Words That Capture Visitor Participation
- By Jenny Parker
- February 3, 2009
Words are powerful things: they can at once convey the essence of something or make a subject seem more obtuse than necessary. Take the term “visitor-contributed content”, for example; it’s just one of the terms we use to refer to museum projects that invite visitors to contribute their voices to an online exhibit or collection. Sometimes we just call it “VCC”, but there are other terms for capturing these types of projects, among them, “visitor narratives” and “community-creation.”
The genesis for “visitor-contributed content” came from the Web 2.0 term “user-contributed content.” While “visitor” helps museums distinguish their audiences, the term as a whole can sound awkward. In an effort to more effectively represent the meaning of this new surge of participatory curation, Nina Simon offers “visitor co-creation” and “visitor-curated” to capture how visitor participation can not only be generated in response to an exhibit but actually help create the exhibit itself.
I recently came across the term “Generation Curator” at Jim Richardson’s museum branding blog and thought it was a great way to portray how museum audiences have radically changed what they expect from their museum-going experience.
Visitor-contributed content. Visitor co-creation. Visitor-curated. Generation Curator. All are useful terms for talking about how museums can make visitors an active and creative part of the museum experience. How are you using these terms in your organization? What other terms are out there? Is there one you like the best?
Image Courtesy of Udge, “The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart is refurbishing and re-hanging the west wing (the Alte Galerie)”
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