What does working with TMP typically look like?
1. You provide us with your collections data
We can provide you with a simple Excel template, or are more than happy to receive data from any museum collections management system, whether MODES, Axiell systems, TMS or more. We can cope with any number of records, from tens to hundreds of millions.
Typically, you also provide us with a folder full of assets – images, audio files, video, whatever you have.
We then use our specialised ingestion technology to import your records into our AWS backed system, create sized image assets, zooms, and more, and connect them all together.
2. We make you a Museum Platform instance
Once the import is complete, we then make you a Museum Platform instance to host your collections data.
If you need a website making for you, we just build it straight on our system. It’s just WordPress with additional TMP functionality. We can either create simple “off-the-shelf” sites using the GeneratePress theme builder, or fully bespoke themes if you want something made just for your museum.
These sites can be for your whole museum, or just for your collections and/or stories. It’s entirely up to you.
3. We connect things up
If you have an existing WordPress website, we can provide you with our custom WordPress plugin.
You simply add this to your site, enable it, and then connect it to our system. Immediately, you will have your collections available on your website – search, faceting, zooms, whatever you need.
If you have other web systems (Drupal, Umbraco, Wix, Squarespace or something else) just let us know. We’ve got integrations in the works!
4. Write your exhibitions or other content in the Museum Platform
You may want to stop at step 3 – many museums are happy just to get their collections online! But – you may want to take things a step further and fully embrace the tools that we provide for you. The Museum Platform gives you the most powerful tools available to create rich, engaging, mobile-friendly digital content – content that truly connects to your collections.
We use the incredible power of WordPress to bring you the most user-friendly, familiar web editing environment on the planet. Create exhibitions, stories, online narratives – whatever you like – using the flexibility of the new block-based editor. If you want to write a blog post and drop in a gallery of related collections records, that’s no problem. Want to illustrate a story using a map which has collections and other items placed on it? Easy. A timeline? Sure. 3D object records from SketchFab? IIIF embeds? Yup.
The capability of the system doesn’t stop there – we’re working closely with all our clients to create new narrative tools as we go. In the works are image hotspots, audio guides, animation tools and much, much more. All users of the Platform get access to these new capabilities as we roll them out.
5. Deliver your content wherever you need, all from one place
If you’ve worked in the museum sector for a while, you may have heard of COPE – Create Once, Publish Everywhere. The basic idea is that museums should be able to make content and then surface it wherever they need – on their website, on gallery, in an audio guide, on a projected display…
The Museum Platform makes this dream a reality. Our system connects the missing dots between your collections management system, your curatorial staff, your website and your users. And the best thing about it – it is really, really easy to work with. There’s no more scrabbling about trying to find that image from your collections management system so you can write about it – it’s already there, a part of your website, available whenever you need it.