Posted to MCG on behalf of Bob Clark, Director, The Auchindrain Trust

Dear All,

As some of you may have seen, The Auchindrain Trust in Argyll is just starting out on a sort of comparable process. This is thus an interesting discussion, and one to which I hope to be able to return in the coming months with our own strands.

In outline, our situation is as follows. We are a 22-acre "historic site" museum. We are a small independent run by a freestanding charity. As a result of recent research we have a huge volume of information about the site, our collections and their place in the wider context which we want to share with visitors. At present interpretation is deeply inadequate - there is almost nothing out there, and we simply give visitors a printed guidebook that walks them round and offers a bit of information about each place they pass on the way. Because of the nature of the place conventional museum interpretation methods are not possible: we either leave things as they are, or put everything onto a handheld device. However, no-one here has any real knowledge of, or particular personal interest in, the stuff that motivates most MCG members: sorry, everyone can't be good at everything and at least we know our limitations! We thought we were lined up with a technically-competent and interested friend who would hold our hands through the process of deciding what to do, but when it came to it the individual on whom we were relying has unexpectedly declined to be involved ... um.

We have a brief out there seeking Expressions of Interest in a software development contract that would provide us with what we want - part of which would also be to help us develop our strategic thinking about the nature of the user experience into something that is actually deliverable as software, content and hardware. It is, however, already clear from the responses coming back at us that the marketplace contains a range of off-the-shelf apps that their owners claim will be absolutely ideal for our needs (!) as well as people/companies offering to create bespoke apps or web-based solutions for us. For people who in truth barely know what an "app" is, the situation is more than a little terrifying! As a team in the museum we reckon we are good project managers and we do have a strong and clear vision of what we want to achieve. Somewhere within all that we are being offered there lies the optimum solution for our set of circumstances, but with almost no technical knowledge and very limited understanding of the nature and implications or the various available options it is going to be hard to identify it and pick the right people to work with, and then to assess whether they are operating effectively or plying us with bull*it! In the circumstances, I hope that MCG members will not mind us turning to this Forum for assistance.

We are keen, as a matter of some urgency, to engage with someone who will act as our objective technical adviser and mentor. The person we are looking for will obviously not have an interest in bidding for the work itself, and preferably will not as a result of their own experience be an enthusiast for any one particular approach or pre-existing product. They will have a broad spread of knowledge that will enable them to advise on the technical issues involved in synthesising a large volume of information into interpretive material to be made available on a handheld device as visitors walk round a large and complex open-air museum where almost no other interpretation will be available. Our first need is for something of an online tutorial to help us understand what all the potential bidders are talking about in terms of the various options and their advantages and disadvantages. Following that, if in early December we get the "yes" we anticipate to the grant application that would make all this possible, we will need help to evaluate the various proposals that will by then have been submitted, so that we can draw up a shortlist for interview. Then, we'd like our adviser to guide us in being able to ask the right questions and understand the answers in the interviews. Following that, once we have picked who we want to work with we anticipate getting into a huddle with them and the person separately appointed to do the content development, to thrash out how exactly it is all going to work. Having done so, we'd like to be able to run the outcomes past our adviser for an opinion on what they are seeing and if they can see tweaks and twists that would deliver a better result. Finally, we have to allow for the possibility that we might find ourselves in dispute with the people we have picked to work with: who knows, perhaps because we did not fully understand the implications of what they were offering, because they hit problems we feel they should have allowed for, and so on; in such circumstances, we would need to be able to turn to an adviser hovering in the background who could support us.

I have to be honest and say that to a large extent we are looking for an individual who is passionate about the potential for computer hardware and software to do wonderful things in and for museums, and who is prepared to share their knowledge by mentoring a group of well-intentioned neophytes in this business for the satisfaction of seeing a good outcome which others can study and learn from. That said, however, we don't expect something for nothing and would be happy to negotiate an affordable fee in return for for the support we require. We anticipate that all support would be provided remotely, by email, telephone, Skype, etc, and that there would be no expectation of physical attendance at meetings. Although we would intend to let it be known that we do have an expert mentor in the background, to avoid the obvious temptation for contractors to try and run rings round people they will quickly realise are total beginners, we would be happy to keep our mentor's identity confidential to spare them immediate or future awkwardness with people they may well have to deal with in other situations. Finally, we would not expect our mentor to be accountable for anything other than offering advice to the best of their ability: we will make and accept full responsibility for all the decisions.

If you are reading this, think this person might be you, and that over the next 6-9 months you feel you could spare some out-of-hours time to support a good cause - and earn a bit of money as well, please contact me direct at [log in to unmask] Please don't delay - email me today!


Bob Clark
Director
The Auchindrain Trust
mailto:[log in to unmask]


Andrew Lewis
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