Dear all,
Sarah MacLean suggested I circulate this on the forum today. This afternoon I'm going to the REACT Hub Heritage Sandbox showcase event at the Bristol Watershed. Details here http://www.react-hub.org.uk/heritagesandbox/news/
Essentially over the last few months with funding from AHRC six pilot projects have been exploring different approaches in using new technology for public engagement. We have been involved with the City Strata project that is a partnership between University of the West of England, ourselves and a creative economy partner, Calvium. The project is using our HER data about historic cinemas in the city within a mobile phone app.
The technical challenge for the creative partner was to enable live streaming of the HER data including images direct from our database to the mobile. This is in contrast to a standard app where the data is contained within the app that you download as a whole package. We also wanted the app to enable user generated or crowdsourced data to be added to the HER in the same approach that we have taken for Know Your Place. Obviously this approach only works with good wifi connections, but I have tested it with a reasonable 3G connection without a problem.
Although the result of the project is not a fully worked up app, Calvium have a proof of concept that can be used as the basis for creating an app that is both enaging for the user, but that also has the potential for enriching our data.
The other five projects look very interesting, although they are more location specific and relate more to museum or heritage attraction visitor experience. All well worth a look.
Pete
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