THE NATIONALGALLERY

Podcasts, Info-evolution and the Silent Visitor

A “patchwork” presentation by Elena Lagoudi, Head of Information

22 April 2008

PART ONE: THE NATIONAL GALLERY PODCAST

• 18 months and growing• What is it? How does it work?• Who uses it?• What is the best use of this medium?• Is a podcast just an audio tour in a new guise?• If not, how it differs?• How does in enhance our museum communications?• What are the institution-wide challenges of launching a new

and unfamiliar means of delivering content?• What are the threats and opportunities?

PART TWO: AUDIO INTERPRETATION

• What about audio guides?• Our audio interpretation strategy• The SKIM-SWIM-DIVE approach for content development• Interpretative harmony• Ambitions

PART FOUR: WHAT IS NEW ?MUSEUMS AND THE WEB 2008

Museums and the Web conference, April 2008, Montreal, Canada:

What do museum’s “digeratti” say?

PART THREE: NEW TRENDS IN INFORMATION USE, PLANNING AND DELIVERY

• But how do “they” search us?• The changing face of information• Internet and the personalised research• Folksonomy and social-tagging: do they have anything to do

with us?• The 21st century freedom of “search”: The Google factor• Subject indexing v. social indexing: from libraries to IDEA

STORES• The gallery of the mind• On site v on line behaviours: do they connect?

PART FIVE: OUTREACH AND VISITOR STUDIES

• Innovative research about non-native visitors• Cultural contextualising • The AHRC funded University of Westminster research

collaboration• Cultural repatriation of our pictures and the interpretative

challenge

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

• The risk factor• Your feedback?

Your involvement so far…

Insert image caption here

iPod + broadcasting= podcasting

Creators’website

Subscribers’ mobile device

The podcasting revolution

Internet’s pirate radio?

Birth of Museum Podcasts-May 2005- Marymount Manhattan College

“The platform is already out there, in our bags, our coat pockets, on our belts … [W]e have a seamless system for delivering any sort of homemade audio content we want. In a sentence, we are democratizing the experience of touring an art museum” (Gilbert, 2005)

Podcasts v Audio Guides

Podcasts on MP3 players

Website downloads

Audio tours

Content

The National Gallery Podcast is born…

Considerations

Format, tone, feel, audience

Voice, sonic signature, ident, brand, metadata

Marketing, distribution

Content planning process, sign off process

Photography, copyright, shelf life

Hosting, production sharing

From launch to now

What did they say?

Great! I loved it. It brings your

beautiful museum closer to

me. Please produce more. All

the best. JV

Brilliant! Great to see the paintings in iTunes whilst

listening. Looking forward to more -

to use before visits to gallery.

Thanks

Cut the plug for the restaurant. We want to hear about the

art not the food.

A brilliant and uplifting idea,

good to spread the news to a

wide audience.

Fantastic - you're really hit the nail on the head. Podcast is a perfect medium for this sort of thing - please consider making exhibition guides in a similar format either free of charge or at a price. I promise to be a regular customer!

Really like this ,its very good for art students

…and moreIt's marvellous!

Episode five enhanced: really excellent. Not too long, not too short. Informative and concise. As a painter who works out of doors, I found the Jon Hall piece particularly enjoyable, and I've booked to go to Renoir Landscapes tomorrow. Overall, a really useful adjunct to the National's communications with its public.

Great, loved the pictures!

Wish I lived in London to visit

more often, perhaps a

weekend break is in order!

we live in dublin

It is very interesting to listen from NG in Omsk, Russia!

Nice collections

of rare paintings

Pod-Wars

iTunes

Researching our podcast users

Where did they hear about us?

National Gallery website

National Gallery enews

iTunes

Other website

Press coverage

Word of mouth

Can't remember/don'tknow

After listening to the podcast do they feel:

0

5

10

15

20

25

A lotmore

positive:

Slightlymore

positive:

Slightlymore

negative:

A lotmore

negative:

After listening to it, how likely or unlikely they are to visit the gallery:

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Certainto:

Fairlylikely:

Fairlyunlikely:

Certainnot to:

The content question: which features did they enjoy the most?

Exhibition features

Permanent collection focusfeatures

Features on educationalevents in the gallery

Collaborations w ith creatives(ie poets, artists etc)

Behind-the-scenes features(eg conservation, the galleryat night)

Celebrating nationwideevents (eg Refugee Week,Black History Month)

Some specific comments on content:

Discussions with curators and other NG

staff are by far the most interesting and

inspiring

…background info e.g. this month about

Indigo

they are often too serious, too intense, too precious.....they

should relax

Would they be interested in:

Exhibition audio guides

Lectures and talks

Special series of podcasts on one

discipline Art history features

Features on one specific artist

Genre guides

Art history features (eg themes,techniques, interpretation)

Features on one specific artist (egTitian, Monet, Van Gogh)

Genre guides (eg Guide toImpressionism)

Lectures and talks (egdownloadable versions of the regularprogrammed Gallery lectures)

Exhibition audio guides

Special series of podcasts on onediscipline (eg conservation,scientific, art handling, exhibitionsdelivery etc)

And some demographics:

25-34:

35-44:

45-54:

55-64:65+: 18-24:under 18: under 18:

18-24:

25-34:

35-44:

45-54:

55-64:

65+:

Where do they live?

0 5 10 15 20

UK:

- Scotland:

- Czech Republic:

- Holland:

- Poland:

- Sw itzerland:

- USA:

- Other Asia:

- Other (please specify):

And finally general comments:I've enjoyed my visits using the

podcasts. Thank you for that.

I wish you could issue your podcast in Portuguese so my family and friends that do not understand English could also

enjoy it.

I live abroad and always listen as I am so far away

from my favourite gallery and feel in touch through this

podcastIt's a well

structured podcast which I find interesting.

BLUETOOTH You should make these available in the gallery by bluetooth

even better if each picture had an audio guide

available by bluetooth AT/IN FRONT of the

picture - anyone with a mobile phone could get it.

YES I know this would cost BUT you don't have to do it for every picture -

the highlights say .It is good to see the NG

keeping up with information technology by using podcasts. They are thoroughly lovely in every

way!

The National Gallery Podcast

really is an excellent service and has become

a highlight of each new month.

Whilst being in Australia

obviously limits the frequency

with which I can travel to the Gallery; the

podcast allows me a thoroughly enjoyable and

educational visit. Its great and informative

Current thinking on content development: the Skim Swim Dive approach

Skim Swim Dive

Last year:

The National Gallery Podcast

Be Inspired Tour

Highlights in Chinese

Highlights in Russian

Teach your grown-ups about art

Be Inspired Podcast

Grand Tour Podcasts

This year:

The National Gallery Podcast

Highlights in Korean/Greek/Polish?

The Director’s Tour?

The Director’s Tour family version?

More podcasts?

Audio Tours for sale/content repurposing?

Towards an audio interpretation strategy

Current trends: Museums and the Web 2008, Montreal

What do the “digeratti” say?

Something like this:

Folksonomy

Folksonomy (also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging) is the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content. In contrast to traditional subject indexing, metadata is generated not only by experts but also by creators and consumers of the content. Usually, freely chosen keywords are used instead of a controlled vocabulary.

Info-evolution or Info-revolution?

Time for innovation and intellectual repatriation

The risk factor

Questions?

Thank you