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HANDSCAPE - Handheld Access to the Museum Landscape Mobile Computing and Wireless Networking Technologies in Museums Call for Expressions of Interest in Participation 14 February 2001 CIMI is pleased to announce The Handscape Project, developing means for using handheld devices to provide mobile access both to innovative and legacy services in a wireless networking environment. CIMI members are invited to participate in this project. Museums that are not currently members of this organization will be eligible for participation in Handscape if they commit to joining CIMI. Information about CIMI and how to join is found at: http://www.cimi.org Handscape is funded by The Intel Corporation's Committee for University Sponsored Research Applications, Interface and Media (AIM Committee). The first year of the proposed three-year project has been approved with the remaining two years pending an evaluation of the initial results. A full description of the project is provided at: http://www.cimi.org/public_docs/Handscape_long_desc.doc This was modified somewhat during the finalization of the application to Intel. In addition to the concepts developed in the cited project description, Handscape will pay close attention to research being conducted by the Cornell University Digital Library/Computer Science program and the Cornell Human-Computer Interface Group (HCI). In particular, these bodies have produced two software prototypes that appear to have direct relevance to mobile computer-mediated museum visitor experiences. One is a JAVA application that allows the posting and receiving of context-aware notes. This could, for example, be used in museum tours where specific notes pop-up at relevant locations or times or allowing visitors to post notes for others on their impressions or reactions to specific locations or events. A second prototype involves the use of SyncML <http://www.syncml.org/> to allow synchronization and updating of information between a centralized museum database and hand-held devices. The combination of these prototypes and ones to be developed by the participants will allow the exploration of new applications that go beyond what museums have been experimenting with to date. A further important contribution is from the HCI group. HCI will be contracted to work with CIMI over the life of the research project to develop the evaluative framework and usage scenarios for testing. HCI participation is core as they are knowledgeable about social navigation and context-aware issues. This is essential as Handscape's interests are more in usage and patterns of user behavior than in an engineering exercise or experimentation with novel devices. Handscape will also be taking an inventory of pre-existing intiatives within its area of concern, ensuring that the project is conducted in cognizance of as much other relevant research and experimentation as can be identified. In addition to avoiding the inadvertent repetition of efforts already in progress, this will establish a basis for the extension of earlier action through Handscape's resources. It is currently expected that up to 4 participants will be selected on the basis of their abilities to contribute intellectually, their experiences with mobile technologies and methodologies, and a commitment to fulfill obligations of participation. The participants will explore the understanding of mobile computer-mediated museum experiences involving context-aware delivery of information and social navigation. These experiments are expected to involve a cross-department museum team of technologists, educators, new media, and content specialists and represent a range of interesting projects. The budgetary and temporal constraints under which at least the initial phase of Handscape will be conducted, render it likely that participants will be expanding the scope of work already in progress, rather than initiating completely new applications. Members interested in participating in the Handscape project should send an expression of this interest via e-mail to Cary Karp <[email protected]>, CIMI Project Manager, by no later than February 24, 2001. This should include the name of the institution and contact person as well as a description of the innovative aspects of the proposal, the target groups, the networking technologies to be used, the mobile devices to be employed, the nature of the information resources to be developed or adapted, and any other information deemed relevant to the evaluation of the proposal. Shortlisted potential candidates will be called to a meeting that will be collocated with the Museums and the Web 2001 Conference in Seattle, March 14-17, 2001. Its purpose will be to examine the potential for reinforcement of Handscape's value by collaborative action on issues that may be shared by several proposals. The deadline for the submission of the final detailed proposals may be discussed during that meeting but is currently set for the end of the following week, on March 23.
