museumsandtheweb.com - multimedia

From the Ground Up (or the Inside Out): New Approaches in Digital Publishing

SarahHromack — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:22:33 +0000

MW2012

Published Paper:

From the Ground Up (or the Inside Out): New Approaches in Digital Publishing

Keywords:

Digital Publishing

Keywords:

blogs

Keywords:

content strategy

Keywords:

multimedia

Keywords:

Multimedia

Keywords:

DIY

Abstract:

Museums cannot ignore the importance of digital publishing and the impact it has on the organization’s content strategy. In this paper, Rachel Craft, Director of Publishing and Media at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN and Sarah Hromack, Digital Content Manager at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY—both professional blog editors—will consider the practical and theoretical implications of developing online publishing projects through disparate approaches while making an argument for institutionally-generated publications as a valuable means of engaging wider audiences.

Using the Whitney Museum’s recently launched online magazine, Whitney Stories (http://whitney.org/WhitneyStories), as her primary case study, Sarah Hromack will discuss the process of garnering in-house support for the publication, building an editorial and writing team, and pooling resources across departments in order to envision and execute a space for articulating more incidental, behind-the-scenes institutional narratives to the public. Those who face operational and budget limitations may find practical advice in this narrative, which will present publishing platforms and useful online tools for organizing and running an in-house publication.

Rachel Craft will approach the subject from the perspective of developing a digital publishing process that builds off of existing structures. The IMA is seeking to reorient its publication strategy and will be exploring how auxiliary stories and multimedia can be developed around existing catalogue content to enrich the digital reading experience. Proposed projects range from revisiting past publications to envisioning online-only editions of future scholarly catalogues. How can an organization create publications with substantial and purposeful interactive elements while avoiding the pitfalls of creating a “bells and whistles” effect?

This paper will also survey content approaches being explored by other organizations, both inside and outside of museums, and how these methods can inform and inspire our own work. In addition, a range of self-publishing tools will be presented that organizations can utilize to embark on their own digital publishing projects.

Type:

Paper - in formal session

After Gutenberg

Site:

http://whitney.org/whitneystories

Authors:

Sarah Hromack

Rachel Craft

PoliCultura Portal: 15,000 Students Tell their Stories about Cultural Heritage

diblas — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:05:24 +0000

MW2012

Published Paper:

PoliCultura Portal: 17,000 Students Tell their Stories about Cultural Heritage

Keywords:

digital storytelling

Keywords:

multimedia

Keywords:

Multimedia

Keywords:

multichannel application

Keywords:

Portal

Keywords:

user generated content

Abstract:

School outings to cultural institutions are potentially wonderful opportunities for bringing youngsters closer to culture. Unfortunately, most of the times, they are not as successful as they might be. Students welcome these events as “free time” rather than learning occasions; they do not pay enough attention to the explanations during the visit, especially if they are not supposed to be the subject of evaluation when back to school: thus, the overall educational impact is quite poor. Families too undervalue these occasions. Teachers, on their side, are often at a loss on how to effectively prepare the class for the visit, how to “follow-up”, how to raise their students’ interest.

It is now widely proved, in the field of pedagogy, that the learner’s active role, as well as a clear goal, can trigger motivation and lead to the achievement of substantial educational benefits. This can explain the success of Policultura (www.policultura.it), a program aimed at school of all grades, where students create multimedia (and multichannel) “stories” about cultural topics. Started in 2006, Policultura has gathered so far more than 15,000 participants, aged between 4 and 18, with 700 stories approximately. 20% circa of these stories are about school outings to cultural institutions: kids (1) get set before the visit, studying the overall cultural frame. Oftentimes they are divided into groups, each in charge of a specific aspect which they are supposed to go in depth into; (2) they go to the visit, take pictures (with their cameras or cell phones), take notes, in view of the story making. Aware of their task, they pay attention, ask questions and clarifications, gather content, etc. Teachers report the surprisingly high level of engagement of these young “multimedia authors”. When (3) they get back to school, the production phase begins: texts are written and refined, pictures are chosen, drawings are made and scanned, additional material is looked for, etc. In order to create their multimedia story, schools use 1001stories, an online authoring environment made available for free by HOC-LAB of Politecnico. The result is an exciting educational process and a beautiful multimedia “motion picture”, where the cultural institution is the “star”. Reports say that families too get involved in the process and sometimes, at the end of the work, they are led to the museum/park/institution etc. by their kids, who are by then so knowledgeable that they act as guides (Garzotto, Paolini, Museums and the Web 2008).

All the stories are gathered in a brand new, state of the art, portal (that will be made public in December 2011). An advanced exploratory interface allows users to access the stories using different canvases, highlighting different features, selecting different facets, etc. Continuous feedback provides the user with information about how the different facets are correlated (e.g. the discipline vs. the type of learning experience, the specific subject vs. the level of schooling). Facets can also be correlated with words clouds derived from the abstracts (in English and Italian) of the stories. Other facets concern more pedagogical aspects. Users can drop their comments, though they cannot rate the stories (for pedagogical reasons). PoliCultura-portal is likely to be the largest (worldwide) collection of students-generated multimedia content.

The paper will illustrate how PoliCultura has been beneficial for the cultural heritage domain, and how PoliCultura Portal can be used to promote digital storytelling at school.

Type:

Demonstration - show your project

MW2012 Demonstrations III

Authors:

Nicoletta Di Blas

Paolo Paolini

Luigi Spagnolo

The J. Paul Getty Museum's iPod touch® tour

gemmel — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:18:45 +0000

MW2011

Keywords:

mobile

Keywords:

app

Keywords:

multimedia

Keywords:

Multimedia

Keywords:

tour

Keywords:

audio

Keywords:

ipod touch

Abstract:

In June 2010, the J. Paul Getty Museum launched a multimedia tour at the Getty Villa, available on the iPod touch® onsite for visitors to check out.

The tour features videos and insightful commentary from curators and conservators on over 150 works of art in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa and in special exhibitions.

Over the summer of 2010, we evaluated the Getty Villa iPod touch® tour -- here are excerpts from the evaluation:

Users selected the words ‘interesting’ (74%), ‘informative’ (73%), ‘accessible’ (71%), ‘educational’ (69%) and ‘engaging’ (66%) most frequently to describe their tour experience out of a list of 22 words including an ‘other’ specified option where visitors could provide their own word or words.

Overall, users rated the tour highly. At least 3 in 4 users were very satisfied, rated the amount of content just right, will strongly recommend and thought the tour made the experience much more enjoyable.

Overwhelmingly, users prefer a multimedia format to traditional audio-only format.

Villa visitor comments about tour (from evalulation):

I knew I could get a guide of some kind. It’s hard for me to read the wall cards. As I get older it’s harder to see.

You learn, which is part of the joy. You see the beauty that you wouldn’t see otherwise. The iPod provided me with more information!

The demonstration will cover a demo of the tour, as well as how we developed, and manage content for updating the tour in-house.

Type:

Demonstration - show your project

Demonstrations II

Site:

http://bit.ly/iPodDemo

Authors:

Steven Gemmel

A "Smart" Authoring and Delivery Tool for Multichannel Communication

michela.negrini — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 14:59:27 +0000

MW2011

Keywords:

multimedia

Keywords:

Multimedia

Keywords:

multi-channel

Keywords:

cost-effective

Keywords:

adaptivity

Keywords:

mobile devices

Keywords:

authoring tool

Abstract:

The recent proliferation of technologies and devices (including iPhone, iPad and alike) provides new perspectives for the use of multimedia applications for cultural heritage. Users are no more just sitting in front of their PC at home, but they also access multimedia information walking in the galleries or in archeological parks, sitting in a cafeteria, driving a car, travelling on a train, etc.

In addition, and most important, all the different devices and technologies are important, and institutions can’t anymore decide which are preferable for their users, who are free to choose according to their (permanent or temporary) needs.

This demo features an innovative authoring-delivery environment (1001stories), available as web service, that allows creating multimedia multi-channel applications in an easy and cost-effective way. The applications produced with 1001stories can be delivered over the web, mobile devices (smart phones, iPhone, iPad), off-line (CD-rom, USB key, mp3 players, iPod) or on-line, over standard cell-phones (audio only), through social spaces, etc. basically one authoring effort (including some “adaptive adjustments”) and one technological effort are needed. The toolkit is quite easy to use and therefore can be managed even by a non technical staff (to create/adjust/update the application). The production process is streamlined and effective: one month on average is needed to create a full application.

The effectiveness of the toolkit will be illustrated by means of some concrete examples, among which the most prominent is “Nippon” (www.nipponlugano.ch), a set of applications supporting four exhibitions about Japanese culture that took place in Lugano (Switzerland) in winter 2010.

Type:

Demonstration - show your project

Demonstrations III

Site:

http://www.nipponlugano.ch

Authors:

Michela Negrini

Nicoletta Di Blas

Paolo Paolini

Multimedia Communication Issues: Why, What and When

biblio — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:10:51 +0000

Paolini, P., Rubegni E., & Franciolli M. (2010). Multimedia Communication Issues: Why, What and When. (Trant, Jennifer, David Bearman, Ed.).Museums and the Web.

Interactive Multimedia in American Museums

ngamble — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:48:29 +0000

Koester, S. E. (1993). Interactive Multimedia in American Museums. Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Reports. 120 pp.

Familiarity Breeds Content: knowledge and effect in museums on the Web

jtrant — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:03:08 +0000

Bearman, D., & Trant J. (2003). Familiarity Breeds Content: knowledge and effect in museums on the Web. Museums and the Web 2003.

Heritage 2.0

jtrant — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:18:12 +0000

Nulens, G., & Luyten K. (2007). Heritage 2.0. (Trant, Jennifer, David Bearman, Ed.).International Cultural Heritage Informatics Meeting - ICHIM07: Proceedings.

Museum Interactive Multimedia 1997: cultural heritage systems design and interfaces. Selected Papers from ichim97

jtrant — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 03:18:22 +0000

Bearman, D., & Trant J. (1997). Museum Interactive Multimedia 1997: cultural heritage systems design and interfaces. Selected Papers from ichim97.

The Digital Behaim Globe (1492)

jtrant — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 03:18:22 +0000

Gorz, G., & Holst N. (1997). The Digital Behaim Globe (1492). Museum Interactive Multimedia 1997: cultural heritage systems design and interfaces. Selected Papers from ichim97.

Why and how, multimedia - the Japanese situation

jtrant — Wed, 02 May 2007 01:06:28 +0000

Mizushima, E. (1993). Why and how, multimedia - the Japanese situation. (Lees, Diane, Ed.).Museums and Interactive Multimedia: Selected papers from the second International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums.

Combining the CIDOC CRM and MPEG-7 to Describe Multimedia in Museums

jtrant — Wed, 02 May 2007 01:00:34 +0000

Hunter, J. (2002). Combining the CIDOC CRM and MPEG-7 to Describe Multimedia in Museums. (David Bearman, Trant, Jennifer, Ed.).Museums and the Web 2002: Proceedings.

Media Stories: An Integrative Storytelling In Physical And Virtual Spaces

jtrant — Wed, 02 May 2007 00:57:39 +0000

Moritsch, O. (2005). Media Stories: An Integrative Storytelling In Physical And Virtual Spaces. (Trant, Jennifer, David Bearman, Ed.).Museums and the Web 2005: Proceedings.