Two organizations, lots of cross-over members, what’s the difference between these two groups? Should I belong to both? Should I belong to one and not the other?

If you are asking yourself any of these questions, you aren’t alone. Boards of both organizations have been working separately and together (and this joint blog is an example of that collaboration) to more clearly define the goals of each.

MCN is a private, non-profit organization, with a board of directors that manages the affairs of the organization, and runs an annual conference that provides in-depth information on the most useful and up-to-date technologies in use at museums.

Media & Technology is one of the Standing Professional Committees of the American Association of Museum. It doesn’t run it’s own conference but focuses on providing rich content across a broad range of topics for the AAM annual meeting.

We are all volunteers. Almost all of us have “real” full-time jobs. We aren’t doing this (serving on these boards) for the money. As for prestige–well my work on these organizations still hasn’t gotten me better seats at a fancy restaurant, on the other hand, I’ve met and learned from a pretty remarkable group of people–many of whom are contributors to this blog in one way or another. Here’s a little bit more information on how I differentiate between the two groups in my mind (and I am a committed member of both).*

MCN can address topics in a much more in-depth way at their conference and provide people with a lot more peer-to-peer networking opportunities as well as providing networking opportunities for people who are doing much the same job under many of the same circumstances. It is, to my mind, the professional conference for those of us working in museum and museum IT related fields where we gather to talk about specialized subjects and the “how” of big issues. I think of this audience as rapid adopters of technologies—or at least this audience has the potential to be rapid adopters.

And now for the animal metaphor……MCN has the potential to be a sleek and powerful jaguar—presenting prototypes of ideas and projects for consideration and refinement, looking at the details.

Media & Technology, on the other hand, has to address technology issues in a very general way that can speak to employees of institutions large and small, from every different type of institution (historic houses and birthplaces, to large science centers, major museums, outdoor parks, sculpture gardens, aquaria—the whole gamut), from targeted new professionals to old-timers in the field. This tendency to generalization is further emphasized by a process of vetting sessions first via a group of standing professional committees (who each have five protected sessions—and they must be fully-realized sessions—not individual papers—and they must be fully realized by 1 August—just three months after completion of last conference) all other sessions and general sessions then go before an international program committee which further seeks to assure that the topics presented are broad and deep enough to appeal to the widest variety of professionals in a given specialized subject area. Media & Technology has to discuss and justify the “why” of big technology and content-oriented issues to this general audience.

And now for the animal metaphor…..Media & Technology is a slower moving animal, perhaps a lion, not more thoughtful, just differently thoughtful. By definition, Media & Technology board members have to consider what impact our suggestions have on the larger health of museums as a whole. They ask questions like, can we realistically and, in good conscience, suggest that hand-helds or podcasts are the way of the future, when entire segments of the general AAM constituency don’t even have websites yet?

Anyway, the upshot is, both groups and viewpoints are needed in the field and there’s certainly enough work to be done in educating all our respective audiences. If you are attending the AAM Centennial Conference in Boston next week, you can get more information on the respective organizations by visiting our adjoining booths at the Museum Expo. Stop in and say hi!

I’m going to stop my rant now and go read a book. (Just finishing John Cowper Powys novel “Porius.” For those of you interested in historical fiction, it covers events occuring over 8 days, in October 400 AD. For those of you who don’t like historical fiction, this is SO not the book for you.)

*Mea culpa, mea culpa. Much of this blog cribbed from a memo I wrote last week that went to the MCN Board Listserv so apologies if you were feeling a sense of deja vu as you read the above.