Colleagues/

IMHO: Libraries/Librarians Have Much To Learn From Museum Mobile Initiatives

/Gerry

The past decade has seen a great increase in mobile options for museum
interpretation: cell phone tours, podcasts, audio tours, text-message tours
and audio, video and text Smartphone applications. Learn how to implement
and leverage these technologies from mobile media experts Nancy Proctor and
Titus Bicknell in a special 2-day seminar presented by the Balboa Park
Online Collaborative [http://www.bpoc.org/]  and Balboa Park Learning
Institute:

Going Mobile: Planning For Audience, Content And Technology In The Museum

Tuesday, February 16 / Wednesday, February 17, 2010  > 9:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m.

San Diego Hall of Champions Sports Museum / 2131 Pan American Plaza / Balboa
Park /  San Diego, CA

What >

This two-day seminar is for museum professionals who want to explore the
value of mobile devices and portable computing for their institutions,
patrons and learners with renowned leaders in the new media field. Attendees
will learn how to evaluate technology platforms and options, create
interpretive content and deploy systems for supporting them. Day 1 will
emphasize content and strategy and Day 2 will focus on technology and
strategy. [snip]

Who >

This seminar is cross-disciplinary and appropriate for executive, content
(education, marketing, etc.) and technical staff. We encourage people to
attend in cross-functional teams. (Special group rates apply.)

Cost >

Special price! $45 for one day, $75 for both!

[snip]

Register by Thursday, February 11, 2010 at [log in to unmask] ; please include
your name, title, organization and email address.

This program is co-presented by the Balboa Park Online Collaborative and the
Balboa Park Learning Institute. The Balboa Park Online Collaborative is a
collaborative technology project of The Legler Benbough Foundation. The
Balboa Park Learning Institute is a collaborative professional development
program supported in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services,
the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, and the 24 members of
the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership.

Agenda

February 16 2010 > Led by Nancy Proctor, Head of New Media, Smithsonian
American Art Museum

Day 1: Mobile experience & content design

Why mobile? What is mobile? Why is it growing so fast? How this will impact
museum interpretation and education in the short, medium & longer terms.
Overview of the design methodologies that will be used today.

Identifying your audience(s) both on-site & online. Know your audience in
order to build a successful program. The evolving nature of audiences:
consider John Falk's new way of describing & categorizing audiences: what
does each of these audience segments require from their mobile experience?
what about non-visitors? Identify & prioritize the target audience(s) for
the mobile interpretation program.

Translating aims & objectives into key messages 45 min: ensuring your mobile
interpretation program supports your organization's mission.

Introduction to Question Mapping & the 'SmartHistory' conversational
approach to interpretation

Question Mapping

Hands on, on site: on maps of each Balboa Park sites, plot the questions
that come to mind when visiting, at the locations where the questions occur.
Consider ways of including actual visitors from different target audience
segments in this survey. This will require participants to be on-site so
will require 2-3 hours depending on transportation time.

Question Map analysis; finalize interpretive plan Short presentation of
methodology for translating the question maps into an interpretive plan;
introduction of worksheets.

Optional content production session > Using the Woices iPhone app, record
audio commentaries (soundtracks or sound bites) for selected points of
interest according to the site's interpretive plan.

February 17 2010 > Led by Titus Bicknell, Director Information Technology,
Experius LLC

Day 2: Mobile Platforms And Delivery

Choosing a platform: what the content/audiences require vs. what the
infrastructure & business model demand.

Which train(s) are you on: choosing platforms that suit your venue, content
AND audience - web, kiosk, audio tour, cell phone tour, MM tour, podcast,
webcast, vodcast, catalog, wall text, label, docent NB the best answer may
be the least technical.

CMS vs CAT: are you authoring content or assembling it from existing sources
and how that affects decision about data and meta data management.

API and ROI: it is a nice idea to pull data from existing sources but it
might not be cost effective - how to assess ingestion, synchronization or
double data entry options

Front end/back end, couture vs pret a porter: what to customize and what to
use of the shelf even if it seems limiting

In-house vs outsource: where control is valuable, where participating in
extra-organizational economy of scale adds value

Scale and scalability: how to avoid being a victim of your own success a la
Jane Austin

Speakers

Nancy Proctor, Head of New Media, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Bio [snip]

Titus Bicknell, Director Information Technology, Experius LLC

Bio [snip]

Access To Source(s) / Full Details / Relevant Links Available At

[ http://tinyurl.com/ylg492p ]

Regards,

/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

Follow Me On Twitter > http://twitter.com/GMcKBlogs

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