Geoffrey,
Here are the sporadic notes I took away from the first two speakers
in the session. (I came in late and had to leave early.)
Diane
Diane M. Zorich
Information Management Consultant for Cultural Organizations
113 Gallup Road
Princeton, NJ 08540
Voice# (609) 252-1606
Fax# (609) 252-1607
Email: [email protected]
__________________________________________________
Barbara Roberts, Acoustiguide
- headphones are unpopular in museums (90% of those surveyed disliked
them), so Acoustiguide choose to go with the "wand" that user holds
up to their ear.
- increasingly, handhelds are being used to collect information as
well as deliver it (i.e., they can track visitor patterns in an
exhibit hall, calculate the amount of time a user spends at each item
in the exhibit, etc. This information is useful for exhibit
designers/curators in analyzing how well their exhibit flow worked,
or what the most popular works on display were,etc.
-people learn in 3 ways: visual, aural and kinetic
(writing/drawing,..) Those museums who shun handholds are missing an
important segment of learners....
- future - downloading content to MP3 players, to cellphones
(putting audio tours on them and tying it in to GPS for things like
city tours....
____________________________________________________
Peter Lang, Field Museum
- results of project that used Palm VII in the museum:
-delivered content/functionality in following areas:
Destinations
Today's events
Necessities (bathroom/cafeteria locations)
Field Notes (notes from FM scientists in the field...._
Insights - information not available elsewhere in the museum
-evaluated results by using direct onbservation, shadowing, interviews, etc.
-Results: generally positive; users found it easy to use;
more exhibit-related content was requested
the "destinations" segment was most popular
found that young teens were leading family groups with use of the Palm
parents often found it an impediment to the experience
schoolgroup use - challenge to maintain class unity
unit itself -fragile, small, dark screen often hard to see
in some exhibit halls,
buttons were not context-specific
-Future directions
more integrated content management
more supportive hardware in the exhibits that highlight
location info; email; ecommerce
wireless
invisible technologies
more "in the field" research applications
Does anyone have notes or synopsis they are willing to share for the MCN2001
presentation "Portable Devices in Museums: What Have We Learned so Far?" (11
a.m.-12:30 p.m. Friday 10/26).
I am especially interested in discussion of "the present and future of audio
tour systems."
(At the time I was next door at "Dynamic Imaging Servers & File Formats")
Thanks for any information you are willing to share.
-gd
==========================================
All opinions are my own and not those of my employer
Geoffrey Dare, Collections Database Manager
Amon 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd Fort Worth, TX 76107-2695
Carter Museum t: 817-738-1933 x215 f: 817-989-5179
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