Wiki-Writing

One of the blogs that I subscribe to, Museum 2.0, is written by Nina Simon. She just published "The Participatory Museum", and while I can't wait to get my hands on a copy, her writing process has intrigued me. In her blog's March 24 post, she talked about the process by which she actually wrote the book. Rather than sending off select pieces to trusted critics, Simon put herself and her work out there and posted her rough drafts on a public wiki. Those that signed up were allowed to comment, and apparently did so quite constructively.

The idea of being so up front, open, and trusting with your work seems to me to be quite intimidating. Three cheers to Simon for being able to put herself out there and trust that the public would treat her fairly. From the sound of her blog, they did just that. I am glad to hear that, while so many were initially interested in helping her, the end result was a manageable number of participants. I think if I were to follower her lead, I would be worried about either getting no responses or about being so overwhelmed by them that I would be unable to give them all the proper amount of attention.

One of the biggest things that I noticed from Simon's post was not necessarily the technicality of the responses given, but the motivation and confidence that putting her work out in public gave her. It makes me wonder how many other people have had this same idea, and how many are in the museum field, as Simon is. Right now there is a lot of talk about finding ways to be more transparent, and in being more inclusive when it comes to the visiting public. Could writing museum material in public like she did be a way to do more of this? Would this format work for exhibit design, public programs or articles? Or does the format work better for something more long term, like a book? Would a pure history topic be more successful, especially if contribution requests were aimed at others interested in the topic? I am very curious to out for myself, and will have to think about it more as my thesis starts to come together. Maybe not for the thesis itself, but definitely for anything that comes later. I think it is a wonderful way to get a broad range of responses from what would otherwise be a narrow pool. Great work, Nina Simon, and thank you very, very much for sharing your process. I'm looking forward to reading your book!