museumsandtheweb.com - sustainability

What’s On TAP? – Strategies for keeping pace with rapid changes in mobile technology

cmoad — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 06:06:49 +0000

MW2012

Charles Moad and Rob Stein, Indianapolis Museum of Art, United States

http://www.tapintomuseums.org/

Abstract

In 2011, the New York Times published an article that reinforces what many museums are feeling as they scramble to keep pace with changes in technology. Entitled, “Software Progress Beats Moore’s Law”, the article cites a White House advisory report detailing the changes in hardware and software innovation in the past 15 years. The report notes that while the rate of change in hardware innovation is staggering, changes in software have vastly outpace even those impressive numbers.

Program Item Reference:

What’s On TAP? – Strategies for keeping pace with rapid changes in mobile technology

Navigating the bumpy road: a tactical approach to delivering the digital strategy

charlotte.sexton — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:37:54 +0000

MW2012

Published Paper:

Navigating The Bumpy Road: A Tactical Approach To Delivering A Digital Strategy

Keywords:

strategy

Keywords:

project management

Keywords:

strategic planning

Keywords:

sustainability

Keywords:

organisational change

Keywords:

delivery

Abstract:

This paper will discuss the importance and impact of developing, delivering and sustaining a digital strategy within a cultural organisation. It will use recent experiences at The National Gallery, UK and the Imperial War Museum (IWM), UK to demonstrate why having a strategy is so fundamental to the long-term success of digital development in organisations, and how it can be used as a driver to shape direction for a strategic programme of work that is aligned with organisational needs and priorities.

Both the National Gallery and the IWM are going through periods of organisational change, including reassessing the role and importance of digital in delivering the organisations’ goals. Despite being very different organisations in regard to structure, size and type of collections, there are surprisingly many similarities in aspirations and approach to digital engagement. This paper will provide readers with the fundamental principles of developing a strategy, how to deploy it and embed it for long-term sustainability. It will illustrate these principles by incorporating examples from both institutions throughout.

The paper will focus on the following questions:

Why is a digital strategy needed?

exploring the internal and external drivers
importance of putting digital at the centre of the organisations’ thinking

How to move from theory to practice to deliver digital programmes?

setting priorities for a programme of work
measures of success

How to keep the strategy alive and evolving?

embedding digital across the organisation
evaluating progress/success
revisiting and refining the strategy

The principles detailed in this paper and the illustrative practical examples from the National Gallery and Imperial War Museum will be of benefit to any organisation, large or small. It will demonstrate that a digital strategy is more than just a written document. A digital strategy provides a vision and action plan that is a framework and focus for all digital activity across an organisation. By placing digital at the heart of the institution, it can be a genuine driver for change.

Target Audience:
Senior staff, managers, consultants - those interested in strategic planning and project delivery.

Type:

Paper - in formal session

Digital strategy

Authors:

Charlotte Sexton

Carolyn Royston

TourML: An Emerging Specification for Museum Mobile Experiences

rjstein — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 01:13:35 +0000

MW2011

Robert Stein, Indianapolis Museum of Art, and Nancy Proctor, Smithsonian Institution, USA

http://code.google.com/tap-tours

Abstract

In addition to launching a successful tour, how can museum professionals ensure that the content we create will outlive the technology and vendors we select today? A successful metadata standard for mobile tours would provide a number of advantages for museums. A mobile standard would allow museums to migrate the content and structure of a tour among the variety of tools available today and tools that may be available in the future. Similarly, a mobile standard would allow the same tour to be used on a number of current and future mobile devices. In addition, museums could choose authoring tools which best fit their staff and workflow needs while still deploying to whatever mobile device is best for their content – even if these tools are provided by different vendors. Perhaps most important, a successful mobile standard would ensure that museum content outlives any particular technology we use today.

Keywords: mobile content, content strategy, sustainability, specifications, content management systems, schemas

Program Item Reference:

TourML: An Emerging Standard for Museum Mobile Experiences

The Generative Web

jtrant — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:03:08 +0000

Bearman, D., & Trant J. (2006). The Generative Web. Museums and the Web 2006.

Enhancing The Heritage Experience

jtrant — Wed, 02 May 2007 00:57:39 +0000

Anani, N. (2005). Enhancing The Heritage Experience. (Trant, Jennifer, David Bearman, Ed.).Museums and the Web 2005: Proceedings.