TrendsWatch – Page 5 – American Alliance of Museums

It’s Personal: one size does not fit all

By Elizabeth Merritt

“At the forefront of these revolutionary possibilities is personalized medicine, which is the idea of precisely tailoring each person’s medical care to his or her own unique genetic makeup. In fact, if all goes as we envision, today’s …
The “Open” Economy: filling the data pipeline

By Elizabeth Merritt

“‘Open’ is already on track to supplant ‘participatory’ as buzzword of the year, with good reason. The proliferation of groups supporting and encouraging openness in the cultural/creative sector is impressive. Wikimedia, Creative Commons, …
Slooow: better a tortoise than a hare

By Elizabeth Merritt

“Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.”—Mae West In the past few decades, there’s been a growing awareness that while “fast” may look efficient, in the end it may not be effective. The Slow Movement, composed of distributed, …
Toward a Creative Ecosystem: Relationship Management, Access and a Culture of Invitation

By Elizabeth Merritt

In TrendsWatch 2015 I cite YBCA:You as an example of personalized museum services, one which integrates individualized curricula into a membership-based community engagement program. But (as with so many great museum programs) most of …
The Limits of Neutrality: A Message From The Natural History Museum

By Elizabeth Merritt

Today’s guest post, from the team at The Natural History Museum (including director Beka Economopoulos), illustrates one of the trends I discuss in TrendsWatch 2015, and touches upon another. In the chapter on “Ethical Everything,” on the …
Monday Musing: On Small Dead Things

By Elizabeth Merritt

15 minutes of top-of-my-head thoughts on a story featured in last week’s Dispatches from theFuture of Museums e-newsletter. One of the things that drove me out of graduate school (besides the dismal ROI of remaining for a PhD.) was the …
Crowdsourced Resources on Open Data

By Elizabeth Merritt

A lot of great folks joined me for last Friday’s Tweet chat on open data. Here’s a compilation of the resources, recommendations and questions shared by participants, to help you Find me on Twitter@futureofmuseums with your exploration of …
Visualizing the Future

By Elizabeth Merritt

As someone who reads a killing amount of text every week—news, blogs, email, journals, newspapers, reports, even (luxury of luxuries) books—I find switching over to nonverbal mode to be a sweet relief. Besides, other modalities (pictures, …
Monday Musing: TrendsWatch Watch

By Elizabeth Merritt

Here’s a quick roundup of recent stories related to the themes in TrendsWatch 2015 (Haven’t got your copy yet? Download the free PDF here. Print copies will be available in the AAM Bookstore soon.) Open Data Here’s a story I featured in …
Finally Beyond the Hype? Simulcasting Experiences and Virtual Reality

By Elizabeth Merritt

I hope you’ve had a chance to look at TrendsWatch 2015 (download your copy here.) In coming months, a host of guest bloggers will explore each theme in more depth. First up, CFM Council member Garry Golden, a professional futurist who …