Hey Nico
We’re doing some experimental kiosk/touchscreen prototypes running WordPress (on a Pi, although it could be anything running a pretty standard LAMPy environment) and using CultureObject (http://cultureobject.co.uk/) to pull in collections data from various sources. The “provider" model supports various collections management systems (currently AdLib, CultureGrid, KE Emu, CollectionSpace - others coming soon) as well as an early stage CSV import option. Also in the pipeline is a touchscreen-friendly “kiosk” theme.
Benefit of using WP as opposed to something bespoke are pretty well defined:
1) Can be made to look nice (which is where IMO many existing solutions fall over pretty badly)
2) Open source, so you’re always going to be able to find a friendly dev to help with new visual / tech changes - and not beholden to any particular company
3) Well-tested, solid, simple tech environment - no desktop apps, easy to dial in and edit content, etc etc
I’ve done some work recently looking at KioskPro running on an iPad - it’s a nice solution, and the option to pull in / sync with external datasources like Dropbox makes for content that can be changed relatively easily. But - it’s always going to be relatively flat content. Although KioskPro does have a simple forms / javascript API you’re not going to be able to deliver stuff like collections searches, paging, any kind of interaction without getting horribly hacky.
As it happens, we’ve also been playing with whether it’s possible to effectively dump out WordPress edited pages as flat HTML for this sort of environment, but that’s a whole other story..
Happy to talk through the Pi / CultureObject stuff if you need - [log in to unmask]
cheers!
Mike
_____________________________
Mike Ellis
Thirty8 Digital: a small but perfectly formed digital agency: http://thirty8.co.uk
* My book: http://heritageweb.co.uk *
On 11 March 2016 at 11:25:42, Nicolas Tyack ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
Hi all,
This is my first foray into the world of MCG posting but thought you were all the ideal people to help me.
I've been reading with interest various recent threads about touchscreens, digital stories etc, and I wonder if anyone out there has had any good experiences with creating in-gallery collections explorer interactives for touchscreens.
I've had a look at off-the-shelf packages such as IntuiFace and Kiosk Pro and thought I'd ask you all if you have either good or bad experiences with them or similar systems?
The key thing for us (as with many museum without in-house tech support) is keeping costs as low as possible, and ideally having some software which can be re-used for future exhibitions. Flexibility of design, look, style etc is therefore key, and it's important to have something we can do ourselves rather than go to external designers and software experts. Another ideal situation would be something that can link in to our collections management system API so we can power the interactive from the CMS and not a separate system, but that might be asking too much!
Thanks in advance,
Nico
Nico Tyack, Documentation Officer
Museums and Galleries, Cultural Services, City of Edinburgh Council
Museum of Edinburgh, 142 Canongate, Edinburgh, EH8 8DD
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