Digital Museum Collections and Social Media: Ethical Considerations of Ownership and Use

<p class="p1">This paper examines the role of digital collections and digital information in the democratisation process of museums. The paper focuses on ethical and ownership issues regarding Wikipedia’s online encyclopaedia initiative to widen access to digital images and knowledge...

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Main Authors: Kalliopi Fouseki, Kalliopi Vacharopoulou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Ubiquity Press 2013-12-01
Series:Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.jcms-journal.com/articles/79
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spelling doaj-12ca26320129453fb94bdca4c66b2f912020-11-24T23:16:19ZengUbiquity PressJournal of Conservation and Museum Studies2049-45721364-04292013-12-0111110.5334/jcms.102120958Digital Museum Collections and Social Media: Ethical Considerations of Ownership and UseKalliopi Fouseki0Kalliopi Vacharopoulou1UCL Centre for Sustainable HeritageIndependent Researcher<p class="p1">This paper examines the role of digital collections and digital information in the democratisation process of museums. The paper focuses on ethical and ownership issues regarding Wikipedia’s online encyclopaedia initiative to widen access to digital images and knowledge through digital media, for the wider public. The paper draws on three cases of national museums in the UK, namely the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. The paper argues that notions of governmentality, power, authority, and control - which traditionally characterise national museums - are still dominant in digital collections. This occasionally results in tensions that revolve around the issue of ownership of digital images and digital museum objects as well as their commercial and non-commercial uses. The paper shows that recent disputes and discourse related to the use of digital images by Wikipedians (active users of Wikipedia) have raised issues of authority and control not only of physical objects but also of the information and knowledge related to these objects. The paper demonstrates that the level of collaboration with Wikipedia reflects to some extent the participatory nature, philosophy, and ideology of each museum institution.http://www.jcms-journal.com/articles/79digital heritage, Wikipedia, ethics, access, participation
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Kalliopi Fouseki
Kalliopi Vacharopoulou
spellingShingle Kalliopi Fouseki
Kalliopi Vacharopoulou
Digital Museum Collections and Social Media: Ethical Considerations of Ownership and Use
Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies
digital heritage, Wikipedia, ethics, access, participation
author_facet Kalliopi Fouseki
Kalliopi Vacharopoulou
author_sort Kalliopi Fouseki
title Digital Museum Collections and Social Media: Ethical Considerations of Ownership and Use
title_short Digital Museum Collections and Social Media: Ethical Considerations of Ownership and Use
title_full Digital Museum Collections and Social Media: Ethical Considerations of Ownership and Use
title_fullStr Digital Museum Collections and Social Media: Ethical Considerations of Ownership and Use
title_full_unstemmed Digital Museum Collections and Social Media: Ethical Considerations of Ownership and Use
title_sort digital museum collections and social media: ethical considerations of ownership and use
publisher Ubiquity Press
series Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies
issn 2049-4572
1364-0429
publishDate 2013-12-01
description <p class="p1">This paper examines the role of digital collections and digital information in the democratisation process of museums. The paper focuses on ethical and ownership issues regarding Wikipedia’s online encyclopaedia initiative to widen access to digital images and knowledge through digital media, for the wider public. The paper draws on three cases of national museums in the UK, namely the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. The paper argues that notions of governmentality, power, authority, and control - which traditionally characterise national museums - are still dominant in digital collections. This occasionally results in tensions that revolve around the issue of ownership of digital images and digital museum objects as well as their commercial and non-commercial uses. The paper shows that recent disputes and discourse related to the use of digital images by Wikipedians (active users of Wikipedia) have raised issues of authority and control not only of physical objects but also of the information and knowledge related to these objects. The paper demonstrates that the level of collaboration with Wikipedia reflects to some extent the participatory nature, philosophy, and ideology of each museum institution.
topic digital heritage, Wikipedia, ethics, access, participation
url http://www.jcms-journal.com/articles/79
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