…what used to be a “mere” collection will be an embedded part of countless webs of knowledge that in turn add value to one another
David Weinberger
The Smithsonian Commons project is a new initiative and forms part of the digital presence of the Smithsonian Institution dedicated to stimulating learning, creation, and innovation through open access to Smithsonian research, collections and communities. We have invited Michael Edson, Director of Web and New Media Strategy at the Smithsonian to talk about Smithsonian Commons, focusing primarily on using analytics to drive the project forward. He will do so at the web content management track in a session focused on measurement.
Smithsonian Commons is a very ambitious project that derives from the Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy. The project has sparked the interest of Internet luminaries like David Weinberger on the O’Reilly Radar blog as well as beyond the US. In his talk called Jedi Mind Tricks for Measuring Audacious Goals, Michael will answer these 2 questions:
- How do you use metrics to measure progress towards a huge goal
- How do you use data to enable decision makers to understand where we are, where we are headed and where we need to get to
For more details on the talk and measuring towards lofty goals, see this brief video from Michael in Washington DC:
At the moment you can access a Smithsonian Commons Prototype and see 4 different videos on how the Commons project will impact visitors, teachers and others. In a related talk given at the e-Metrics Summit 6 months ago, Michael listed these as his Top 10 Jedi Mind tricks for Measuring and Optimizing Lofty Goals
- Show your users to management
- Use organic search and Alexa
- Humble youself with brandtags.net
- Highlight your competitors
- Use 3rd party research
- Demonstrable feedback from users
- Show validation from VIP’s
- Measure end-user satisfaction
- Bake measurement into the platform from the start
- Measurement is only one piece of the equation
