'The Digital Object'
Visualisation, interpretation and sustainability.

        UK Museums and the Web 2005, 
        21st April.
        organised by The Museums Computer Group
        hosted by The University of Leicester
      sponsored by The 24 Hour Museum

cost: £40, £30 to MCG members,  
£15 Concessions (students and unwaged). Lunch is included.
Register online at <http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk/meetings/1_2005.htm>


Today, amidst the information age, the idea of 'object', 'visit' and even 'site' have been transformed. The 'collections' visitors engage with are just as likely to be digital in format, bringing with them an array of new curatorial challenges as well as audience expectations. 

The museum community holds one of the richest sources of such information and knowledge available in the world. In communicating this knowledge we need to understand the world of publishing better and consider seriously the permanence of digital material and access to it. At the same time we need to aid understanding of the widest possible audiences by explaining and bringing to life its value to them. A tall order, and all within our limited budgets. 

Squaring up to these major changes, and by drawing together a range of practitioners, consultants, scholars, policy makers and industrialists this year's UK Museums and the Web conference focuses attention on to the 'digital object'.

                Valuing the digital object
                 - Perspectives from outside the sector
                Chris Yapp, Microsoft.

                Publishing the digital object
                 - Including the International Cultural Portal Survey
                Chair: Jon Pratty, 24 Hour Museum.
                        	
                Accessing the digital object
                 - Understanding user experience
                Chair: Marcus Weisen, MLA.

                Defining the digital object
                 - From tangibles, to intangibles ...to e-tangibles? Expanding the            notion of 'museum object'.
                Chair: Ross Parry, University of Leicester.

                Parallel Session a - Learning with the digital object
                Digital technology - expensive substitute for the real thing, or 
                justifiable motivator for learning?
                Chair: Martin Bazley

                Parallel Session b - Future technologies and the digital object
                 - A beginner's guide to the semantic web
                Mike Lowndes, Natural History Museum.

                Parallel Session c - Ownership over the digital object
                 - Digital Rights Management and the Lifecycle of a Digital Object
                Naomi Korn, Museums Copyright Group.
                                	
                Managing the digital object
                 - Best and future practice in digital object management and 
                recording
                Chair: Nick Poole, mda.

                The reality of the digital object:
                 - Engaging with the issues facing small museums 
                Chair: Ian Edelman, Hampshire Museums Service