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Fostering Innovation part 3: focusing on diffusion
In the introduction to this series I shared my working definition of “innovation,” and in part two I shared observations on Who are the Museum Innovators based on the Alliance’s experience with Innovation Lab for Museums. In that post, I … -
As Goes Kansas, So Goes the Nation?
Every time I travel, I come back with new perspectives to bring to bear on my forecasting. Case in point—last week I was speaking at the Kansas Museums Association Meeting, and in the course of prepping for the talk and schmoozing with … -
Engaging with a “Director of Audience Engagement”
Earlier this month I blogged about Museum Jobs that Didn’t Exist in 2003, and what they tell us about the evolution of our field. Evidently the essay hit a nerve, as it quickly became one of the most read CFM posts ever, (about 5000 page … -
How to Staff the Future
I’ve been spouting off for years about how museums need to change the way they recruit, select and train staff. Why? Because Museums say they want a more diverse workforce, but the major pipeline for future professional staff—museum … -
Inventing the Surveillance Society
When Eric Hintz called to ask if I would speak on a symposium about “surveillance,” I thought at first he had my number confused with the NSA. Eric is an historian with the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and … -
Who Makes the Best Advocate for the Future of Museum Funding?
Good futures scanning should include all the STEEP categories. As I’ve confessed before, I sometimes have trouble with the P—political/policy trends. Today, Gail Ravnitzky Silberglied, the Alliance’s vice president of government relations … -
Fostering Innovation Part 2: Who are the Museum Innovators?
You can read part one of this series here. Lately, I’m taking inspiration from a researcher in the ‘60’s: Everett Rogers, and his book “Diffusion of Innovations.” (Hat tip to Richard Evans of EmcArtsfor bringing Rogers to my attention.) … -
Reflections on a MOOC: One Museum Educator’s Journey in the Unknown
From the moment I read that MoMA was launching the first museum MOOC, I wanted to cover it on the Blog. And not just because “MoMA MOOC” is so fun to say—these huge, virtual courses are a hotbed of experimentation, with some hailing the … -
Futurist Friday: Artifacts of the Future
What artifacts will history museums of the future collect, and how will we interpret them? Scenarios—fictional stories of potential futures—can help us imagine how we would adapt to alternative outcomes. Often scenarios can be found in … -
Fostering Innovation: Part 1
One of CFM’s assignments is to encourage museums to innovate, the logic being that if the future is going to be significantly different from the present, museums are going to have to adopt new ways of operating. It’s particularly important …
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