MuseumMobile Wiki

Media and Technology on the Go

Mobile FAQs

You can blog your questions about mobile interpretation for museums and cultural institutions here, or tweet them with the #mtogo hashtag and we'll add them to this page.

NB: You'll need editing privileges in order to create and update posts to this section.
  • Register and email us to get set up (takes about 24 hours).
  • Please categorize your posts "Mobile FAQs" to get them to appear on this page.

Alternatively, you can tweet your questions using the widget under the login bar at the bottom right of each page of this site. Don't forget to include the #mtogo hashtag!

If you'd like to chime in with an answer to an FAQ, please add it by clicking on the 'Replies' link below the question.

Questions from the Mobile “Un-tours” Workshop at MW2011

Posted by Nancy Proctor on | April 3, 2011 | 1 Reply

Before MW2011 started, these are the questions and aspirations that attendees sent us for the workshop:

Planning:

  • I think we want a mobile app, but don’t have the first idea where to start.
  • I  hope to get some ideas about models for developing mobile apps/pitfalls to avoid for institutions that do not have media departments or computer engineers on staff and are on closely managed project budgets.

Tools:

  • How can we use low-cost tools that a non-programmer could publish on their own (what is the best software for this and “best practices” so as to prevent pitfalls)?
  • Should we go with a web app or native app?
  • What does HTML5 offer?
  • How can we best use visual recognition and QR codes/Tags?
  • How can we create user-generated content tools with access permissions that allow the content producer to predetermine who can see their contributions?

Data & inspiration:

  • I’m looking for new ideas about how to approach designing, developing, and delivering interpretive content to our visitors.
  • Need examples of what people/institutions are doing that goes beyond the traditional tour / audio guide.
  • Hoping to learn about what might be on the horizon in this ever expanding field.
  • We need a literature review of how apps are serving visitors at peer institutions.
  • Data-supported research on what works and what doesn’t for visitors.

Audiences:

  • I  hope to better understand the audiences for mobile apps–who are they, what do they want, etc.
  • How can we encourage and optimize audience engagement?
  • I’m looking for creative possibilities for teachers in the world of apps!
  • I’m eager to learn how colleagues from around the globe and from different size/budget institutions are finding creative ways to develop apps in the service of museum education;

Experiences:

  • How apps are being used to augment the overall museum experience.
  • About game-based apps for all ages (not just kids/families).
  • Thinking of the interesting collaborations that would occur and the cross-pollination of ideas to be generated in trying to build or understand pathways for visitors to engage in meaningful, mission-focused work and content creation.
Category: Mobile FAQs, Uncategorized

Reflections from MCN conference, October 27-30

Posted by M.Jeff on | November 9, 2010 | 1 Reply

Hello MuseumMobile!

I am prolific note-taker and thought I’d post some of my reflections from the recent Museum Computer Network Annual Conference in Austin, Texas, October 27-30. I’m sharing all my notes (I took about 15 pages), but wanted to at least share some of the key points I gathered from the different sessions I attended. Remember too that this is the way I interpreted the sessions, so please post comments and share ideas. Especially if you disagree with my findings!!! Sharing is how we learn from each other. Here goes:

Summary of Key Findings:

  • Infrastructure is Key. We can’t have programs emphasizing different technologies unless we have the bandwidth, reception and connectivity to support.  This is Issue Number One.
  • Technology programs are not intuitive. People don’t know how to jump right in and use the technologies we are developing for them. This is Issue Number Two.
  • Are we developing products people want? There seems to be a discrepancy between what visitor research is telling us and what we are actually producing. Mobile lends itself to spontaneity and social behavior, but creating a specific tour program seems to directly conflict with these opportunities.
  • Using vague descriptions of “technology” scare people because they are unknown. Emphasizing specific technologies, like QR codes, social networks, apps, video production, etc are concrete examples of use and specific applications.
  • Our role as staff working with Educational Technologies is to increase curatorial opportunities to develop interactions between visitors and content.
  • Common navigation of programs is virtually non-existent. Every different app and program seems designed in a vacuum from others so there is little chance of creating some kind of common navigational behavior.
  • Programs are not cross-platform. Websites are the closest thing to widely distributed access, but in-gallery programs seem to emphasize I-phones. This limits the number of people we are connecting with. Some museums are trying the distributed-technologies approach (handing our I phones at the VIARC desk), but programs should really be using the technologies people already have. If you hand it out, be prepared on-site to fix it and explain how it works!
  • New technologies being developed encourage visitor interaction and self-directed research, which means incorrect answers are part of the process. We need to do a better job of facilitating visitor interactions and being able to help them take more ownership of the experience in a productive manner.

Thanks,

Jeff Meade

Category: Crit Room, Mobile FAQs, Uncategorized

A Hatchet Job on the Capitol Visitor Center’s Audio Tour

Posted by Nancy Proctor on | October 15, 2010 | No Replies

On Oct 5, 2010 Erika Lovley published “Health, safety risks alleged at Capitol Visitor Center” in Politico, alleging that “lice and body fluids” had been seen on the audio tour headsets provided at the US Capitol Visitor Center.

In over a decade of working with audio tours and the like in museums around the world, I have never heard such rubbish. Citing conveniently anonymous ‘Visitor Center employees’ as the whistle-blowers, this article’s abuse of journalistic integrity beggars belief: anyone who has spent more than 5 seconds working with or witnessing an audio tour operation would know that this concern is completely absurd, and the photo in the article as well as the statement from Capitol spokeswoman Eva Malecki illustrate perfectly the standard procedures for maintaining headphones in the audio tour industry.

I challenge Politico and Lovely to find one substantiated example of the health and safety of audio tour guests being negatively impacted in the 60-some years audio tours have been distributed to hundreds of millions of cultural visitors globally; the publishers should be ashamed of such fear-mongering and sensationalist journalism, clearly aimed at undermining the US Capitol Visitor Center and providing a platform for the anti-Obama rants of the trolls that commented on the article, not any helpful information in the public interest.

Category: Mobile FAQs, Museums to Go, Reviews, Uncategorized

Mobile clinic at MCN 2010

Posted by Nancy Proctor on | October 3, 2010 | No Replies

A cross between agony column and war room, this ‘unconference’ style workshop begins as soon as you sign up. Through the MCN2010 wiki, you are invited to pose your questions and mobile interpretation challenges; if they are based on actual projects you’re working on, all the better. Our aim is to plan real mobile solutions you can implement.

The workshop will include an overview of the following areas of mobile solutions development, with the opportunity to go in-depth on the aspects that participants are most interested in:

  1. Mobile strategy: What is it? Do you need one? How can we weave mobile into the big picture of information and information systems at the museum? How do we future-proof our mobile solutions in a landscape of such rapidly-changing technology choices?
  2. Mobile business models: What role(s) can mobile play in the business of the museum? Should museums charge for apps and mobile services, or aim to make them free to achieve greater outreach? How do we decide?
  3. Mobile audiences: Understanding who uses mobile now in museums through a look at recent research and best practices in audience-led evaluations of mobile needs.
  4. Mobile content and experience design: Tools, strategies and best practices for developing mobile content and experiences that are led by audience and museum needs, not by the technology. Brainstorming of mobile experience models ‘beyond’ the audiotour. Includes an introduction to mobile content standards and the initiative underway that includes a summit at MCN the afternoon after this workshop.
  5. FAQs: Common concerns and some answers to help get buy-in internally for mobile programs and overcome fears of phones and screens in the galleries etc.

The workshop leader, Nancy Proctor, will respond to your questions and goals by creating and linking to resources online that answer your mobile needs in a public forum so others can learn from and add to the solutions provided as well. The online dialogue will culminate in the on-site workshop where we can compare projects and collaboratively learn and develop solutions.

Some initial resources:

  1. Mobile Strategy: Smithsonian Mobile Strategy Introduction and September 2010 update; on future-proofing see Rob Stein and Jason DaPonte at Tate Handheld Conference
  2. Business models: Nancy Proctor at Tate Handheld Conference; Peter Samis at Tate Handheld Conference
  3. Mobile audiences: Smithsonian Mobile Wiki; Museum Mobile Wiki
  4. Mobile content and experience design: Balboa Park Mobile Workshop; Slides and Worksheets; examples from Tate, Kew Gardens, Dallas Museum of Art and Stedelijk Museum; on mobile content standards
  5. FAQs on the Museum Mobile Wiki – add yours!

The aim is to help you find the mobile answers that meet your and your audiences’ needs so that you leave the workshop with a workable plan for mobile interpretation at your organization, and a range of online resources that put the expertise of mobile experts from around the globe at your disposal for future developments.

Category: Business Models, Mobile FAQs, Mobile Technology, Museums to Go, News & Events
Tags: > > > > > > > > > > > >

Building a multimedia guide on the iPhone with web technology

Posted by Jan Bossier on | September 23, 2010 | No Replies

We wrote an article about the web technologies we used to build a mobile multimedia iPhone app, including jQuery, jQTouch and Phonegap. Be sure to read it on our blog at artspot.be.

Category: Mobile FAQs, Mobile Technology, Reviews
Tags: > > > > > >

The coming of FORGE

Posted by juncanoo on | July 8, 2010 | No Replies

This post is about FORGE, our upcoming release. Simply put, FORGE is a mobile publishing platform for cultural institutions, particularly museums, zoos, parks, tourist, sites, gardens and the like, and when it’s released in August 2010, it will make mobile publishing easy

Want a free iPhone app?

During the beta period (starting August 2010), we’ll waive the iPhone app set-up fee for 50 cultural institutions who complete the Go Mobile 2010 survey. What this means is, if you complete the survey, your institution will be eligible to get an iPhone app for NO SET-UP FEE ($500 value) and we’ll also waive your first month’s hosting fee ($100 value). We’ll notify you by July 30 if you qualify for the free iPhone App. (you will, however, be responsible for the $100 monthly hosting fee after your first month).

What you get

The benefits of using FORGE are extensive, and include

  • Custom, branded mobile app, downloadable from the iTunes Store (for iPhone) or Android Market (for Android devices)
  • Custom, branded mobile website, optimized for smartphone screens
  • Robust Content Management System for simultaneously updating your apps and mobile website in real time
  • Periodic upgrades – as we add features, you get them.
  • Help through the approval process

What it costs

FORGE is simple and inexpensive to use. You pay:

  • a $500 set-up fee* for each platform (iPhone or Android)
  • a monthly hosting fee of either
    • $100/month* for Free Apps, or
    • 15% of App Sales revenue for Paid apps
  • FREE mobile website

*covers 10,000 active monthly users, (combined across your iPhone and Android users) and $0.01 per active user per month over 10,000

How it works;

To go mobile with FORGE, you simply

  1. signup & login,
  2. design your app,
  3. add tours to it, and
  4. hit publish.

Your android app and mobile website are available immediately, and your iPhone app is submitted to Apple for approval. This typically takes 5 – 7 business days, but ultimately is up to Apple.

Go Mobile, Now.

If you’re one of the following, and you want to get on the iPhone, please fill out the Go Mobile 2010 survey to be eligble for a free trial:

Museum, Art Gallery, Zoo, County, City, or State Park, Convention, Tourism or Visitor Travel Centre or Bureau, Heritage or Historical Site, Aquarium, Botanical Garden, Arboretum, Guided Tour Operator, Tour Producer, College or University. FORGE is optimized for these institutions and more.

Please send questions, comments, suggestions and ideas to ayo[at]juncanoo.com

Category: Business Models, Crit Room, Mobile FAQs, Museums to Go

An intro to content strategy

Posted by Ed Rodley on | May 21, 2010 | No Replies

This blog post from A List Apart is still my favorite introduction to the realm of content strategy.  Kristina Halvorson (follow her @halvorson!) is right on the money.  Useful for anyone staring at a pile of ideas and trying to decide how to parcel them out in multiple media for multiple audiences.

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/thedisciplineofcontentstrategy/

Category: Mobile FAQs

21st Century Literacies

Posted by Ed Rodley on | May 21, 2010 | No Replies

I’ve been thinking a lot about this year’s pedagogical catchphrase: “21st century skills.” Regardless of where you stand on them, this post from Cathy Davidson at HASTAC lists ten literacies that will be crucial to our audiences.  How can mobile technologies help visitors practice these literacies?

http://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/twenty-first-century-literacies

Category: Mobile FAQs

What factors should we consider BEFORE making an app?

Posted by Nancy Proctor on | March 22, 2010 | 2 Replies

For the @HolocaustMuseum‘s tweet-up on mobile for social good, @1goodpotato asks: “What factors should newbies consider BEFORE making an app?”

Category: Mobile FAQs
Tags: > > >

Have you used Placethings?

Posted by admin on | March 21, 2010 | No Replies

Have you used @PlaceThings http://www.placethings.com/ mobile social media & storytelling platform? #thatcamp #mtogo

Category: Mobile FAQs, Uncategorized
Tags: > > > > >

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