MW2002 features many chances to build your personal network

Social Events and Pre-Conference Tours provide many occasions to share experiences with other delegates in an informal environment. Pre-Conference Workshops offer a more structured learning environment.

Social Events

One ticket to all Museums and the Web 2002 events is included with each Full Conference Registration. Additional Tickets may be purchased for accompanying persons or by those with Sessions-Only registration.

When events are held outside the hotel, transportation will be provided; look for details in the final program and for the signs on-site.

Welcome Reception at the Museum of Science, Boston.
April 17, 2002
5:30 - 7:30 PM

The Welcome Reception is a Fun and convenient way to meet other attendees on the first night of the conference. Catch up with old friends, meet some new ones, and visit the exhibitions at one of the leading science museums in the world, and the home of the Boston Computer Museum. Those who have been attending Workshops during the day also find it is a great opportunity to get to know the colleagues with whom they have been studying. Our host, the Museum of Science, is ideally located for groups to arrange dinner in the many excellent restaurants nearby.

Exhibitors’ Reception at the Park Plaza Hotel
April 18, 2002
5:30 - 8:00 PM

MW2002 will bring together the latest commercial Web technology and the professionals who use it. At the Exhibitors’ Reception, attendees can preview the Exhibit Hall, which will be open for their in-depth visits all day on April 19. The reception provides an informal atmosphere in which to meet exhibitors, and enjoy the meal they provide to entice attendees to stay for the duration. Plan to pass the evening scoping out what the MW2002 Exhibitors have to offer.

Birds-of-a-Feather Breakfast - Sponsored by Sun Microsystems
April 19, 2002
8:30 - 10:00 AM

Every year, MW attendees enjoy meeting new colleagues to talk about shared concerns over breakfast. The Birds-of-a-Feather Breakfast tradition will continue in 2002 to enable attendees to chat with others interested in the same issues or working on similar projects. Each table at the breakfast is devoted to discussion on a theme proposed in advance by attendees. Each year the topics shift but the conversations are always lively. To suggest a topic for the Birds of a Feather Breakfast, email MW2002@archimuse.com

Conference Reception at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
April 19, 2002
7:00 - 9:30 PM

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston will host the annual Conference Reception and open its galleries to MW2002 attendees. Celebrate your common interests in the beautiful surroundings of one of North America’s finest museums. We are sure that the combination of fine food and extraordinary collections will inspire great conversation.

Pre-Conference Tours - April 16, 2002

Staff involved in Web site construction and in interactive exhibits and multimedia documentation from a variety of Boston-area institutions have once again agreed to provide MW attendees with a special “behind-the-scenes” view.

Pre-Conference Tour Logistics

All tours are very limited in size, as they include staff areas of participating institutions. Register early to ensure your first choice. MW staff will confirm tour participation.

Each full day tour includes transportation and lunch. We will depart from and return to the conference hotel.

Tour 1: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Departs 8:30 AM from Boston Park Plaza Valet Entrance on Columbus Avenue

The Pre-conference tour of the MFA will include behind-the-scenes looks at a few highlights of how the MFA is using Web technology, including:

• Survey the MFA Web sites, including www.mfa.org, www.smfa.edu, shop.mfa.org, and others.
• Meet the staff that work on Web-related projects, and see the cube farm where they live!
• Take a tour of Artemis, the Museum of Fine Arts collections information database, and see demonstrations of procedures developed to use Gallery System's The Museum System
• Learn the role of the MFA's Intranet in accessing shared information, and aiding workflow.
• Gain insight into our e-commerce initiatives, see how we update our on-line gift shop, and process the orders.
• See the MFA's network computer room, and the many servers housed within, including our huge, new EMC Disk Farm.

Tour 2: Museum of Science, Boston

Departs 9:15 AM from Boston Park Plaza Valet Entrance on Columbus Avenue

A full day at the MOS includes backroom tours and discussions of:

1. The New Media department
2. The Intel Computer Clubhouse - The Computer Clubhouse is a successful model that uses technology creatively to enable under-served youth to acquire the tools, problem solving skills and confidence for successful lives.
   
3. The Current Science and Technology department - CS&T's mission is to rapidly produce content about science and technology news and deploy in the exhibit halls as quickly as possible. Using back-end content management systems, we are now able to use that content in the Museum as well as on the Web site.
   

Tour 3: Harvard University

Departs 9:15 AM from Boston Park Plaza Valet Entrance on Columbus Avenue

Over the course of the last two years, the Harvard University Art Museums' Digital Imaging and Photography department has converted from film to digital photography. The capture of a broad variety of source materials with numerous device types with a scan-once constraint must be done to insure the highest levels of image fidelity and spatial resolution. Likewise, archiving and dissemination requires accommodation of an equally vast host of display types and uses ranging from simple web viewing to high-quality printed continuous- and half-tone output.

To accomplish this, Peter Siegel, the head of the department has put in place an ICC production workflow. The resulting images are uploaded to the University's Digital Repository Service, and stored with metadata specified in their DTD (http://hul.harvard.edu/ois/systems/drs/). The imaging studio is now busy documenting every object in the collections with unprecedented accuracy and in a format that will make the art widely accessible to students, scholars and the public through traditional and electronic media.

Tour 4: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Departs 9:15 AM from Boston Park Plaza Valet Entrance on Columbus Avenue

This tour will visit the MIT Museum and Media Lab as well as other sites at MIT doing work related to museums and the Web.