As well as its network of online members, and its cycle of annual conferences and meetings, the MCG is also involved in on-going and one-off projects and initiatives within the area of digital heritage research and practice.

The group takes the lead and initiates some of these projects, and lends its support and collaborates on others. In every case, however, the MCG seeks to follow its mission to connect, support and inspire its members.

Current MCG projects

LIVE!Museum. The MCG is currently supporting the ‘LIVE!Museum’ research networking project. The project is lead by the School of Museum Studies, at the University of Leicester, with project partners The Collections Trust and System Simulation Ltd. The project is funded by the AHRC and BT. The project reflects upon the ways live digital content can be brought into the space of the museum by the institution and by its visitors, and the impact of this new connectedness on exhibition design, curatorial responsibility and visitor experience. Through a series of creative ‘sandpits’ and a ‘ResearchMart’ event, the
project draws upon the expertise of the MCG’s community of expertise to identify five strategically intelligent research questions in this area, and then to broker partnerships around those project ideas to take forward for funding.

Previous MCG projects

The Semantic Web Thinktank. This two-year project, funded by the AHRC’s research workshop programme, brought over 30 institutions across the UK together in a series of six workshops (in Glasgow, Brighton, Newcastle, London and Cambridge) to consider the impact of linked data technologies on the learning and documentation and strategies of the museum sector. Read more at the project blog http://culturalsemanticweb.wordpress.com or the final report.