Thanks for this list: I look forward to seeing it growing…!

One thought - and in part responding to Andrew’s point while also wanting to avoid another web app vs native circular debate (answer: “it depends”) - I’d suggest that the focus of “mobile” as an _experience_ rather than as an _thing_ tends to make us think harder about what this actually means.  

Joy - you may have specific reasons for focusing on “apps” (although then you’re in trouble - as Andrew points out - trying to unearth what is a native app, what is a web app, whether responsive design counts - and how all these things differ..) but in general I think the notion of “mobile-ness” is what’s interesting here.  

In other words, the fact that the user is looking through a small viewport, using gestures, possibly in a different physical environment, able to provide location details to us - that sort of stuff - this seems to me to be where we’ll uncover some real learning and understanding about how to do this well. Andrew and others have already posted some data about what mobile-ness does to their user stats, which makes for fascinating reading - and it’s that side of stuff IMO that we’ll really learn from.

Also: mobile is not tied to “on the device” - so in-gallery spimes, barcodes, locative experiences, Internet Of Things - these are also “mobile”. I talked about all of this at a CETIS thing back in 2010. No idea what happened to my slides but I did a drawing...

http://blog.variousbits.net/2010/11/09/activate-the-world/

On a mobile-related note, I see the Royal Opera House won some R&D money to do some mobile stuff - this went live this week:

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/the-royal-opera-house-website-goes-mobile-ready

I'd be interested to hear from anyone at the ROH about the technical side of stuff. On the surface it looks like “yet another responsive website” but I suspect to win R&D money it probably needs to be more interesting than that! - there’s a link to some geekery (http://native.artsdigitalrnd.org.uk/projects/royal-opera-house/) but some more detail would be interesting.  

cheers

Mike





_____________________________


Mike Ellis  

We do nice web stuff: http://thirty8.co.uk (http://thirty8.co.uk/)   

* My book: http://heritageweb.co.uk (http://heritageweb.co.uk/) *


On Friday, 20 December 2013 at 08:21, Andrew Lewis wrote:

> Hi Joy,
>  
> You appear to have our V&A Apps page listed correctly
> http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/v/apps/ , thanks.
>  
> In general I'd say the trend is away from apps and towards native web
> functionality. It is useful to look at digital service development and
> delivery options as being simply about the experiences you wish to give
> people and how well you can integrate them overall with all your
> cultural offers to them. Not simple by any means, but it is helpful to
> see this more as developing an evolving overall system than a bunch of
> one-off products. This will make updating your list tricky I suspect :)
>  
> On this note, you may notice that the first app listed, the V&A
> Interactive Map is not an app at all. It is a touch-enabled web page
> designed to be used with the fingers on a tablet for playful exploration
> of the V&A. Because it is NOT an app, it can re-use constantly updated
> data from our internal collections and events databases using simple web
> protocols. It is simply a new extension of the V&A's knowledge and
> events evolved to give people the visual and touch experience they have
> come to expect 3 years after the iPad changed the way people access the
> web.
>  
> Andrew
>  
> _________
> Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2013 14:27:18 +0000
> From: Joy Hooper <[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])>
> Subject: Where have all the apps gone?
>  
> Dear all, over the past few weeks I have been compiling a list of apps
> developed by UK cultural institutions in a Google doc, which is
> accessible for all to view. I have included all the relevant apps that
> have been shared in response to Jo Cutting’s call and added a few more
> of my own. The document is based around the top most visited
> institutions in the UK, but I have also included several other examples,
> particularly from the North West.
>  
> Here’s the link: bit.ly/1jQF1qA (http://bit.ly/1jQF1qA)
>  
> Feel free to post any additional apps and I’ll add them to this list.
> I’m also happy to provide access for those who would like to update
> this document themselves.
>  
> This is just a starting point to gage interest, but it is also a
> serious attempt to find out whether the UK cultural sector has, or is
> developing a solution that makes it easy to locate, share and repurpose
> museum apps that are already out there. There is a risk that we reinvent
> the wheel and worst still, miss opportunities to build on the ideas and
> innovation of others. Can anyone shed light on this?
>  
> Thanks,
> Joy
>  
>  
>  
> Andrew Lewis
> Digital Content Delivery Manager
>  
> Digital Media department
> Victoria and Albert Museum
> South Kensington
> London SW7 2RL
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