SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS OF THE 2013 M & M SURVEY (II):
As we advanced last week, the results of 2013 Museums & Mobile survey are now available. In the previous analysis we highlighted the initiative taken by small museums, who are more determined than ever to implement mobile technology. The question is, which type of project is chosen by cultural spaces? Mainly, interactive projects:
The study shows that museums are betting more and more on interactivity and convergence with social networks, foresaking traditional audio tours. Moreover, these institutions prefer to focus their efforts on permanent exhibitions at the expense of temporary ones. While it is true that large temporary exhibitions are committed to apps, the logic that leads them to focus on permanent exhibitions lies in the larger potential life cycle of these projects. CMS systems that enable autonomy and agile management of content would help balance the scales.
Moreover, we note that museums tend to outsource the technical aspects of projects (software development, publishing on devices …), but take on the responsibility of managing the content and monitoring other processes (marketing, distribution …). However, the museums that already have some kind of mobile technology prefer to manage most of the process, while technological neophytes often resort to outsourcing.
As to the number of platforms and operating systems, institutions try to cover as many options as possible. The aim is to increase the chances of attracting the user. The most popular service when starting a project is often the creation of an app. And even in the case of apps for a single operating system, 38% implement them using iOS (compared to only 2% on Android), 60% prefer to use both as a way to increase their potential audience.
* In the picture we highlight some of the results of the 2013 Museums & Mobile survey. The full report is available on its website.
