How should the museum deal with controversial content? in the section Special questions and notes.


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Guideline 4: Act in accordance with organizational role Staff can only make statement on behalf of the Museum for the United Nations if they are authorized to do so. No member of the museum’s staff or community can make state-ments, or appear to make statements, on behalf of the United Nations.

Content development roles The direction and priorities for content produc-tion will be determined by a central curatorial team in collaboration with staff, advisory boards, partners, and participants around the world. Partners will adapt central direction to the needs and priorities of their local communi-ties, and they will oversee the development of content by local community members. Varying degrees of autonomy will be granted to communities, individuals, and members of the museums network in accordance with guide-lines to be determined. Communities seeking to use the name and brand of the museum will be subject to a higher degree of oversight and su-pervision, while those engaged in uncontrover-sial activities that do not formally invoke the museum’s name and brand will be subject to less oversight and supervision.

Three tiers of responsibility The museum will take a three-tiered approach to the review and oversight of content

Tier 1 — highly regulated content This tier is reserved for activities that are the most strongly associated with the museum’s name, brand, and reputation. For example, permanent exhibitions in the main museum in Copenhagen. Activities in this tier will be the most controlled, with several levels of formal oversight by the museum’s full time curatorial, outside subject matter experts, and members of the public.

Tier 2 — moderately regulated content This tier is reserved for activities that are as-sociated with the museum’s name, but which are clearly either temporary; informal in nature; or are labeled, branded, or being presented under the authority of a 3rd party. For example, a poetry reading organized by a network partner in local community center in Africa. In this example, the museum’s full time curatorial staff may be involved in the overarching programming decisions (such as the theme of the poetry reading) to greater or lesser degrees, depending on

Existing efforts for the global goals

Many organizations use innovative ap-proaches to meet the Sustainable Devel-opment Goals. For example, MyWorld uses large scale data gathering to let millions of people be heard; the SDG Action Campaign creates awareness and action through worldwide engagements; and Regional Centers of Excellence bring organizations and people together to work for sustainable development. Given the number and diversity of active organizations and the pace of change in the field it is hard to generalize, but with that caveat several opportunities begin to emerge. Many small organizations seek more collaboration and networking, external validation, and greater visibility and scale; many large organizations seek greater agility and an increased capacity to develop and sustain rich community interactions; organizations of many types and sizes want to develop new kinds of content with, and for, more di-verse, global audiences; and almost all want to better utilize research to im-prove the impact of their work. We hypothesize that the Museum for the United Nations — UN Live can comple-ment the capabilities of existing organi-zations by acting as a trusted convener and “connector”; building and sharing expertise in research, cultural engage-ment, and online communities; and being a generous and outgoing partner with a wide variety of collaborators, including members of the public.


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the experience and reputation of the host institution and the degree to which the mu-seum’s brand will be in evidence.

Tier 3 — least regulated content This tier is reserved for content and activities that are “hosted” on the museums plat-forms but which are not checked in advance. For example, audience questions and comments at a live seminar in the museum’s auditorium, or interaction among partici-pants on the museum’s websites. In these examples, content and activities will be mon-itored by the museum’s staff, delegates, or volunteer moderators, but in general it will not be reviewed or edited in advance. For digital content, good user experience design — as well as codes of conduct, “reputation systems”, and automatic filters — will be used to minimize the impact of bad behavior and emphasize the impact of positive be-havior.

Research and public engagement Drawing on research disciplines such as cognitive science, sociology, anthropology, and behavioral economics, the museum will create and test models that explore.

• The conditions that support people working together on the UN SDG's and other UN-related initiatives

• The conditions that promote a sense of global citizenship, and how this varies across geographical regions and cultures

• The conditions that promote human creativity, problem-solving, and innovation (with emphasis on the role of active cross-cultural dialogue) and how this varies across cultures and geographical regions

The main goals of this research are to develop techniques that increase public engagement with global is-sues, and to help support construc-tive social change. The museum will actively share its research and methodologies to es-tablish transparency and accounta-bility for the impact of its work, and to create an environment that wel-comes and encourages new partici-pants to join the museum’s initia-tives.

Learning to curate content Training, supervision, and support are an important part of preparing people to curate and oversee content across all of the museum’s platforms and communi-ties. The museum’s full time staff will develop Training materials, and authority to adapt and customize training materials will be delegated to the museum’s partners who will then train and assume responsibility for their own moderators.

Research as a design tool and outcome

Given the scale and importance of the museum’s scope and the opportunity cost of its creation and operation, the museum needs to keep its activities focused on creating practical outcomes. To this end, research and data related to audience engagement and long-term outcomes are a critical tool. Very little is known about how the work of museums and other cultural institutions affects the long-term attitudes and behaviors of their visitors, despite an almost universal craving among institutions and their fun-ders and stakeholders for this knowledge. Content initiatives should be designed to both seek and use existing research, and to generate valuable research and data to advance the fields of cultural engage-ment and active global citizenship.


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SPECIAL QUESTIONS AND NOTES This section is a compendium of topics that require further development and/or don’t fit into the overarching narrative of the content strategy in its current state, but which none-theless need to be brought to the surface and acknowledged. This section can grow, shrink, and change as decisions are made and new questions arise, without requiring changes to the main body of the strategy.

How will the museum maintain its integrity and independence? As a global, mission-driven not-for-profit organization affiliated with the United Nations, it is paramount that the museum maintains a position of impeccable integrity and independ-ence. Consequently, the museum will create content and develop partnerships in ways that avoid undue influence by 3rd parties. In particular, the museum will take appropriate measures to avoid risks with regards to its strategic priorities, brand, and participants. Strategic priorities The museum will need to ensure that funding agreements and partnerships don’t restrict or otherwise hinder the ability of the museum to carry out its mission. Brand To protect the value and reputation of its brand, advertising or co-branding agreements between the museum and 3rd parties must be context appropriate and consider the fact that branding and sponsorship conventions considered innocuous in some locations, cul-tures, and audiences may be considered offensive in others. Protecting participants Protecting the privacy of the museum’s participants is paramount. Revenue models built upon the monetization of visitors’ personal information conflict with the museum’s mission and values. Similarly, research efforts conducted by the museum must abide by relevant guidelines for research institutions in the relevant subject matter areas.

How will the museum deal with controversial content? Institutions working with global challenges in the public sphere are likely to encounter con-troversial and inflammatory topics. How the institution handles these topics is, to some degree, a litmus test for how it sees its own role in society. One of the motivations behind the creation of the museum is the belief that the world needs a convener that can bring many different kinds of people together in a safe and trusted setting to talk about the issues that affect them and create a common vision for the future. Part of the concept of the museum is that in this era of “fake news”, shrill public discourse, and declining trust in public institutions, the museum should model (set an ex-ample for) a positive and constructive form of civic dialogue when few other conveners are willing or able to do so. The museum needs to be cognizant of regional and cultural differences and it should not go out of its way to look for controversy, but neither should it shy away from difficult sub-jects when it has an opportunity to model positive, constructive, and respectful civic dis-course.


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PRODUCTION ROADMAP

Summary of activities

Phase 1: Building capacity and finding friends

Digital presence: Establish digital presence by scanning for relevant content, communities, and individuals

Mini-grants: Small short-term grants to spark content creation and public engagement

Global/local events: Co-curation of 15 global/local events, e.g. Ignite talks, ’unconferences’, TEDx events, or exhibitions

Global challenge board: Convene a board that solicits input around a series of thematic questions from a diverse group of 100 or more individuals

Phase 2: Building value and forming bonds

Pop-up experimental space in Copenhagen: Production of small pop-up exhibitions in Co-penhagen as experiments and for engagement

Global pop-ups, hubs, and networks: Work with partners to produce museum-themed pop-up exhibitions worldwide

Traveling exhibitions: Traveling exhibitions created with or by partners, ranging in size from small shipping containers to major exhibition venues

Programming of main building: Planning of the main building in Copenhagen, to be informed by content, experiments, and input from communities

Phase 3: Local impact at global scale

Traveling exhibitions: Launch and distribution of the traveling exhibitions planned in Phase 2

Global Explorers: The Global Explorers fellowships featuring 15 inspirational individuals that exemplify core UN values is launched

Full launch: Phase 3 culminates with the opening of the physical museum in Copenhagen

The content development roadmap is divided into three, approximately 18-month long phases distinguished by a gradual progression from exploration and network building; to community development and value creation; to actively creating impact for individuals and local communities on a global scale.


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Content production will unfold primarily through a large number of scalable, “high-touch” (engaging, participatory, and personal), low-risk public programs that will guide content development; attract and solidify a network of individuals and organizations; and test and refine the museum’s value proposition in collaboration with real participants. Though this overall process will take many years, individual content projects will be devel-oped through fast, open, and participatory processes that emphasize experimentation and engagement across a broad spectrum of audiences and content types, platforms, subject matter, and geographic locations. At each step in the process, the museum aims to have a larger and more engaged audi-ence, a larger and more committed network of outstanding individuals and organizations, and a better sense of what kind of content and activities it should pursue based on the kinds of outcomes it has actually helped to create in the real world. All phases of the content development roadmap are built upon the conviction that the museum’s community will be its greatest asset, and that finding and energizing that com-munity — and allowing it to find and energize the museum in equal measure — will give the museum the confidence and clarity it needs to succeed over time.

PHASE 1: BUILDING CAPACITY AND FINDING FRIENDS This phase is a true startup phase in which the museum initiative transitions from a con-cept to a practice that creates content and engages with participants in meaningful ways. This phase is focused on building the processes and habits of audience engagement for the staff and partners of the museum; learning more about the interests, needs, and capa-bilities of people around the world; and testing the concept of the museum and the ideas of the content strategy with real participants. This phase should also help the museum to identify and recruit the most talented and eager collaborators from among our potential participants and networks.

PHASE 2: BUILDING VALUE AND FORMING BONDS During this phase, the museum continues the experimentation started in phase 1, and be-gins to deepen its investment and commitment to content and communities that demon-strate promise. Three new content formats begin to take shape during Phase 2. Each of the content areas will be fully integrated with the museum’s digital presence.

PHASE 3: LOCAL IMPACT AT GLOBAL SCALE Phase 3, scheduled to begin in 2021, is by necessity described at only a very high level.At the beginning of Phase 3, the museum team is at a point where it is deeply engaged in content development, collaboration, citizen engagement, and value creation on a global scale. The team has a broad and diverse network of participants, collaborators, and con-tributors and a pragmatic feel for creating successful, impactful content that is backed up by evidence and experience.


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CODA: HOW CAN WE SUCCEED? This document presents a sweeping vision for the content creation programs of the Muse-um for the United Nations — UN Live. We are optimistic about the road ahead, but we are also pragmatists who recognize that an institution doesn’t go from its first breaths to its fully realized form easily, or in one smooth step, particularly when the goals are ambitious and the scope is large. Creating societal impact through the use of participatory, bottom-up practices is a central feature of our vision, and early reviewers of this strategy have pointed out that while it is increasingly common for institutions to advocate for this direction, success has been elu-sive for most. How can we succeed where others have failed? The Museum for the United Nations has a distinct advantage as a new institution being built from scratch. Most museum institutions were established in the 19th – 20th centuries and they often carry with them a strong legacy culture that is difficult to change. In con-trast, the Museum for the United Nations is being purpose built, from the ground up, to be a participatory, bottom-up, impact-oriented organization at a global scale. The museum gets to set this direction, attract staff and empower a network, make partnerships, build platforms, create content, and generally pursue a course of action as a new organization with no legacy culture of its own to overcome. On a day-to-day perspective, to reduce the risk of failure and increase the chance of suc-cess, the content of the museum will be developed with a “think big, start small, move fast” methodology. In this approach, large objectives are broken down into many small experi-ments designed to test and refine ideas and concepts incrementally, in collaboration with the public, over time. These practices are commonplace in many industries (particularly in software development), but are not typically utilized in the cultural sphere. As with the adoption of participatory, bottom-up practices, the museum organization will be purpose built to support these agile production techniques. It is a well known axiom of business that most change initiatives fail. And while there is no universal recipe for success, two related factors seem to be present in change initiatives that do succeed. The first is a sense of urgency in which staff, leaders, and partners share a profound commitment to succeed. The second is having a big, clear, inspiring mission that attracts and motivates outstanding people. The tone and substance of this document is a clear reflection of the founding team’s commitment to build a community that will work with urgency towards far-reaching goals for the benefit of all of humanity. A final advantage — perhaps the most important of all — is conferred by the museum’s unique partnership with the United Nations. As a formal partner of the UN, and as a global museum dedicated to its work and values, “UN Live” has an extraordinary ability to attract and activate collaborators, supporters, and participants around the world.

content strategy (abridged) 2017 · content strategy v 01 ... some of the ideas in this strategy...

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