Dated museum policy is hampering use and development of new technologies, with some institutions simply not prepared to handle procedure surrounding emerging tech, according to Flickr Commons inventor George Oates.

Oates' new project Museum in a Box uses miniature versions of objects from museums around the world replicated using a 3D printer providing otherwise unavailable materials to schools around the world. Each box contains a “living brain”, meaning that as you explore the content within the box, you can learn about each object using an embedded computer chip to relay information.

Now in the early stages of producing the new concept, Oates has said the product’s development has been hampered by some museums simply not understanding new technologies.

“In order to get to the point where a school could download something from a museum, you need a whole bunch of comfort in terms of sharing stuff freely,” Oates told Attractions Management.

“There’s some fairly well-worn grooves about things like photograph licensing and other asset licensing that is perhaps a bit more traditional in the museum sector. I think even asking for a new medium to be created such as 3D-printing objects was a bit weird and challenging because there is no check box on the form for a 3D printer. There’s just no real way to process it right now.

“In one case, my initial inquiry was to a collections person. The inquiry made its way up the management chain and before I knew what was happening it just got a big no because there wasn’t enough information. We’re basically having to make it up as we go along and that’s a bit weird for museums.”

Oates’ comments follow on from last month’s Museum Tech conference in Manchester, where peers echoed her sentiment. Speaking at the event, Omad Hiwaizi, president of augmented reality company Blippar, said that “when it comes to museums and emerging tech, it might well be that there’s a blending of cultures required,” with the speaker adding that there could be a cultural issue “where tech works one way and museums work another, introducing hesitance to try new things.”

According to Oates, the long-term vision for Museum in a Box, is to make items available on open source for schools to eventually curate and 3D print their own museums right from the classroom. Themed boxes will also be available, with different versions to be developed to accommodate the direction of a school learning syllabus.

“We envisage schools will eventually being able to select the objects that they want, download the models and print them on the 3D printer that they’ve hopefully got,” said Oates. “They find their own box and maybe even create their own content around the objects. That’s what we’re aiming for in the long run, to bring the museum into the classroom.”