Lively Museum
- An Educational Perspective

May 15, 2014

Sending and exchanging favorites from the museum using SNS

Takehiro Hosokawa, Historical Village of Hokkaido

Social networking services (SNS) have been increasingly used to publicize information about museum exhibits and events. Here we introduce an educational initiative with a new tool, using SNS so that university students can share their fun museum experiences.

As the name suggests, the historical village of Hokkaido recreates the buildings built between 1868 and early 1930s, when Hokkaido was undergoing rapid development. An outdoor museum showcases life and the industry at the time, and many visitors have learned and experienced the changes people experienced as their world underwent modernization. It has been 30 years since the historical village first opened, and the generation that enjoyed an experiential link to the exhibit materials has dwindled. In order to stay relevant with the current generation, a new perspective and method of information exchange was required.

This project uses the camera function on smartphones and the social media site Facebook, which boasts a large number of users. The premise is for users to find their favorite scene in the historical village and share the scene with others on Facebook by creating captioned photographs. These "posters" can be seen on the Facebook page for the historical village, and users can comment on their experiences and share their perspectives. The conventional museum experience ends in a self-contained activity such as "I went to the museum" or "I saw an exhibit"; however, with this tool, users can make a link between seeing the exhibit, being interested in the information, understanding it, and finally sharing it. Exhibit materials that users may have passed by in the past now take on a new personal perspective. This non-intrusive mechanism is the key to making this project work.

Finally, because these are posted on the historical village Facebook page, the spread of information is not subject to the same limitations as the "Like" function or image sharing capabilities of individual users. That is, these posts can be accessed by anyone, including non-Facebook users, and not just the friends of the users who post the images. Futhermore, corrections can be made and additions to the information in the posts, so that the poster has a chance to be educated as well as enjoy the reactions of others reading the post.

Of course, this allows a great variety of information regarding what the public considers to be attractive about any given museum, and could be useful in supporting new guided tour routes for museums with permanent collections. Although word-of-mouth is an important method of promotion, it is difficult to implement as an effective promotional tool. This service visualizes the word-of-mouth promotion, which may prove to be a highly versatile tool.

Indeed, we've heard from students that the posts of fellow museum-goers inspired them or piqued their interest in other exhibits, leading to an increase in motivation to enjoy the museum experience.

Although this project is still in the testing phase, we hope that this service (and our Facebook page) will become a hub for users, the village staff, and information seekers, through a tool that can be customized so that it is easier to use and enables users to share the wonders of the museum. We hope that your next visit to the museum is meaningful for you!