Past Thinking » museum

Google plans to digitise the Iraq National Museum’s collections

Tom Goskar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:36:39 +0000

Putting aside any cynicism about publicity stunts, it is interesting to see Google announce that they are ‘digitising’ the collections of the National Museum of Iraq.

The story on Reuters claims that 14,000 photos of the artefacts will be published online in early 2010.

“I can think of no better use of our time and our resources to make the images and ideas from your civilization, from the very beginning of time, available to a billion people worldwide,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at a news conference at the Baghdad museum.

“Most American companies are not yet operating in Iraq, and we would like to show that it’s possible to do business in Iraq, that Iraq is an important market that will grow quickly, that it’s sufficiently stable,” he added.

Ah, so the latter quote shows some of the politics involved, but recording, cataloguing and making freely available such an important collection is surely a good thing.

The questions that arise from this news are numerous, and, just to add to the speculation, ReadWriteWeb quote Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt as saying that there will be “a few surprises“.

Will Google be releasing the raw data? Will it be structured? Are Google going to release a collections management system? Will they work closely with other museums?

Definitely one to watch.

A new home for the Museum of Computing

Tom Goskar — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:36:27 +0000

The UK’s Museum of Computing has secured new premises situated in Swindon’s town centre. Thanks to a 3 year lease donated by Swindon Borough Council, the museum is due to re-open in July.

Read more about the Museum of Computing reopening on Culture24 or their own press release for more background on the museum.

Friday 23rd May 2009 – We are delighted to announce that the Museum will be reopening in July 2009 in Swindon town centre. Our volunteers are now hard at working transforming what was previously retail units into one of the most exciting and original venues in Swindon. The museum will be located at 6-7 Theatre Square, an section of the town that has been designated a cultural area in Swindons regeneration plan. We are very grateful to Swindon Borough Council for making these premises available and to all the people who have worked so hard to make this happen.

Exhibition reviews on Creative Spaces

Tehmina Goskar — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:01:40 +0000

I thought about using Past Thinking as the place for exhibition and book reviews on museumy subjects that interest me, but instead I would like to contribute to content creation on Creative Spaces (National Museums Online Learning Project) particularly when the reviews related to items in the nine museum collections it hosts.

I have recently contributed two reviews, and added them to two groups I run. The first is a short response to Shah ‘Abbas at the British Museum and the second is in response to Byzantium at the Royal Academy.

Read response to Shah Abbas in the Iran and Persian Culture group.

Read response to Byzantium in the Medieval and Byzantine Objects group.

Please note: For some reason my paragraphing is not preserved and so the Byzantium review might be a little hard-going. If you happen to read it and would prefer to read it in a more sensible format, please leave a comment here, or on Creative Spaces.