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MCN Annual Conference 16-19 Nov 2011, Atlanta

Posted by Nancy Proctor on | September 11, 2011 | No Comments

Early Registration ends 24 September for MCN2011 in Atlanta! http://www.mcn.edu/mcn-2011-online-registration

An awesome program on “Hacking the Museum” this year (if I do say so myself ;-) . The Museum Computer Network Conference includes for the first time dedicated program strands on technology for Conservation and Accessibility, as well as opportunities try Hacking and Mash-ups, Arduino, Kinect, ARGs, Augmented Reality, eBooks, going beyond the Blog, reinventing the Museum Website, new kinds of collaborations with Libraries, Archives, and Audiences, and, of course, lots and lots of Mobile fun! http://www.mcn.edu/mcn-2011-atlanta

Category: News & Events

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Museum-Mobile online conference

Posted by Nancy Proctor on | September 11, 2011 | No Comments

October 24-26, 2011 Museum-Mobile online conference http://www.museums-mobile.org

This online conference includes a virtual expo and lots of practical hands-on training in mobile development and management from some of my favorite mobile thinkers! Check out the program at http://www.museums-mobile.org/program-mm3/

Category: News & Events

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AAM’s Technology, Interpretation and Education 2011

Posted by Nancy Proctor on | September 11, 2011 | No Comments

September 20-22, 2011, 11-5pm EST: Technology, Interpretation and Education 2011 – AAM’s Multi-day Online Conference and Virtual Expo Hall: http://www.aam-us.org/getinvolved/learn/tech.cfm

You can get a 15% discount on the Mobile Apps for Museums book through registering for the conference. You can also check out the book’s new blogsite (in development) where we’ll be adding new chapters and continuing the discussions started with the first version of the book: http://mobileappsformuseums.wordpress.com/

Category: News & Events

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Virtuality, Technology & Feminism in the Museum

Posted by Nancy Proctor on | August 22, 2011 | No Comments

Symposium 23-24 Sept 2011 at the Smithsonian

Thanks to the Leverhulme Trust-funded international research network on Feminism and Curating, the Smithsonian is hosting a research symposium 23-24 September 2011 to probe some of the deep ethical questions about technology and museum practice:

  • What’s new about “new media”? It is truly transformative, or just another modernist trope of “innovation”?
  • Is technology really “broadening access” to museums, or just adding more and new faces to the existing structures of power?
  • Can technology play a more critical role in the museum, enabling encounters and counter-narratives that “difference the canon” as Griselda Pollock has called it?

Attendance is free and open to all. More information on the Network website and on the symposium wiki.

The symposium will be preceded on Thu 22 Sept by an evening event from The Smithsonian Associates:
Interview with Professor Pollock by Dr Juliet Bellow

Category: News & Events, Uncategorized

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Museums & Mobile Online Conference II

Posted by Nancy Proctor on | February 19, 2011 | No Comments

March 22-23, 2011 at http://www.museums-mobile.org/

Join us — online — for a worldwide gathering of museum professionals exploring the latest in mobile applications and interpretation. Meet organizations providing products and services. Walk away with practical knowledge, vital skills, and meaningful connections.

  • Learn first-hand from colleagues about existing mobile experiences at cultural institutions internationally — and don’t re-invent the wheel or make the same mistakes!
  • Gather a set of practical in-house guidelines for the successful delivery and operation of a mobile experience at your museum.
  • Hear analysis on the different technology solutions and approaches for delivering a mobile experience, and ask questions to determine what might best for your situation.
  • Engage in healthy debate about the types of content and experience designs that make for a compelling on-site and off-site museum mobile experiences.
  • Explore solutions in the Virtual Expo and engage with vendors about how they work with museums to deliver successful mobile projects.
  • Network with museum colleagues internationally, compare notes, and tap into peer guidance — and all from the comfort of your computer!
Category: News & Events
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Mobile for the Cultural Sector Conference

Posted by Nancy Proctor on | February 19, 2011 | No Comments

8-9 March, 2011, Ravensbourne, London

Register at http://www.camerjam.com/events/mobileculture

Camerjam, CultureLabel.com and Spark are organising a two day conference exploring the use of mobile technology by cultural organisations looking at the opportunities it offers to:

  • generate new content and revenue streams
  • communicate with audiences
  • exploit content and exhibition archives
  • develop new partnerships

Advances in mobile technology over recent years, coupled with increased smartphone penetration and a willingness of people to access information on their mobile devices, presents big opportunities for cultural institutions to increase their audiences and unlock new revenues streams. Smartphones now make up nearly 25% of all UK mobile phones, representing nearly 20 million devices, with this figure forecast to reach 60% by 2015, according to leading mobile analysts, Mobile SQUARED.

The opportunity to connect with audiences on mobile devices presents a massive opportunity to engage with new and existing audiences and create new revenue streams.

The event will be introduced by leaders from the cultural and mobile sectors and will include themes relating to audience experience, mobile merchandising, mobile ticketing, mobile marketing and augmented reality. There will be a series of workshops for attendees on subjects such as business models and revenue streams for apps and how you would market an app.

Who is speaking?

  • Ed Vaizey MP, Minister for Communications, Culture and Creative Industries
  • Sarah Evans, Head of Mobile Internet, O2
  • Craig Hepburn, Global Digital Director, Nokia
  • Jessica Gwyther, Global Content Manager, Vodafone
  • Jonathan MacDonald, Co-founder, this fluid world, Every Single One Of Us and Human Dialogue
  • Louise Downe, Multimedia Producer, Tate
  • Ilicco Elia, Global Head of Consumer Mobile, Thomson Reuters
  • Ed Hodges, Mobile Consultant, Tesco
  • Henry Volans, Head of Digital Publishing, Faber & Faber
  • Katy Whitehead, Head of Interactive Products, HarperCollins
  • David Rowan, Editor, Wired Magazine

Who should attend?

The Mobile for the Cultural Sector Conference will include a wide variety of people from across the Global cultural sector and the technology sector and will bring together the 200+ senior figures from:

  • museum, gallery and cultural sector curators, directors and board members
  • digital specialists
  • commercial strategists
  • pr and marketing teams
  • fund-raising and development specialists
  • quangos and leadership and training bodies
  • mobile app, website and marketing developers
  • advertising, planning and creative advertising agencies
  • network operators, handset manufacturers and technology leaders
Category: News & Events
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Beck Tench: Info Viz from the Trenches

Posted by Nancy Proctor on | February 19, 2011 | No Comments

MIDEA Connect webinar (free & open to all)

Thursday, February 24 at 11am PT / 1pm CT/ 2pm ET (check for local time)

Beck Tench, Director for Innovation and Digital Engagement at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina will speak to us about her approach to Information Visualization in this special session, Info Viz from the Trenches.

Beck is on a quest to convince all knowledge workers (museum professionals, journalists, teachers, physicians, etc.) that information visualization is a new core competency of our work.  She will discuss grassroots information visualization and share the insights she’s gained from creating both good and very bad visualizations.  We’ll approach data broadly, assessing how and when to use words, sketches, tables, graphics and computational programs to communicate the story they tell.

For more information, please visit the event website at http://midea.nmc.org/event/info-viz/.

Sign up at http://go.nmc.org/midea-connect-signup.  You will get a follow-up email closer to the event with the details for how to log in to the webinar. The workshop is free and is sponsored by the Edward and Betty Marcus Foundation

About Beck Tench

Beck Tench is a simplifier, illustrator, story teller and technologist. Formally trained as a graphics designer at the University of North Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, she has spent her career elbow deep in web work of all sorts – from the knowledge work of information architecture and design to the hands dirty work of writing code and testing user experiences. Currently, she serves as Director for Innovation and Digital Engagement at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC where she studies and experiments with how visitors and staff use technology to plan, enhance and share their everyday lives.

 Learn more about Beck Tench and see her beautiful drawings at http://becktench.com/.

Category: News & Events
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Where2.0: Neogeography, Mobile Technologies & Mapping

Posted by Nancy Proctor on | February 19, 2011 | 1 Comment

Andrew Turner, Chief Technology Officer of FortiusOne, creators of GeoCommons

Speaking at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History
Wednesday, February 23rd 12:30 pm Cathy Kerby Room (CE-340)

Contrary to original beliefs that the internet would create insular, online societies, the web has actually increased engagement with place and history. Learn how organizations and individuals are using mobile phones, web technology and digital maps to share collections, document their lives, and build online and real-world connections with their environments.

Andrew focuses on location- and time-based user- generated content and collaboration for GeoCommons, an open, geospatial visualization and analytics platform. He is a engaging speaker with fascinating experiences with community mapping projects ranging from Haiti Earthquake disaster relief to mapping bike trails in Virginia. He has published two O’Reilly books: Introduction to Neogeography and Where2.0: State of the Geospatial Web.

See also Andrew Turner’s blog at highearthorbit.com

Category: News & Events
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Mobile clinic at MCN 2010

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

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
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DC Area Mobile Meetup, 4 Aug 2010, Newseum

Posted by Nancy Proctor on | September 17, 2010 | No Comments

Notes from the inaugural DC-area Mobile Meetup at the Newseum, 4 Aug 2010

-Augmented Reality – how we can utilize that

  1. Navigate mall in DC?
  2. Is there a possibility of collaboration with tourism, city etc.?
  3. Simple one stop shop for people coming into town would be fantastic, is this possible?
  4. Create a standard set of data points that other developers can use to plug into existing apps?
  5. How to create authoritative content
  6. Product like ‘layar’
  7. Is text based technology better? Its less buggy and faster? Products like ‘layar’ are perhaps more cool than they are functional.
  8. Provide helpful touristy information – great to collaborate
  9. Experiential content

10.  App like London app where one can point smartphone device to a place,         landmark etc and see the historical content of that place. Events that happened there etc.

11.  Deeper content

  1. Seeing the actual layers of a painting

12.  Enables people to become more interested in exhibit, in place etc.

13.  Geo-coding

14.  What did this site look like before it was built?

15.  How many people are using layar?

16.  Are our tourists ready for this yet? Will it be used?

  1. Not sure the typical tourist is yet ready
  2. Need to build the infrastructure etc. – prepare for the future of tourism
  3. Maybe not jump right in but build the capacity

17.  Zillo (sp?) most popular app

18.  Layar like content on Google maps? Going to become more and more  common in our society.

19.  What’s the content and how do we use it to help our visitors

-Gyroscope (sp??) J/ new tools

  1. use tool to access data
  2. engagement with other businesses
  3. Interact with actual exhibit
  4. App where you can extend your content outside of the museum – track satellites for NASM? For example
  5. Apps are like potato chips, you gorge on them and they are gone J find a way to create an app people want to hold on to
  6. Move objects inside/ outside a museum
  7. see the planes fly!
  8. Make our content available with already existing platforms like Pandora for folkways music.
  9. location aware devices – indoor

10.  Camera, using face recognition technology to geo locate and get information about wildlife based on what it looks like

11.  text recognition

12.  microphone, track music etc.

13.  Is facebook a tool to use???

14.  Advertising?

15.  What happens if we have to pull our comment out? What happens to our comments etc?

16.  ephemeral connection on social sites like FB

17.  building collections and relationships on FB

18.  Once you commit you have to follow through and find a way to end it if you need to

19.  what is your relationship to each individual that ‘likes’ a FB page? The person who is a huge fan compared to the person who has a “one night stand” with the institution and delikes soon after liking

-Apps for Teens

-Cost and Finances

  1. hard cost and soft cost
  2. what does it cost for us to do it v somebody else to do it?
  3. Shared revenue
  4. custom app 10-40, 000 average price
  5. 100 – 1500 dollars a month to host on their server
  6. longevity
  7. capitol and operating costs
  8. if nobody knows you’ve got an app they won’t use it! Must market!
  9. customer service

10.  wireless coverage – all the people with itouch etc.

- Research – What do we know?

  1. Audience segmentation
    1. Adaption
    2. Just because I have the phone doesn’t mean I want to use it to interact with your institution
    3. Will it be used?
    4. Age was not a predictor
    5. Prior visits to the museum was also not a predictor
    6. How do we describe the 7 percent that will use it so that it will be usable
    7. People with young children will not be using this technology
    8. On site content based
  2. Audio tour
  3. about one third is not aware of what they can do with their phone
  4. there is a layer of appeal
  5. half the people used it in a social way
    1. emphasize the social features of the phone
    2. great audio tours would have people interacting
    3. a lot more opportunity to design
  6. Is mobile a technology to be focused inside or outside the four walls
  7. do people come to a museum for a social experience?
  8. people aren’t interested in X museum they are interested in X content
  9. Art museum in Baltimore that took a dollar off tix because it actually enhanced people’s visits to the overall museum.

10.  Multiple content platforms

- Mapping out range

- Standards?

- User generated content

1. How will we supplement that

2. Tagging

3. Visitors help with geotagging?

4. Be able to tag something and see where it has been all over the world

5. Flickr commons project

6. Smart to build on a community that already exists

7. Extraordinarines – mobile company that creates apps and games ex: app for help translating tags, translate into French or English so that they could be more easily usable.

8. Geocode for America? All the national treasures

9. Crowd sourcing – University of Wisconsin?

10. two kinds of content – casual comments likes favorites – nice to have not reusing. Second – someone makes a video, takes a photo etc.

a. what is the infrastructure we need to support it?

b. how to verify, what do we verify etc.?

11. Flickr generated content NMNH

a. content that comes from this source is tagged

b. do have a ‘not trusted’ folder

c. volunteers from scientific organization interact with content on site, can relabel something and ‘trust’ it or ‘not trust’ it

d. most content comes from other sources

e. EOL – NMNH

f. recruiting curators is a challenge

12. Reviews and comments, content that you really want to use to bring people to the museums

a. who we are etc?

b. what are the top 5 reviews?

c. which museums are rated higher?

13. Be very clear what we want back from the audience, what do we really want?

a. ask has to be tailors to elicit the correct kind of user generated content.

- Mobile web vs. App

  1. Why is it vs? why isn’t it and?
  2. Start with mobile and use tracking data to develop app
  3. Why do people want an app?
  4. It was a visitor expectation
  5. People don’t know how to browse to a mobile website
  6. Download time for mobile websites, apps its already in there – not as tedious, much faster
  7. App allows you to do things that you can’t do on the web
  8. A lot of times its hard to get to the ‘real’ fixed website. Often people want the content on the real site.
  9. Functionality
  10. Small and fast vs large and slow
  11. Take away the form of platforms
  12. Museums should be platform independent, let the user choose their content
  13. Take experience, have it on laptop and have the same experience on your phone
  14. Can’t remember last time bought physical piece of software – apps are easily available you just download it
  15. For some reason people seem to think apps are better than mobile sites
  16. Not enough mobile sites available?
  17. Apps provide revenue stream that mobile web won’t be able to do
  18. App can generate specific interest – pay to check out this exhibit on your phone about monet – more specific, get people very interested and will want to pay
  19. People were largely against SFMOMA having a paid app
  20. Smithsonian folkways has an app – cost over 60 thousand, only worked for iphone
  21. Gyroscopes app ?

- Question of connectivity

1. Can we assume people will have a network connection?

2. Does it matter that we can reach everyone?

3. Are we just created a targeted tool?

4. How do we make this something available for everyone?

- Guidelines for mobile activity?

- Video, captioning?

- Collaboration

  1. Centralized list of apps
  2. One dc site? Official dc tourism site?
  3. How many places can it live?
  4. Build a database so that anyone can grab it and embed it?
  5. Tourml – standard way to reference tours
  6. Develop apps for people that may not make it to the museum
  7. Visitors want both freedom and structure – way to customize?
  8. Layering more content becomes problematic
  9. People really liked having a community even if they don’t use it. Might be good to have the option but not many will use it.
  10. 4 square
  11. Using platforms that are already out there, where our audience already is
  12. Add tips to all local venues
  13. Tie in incentives and specials to drive people to different institutions
  14. Are we ready for collaboration? – we aren’t doing it now, is Mobile going to actually be able to bring us together?
  15. Mock app – foods they had nearby restaurants, why not nearby museums? If everyone did this there is a real cross reference grid
  16. A way to integrate RSS feeds from each museums events page, its there and the user can choose what kind of content they want to see
  17. DC culture calendar
  18. Google will always be a player
  19. Other locations

The vendors who exhibited at the Fair are listed below; you can find more information about some of them in the Products and Services section of this wiki:

  1. SCVNGR
  2. Willow Tree Apps
  3. Toura
  4. PointAbout
  5. Tristan Interactive
  6. Nousguide
  7. Moblmedia
  8. XCO
  9. Acoustiguide
  10. Audissey
  11. IdéeClic
  12. Accenture
Category: DC-area mobile collaborations, Museums to Go, News & Events, Uncategorized

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