Participation on the Internet is now synonymous with 2.0: any company or institution nowadays that wants its Internet project to be participatory will obviously make sure to incorporate the tools that social networks make available. In the same way that virtually no museum today is in any doubt about whether or not it needs a website, a presence on the social networks is a natural addition to the active and activating presence on the Internet.

Museums around the world are slowly but inexorably coming into the fold. Those in the U.S. are doing so with real energy (the Brooklyn, MoMA, Metropolitan or Smithsonian are excellent examples), those in Europe, more cautiously (with the notable exception of the UK, especially the Tate, National Gallery or Victoria & Albert). In this country we are among the more timid, but still there are some interesting upcoming initiatives, such as the Guggenheim Bilbao’s WikiDocentes, the Facebook profiles of the Prado, Reina Sofía and Fundació Miró and Youtube profiles such as the MNACTEC_Museu Ciència i Tècnica de Catalunya).

MOMA’s online community.

At the Museu Picasso we are keen to get ahead. In April 2008 we launched the new website, completely revamped in content, design and functions. We are now working on growth in three directions:

• developing the virtual classroom with multimedia educational resources (we have already started, and more is in the pipeline);

• making the collection accessible online (watch this space);

• taking an active part in social websites (we only just began in May).

Museu Picasso de Barcelona’s Facebook.

Why does the Museu Picasso use 2.0 tools, with their extensive social scope?

• to listen to you, the user, to converse and establish a rich and multi-directional exchange of information via the web;

• to receive and share content generated by users: texts, photos, videos, experiences;

• to enhance our vision/perception: your contributions enrich the museum and all of us: users add value;

• to build a community, gathering together people who have a shared interest in Picasso, museums, art and Barcelona, and related to one another online;

• to encourage the public to developing new relationships with us, beyond the museum visit;

• because not being present here will very soon be a real handicap for any centre or institution that hopes to have a certain influence.

WANTED: users who want to share, discuss, propose, criticize, label, and link to us to make the museum bigger and better.

For the Museu Picasso, participation in social networks is part of a commitment to innovating and creating the community that we have set ourselves as a strategy, not only from a desire to connect better with more users, but because we are convinced that we need your participation to accomplish our mission as a centre of knowledge and proximity.

We’re working to ensure that the user’s experience within the Museu Picasso 2.0 environment is just as much a quality experience as the experience of visiting the museum.

From this blog and from the museum’s other platforms on Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, Delicious and Slideshare, we invite you to be part of the Museu Picasso community.

Conxa Rodà
Project Manager

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