mobile

Areti Galani, Deborah Maxwell, Aron Mazel, Kate Sharpe, International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, Newcastle University, United Kingdom

http://rockartmobile.wordpress.com/

Abstract

Mobile development and technology is the now, the here, the cutting edge. Rock art, or 'cup and ring' marks – abstract Neolithic and Early Bronze Age carvings in stone – is the past. This paper discusses the Rock Art Mobile Project (RAMP) which addresses the challenge of designing and delivering mobile interpretation to three rock art areas in Northumberland, UK. RAMP proposes a departure from the more traditional design approaches of delivering scientific content in the form of an archaeological mobile guide. It acknowledges that rock art interpretation requires a 'design space', which facilitates empathy between users and designers, and allows the existing archaeological content, the public's fascination with the 'cryptic' meaning of the rock art sites and the technological, environmental and personal situation of the user to be explored and to inspire technological development.

Keywords: experience-centred design, mobile, digital interpretation, design methods, user experience, outdoors

http://rockartmobile.wordpress.com

Linda Perry-Lube and Melissa Lefkowitz, American Museum of Natural History, USA

http://www.amnh.org/apps/explorer.php

Abstract

This paper advocates a visitor-centric approach to designing a solution for navigation and interpretation. The American Museum of Natural History iPhone application Explorer combines state of the art location awareness, interpretation, and social networking to deliver an enhanced visitor experience both onsite and online. AMNH had four objectives with this project: to facilitate visitor navigation, to provide an application that appeals to visitors and encourages repeat visits, to enhance exhibit information without detracting from the exhibits themselves; and to anneal visitors' onsite and online experiences. This paper examines the reasoning behind utilizing a mobile device for wayfinding; the choice of the iPhone platform; the challenge of bringing "GPS indoors" and the resultant technical solution; feature set determination and usability; the role of mobile devices in the pre- and post-Museum visit continuum; the challenges of curated mobile content creation; deploying the application on Museum-supplied devices and through the iTunes store; and marketing of the device and app. The authors present the challenges faced by the American Museum of Natural History in executing a cross-Museum enterprise and share lessons learned, in order to offer the wider museum community an opportunity to build on our experience and expertise.

Keywords: mobile, iphone app, location awareness, digital mobile museum tour, mobile exhibition, wayfinding

Rich Cherry, Balboa Park Online Collaborative, USA

http://www.bpoc.org

Abstract

The Balboa Park Online Collaborative (BPOC) was created to lead technology-focused cooperation between 21 Balboa Park institutions. One of the challenges BPOC quickly uncovered when it began was a serious limitation to supporting collaboration caused by the lack of IT infrastructure necessary to network the institutions together. As a result, BPOC has installed the infrastructure necessary for a high speed (1GB/second) connection to network the organizations, to provide a 100mb Internet connection, and also to provide a connection to CalREN, the California Research and Education Network to which the vast majority of the state's K-20 educational institutions are connected. The connection to CalREN also provides connectivity to non-California institutions and industry research organizations such as Internet2, high-speed networks in Mexico and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities Networks.

This mini workshop will explore the technology options as they relate to Wide Area Networks (WANs) and the technical, civil engineering and political challenges that the different options create; provide a planning checklist for dealing with the challenges; and describe the reasons that multiple institutions might desire to collaborate on a private WAN. All of this information will then be reviewed in the context of the Balboa Park Network Project deployment as well as other museum WAN deployments, with failures and successes highlighted.

Keywords: technology-focused collaboration, networking, collaboration, mobile

Simon Sherrin, Museum Victoria, Australia

Abstract

At the start of 2011, Australia's Museum Victoria (MV), published a Field Guide to Victorian Animals for iOS devices: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The MV field guide uses data written by MV's science curators, and images and sounds exported from MV's collection management system. Museum Victoria has released the source code for the app under an open source license. This paper shows how any institution can use that code and their own data, images and audio to customize and publish a field guide for their local area on iOS devices.

Keywords: field guide, natural history, mobile, iOS, open source

Jenna Fleming, Phil Getchell and Jesse Kochis, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA

http://www.mfa.org

Abstract

In this paper, we share lessons learned from the MFA's transition from audio guide to multimedia guide in the fall of 2010. Learnings include prototyping and evaluation; device and equipment selection; content production and content management; and operational considerations.

Keywords: mobile, iPod, audio guide, content, multimedia

Julian Bickersteth, Smarttrack and International Conservation Services, Sydney, Australia; and Christopher Ainsley, Shoppertrak, USA

Abstract

Google Analytics provides museums with extensive data around visits to their virtual sites. Physical visits and directional paths which visitors take around museums are currently much harder to monitor. This paper discusses the opportunity that mobile phone Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and TMSI signals provide to allow visitor tracking. The resulting data has potentially great value to museums in understanding how exhibitions and museum spaces are used, in forming exhibition design, assessing the return on investment of interactives, and even profiling visitors. A pilot study undertaken in the retail sector is discussed.

Keywords: visitor tracking, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, TMSI signals