Voice Over Photos

In keeping with a similar subject to my previous post, I have another storytelling product to share. A friend forwarded me the url to an online photo repository/publishing service called BUBBLESHARE. Running in Beta mode, it is similar to services like Flickr with some added functionality.

Key of these new functionalities (which includes linking to Blogs) is voice over photo narration.

BUBBLESHARE offers a very easy to use application - from uploading the images, to adding the voice-over narration - with the potential to provide a very rich experience for viewers.

Fore more info, please visit the product web site at http://www.bubbleshare.com/

Mobile Muse Canada

A great deal of attention has been paid of late to several city-wide efforts to implement public wireless networks. The objective of these efforts is to bridge the divide between the digital-haves and have-nots by providing free internet access on a city-wide level.

These efforts are certainly commendable, but only part of the solution. A key aspect of bridging the digital divide is to provide meaningful, informative content. Enter Mobile Muse. Based in Vancouver, the objetive of Mobile Muse is to provide content for next-generation mobile phones and PDAs that are socially driven. To date, Mobile Muse has included a wireless tour of Granville Island accessible via PDA, a virtual Vancouver Dragon Boat game played on foot around the city which complements the Vancouver Dragon Boat Festival, and an application entitled Get Your Vote On, which uses SMS (text messaging) and social networking technologies to encourage mobile users -- in particular young voters -- to cast a ballot in the May 17 provincial election.

Mobile Muse is an excellent effort that accompanies Vancouver's preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It is also a wonderful model program for museums across Canada. It demonstrates how wireless technologies can be used to complement physical museum spaces. I will watch this program with great interest, as I anticipate many other impressive projects that really drive the wireless platform.

Distance Graduate Program in Digital Heritage at Leicester University (UK)

Leicester's Museum Studies Department is known not only for its excellence, but for its innovation. That is why it is no surprise that they are preparing to launch a Master's level program in Digital Heritage. The program is tentatively scheduled to launch in September, 2007 and will be available by distance education. I contacted the school for information, and have included the relevant portions of their response, below. When I asked about cost, I was told that the program will be priced in around the same range as their Museum Studies Graduate distance program (£8,200).

From the Museum Studies Department at Leicester University:

The programme is currently under development and, at present, is scheduled to be launched in the autumn of 2007. However, this is, to some extent, dependent upon the successful launch of another new programme before then in 'Interpretive Studies'.

The programme is planned to be a two-year, seven module, distance learning Masters programme aimed at both practitioners and scholars working at the intersection of cultural heritage and digital media. However, particular emphasis will be given to the museum/gallery sector. Its curriculum will offer a mix of theoretical and practical elements, paper-based and web-based materials, and individual, collaborative and work-based learning activities. The curriculum will look into the history and intellectual framework of digital heritage as an emerging discipline and practice, information management, (e-)learning, new media production and project management, digital objects, gaming and interactivity design. The emphasis throughout, however, will be on ideas, issues and debate - rather than on the specifics of hardware, software and technological competency.

The programme will draw upon the expertise of the Department in the are of new media and museology, but will also aim to pull upon a raft of international experts on all aspects of its content. A practical project and a (60-credit) research project will be important components of this (180-credit) course.

We are still keen to keep the structure and detail of the programme under our hat for a while longer until we are in a position to go fully public. But I hope this has given you enough to get a sense of what we are planning.

Macintosh use in Schools, Colleges and Universities across Canada

Continuing with our Mac theme, I thought that I would take a moment to underline the importance of desiging your institution web site with Macintosh users in mind. I only mention this because most museums and art galleries do make a very concerted effort to ensure that their digitized content is accessible to students for use in the classroom. A siginficant portion of these classrooms use Macs. I wanted to share some figures with you, because it was surprisingly difficult to find up-to-date figures for Mac use in Canada:

• 20% of all computers used on-site at K-12, college and university institutions across Canada are Macs;
• 1 in 4 desktop computers sold in university campus stores across Canada are Macs;
• 1 in 2 laptops sold in university campus stores across Canada are Macs; and,
• some school boards are '100% Mac', including Calgary and the Eastern Townships in Quebec;

These figures make it clear that if you want to connect with students, make sure that your web site works on a Mac. If you are contracting out the design and development of your site, be especially sure to verify that the developers do verify the functionality of your site on Apple computers.

Digitize and Organize Your Collections

A few years ago, the Canadian Heritage Information Network launched a program for small museums called Community Memories. The idea behind the program is that small museums with few or no full time staff, and with little to no computer experience, can create virtual, story-based, exhibitions through digital media like photos, audio, texts and video.

Recently a new software called MemoryMiner was released by GroupSmarts and won best of show at MacWorld 2006. I am really impressed at how this software has addressed the same objectives as the Community Memories software we have been working on. MemoryMiner has a very simple interaction design making it very learnable and usable, and works well in parallel with other commonly used software such as iPhoto. To view a video demo of MemoryMiner visit this link http://memoryminer.com/software/video.html (Quicktime 7 is required to view the video).

What really excites me about this product, besides it's excellent functional design, is that it highlights a growing trend in the domain of publishing stories around, and contextualizing, digitized content. Four years ago pretty much no one was doing anything like this which resulted in the need to develop an application. Now a software this well approached has been released for personal home use. Times are changing and more options are becoming available as the market for creating and publishing digital content grows.