Museums, by their very nature, are often thought of as being places where people go to discover, reflect on and learn more about things of the past. Even museums that are focussed on modern times or even the future tend to impart knowledge of the way things are through the use of artifacts. So onlookers tend not to think of them as places of technological innovation. But in their bid to attract ever-greater audiences to their exhibitions, museums are constantly striving to create ever-greater installations for said exhibitions to instigate the 'wow' factor that will get visitors talking about (and, equally as importantly, recommending) what they've seen. Given that one of the central remits of a museum is to educate and inform the masses, bringing in the audiences is vital to their mission statement. And so it is that in their drive to create more revolutionary exhibits, museums often become incubation units for rapid changes in technology. The irony of this is that visitors having an enjoyable, easy and relaxing experience is so integral to museums that the technology needs to be implemented in a smooth and efficient way. So much so in fact that it mostly goes unnoticed. It's such a fluid experience that the technological innovation happening under a visitor's very nose is more often than not completely under-appreciated.

For me, Shelley Bernstein from the Brooklyn Museum was a highlight speaker in this early session. Shelley spoke about the agile and creative online projects that the small team at the Brooklyn Museum are creating to attract new audiences.

[This is the third in a series of articles about the theory of engagement. We believe that engagement is the key to success in the world of Web 2.0/Media 2.0. Here is a link to the first article.

If engagement is the key to the Web 2.0 (and Media 2.0) world - and that's what we believe - then what are the implications ? What are the rules of this new world ?

Reviewing our own experience (over twenty years and hundreds of projects) and what we know of the industry at large, we have developed a proposal: four rules for success in the world of Web 2.0 and Media 2.0.

Our four proposed rules are as follows :-

1.

Cogapp has been working with interactive media for twenty years, what have we been doing all this time? What have we been doing for our clients? And what more can we do now? How should we respond as an organisation? And how can we help others to respond?

MySpace is signing up 250,000 new users daily - March 2006 [source]