museumsandtheweb.com - collection

Overcoming Barriers to Adopting a Mobile or Tablet App

jsanabria — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:07:21 +0000

MW2012

Keywords:

iphone

Keywords:

iTouch

Keywords:

mobile phones

Keywords:

collection

Keywords:

downloadable

Keywords:

iPad

Keywords:

android

Keywords:

json

Abstract:

Apps for museums are here to stay. But for many institutions, there are still questions about when and how to get started. Join us as we discuss how adopting an iPad kiosk or mobile app is easier than you may think. You'll also learn tips for creating Social Engagement, Walking Tours, Scavenger Hunts, Accessibility Features and more.

Type:

Exhibitor Briefing - discuss your product. Confirmed Exhibitors only

Overcoming Barriers to Adopting a Mobile or Tablet App

Site:

http://guideonemobile.com

Authors:

juan sanabria

The Community as the Centrepiece of a Collection: Building a Community of Objects with the National Vending Machine

Jasper Visser — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:16:00 +0000

MW2011

Jasper Visser and Dennis Tap, Museum of National History, The Netherlands

http://automatiek.innl.nl

Abstract

Traditionally, museum collections are often the basis of community-building activities. The National Vending Machine of the Museum of National History is attempting to reverse this relation and put the community at the heart of a collection of objects, stories and discussions. After comparing the quantitative and qualitative results of two different instalments of the project, this reversed relation has proven to be viable, as long as a number of things are taken into consideration. Most importantly: the key elements consist of a focus on the audience rather than on the collection, a link between onsite and online, immediate rewards and participatory design.

Keywords: Collection, Community, Digital Cultural Objects, Online / Onsite, Participation, Crowd-sourcing

Program Item Reference:

The Community as the Centrepiece of a Collection – building a community of objects with the National Vending Machine

What If Web Archiving Were as Reliable As Pushing a Simple Button?

Chloé Martin — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 01:24:36 +0000

MW2011

Chloé Martin, France Lasfargues and Leïla Medjkoune, Internet Memory Foundation, France

http://internetmemory.org

Abstract

Web content is, by nature, ephemeral: sites are constantly disappearing; others are frequently updated, involving the removal of online information. This medium continues to grow in our society: many museums and cultural heritage institutions are developing websites with a variety of content (videos, forums, blogs, online exhibitions, catalogues) creating a large media-centric Web sphere of unique value. As with any other medium before, it is becoming essential to preserve this Web sphere of cultural and historical value. From this point of view, Web archiving is becoming a key part of today's heritage conservation.

Keywords: Web archiving, Preservation, Internet, Collection, State of the Art

Program Item Reference:

Web Archiving Workshop

Art App-reciation: Fostering engagement and reflection in museums through a social mobile application

oshaer — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:10:38 +0000

MW2011

Published Paper:

Art App-reciation: Fostering Engagement and Reflection in Museums through a Social-Mobile Application

Keywords:

social

Keywords:

mobile

Keywords:

collection

Keywords:

human-computer interaction

Keywords:

iphone

Keywords:

iTouch

Keywords:

mobile phones

Abstract:

Novice museum visitors often lack the skills for interpreting and engaging with works of art on display. We have observed visitors glossing through exhibits lacking the capacity to make meaning from art viewing. A social mobile application that we have created and tested helps novice visitors to actively engage with works of art, develop their vocabulary, and enhance their art-viewing skills. Supporting novice users in building art-viewing capacity is essential for making a lasting impact on visitors and encouraging life-long learning in the arts.

This paper presents the design, development, and evaluation of Art-e-Muse, a social mobile application that helps novice viewers develop the skills needed to actively engage with works of art. Art-e-Muse has been developed and tested in the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, an academic fine-arts museum on the Wellesley College campus. Through the deployment of Art-e-Muse we investigate how the use of mobile human-computer interaction paired with social networking can offer advantages for museums seeking to redefine the museum experience for novice visitors.

Art-e-Muse was designed using a participatory design methodology and is implemented as an iPod Touch and iPhone application utilizing the Facebook Connect API. During the period of May through July 2010, we conducted a series of workshops with museum staff, students, and faculty. As a result, we set three goals for Art-e-Muse: 1) fostering engagement with works of art, 2) promoting dialogue about art between members of a community, and 3) encouraging repeat visits to the museum. To accomplish these goals, Art-e-Muse diverges from the traditional museum guide approach in which experts provide information for visitors to consume. Interaction with Art-e-Muse is initiated when visitors use the device camera to scan a two-dimensional code placed next to a work of art. Art-e-Muse then presents users with a series of prompts that serve to create an interactive and reflective experience. Prompts are short and specific for each work of art. Prompts may include questions that encourage deep looking, anecdotal facts, and brief exercises requiring users to consider narrative, style, artists’ intent, and technique. A game mechanic rewards users with coins from the museum collection when certain milestones are accomplished. To create a sense of social presence and foster a dialogue, the application allows users to share insights, responses and accomplishments with their friends on Facebook. The game mechanic leads to deep engagement and encourages users to make return visits to the museum.

The system was preliminary evaluated during August 2010. Findings indicate that novice users were engaged with works of arts, spending a significant amount of time with each work. Users were eager to use Art-e-Muse and expressed their satisfaction learning new ways to think of works of art both from the prompts and from others’ responses. Following this evaluation, we deployed Art-e-Muse in a permanent collection gallery and are currently evaluating its use. Our methodology includes direct observation, data collection through system logging, surveys, and in-depth interviews.

This paper will describe the design, technical development, and results from the evaluation of Art-e-Muse.

Type:

Paper - in formal session

Mobile Parade

Site:

http://www.davismuseum.wellesley.edu/collections/index.html

Authors:

Orit Shaer

Jim Olson

MaCherie Edwards

Consuelo Valdes

Explorer - Mobile Navigation and Interpretation at the American Museum of Natural History

lperrylube — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 18:51:59 +0000

MW2011

Published Paper:

Explorer - Mobile Navigation and Interpretation at the American Museum of Natural History

Keywords:

wayfinding

Keywords:

explorer

Keywords:

navigation

Keywords:

application

Keywords:

iphone

Keywords:

iTouch

Keywords:

mobile phones

Keywords:

collection

Keywords:

downloadable

Keywords:

digital mobile museum tour

Keywords:

location awareness

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 three objectives with this project: to facilitate visitor navigation, to provide an application that appeals to visitors and encourages repeat visits, and to enhance exhibit information without detracting from the exhibits themselves. 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. We will present the challenges faced by AMNH 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.

Type:

Paper - in formal session

Mobile Parade

Site:

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

Authors:

Linda Perry-Lube

Melissa Lefkowitz

Art & Artists

jmkd — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:25:35 +0000

MW2011

Published Paper:

Art & Artists

Keywords:

art

Keywords:

collection

Keywords:

database

Keywords:

Interface

Keywords:

research

Keywords:

collections online

Abstract:

This paper describes how multiple strands of exploratory thinking across a large organisation were brought together in the complete overhaul of Tate’s collection online.

Scholarly research, technical innovation, curatorial enquiry, educational strategy, enterprise analytics, user-centred design and crowd-sourcing were just some of the methods employed by numerous teams across Tate on various projects. Over the course of two years these sometimes unconnected activities were identified, shaped and successfully channelled into a unified online representation of art and artists.

The quirky trajectory of multiple projects will be charted as resources are diverted, goals mature and priorities change. As well as the most successful endeavours, we will encounter failed initiatives, inconsistent progress, abandoned contexts and reconfigured methodologies, all set against an increasingly pressurised budgetary landscape and an unpredictable change of government.

The finished site will act as a guide for these narratives, demonstrating the outcomes of completed efforts and acting as a live metric for the projects’ goals and priorities. Future components will be discussed in the relevant contexts, and longer term plans revealed.

Case studies to be referred to include:

ArtMap
Taxonomic structures
Online Scholarly Cataloguing Initiative
User commenting
Personal collections
Archive integration
Tate Channel
Article syndication
Displays information
Curatorial style guide
Image sizes
User testing
Audience research
Social media integration

Through discussion of these projects we will discover the scale and complexity of the finished product, the challenges of integrating many years worth of content created for other contexts, and the ongoing implications for a public institution that integrated digital workflows over a decade ago.

A open assessment will be given of the budgetary and personnel requirements, along with the institutional impact of Tate’s Online Strategy 2010-12.

The site will launch in February 2011.

Type:

Paper - in formal session

Collections Online

Site:

http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/

Authors:

James Davis

John Stack

Web Archiving Workshop

Chloé Martin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:13:08 +0000

MW2011

Published Paper:

What If Web Archiving Were as Reliable As Pushing a Simple Button?

Keywords:

Web archive

Keywords:

preservation

Keywords:

internet

Keywords:

collection

Keywords:

video

Abstract:

Web content is, by nature, ephemeral: sites are constantly disappearing, others are frequently updated, involving the removal of online information. This media continues to grow in our society: many museums and cultural heritage institutions are developing websites with a variety of content (videos, forums, blogs, online exhibitions, catalogues) creating a large media-centric websphere of unique value. Like any other media before, it is becoming essential to preserve this websphere of cultural and historical value. From this point of view, Web archiving is becoming a key part of today's heritage conservation.

In this one-hour workshop, we will present the main aspects of web archiving:

Why is it so important to collect and preserve web material?
What does Web archiving mean?
How to plan a web archiving project? Investment, Selection, Frequency, Quality Assurance
Example of one method: the shared platform, Archivethe.net, helps institutions to easily and quickly start collecting websites including dynamic content and rich media, enabling navigation in past versions of a website, as if it was still live.
Exploration of the typology of resources. A special focus will be done on videos.
How to give an access on this archive?

Participants will be invited to share their own experiences, needs and issues about it.

Who should attend?

This workshop is appropriate for anyone with an interest in collecting and preserving born digital content (including websites). It does not assume technical expertise.

Archivists, Website Producers, Project Managers, Curator

Type:

Mini-Workshop - teaches something or explores approaches

Mini-Workshop on Web Archiving

Site:

http://archivethe.net/

Authors:

Chloé Martin

The Community as the Centrepiece of a Collection – building a community of objects with the National Vending Machine

Jasper Visser — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 07:42:18 +0000

MW2011

Published Paper:

The Community as the Centrepiece of a Collection: Building a Community of Objects with the National Vending Machine

Keywords:

community

Keywords:

collection

Keywords:

participation

Keywords:

online / onsite

Keywords:

digital cultural objects

Keywords:

stories

Abstract:

Most modern-day museums use their existing physical collection and the events they stage as a starting point for online activities. Communities are built around (parts of) the collection or specific offline events of a museum. Literature such as Museum and the Web papers, describes numerous case studies of successful projects.

This paper examines the case of the National Vending Machine of the Museum of National History of the Netherlands. The National Vending Machine is an ongoing project focusing on everyday objects and their historical and personal significance. Its objective is to build a ‘community of objects’ that shows which historical objects are relevant to our audience. Visitor contributions are central to building this community of objects. Through it we gain an understanding of how to engage people with history, culture and the museum. After two instalments of the National Vending Machine at different locations and a number of related activities, a foundation for the community of objects has been established and a number of lessons have been learned about using communities to build a collection.

The project consists of a website and a redesigned traditional Dutch vending machine. Online and offline are linked by RFID technology. The curatorial staff of the museum chose about 100 everyday objects as a starting point for the collection. These were tested with a general audience, and 37 objects were selected to figure in the first instalment. Visitors could discover and buy the objects offline, and add their personal stories online. They were also encouraged to add their own ideas and stories online in order to help expand the community of objects. Although the project received positive feedback from nearly all visitors, only a handful of ideas and stories had been added after a three-month trial period. Interviews with visitors proved the project could be successful, provided some changes were made.

A two-day try-out of an improved interaction model followed, focusing more on personal stories. This led to a redesign of the website. Visitors and their stories were featured whereas the objects and the project were made less prominent. These improvements significantly fostered higher participation in the second instalment of the National Vending Machine.

This paper discusses the five main lessons learned with regard to putting a community at the core of creating an online collection: 1) A focus on the existing collection limits the freedom of visitors to contribute their ideas and stories, whereas 2) a focus on visitors and their stories increases participation and encourages the creation of a varied collection. 3) Offline encouragement is key to creating healthy online engagement. 4) Immediate rewards, physical or virtual, are a strong trigger for participation. 5) The design of both the offline and online environment should be centred on the participant.

The case of the National Vending Machine shows that it is possible, albeit difficult, to make a community the heart of a collection, thus reversing the traditional museum collection model. We believe these conclusions and recommendations to be of substantial value to museums that are planning crowd-sourced expositions or are looking for ways to increase participation with their online collections.

Type:

Paper - in formal session

Collections Online

Site:

http://automatiek.innl.nl

Authors:

Jasper Visser

Dennis Tap

Old Masters at your fingertips: the journey of creating a museum app for the iPhone & iTouch

biblio — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:10:52 +0000

Sexton, C., & Lagoudi E. (2010). Old Masters at your fingertips: the journey of creating a museum app for the iPhone & iTouch. (Trant, Jennifer, David Bearman, Ed.).Museums and the Web.