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

Authors

  • Kalliopi Fouseki UCL Centre for Sustainable Heritage
  • Kalliopi Vacharopoulou Independent Researcher

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5334/jcms.1021209

Keywords:

digital heritage, Wikipedia, ethics, access, participation

Abstract

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.

Author Biography

Kalliopi Fouseki, UCL Centre for Sustainable Heritage

I am a Lecturer at the Centre for Sustainable Heritage and Course director for the MSc Sustainable Heritage. After the completion of my first degree in Archaeology and Art History at the National Kapoditrian University in Athens, Greece, I completed a MA in Cultural Heritage Studies and a PhD in Heritage Management at University College London, both funded by the Greek State Scholarship Foundation. My doctoral research entitled ‘Conflict Resolution in the Management of In-Situ Museums’ adopted an innovative interdisciplinary approach merging negotiation theories with the heritage management field in the case of in-situ museums, modern structures that enclose in situ conserved archaeological remains. The completion of the thesis was followed by research collaboration at University of York where I investigated, as part of the 1807 Commemorated project team (a project funded by AHRC), the ways in which visitors to exhibitions, commemorating the abolition of the slave trade in the UK, engaged or disengaged from the history of enslavement. During this project I developed an interest in the role of heritage in social inclusion as well as in models of community engagement in the heritage sector. This led me to work as the New Audience Advocate at the Audience Research and Advocacy Unit of the Science Museum. Other research projects that I have initiated include an anthropological study on the declining Greek island of Antikythera regarding local perceptions towards the archaeological site known as ‘The Castle’ and a nationwide survey in Greece exploring the barriers that prevent Greeks from visiting museums and archaeological sites. The projects were funded by the Greek State Scholarship Foundation and the Initiative for Heritage Conservancy respectively. I have also worked in several museums as archaeologist and curator including the New Acropolis Museum in Athens, the archaeological museum in Ancient Olympia and the Museum of London.


My research interests combine the fields of museology, cultural heritage, anthropology, reception studies, heritage management and public archaeology. My expertise lies in the areas of negotiation theories and conflict management in the heritage sector, value-led heritage management, community engagement and participatory planning models, audience development, and the application of qualitative and quantitative research methods to heritage studies.


I have published in a diverse range of journals and edited books and I have co-authored the book Representing Enslavement and Abolition: Ambiguous Engagements published by Routledge.

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Published

2013-12-12

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2013)

Section

Research Article

Categories

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