museumsandtheweb.com - API

Virtual Repatriation and the Application Programming Interface: From the Smithsonian Institution’s MacFarlane Collection to “Inuvialuit Living History”

Kate Hennessy — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 19:51:05 +0000

MW2012

Kate Hennessy, Simon Fraser University, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Canada; Ryan Wallace and Nicholas Jakobsen, Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Canada; Charles Arnold, University of Calgary, Canada

Abstract

Digital technologies are providing heritage institutions and stakeholder publics with new possibilities for sharing curatorial and ethnographic authority. More than creating access to museum collections, institutional practices of making digital records public have opened spaces for “virtual repatriation” and the production of alternative representations of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

Program Item Reference:

Virtual Repatriation and the Application Programming Interface: From the Smithsonian Institution's MacFarlane Collection to ‘Inuvialuit Living History’

The Rijksmuseum API

LizzyJongma — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:37:12 +0000

MW2012

Keywords:

API

Keywords:

open data

Keywords:

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Abstract:

In November 2011 The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam launched its API (Application Programming Interface) as part of the contest “Apps4NL” (Apps for The Netherlands). It didn’t take the Collection Information Department and webbuilders long to develop a technical plan, build and launch the API platform. Our quality driven and structured approach of collection automation helped us enormously.

How did we design our API and implement Open Data for our Collection Information? What standards and structures were implemented to get our data open (easily)? And what are our experiences with Open Data?

In this practical demonstration we would like to give an insight in the Rijksmuseum API project:

how do we enter information in structured formats in our collection information databases,
how do we deal with copyright and legal issues,
what Open Data strategies did we choose,
how did we build our API,
how did our colleagues and the outside world respond (and how did we explain what we were doing)?

In the last month 75 developers have subscribed to our API, four Apps were built with our collection and we have national and international requests for information and cooperation. We would like to present our Open Data project from biginning to end and discuss our experiences with colleagues at the conference.

We would also like to share our plans for the future: how can Open Data help us to create more, new and better ways of distributing our collections and how can our API help us get new insights and gain more information about our collections?

Links and information:
www.rijksmuseum.nl/api
http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/vrc/2011/12/09/high-quality-images-from-the-amsterdam-rijksmuseum/

Type:

Demonstration - show your project

MW2012 Demonstrations II

Site:

http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/API

Authors:

Lizzy Jongma

Weaving and hacking collections

Paul Stork — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:32:33 +0000

MW2012

Keywords:

API

Keywords:

open data

Keywords:

Linked Open Data

Keywords:

mashup

Keywords:

hacking

Abstract:

In this hands-on workshop we are going to create concepts and use cases based on available online resources. Using the API's of our colleagues we like to research how we can make new experiences for our (online) visitors when combining our joint collections.

We are going to kick off with a short brainstorming session and pick the best ideas to conceptualize. These concepts will be our starting point. Not only will we think and talk about how to create a good user experience out of this, we will start building and implementing it on the spot.

Anyone with an interest in open data can join as long as you are willing to take part in the actual creation of an online experience. We need people who can design, code, write requirements, and people who can conceptualize ideas and curate these. And the good thing is: It won't stop after half a day. We will continue building an online experience during a three day Hackathon during MW2012. Anyone can join in, all skills are needed.

Our goal is to present a joint effort and a concrete result during closing sessions on Saturday. To create a genuine co-operation between institutions and museum professionals, between coders and curators and have some real fun with really great content.

Type:

Workshop - full or half day

Weaving and hacking collections

Authors:

Paul Stork

Kars Veling

Matthijs van der Meulen

Hein Wils

Ebelien Pondaag

Lukas van Driel

Anna Offermans

Reprogramming The Museum

luke.dearnley — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:32:16 +0000

MW2011

Luke Dearnley, Powerhouse Museum, Australia

Abstract

This paper looks at how the Powerhouse Museum's collection data API launched in 2010 quantitatively and qualitatively improves upon the access provided by the download dataset previously offered, as well as how the tracking methods were built into the API to ensure that the project is best able to adapt to the user needs of API developers. It provides details on the lessons learned and suggests best practices for API development in the cultural sector.

Keywords: Web 2.0, API, collection access, Flickr, semantic web, Creative Commons

Program Item Reference:

Reprogamming the Museum

Building a cultural calendar

biblio — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:34:51 +0000

Bostick, B. (2010). Building a cultural calendar. (Trant, Jennifer, David Bearman, Ed.).Museums and the Web 2010. Proceedings.

Casgliad y Werin Cymru - People’s Collection Wales: combining museum, library, archive, broadcaster and user-generated content to create “Wales in a website”.

Tom Pert — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:10:56 +0000

MW2011

Published Paper:

Casgliad y Werin Cymru – People's Collection Wales: Combining Museum, Library, Archive, Broadcaster and User-Generated Content to Create "Wales in a Website"

Keywords:

user-generated

Keywords:

open-source

Keywords:

API

Keywords:

geo-spatial

Keywords:

apps

Abstract:

Casgliad y Werin Cymru – The People’s Collection Wales is more than just a website, it is a collaborative and federated programme developed by national institutions to tell the story of a nation from the perspective of its people. Drawing upon the memories, photographs, video, audio and 3D resources of national, regional and local archives, as well as user-generated content from groups and individuals, the website is creating a resource that places heritage media in its temporal and spatial context, and encourages all users not just to view but to contribute and re-use this media in innovative ways.

In the proposed paper, staff from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, the National Museum Wales, the National Library of Wales, and the People’s Collection Wales’ Programme Manager will explain the development of this open-source system which integrates material from organisations with very different business models and data structures, and blends it through its API into a set of geo-aware digital cultural heritage resources that make sense to the end-user.

The speakers will explain the federated management model under which the programme operates, a model that draws upon the strengths of all partners to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Speakers will make clear the moderation system that has been implemented to ensure that all material uploaded to the site is legal and can be re-used by others for educational and non-commercial purposes.

The People’s Collection Wales has innovation at its core – the site already operates on multiple platforms, with novel tools and apps developed to assist users to create new, and re-use existing resources; the development and application of these will be explored.

The StoryBuilder tool allows users to bring together image, audio and video items from the site and repackage them, through an intuitive online movie-maker style tool, into brand new video sequences with their own metadata and spatio-temporal context.
Using the TrailBuilder tool, users can create geographical trails with related media located along a route. Each trail becomes an item in the People’s Collection, to be viewed online, printed or delivered to smartphones via the free Trails Cymru app.
The Trails Cymru app itself not only enables the user to access and view trails from the People’s Collection Wales system, it is also a tool for creating trails in the field. Using the app it is possible to record a route, capture geo-located audio, video and images along this route and upload the finished trail to the People’s Collection Wales website direct from the smartphone.

The People’s Collection Labs provides a showcase area for the most innovative developments in digital heritage presentation in Wales, and acts as a portal for developers to communicate their ideas on webGIS, augmented-reality, laser scanning, visualisation, and all that’s new in online presentation of heritage media. The latest developments arising from the People’s Collection Wales’ ongoing innovation programme will be explained.

Type:

Paper - in formal session

User-Generated Community

Site:

http://www.peoplescollectionwales.com

Authors:

Tom Pert

Dafydd James

Reprogamming the Museum

luke.dearnley — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:54:19 +0000

MW2011

Published Paper:

Reprogramming The Museum

Keywords:

API

Keywords:

collections

Keywords:

Semantic Web

Keywords:

Web 2.0

Keywords:

Web applications

Keywords:

museum practice

Keywords:

collections online

Abstract:

Many museums have been busy building APIs since the Brookyln Museum set the example, and in 2009 the Powerhouse made the decision to offer a much of its collection data downloadable as a data dump. The decision was primarily a pragmatic one, as the Museum wanted to test the waters and examine how the data might be best used before dedicating resources to developing a full API. The release of data was timed to coincide with a number of 'government 2.0' activities occurring in Australia, and it was hoped that by providing downloadable data, it would be used in government 2.0 mashup contest. In the end, several individuals in the contests did make use of the data - the most notable being Flip Explorer, a dynamic catalogue created for in-gallery use by two developers who were not known to the Powerhouse. However the best usage was by the Digital NZ project that incorporated it into their search - thus providing access across many New Zealand websites.

Drawing on the in-sector work of Bernstein (2008), Ellis (2008, 2009), and Morgan (2009) as well as that of Digital NZ; as well as similar APIs provided by Flickr, Open Library, OCLC Worldcat and others, the Powerhouse has reconsidered the appropriate functionality of a museum API.

As the Powerhouse had already deployed several techniques to add value and meaning to the collection data - 'folksonomic' tags drawn both from the Powerhouse site and the Flickr Commons, as well as Flickr comments and geolocation data (and more) about objects, as well as semantic information mined using Thompson Reuters' Calais Tagging API; and an extensive log of the relationships between search terms and objects - it was decided that this structured data should also be made available.

This is in stark contrast to the original data dump that simply contained a subset of descriptive fields about collection objects. Thus the enhanced API allows access into our collection from the starting point of themes, collections, categories, subjects and object popularity rather than just objects.

Drawing on the work of Chan (2010) the API use and its resulting output is able to be tracked in some detail, allowing the Museum to monitor the return on investment of the the provision of the API service.

This paper looks at how the API launched in 2010 quantitatively and qualitatively improves upon the access provided by the data dump, as well as how the tracking methods were built into the API to ensure that the project is best able to adapt to the user needs of API developers. It provides details on the lessons learned and suggests best practices for API development in the cultural sector.

Type:

Paper - in formal session

Collections Online

Authors:

Luke Dearnley

How to manage and build a web collections search project in a museum

biblio — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:10:49 +0000

Morgan, R. (2010). How to manage and build a web collections search project in a museum. (Trant, Jennifer, David Bearman, Ed.).Museums and the Web.

Cosmic Collections: creating a big bang

biblio — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:10:45 +0000

Ridge, M. (2010). Cosmic Collections: creating a big bang. (Trant, Jennifer, David Bearman, Ed.).Museums and the Web.