It’s a good angle for a story, but there’s no doubt that a lot got left out. You’re right in suggesting that perhaps the best use of blogs by museums is when they help provoke discussion and to facilitate conversation. David did mention an example from Science Buzz, a discussion concerning the Body Worlds exhibit. What makes that example interesting was the heated discussion that took place. The fact that it touched on political and religious issues simply puts it in the context of the real world.
You stated that the, “less control museums attempt to exert over discussions versus contributing to those discussions in provocative, productive ways, the better. That’s the place to try to maintain integrity of content, context etc., not through censorship…”

I agree but I wonder, can science centers handle the heat? Certainly Ontario Science Centre and the Science Museum of Minnesota can, but there must be other reasons why so few science centers are exploring this medium?

Picking up on Lisa’s comment, I find the phrase ‘hovering over every word’ a curious one to use at all in describing museum blogs. Isn’t the whole idea of any blog that we all get the chance to collectively ‘hover over every word’? Isn’t that the point? Of course, what’s really being agonized over is the whole notion of control. For me, the less control museums attempt to exert over discussions versus contributing to those discussions in provocative ,productive ways, the better. That’s the place to try to maintain integrity of content, context etc., not through censorship…

I talked with David Ng for more than hour about RedshiftNow and the Science Centre’s experience in general in moderating public discussions, but I think he decided that we didn’t fit the technical definition of ‘blog’ well enough to include in his piece. No matter - the story did an excellent job of examining the issues. Finally, one update to http://www.redshiftnow.ca/ - our field diaries have become a ‘true’ blog with a new comment function that allows researchers in the field to respond to questions and comments from online visitors.

I’m suprised the article didn’t mention the Walker Blog Guidelines which provide a framework for staff members who blog.

I think where more open discussion could occur (and perhaps where it might be more useful) is in visitor’s comments. We certainly see that with Science Buzz and Red Shift Now. I think that this area might be of more concern to institutions. Yet, I think museums need to be more open to public comment.

One thing I’d like to mention is that even if a museum blogger doesn’t write directly for their museum, they may still have a museum (or two) “hovering over their every word”. With my blog I am reluctant to be too critical of the organisations I work for, unless I had their permission.