Possibly the fastest-growing social media network right now, Pinterest is essentially a digital bulletin board; you share things (pictures, links, videos, etc.) that are labeled with a category so people can search for postings based on interest. In the Pinterest world, the term "pin" is both a noun and a verb; "pinning" refers to the act of posting something, and a "pin" is the item that has been posted. You can "re-pin" other people's postings, as well as "liking" them (such as you do on Facebook). You create "boards" that you pin things to, and the boards can have a certain theme or they may just be a mish-mash of things you find interesting.
Much like Twitter, you can "follow" other users, or you can choose to follow only some of their boards. Right now, in order to join Pinterest you have to go on the wait list for a few days or be invited by an existing member, but I imagine that will probably go away soon (like Gmail did after the beta-test phase). I recently created my own Pinterest page to see what it's all about.
My verdict: there is some really cool stuff being shared, and there aren't enough hours in the day to browse it all! Part of the reason I can get Wikipedia-style lost in the pins is that the "search" feature of Pinterest is very inconsistent. I have found I'm better off finding things I like by clicking to people who have re-pinned items of interest to me, rathern than by typing into the search box (although I still do that too).
Recently, this article was published about the copyright risk of Pinterest, and I do not know the current status of that debate. However, pinning things that you have complete ownership over does not appear to pose a legal risk, as long as you understand that (like the rest of the internet) you're putting your work into the Creative Commons world and are giving your implied consent to have those things be re-pinned and/or used by the public. Of course, that kind of open sharing seems to be the exact goal of Pinterest's creators.
Quite a few museums are already active on Pinterest and are using the service to showcase their collections, list items from the museum shop, present albums of their beautiful facilities, and get input from visitors. One should be aware, as Jenni Fuchs points out, that the etiquette guidelines of Pinterest include a suggestion that you "not use Pinterest purely for self-promotion." As such, museums would do well to create boards that go beyond showcasing and into the realm of something more far-reaching. Audience input is certainly a first step down that path; the SFMOMA has often tweeted to ask their followers what the theme of their next Pinterest board should be!
Given the museum profession's shift of focus onto the audience, and the description of Pinterest as "curating what you love," it would be interesting to see a museum organize a "citizen curator collection" through Pinterest. It is possible to set up a board with multiple contributors, so a museum could start a board and ask its visitors to post things that are related (the theme, or themes, could be decided by the visitors as well!). It would be like a digital, graphic oral-history project. The Center for the Future of Museums already had a collaborative inspirations board where people are pinning their visions of how museums will be in the future (you can request to become a contributor, see the CFM blog for details).
One good example of a museum on Pinterest is the National Museum of Natural History, which has an entire board of podcasts, collections of "science things we like," images of current and past exhibits, images from Tweetups, and citizen science projects. While more of their pins relate to the museum's collections and facilities, the contributions of the audience are represented as well.
Another museum that is continually growing its Pinterest presence is the Children's Museum in Easton, Massachusetts. Since collections are not the focus of what they do, the museum's 8 Pinterest boards include things like craft ideas, activities for parents to do with their children, and book suggestions, in addition to pictures of events and programs at the museum.
As a museum educator who has spent countless hours looking for ideas and developing activities, I find it very encouraging to know that there is a simple way to share (and find!) those kinds of things with categories to help narrow them down. Perhaps in the future the "search" function will get smoother, although I'm beginning to think that having more options for categorizing and tagging pins will be the first step in streamlining search results.
For more reading, Greg Landgraf has a great listing of some other museums that are using Pinterest, and the CFM Blog has a great write-up of the crossover between Pinterest and museums. There's also this great New York Times article about Pinterest as it relates to small businesses, and I think it applies to museums and non-profits as well. This blog is also full of great examples and other social media information for non-profits, and this primer has five links to good sources for further information.
I could try to describe Historypin, but this video does it best:
In this case, "pinning" refers to attaching a photograph, video or audio file to a specific location on the map. It is similar to Pinterest's use of the word, but is based on location rather than category.
While Pinterest seems to focus on collecting and organizing what is now, Historypin seems to be doing the same thing with what has been. It's a worldwide oral history project on steroids. How could museums use it? I can think of a number of ways.
First, it's a source. Historic photographs are great for setting the scene of an exhibit and can be good tools in conducting research for a living-history or similar program. Along with that, it connects you to the people who posted those photographs, who can then become resources and collaborators with the museum.
Second, it's a medium for creating a simple online exhibition. Let's say a historic house museum wants to create a timeline of photographs showing its building, and the neighborhood, as they have evolved and changed. The museum puts out a call for photographs from their visitors and community members, those people contact their relatives and friends, they go searching through their grandmothers' scrapbooks, and chances are some of those people will find pictures and stories that fit the bill. This crowd-sourced exhibition of pictures (and stories) can enrich the museum's portrayal of their own background, as well as that of their community.
Along those lines, Historypin recently added the feature of "channels", similar to YouTube channels, which allow the user to collect all of their postings in one place. The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia and the Missouri History Museum are two examples of how this can be done.
Third, it's a way to disseminate knowledge. Most museums have at least some photographs or prints in their collections; that treasure trove of captured moments could be shared with the world (including people who may never be able to walk through the museum's doors). Museums are highly trusted by the public as sources of accurate and reliable information. Who better to help contribute to this worldwide visual history project? The Brooklyn Museum has already done this with great success. Imagine if even half of the museums, historical societies and cultural organizations posted just a few of their pictures from the past; what a richly-illustrated history we would start to see!
Fourth, it's a way to make history real, especially for people who prefer interactive or multi-sensory learning. It's one thing to look at a black-and-white photograph from your hometown and think, "wow, that looks old." It's a totally different experience (at least for me) to see it juxtaposed over the real, street-level view that you know and grew up around. I just did a search for my hometown (Livermore, CA) and found a picture of the Carnegie Library just before it was finished in 1911.
I've always known that building was historic and beautiful, and I drove past it a lot because my family's church was across the street. But there's something magical about seeing the old photograph held up against the building that I am so familiar with. It makes me feel as though everything that has been before is still lingering in the air around us, we just don't always get to see it.
(Perhaps I'm a bit of a romantic... anyway, off-topic.)
A museum could make use of the "history coming alive" effect in a number of ways, perhaps by linking to Historypin from their website, or including computer consoles of interactive Historypin maps within exhibits. Also, while most of what's on Historypin is photographs, we can't forget that sound and video clips can be pinned as well. A museum or other organization may be more likely than an individual to have the means for digitizing old film or cassette recordings. However, these institutions could also be the instigators of such a project and collect, digitize and pin those historic elements provided by their visitors and communities.
For more reading, check out this student blog with a number of Historypin-based projects exploring how museums can make online exhibits this way. There's also this partnership between Historypin and the Smithsonian that happened last September. There are other good examples on that blog; try the "exhibitions," "heritage" and "local projects" tags.
Do you have suggestions or good examples of how museums are or could be using Pinterest or Historypin? Please share them in the comments!
Hello! I see that someone marked this post "confusing." If there's a specific question I can clarify, please feel free to ask it here (anonymously is fine!).
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