During #AskACurator 2018 I tried to capture some of the different conversations.  This is more for me than for anyone to think this is an overall statement of the day (because I am not the one that can or will ever capture everything!)

Highlights: 

Museums talking to each – Australia and New Zealand really set the tone for 2018 as there weren’t a lot of questions at first so they took the bull by the horns and starting asking questions amongst themselves – then the public got involved and next thing you know it’s trending 2^nd in all of Australia.

First Tweet from @MOTAT_NZ 9:13pm 11-09-2018

It's #AskACurator Day! @chelseaheather1 @sjfox_nz @ShaeTrewin @christie_23 @whittaker_nina are here to answer all your questions! Go on…ask us anything pic.twitter.com/wIIQqcBPVj

— MOTAT (@MOTAT_NZ) September 11, 2018

By the time I jumped back Russia and Europe were in full swing (not so much UK at that point) and the tone remain positive, light, inquisitive, fun, interesting and most importantly educational.

Questions:

I usually try to ask a few general questions to get things going.  This year they were mostly ignored which to me is AMAZING because that meant there were so many other questions being asked mine weren’t needed!

https://twitter.com/MarDixon/status/1039646722090303488

What do you Wear?

#askacurator So what DO curators wear? Practical sensible clothes. Shoes that are able to be worn in the city and through paddocks. And no cloth gloves; nitrile works best in our sweaty climate. Here’s Dr Scott Hill dressed for work, conserving metalwork at Rouse Hill House. pic.twitter.com/y4dzNWHrKN

— Sydney Living Museums (@sydlivmus) September 11, 2018

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During the last few weeks, I’ve noticed peaks and troughs with the diverse industries I follow.   I contemplated how I could capture this data and felt the best way was to track Twitter for 12 hours over one day.

I started tracking at 8:00 am on September 27^th 2011.  My account (@MarDixon) currently stands:

3,156 followers
1,887 Following

The key industries I follow could be broken into the following main sectors.  Other sectors are mentioned through the report.

Literacy:  This includes publishers, writers/authors, marketing, eBook
Museums: Including Art Galleries, Heritage Venues, people working within the industries.
American Museums: As above
Science: Groups or persons who promote the science industry
Personal tweets: Tweets, while not exclusive of the above personnel, were clearly on a non-professional basis.
Other: Tweets that didn’t fit into the main categories

There were some obvious times to tweet and not tweet and it seems different industries have slotted themselves into times that work best for them.  I seen minimal clashes of tweets vying for audiences attention.   This was interesting as it pinpoints times throughout the day where tweeting is more effective for certain industries.

This data is raw and obviously not scientific.  The notes were taken as and when I saw trends shifting and are only estimates.

Click chart:

I also tried to take notes along the way to help gauge where trends where leading.  Please see them here.