Participatory content creation and social media

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.NO FULL TEXT AVAILABLE. Access is restricted indefinitely. The hardcopy may be available for consultation at the UTS Library.NO FULL TEXT AVAILABLE. Access is restricted indefinitely. ----- The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that the one-to-many information transfer model prevalent in major cultural institutions such as museums and libraries can be enhanced by many-to-many Participatory Content Creation strategies. Within the context of this thesis, Participatory Content Creation describes both the practice of collaborative content creation by the cultural institution and interpretive communities; and the philosophy of increasing creative civic interaction by enabling the participation of individuals and communities within the cultural sphere. A review of early and current online participation strategies explained how some cultural institutions have provided systems through which user communities can participate in cultural interaction through many-to-many conversation, or knowledge and content co-creation. A review of literature and practice revealed how a number of cultural institutions are experimenting with many-to-many models using social media. An original MCs’ classification of Participatory Content Creation strategies was proposed based on these reviews. These four strategies are: conversation, defined as many-to-many communication supported by social media; content sharing, defined as many-to-many aggregation and distribution of multimedia content; customisation, defined as user personalisation of content management systems; and co-creation, defined as collaborative content and/or knowledge creation between institutions and interpretive communities. Preliminary research at the State Library of Queensland found that a co-creation strategy supported creative engagement and ongoing interaction between cultural institutions and interpretive communities. This informal study indicated that the role of the human intermediary should be considered in the design of systems to support Participatory Content Creation strategies by cultural institutions. The preliminary research and the reviews of literature, practice and theory, informed the formulation of a hypothesis. In the context of engagement between cultural institutions and interpretive communities, the hypothesis tested was: one-to-many information transfer models can he enhanced by many-to-many communication models utilising Participatory Content Creation strategies. Work at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, was studied using an exploratory single case study, supported by web usage statistics and semi-structured depth interviews. This study identified user motivation as a critical factor in the design of social media projects intended to engage interpretive communities. At the Australian Museum, Sydney, an original Participatory Content Creation Method (PCCM) was used to design, produce and evaluate iterative cycles of content creation training and production by intermediaries. These cycles resulted in the co-creation of a microdocumentary on biodiversity by Museum intermediaries and an external interpretive community, which upheld the hypothesis in this instance