The New York Times (click title) covers the "next generation" of guest involvement in contributing to, shaping and even co-curating museum content. Several museums-to-be are soliciting content from future guests, and sharing this content on-line. The Smithsonian has something called "Smithsonian Commons," which allows visitors to "download, share and remix the museum's vast collection of public domain assets." They'll be able to use the museum as a kind of micro-Internet, creating personalized niche views of the collection by using (fully licensed) images on their web sites and Facebook pages.
The Smithsonian's new media director, Michael Edson, says that this is a mission-shift "from an authority-centric broadcast platform to one that recognizes the importance of distributive knowledge creation." (Whew!)
The most important question raised seems to be, "How do museum curators encourage participation, create interest through involvement, and give up enough control to engage people, without losing control?" Any thoughts?
Friday, January 22, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Disney to Spend A Billion on "Next Generation" Technology?
The Orlando Sentinel (click title for link) is reporting that the Walt Disney Company is planning to spent one billion dollars on technology (possibly based on radio frequency identification microchips) in order to track the movements and actions of guests.
A careful reading of this article raises more questions than it answers. Many of the proposed benefits for using RFID technology -- tracking guests to steer them toward retail and dining opportunities, enabling "fast-pass" style check-ins to shorten lines, creating more of an 'individual' experience by having characters greet guests, etc. -- are possible today, or will be in the near future. Which raises the question -- where will the billion dollars really go? As the article states, this money could pay for two 4,000 passenger cruise ships...or 4 "Avatars"....or a new Disney theme park.
Can Disney buy the "next generation" of technology that will fundamentally change the guest experience for theme parks? For museums?
A careful reading of this article raises more questions than it answers. Many of the proposed benefits for using RFID technology -- tracking guests to steer them toward retail and dining opportunities, enabling "fast-pass" style check-ins to shorten lines, creating more of an 'individual' experience by having characters greet guests, etc. -- are possible today, or will be in the near future. Which raises the question -- where will the billion dollars really go? As the article states, this money could pay for two 4,000 passenger cruise ships...or 4 "Avatars"....or a new Disney theme park.
Can Disney buy the "next generation" of technology that will fundamentally change the guest experience for theme parks? For museums?
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
The Amazing Colossal Video Wall
The Hard Rock Hotel has created "The Great Wall of Las Vegas." This is the mother of all touch screen video walls -- 72 square feet. Step right up and explore every digital artifact (photos and videos) in the Hard Rock collection:
This could solve conundrums faced by a lot of museums -- how do you provide access to the collection, without building a facility the size of the Las Vegas Convention Center (roughly 3 Malls of America, with the New Orleans Superdome for "backstage")? And how do you present media-based artifacts -- film, video, audio? Something like this provides an elegant solution that will appeal to "digital natives" who have never known a world without Google, Grand Theft Auto and Facebook.
Yes, I know something like this costs mega-bucks, but the hardware and software actually gets cheaper and better every year.
This could solve conundrums faced by a lot of museums -- how do you provide access to the collection, without building a facility the size of the Las Vegas Convention Center (roughly 3 Malls of America, with the New Orleans Superdome for "backstage")? And how do you present media-based artifacts -- film, video, audio? Something like this provides an elegant solution that will appeal to "digital natives" who have never known a world without Google, Grand Theft Auto and Facebook.
Yes, I know something like this costs mega-bucks, but the hardware and software actually gets cheaper and better every year.
Friday, December 4, 2009
I've Seen the Future...or Have I?
The December '09 issue of Esquire presents...according to the cover...a "living, breathing, moving, talking magazine." Buy the magazine, download the software, hold the marker up to your compuer webcam, and Robert Downey Jr. is comin' at ya! Here's a video that tells you how it works.
A lot of people (including a majority at BRC Imagination Arts) believe that museums, science centers, brand centers and theme parks will soon be using augmented reality to add a new, exciting dimension to the guest experience.
We bought the magazine. We tried it out. We were...underwhelmed. What happened here is what often happens when people who know one medium well dabble in another medium -- they treat the second medium as a gimmick, rather than a tool.
As I played with the magazine, I was reminded of the scene in "A Christmas Story" where Ralphie finally gets his hands on his Little Orphan Secret Decoder Ring. He decodes his first secret message, and it's "Drink Ovaltine." An AD! The radio show used this new piece of technology to deliver a commercial! That's what this felt like.
A lot of people (including a majority at BRC Imagination Arts) believe that museums, science centers, brand centers and theme parks will soon be using augmented reality to add a new, exciting dimension to the guest experience.
We bought the magazine. We tried it out. We were...underwhelmed. What happened here is what often happens when people who know one medium well dabble in another medium -- they treat the second medium as a gimmick, rather than a tool.
As I played with the magazine, I was reminded of the scene in "A Christmas Story" where Ralphie finally gets his hands on his Little Orphan Secret Decoder Ring. He decodes his first secret message, and it's "Drink Ovaltine." An AD! The radio show used this new piece of technology to deliver a commercial! That's what this felt like.
Monday, November 23, 2009
"One Small Step..."
Click on the title and go to a site called "We Choose the Moon" -- a presentation on the Apollo 11 mission. This site was created for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Great animation, nice integration of mission information and interactive photo, video and JFK galleries. The mission is divided into 11 parts, and features the authentic sound of Mission Control communicating with the astronauts under the animation.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Smart Phone Scavenger Hunts
Greg Snyder and Myles Nye, aka the Wise Guys, operate a whole range of site-specific “scavenger hunt” style games in the Los Angeles area. Many of these games involve challenges that incorporate the use of smart phone (iPhone or Blackberry) QR tag-reading apps such at Neo Reader or BeeTagg. Check out their site.
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