Collaborative annotation system using vocal comments recorded on mobile phones and audioguides: the Centre Pompidou exhibition

To enrich the exhibition Traces du sacré (Centre Pompidou, May 7th - August 11th 2008), a new multimedia system has been experimented first to manage contradiction and debate on a controversial theme related to the spiritual dimension in modern and contemporary art. The debate was launched through audio interviews from the curators and a few contradictors from the intellectual and artistic scene accessible both on the audioguide and on a new type of collaborative web site. In the exhibition, visitors were able to record their own comments (vocal and drawings), using the multimedia guide or their mobile phone and afterwards to access them on Internet, modifying, annotating and indexing them, thanks to the software Lignes de temps, before sharing, publishing or podcasting them. This paper is a case study report summarizing a 6 months qualitative study performed with different type of public (professional, amateurs, non-amateurs) and consequently different type of practices and expectations in an unstable and experimental situation.