[MCN-L] Installation shots for designers?
Hey Jannette, Since the person requesting the use of the images is (or was) under contract with the museum, what was specified under the terms of the contract? Did the intellectual property of the installation design remain with the designer or was it transferred to the institution? This situation will probably influence the content of our contracts, since almost anyone doing design work on contract has a web presence to promote their work and would want to be able to add their design/image/product to their portfolio. Chad Petrovay ?| ?Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard ?| Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main ?| ?480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax ?| www.themim.org -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Mina, Jannette Sent: Friday, August 20, 2010 1:00 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Installation shots for designers? Good afternoon! I'd just like to take a quick poll to see how many of the institutions on this list provide high resolution installation photos to exhibition designers. If so, do you charge the designer for use of the images? In our case, both instances (photography and design) are works for hire, but the designer would like to use the images in a printed portfolio or website for promotional use. If you reply off-list, I can summarize the responses for everyone. Thank you, Jannette This communication (including any attachments) is intended for the use of the intended recipient(s) only and may contain information that is confidential, privileged or legally protected. Any unauthorized use or dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by return e-mail message and delete all copies of the original communication. Thank you for your cooperation. ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] comment kiosks: software or web-based
Adrienne, I have built several kiosks for exhibitions, so let me share my experiences: There is a difference between web-based and browser-based applications. You can install a web-server locally on the computer so that you have a browser-based applicantion but do not need to have access to the internet or web. If you are using a web connection, then you'll need to secure the terminal from accessing other web-pages. (There's nothing worse than having your kiosk used for web-browsing). Be very clear in the design phase, what you want guests to do and how you want them to do it - this makes the development phase much easier. The UI should be intuitive and easy to use - using applications like Word are not always helpful (Do I save my own document? What happens if I want to edit someone else's comment, etc) Security is always the top priority with kiosks - and there are kiosk modes for Opera, and kiosk plugins for Firefox, as well as some commercially available kiosk browsers - and they will all help with the security issues. I usually advise only using a mouse/pointer instead of that plus a keyboard, because security can be bypassed using keystrokes (like CTRL+ALT+DEL). I usually use an application which resets the terminal to the same setting with each reboot, so that if security is bypassed you can reset the whole kiosk simply by restarting it. Planning is the key. What OS, hardware, etc will be used? What happens if I stop writing a comment and walk away? What sort of signage will there be near the kiosks? Hope this helps. Chad Petrovay ?| ?Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard ?| Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main ?| ?480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax ?| www.themim.org Blog: www.petrovay.com/tmsblog -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Adrienne Romano Sent: Friday, July 23, 2010 12:10 PM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: [MCN-L] comment kiosks: software or web-based Hello everyone, I am relatively new to this list-serve and would appreciate any advice you may have on this topic. I have been charged with more technology-oriented projects at my institution recently, and I am trying to do some research as to how best to approach the use of an interactive computer kiosk or laptop for an upcoming exhibition. Particularly, I am interested in low-cost alternatives and options that are easier to manage from a technical point of view. On this kiosk, the task we would like to accomplish is pretty simple - we would like to pose a few main open-ended questions for visitors to respond to. We would like to print some of the responses out periodically and post them on the gallery wall so that they are viewable on both the wall and on the computer. (This is the basic idea, and we are tackling some of the design issues in the meantime.) Part of the reason for printing out the responses was a desire by the curatorial department to keep a clean look to the area, and have some kind of control of what comments are viewable on the wall to other visitors. The comments in the kiosk would also be moderated internally for inflammatory content. I had been thinking a general web-based blog platform would be easiest (and cheapest) to accomplish this using Wordpress or www.blogger.com http://www.blogger.com/ , but perhaps there is something out there that might be better to consider. Some of the curatorial department is not clear as to why we should use something that is web-based, and they are saying that perhaps it is just easiest to use a simple word processing software; thus my query and my need for some more education on the technical aspects.. I have been trying to explain that in its defense, using something web-based would be an easier platform to manage, and have a broader appeal so that even visitors who are not at the museum can post feedback and visitors can post responses to other visitor's comments. I do know that we would also need to identify software to lock down the computer. If there are any recommendations of a good software for this purpose, I would appreciate any feedback. I am open to any suggestions. Thank you in advance for your information! Adrienne Romano ___ Adrienne Neszmelyi-Romano Curator of Education James A. Michener Art Museum 138 South Pine Street Doylestown, PA 18901 aromano at michenerartmuseum.org mailto:aromano at michenerartmuseum.org This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender by email or telephone, 215-340-9800 and delete the transmission from your computer. Please note that any views or opinions presented in the email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those
[MCN-L] Help with Policy on Internet site postings
Browsing through socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php, it's becoming obvious to me that there are two different threads: guidelines for employees who are using social media outlets for the organization, and guidelines for employees who are using social media outlets privately. The former, are necessary to maintain consistent voice and brand, however the latter seems to be more of a grey area. The MacArthur Foundation has been working on studies about how young people use social media, and the importance of social media on their personal and social development (http://spotlight.macfound.org/). At the same time, we now have the issue to address of cyber-bullying (http://www.stopcyberbullying.org), which is more to the examples that John pinpointed. Has the development of the technology outstripped our ability to apply etiquette to this new situation, and is there so much a need for artificial policies to govern it, as there is for a cultural movement for the reapplication of etiquette to the technology (aka, netiquette). Does there need to be an institutional policy addressing personal use of social media, or would a generic clause in your personnel manual about bringing the reputation of the institution into disrepute suffice? This avoids the question of how to police a social media policy, and future-proofs your policies against future shifts in technology. Otherwise, we will always be at want for a new policy whenever there is a shift in technology for which etiquette has yet to catch up. (I may add that the views expressed here are expressly my own) Chad Petrovay ?| ?Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard ?| Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main ?| ?480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax ?| www.themim.org -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Rebecca Melenka Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 9:52 AM To: 'Museum Computer Network Listserv' Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Help with Policy on Internet site postings Ohhh, Social media - one of my faves! Here's a couple of great ones: Database of Social Media Policies: http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php Policy Tool for Social Media: http://socialmedia.policytool.net Rebecca Melenka BA2, MA Digitization, Publishing and Rights Coordinator Glenbow Museum Phone (403) 268-4144 Fax (403) 265-9769 www.glenbow.org -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of John Bedard Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 10:49 AM To: mcn LISTSERV Subject: [MCN-L] Help with Policy on Internet site postings We are interested in seeing sample policies regarding postings on external Internet sites, from blogs to Social Media. Areas of interest include a staff member appearing to be an official spokesperson for or representing the organization, especially in a manner that potentially impacts the reputation of the museum; and posting derogatory or defamatory comments regarding other staff members, visitors, volunteers, trustees, donors or the institution. This policy will not reference postings to official institutional sites and forums. Does anyone have any sample policies on this topic that they can share? John R. Bedard | Director of Information Systems Minneapolis Institute of Arts 2400 Third Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55404 612-870-3268 | JBedard at artsmia.org | www.artsmia.org ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Facebook is just sloppy
I may be alone in this, think you're off the mark. The only proof provided is that the thumbnailer doesn't work perfectly (sidebar, very few thumbnailers do). And Facebook has adequate reasons for requiring a profile picture to be the same on both the profile and the feed (I believe in the business world they call that branding). Is Facebook at fault because MoMA's profile pic thumbnail crops the logo slightly or is that MoMA's fault? You managed to make a blanket statement about their company, based upon one instance. One case does not a trend make. Facebook started as profiles for individuals. After MySpace had problems with commercial entities masking themselves as individuals (ie: characters from movies, tv shows, etc), Facebook opened up the platform to organizations, products, and commercial entities. Facebook did not create a platform for such entities, they made modifications to the platform to allow such entities to exist. Should we be complaining about the platform that we all benefit from (at no cost for access to, or use of said platform), or should we be thankful that we're no longer relegated to the use of Groups. (A fun way to start, but lacked the finesse of a Profile/Page). I guess my only comment would be, if you're going to bite the hand that feeds you, you'd better have a good reason for doing so. Chad Petrovay ?| ?Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard ?| Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main ?| ?480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax ?| www.themim.org Blog: www.petrovay.com/tmsblog -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Hanan Cohen Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 4:23 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Facebook is just sloppy Hi, I wrote about my experience/frustration while working with Facebook and my conclusion about the past and future of the company. http://info.org.il/english/facebook_is_just_sloppy.html Would love to get your comments. --- Hanan Cohen Webmaster Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem www.mada.org.il http://www.mada.org.il/en/ - Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/-/127569645760 - Twitter http://twitter.com/madajerusalem - YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/madajerusalem ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Records for displaying unrelated objects together
Robyn, At the Musical Instrument Museum, we have had similar situations. In one exhibit, we used components from both a male and female costume in order to create the desired effect (this was a stilted Carnevale, and the female pants were shorter, emphasizing the stilts). To manage these, we created mannequin records, and created relationships between the costume pieces and the mannequin record. I gave a presentation at Collective Imagination last year that talked about conceptual art that incorporates objects from the collection. The example was the Parades of ceramics created by Gwyn Hansson Pigott at the Freer. The model I discussed was one where the conceptual art receives its own record (where label attributes are recorded), and a relationship exists between the individual objects incorporated into the conceptual piece and the record for the conceptual piece. However, these were developed for TMS, and I am not sure of how they would work in Mimsy. Chad Petrovay ?| ?Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard ?| Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main ?| ?480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax ?| www.themim.org Blog: www.petrovay.com/tmsblog -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Sanford, Robyn Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 11:23 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Records for displaying unrelated objects together I have a question for all of you data people out there. We're going to have a costume show of our permanent collection where mannequins will be dressed in complete outfits. This means that there will be objects that each have their own individual record in our database on a single mannequin. These objects may have had no previous relationship to one another in the past (they do not share similar accession numbers, etc, etc...). My dilemma is that we use the database to create our labels and of course we want to retain the label text in the database for perpetuity. I am not sure how to do this short of creating a single parent record in the database that links to them all, which I do not want to do. Aside from the expected questions of what number am I supposed to give a record like that, I also don't think it is a good policy to implement as users would be inclined to update the label text on the record for the labels and not the objects themselves. Or if they were so good to update everything, well then they are just duplicating data across 2 or more records which just seems unnecessary. Has anyone had to deal with this before or have any ideas? We use Mimsy by the way. Robyn Sanford Associate Registrar, Database Manager and Special Projects LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART 5905 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA 90036 T 323 857 4769 F 323 857 6213 E rsanford at lacma.org mailto:rsanford at lacma.org ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Barcoding Label Stock
The Musical Instrument Museum is interested in implementing a barcoding project using archival hangtags for objects and adhesive labels for crates and archival storage boxes. We currently own a Zebra ZM400 printer which we hoped to use for the purpose of printing these. I am currently working on sourcing the label stock, and am interested in the experiences of any other museums that have implemented (or are implementing) similar projects. 1. Are you using hangtags or adhesive labels? 2. What kind of label stock are you using? 3. Who is your vendor for this stock? 4. Did your conservation staff approve the label stock? 5. If you are using adhesive labels - how long do anticipate the adhesive binding the label to the crate/box/etc? Many thanks in advance for your responses, and my apologies for cross posting this. Chad Petrovay | Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard | Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main | 480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax | www.themim.org
[MCN-L] Droid does
As the App market continues to increase and garner the attention of our community, it might be worthwhile to note that the iPhone is not the only platform on the market, and that they are starting to loose their market share to the Android OS. http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/googles-android-jumps-past-iphone-in-first-quarter/19471306/ Chad Petrovay | Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard | Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main | 480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax | www.themim.org
[MCN-L] Google Apps
Privacy. The only people that have access to your documents are staff from your own institution, whereas, with a product like Google Docs your documents reside on a server in Google's Datacenter, where administrators from their staff will have access to them (whether they access them or not, either benignly or maliciously). I was once part of a discussion about transitioning to Gmail. One of our staff members raised the point that Google does read your email, semantically, when they provide advertising within the Gmail interface. Which raises questions about how this information is indexed and stored. Google Translation which uses statistical machine translation, which requires massive quantities of linguistic data, and the more data they have in each language improves their translation abilities. Are our emails and documents helping to provide a corps of data? I don't want to be a naysayer, but there's no such thing as a free lunch. Chad Petrovay ?| ?Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard ?| Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main ?| ?480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax ?| www.themim.org -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Stanley Smith Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 1:07 PM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Google Apps After using Google Apps and Google Docs for a couple of weeks on a specific project, I have to ask: Why on earth would anyone ever again spend a dime on Microsoft Office? Stanley Smith Manager, Imaging Services J. Paul Getty Museum 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1000 Los Angeles, CA 90049-1687 (310) 440-7286 ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] -Database Questions
Are you talking about using FileMaker Pro's External SQL Data Sources (ESS) to back your interface onto MS-SQL or Oracle, or transitioning to an new collections management system built on those technologies? Personally, I'd be asking questions about what is prompting this push. Are there security concerns (FileMaker and Access files are mobile - they can easily be loaded onto moveable media, whereas server based technologies, such as Oracle or MS-SQL are harder for end-users to copy or transfer)? Is your current database part of a back-up strategy and covered by a disaster management plan? I'd be happy to talk to you about many of the issues off-list if you'd like. Chad Petrovay ?| ?Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard ?| Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main ?| ?480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax ?| www.themim.org Blog: www.petrovay.com/tmsblog -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of ma...@aol.com Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:36 AM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: [MCN-L] -Database Questions Hello All, I wanted to see if anyone has had any experience using Microsoft SQL or Oracle in a collections database manner. We currently use Filemaker Pro, which suits our purposes quite well. However, we are being encouraged by higher ups that we should convert to Microsoft SQL or Oracle. These seem a bit more advanced than we'd need. If anyone has any experience I would love to hear the pros and cons to such a conversion. Also, I'm interested in finding out any policies museums may have to access of image and video files. For instance, if you have a server dedicated to images and video footage, who can access? Would anyone within the museum (even outside collections) have access? Thanks so much for all your help. Misty Tilson ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Museum Community iPhone App
let's say I started making big profits from the apps --don't you think museums might get upset? I think there are two fundamental questions here: 1) what are you charging for the distribution platform, 2) what are you doing with any profits you acquire? Are you reinvesting by expanding the app to other platforms (Android, for instance - hint, hint), or deepening the interaction the end-user has with museum's content - doesn't that justify the distribution fee? Are you using profits to help additional museum's develop content for your system (thus growing their catchment population, while adding value to your app)? Or are you saving up to buy an island in the Cayman's? Museum's understand that services, like the one you are providing, have overhead costs. Developers cannot be expected to eat the cost of RD, and institutions are equally aware of the development costs of trying to have a go at it themselves. There shouldn't be a problem if you are upfront with them about the benefits of your service, and how you are using the monies collected from the distribution. Chad Petrovay ?| ?Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard ?| Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main ?| ?480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax ?| www.themim.org Blog: www.petrovay.com/tmsblog -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of MuseumPods Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 6:13 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Museum Community iPhone App An excellent point again Chad and I agree. However, I think this is a very important topic museums should consider and worthy of discussion. On my site and biz, museums and non museum people have been uploading museum media content since 2005, see link: http://bit.ly/museumpods and is one of the largest aggregate repositories of museum media in the world, and I would guess at least 95% of all the media is not Copyrighted or Creative Commons licensed. An interesting hypothetical situation is if started making mobile apps using all the content and charging for them while museum servers are streaming the media, and let's say I started making big profits from the apps --don't you think museums might get upset? I realize today I asked for participants and is a different situation but do I need to ask if app distribution platforms, framework, and service is enough of a 'valuable add' to museums to let me use the free media content as I choose? I don't think some museums would be very pleased with the hypothetical scenario. ...and probably justifiably or maybe not? Is providing the distribution platform enough?
[MCN-L] Museum Community iPhone App
Museum's may be providing the content, but if you are creating the framework for the application, you are providing a valuable service. Consider that ArtStor collects content from museums, and charges a considerable sum for institutions to have access (http://www.artstor.org/interested-in-participation/i-html/be-museum-fee.shtml), because they provide the framework and the support. Surely, there is no harm in charging users a nominal fee for the app. You may also want to look into the PhoneGap (http://phonegap.com/) development tool. Chad Petrovay ?| ?Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard ?| Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main ?| ?480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax ?| www.themim.org -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of MuseumPods Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 11:09 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Museum Community iPhone App I appreciate the stats and agree. To be honest this is a rather time consuming and costly venture for me and it is not a revenue stream at all. I don't think it is ethical for me to $ charge for apps on iTunes considering museums are providing free content for subscribers. My only other option is to charge museums a nominal fee to help with development costs for other apps at some point. I'm really surprised at the amount of museums that want to participate. Chad Petrovay wrote: According to Canalys, in 2009 iPhones only had a 15% market share of smartphones. I hope that your platform will expand to include additional mobile OS's like Sybian (47% m/s), RIM (21% m/s), or Android (5% m/s and growing). (Source of data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone, http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/02/apples-smart-phone-market-share-dips-despite-strong-sales.ars, http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/googles-android-is-quickly-gaining-smartphone-market-share/19353103/) Chad Petrovay | Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard | Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main | 480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax | www.themim.org -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of MuseumPods Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 8:48 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Museum Community iPhone App Hello, I am looking for some museums interested in participating in a museum community based iPhone app. It will allow multiple museums to upload content from a variety of social platforms. The app will be a free download application for iPhone users in the iTunes app store. Please complete this short form if you might be interested in participating at: http://bit.ly/iphone-app-museums Thanks, Kurt Stuchell MuseumPods ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] facebook advice
Yes, staff members must create institutional groups or pages under personal profiles. While I am aware of one institution that has created a profile for a person (historically associated with the institution) that is used for administering the group/page, this is a violation of Facebook's Terms of Service. When you (or whomever) create the group/page, be sure to add multiple (trusted) staff members as administrators of a group or page. This way, if the group/page creator leaves the institution, you can maintain control of the group/page. You will also notice that pages do not display the administrators, whereas groups do expose a lists of Admins and Officers. Facebook pages are preferable to groups. Events sent to group members are sent from the personal account that creates the event (ie - You have been invited by Chad Petrovay (Phoenix, AZ) or Hosted by: Chad), whereas events sent to fans are sent under the auspices of the institution (ie - Hosted by: The Field Museum). Hope this has been helpful. Chad Petrovay ?| ?Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 8550 S. Priest Drive ?| ?Tempe, AZ 85284 480.481.2460 main ?| ?480.353.2746 direct | 480.481.2459 fax ?| www.themim.org -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Cathryn Goodwin Sent: Saturday, September 05, 2009 6:50 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] facebook advice Does anyone have experience with setting up an institutional facebook and also allowing for groups? It seems facebook will only allow personal profiles to create groups - do others have staff people create museum-related groups under their personal profile? thanks Cathryn
[MCN-L] Go to page number
Bravo! What a wonderful concept - I think this is very similar to features like AOL Keyword: I did spot one tiny flaw. Page numbers are tied to not only content, but also language: Exhibition information in English: Page 15 Exhibition information in Hebrew: Page 2 Exhibition information in Arabic: Page 26 So if I am looking at the Exhibition information in Hebrew, but would be more comfortable seeing that information in Arabic, there isn't an easy way to toggle between languages. If I change the language in the main navigation, I get routed back to the main page. As an end-user, I'd like to see all content tied to one number regardless of language, and then underneath your jump-to box, toggles for See this page in If I'm viewing content in English, I can change the page number and the system would know to pass the language variable with the request. Hope that makes sense. Chad M Petrovay Collections Database Administrator The Walters Art Museum 600 North Charles Street Baltimore, MD? 21210 P: 410.547.9000 x266 F: 410.837.4846 cpetrovay at thewalters.org ? www.thewalters.org ? Exhibitions: Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry?on view through January 4, 2009 Mummified on view through November 8, 2009 The Special Dead: A Medieval Reliquary Revealed?on view through January 18, 2009 -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Hanan Cohen Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 3:04 AM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: [MCN-L] Go to page number Shalom, Since this is my first post to this list I will introduce myself. My name is Hanan Cohen and I am the new Webmaster of the Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem, Israel. http://www.mada.org.il/en/ . I am new in the sense that I have been a short time on this job and also in the sense that I am new to museums as a professional. One of the issues I have been thinking about since starting here is how to connect the physical world to the web. We know there is a problem of directing people from paper to web and also from speech to web. At the most, we direct people to a top directory and they somehow manage from there. The Bloomfield Science Museum strives to be an educational resource for its visitors - the general public and the formal education system. Writing long URL's on paper in order to propose content on our site to our audience is a problem. Then I had an idea. Every page on our site has a unique, short ID. I have created a new box that is displayed on every page. The box says go to page number:, has an input line and below that current page number: wxyz When I want to direct someone to a page, all I have to do is see in what page number I am at and write or say a short number. The recipient just has to type a short number and go directly to the intended page. No need to type a long URL or click through menus. Now, we at the museum, will have to learn how to use this feature in our publications, displays and daily use of the website. It's a whole new way of thinking which we will have to develop. I hope the new feature will really solve the problem it tackles. I would be grateful for any feedback on this solution and its implementation. Currently, there isn't much English content on the site. To get a better experience of the page number idea, I suggest visiting the Exhibitions section. Thanks, Hanan Cohen - Webmaster Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem http://www.mada.org.il ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] MCN Archives
Does MCN have an archive of messages sent to the listserv? If so, where do we access it at? Chad M Petrovay Collections Database Administrator The Walters Art Museum 600 North Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21210 P: 410.547.9000 x266 F: 410.837.4846 cpetrovay at thewalters.org mailto:cpetrovay at thewalters.org www.thewalters.org http://www.thewalters.org/ Exhibitions: Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry on view through January 4, 2009 Mummified on view through November 8, 2009 The Special Dead: A Medieval Reliquary Revealed on view through January 18, 2009
[MCN-L] GlaxoSmithKline goes open source
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/massive-cancer.html
[MCN-L] FREE online/SL conference
They don't offer a streaming option that doesn't involve creating an avatar? Chad M Petrovay Collections Database Administrator P: 410.547.9000 x266 -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Leonard Steinbach Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 12:55 PM To: mcn-l at toronto.mediatrope.com Subject: [MCN-L] FREE online/SL conference Hi folks, I pitched this conference a couple weeks ago and wanted to share this updated information since there will be some presence in SL as well as near-hi def video streaming and a couple technology superstars involved. IT IS FREE. I think the topics covered are of significant interest to the museum community, but almost more importantly, the content, messages and insights are coming from outside the museum community...from/to the higher education community with which museum technologists share more inherent kinship than is usually recognized. I hope most of us agree that visitors from beyond our galaxy may prove very worthwhile. Thoughts on my premise or the event itself, now or post-event are welcome here or off list. Thanks. So here, from Case Western Reserve Colleagues and friends -- We're nearly sold out (250 free lunches;-) for the upcoming Collaborative Technology and Community Engagement Summit being held at Case Western Reserve University's Thwing Center on May 8th from 9 - 4. At 9 am OneCommunity unveils the new and expanded University Circle wireless mesh Live throughout University Circle, parts of East Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, and Cleveland The program features the (co)author of Wikinomics (http://www.wikinomics.com) as our lunchtime (free) keynote (Anthony Williams) and Cory Ondrejka (founder of Second Life) and more than 16 breakout sessions and 40 speakers and demonstrations. President Barbara Snyder will be offering remarks following the keynote. Registration and up to date programing information is available at http://www.case.edu/its/collabtech08/collabtech08.html For those unable to attend in person, you can participate in SecondLife http://slurl.com/secondlife/ClevelandPlus/184/107/24 once you've created your avatar (instructions available http://www.case.edu/its/services/documents/SlClevelandPLusIntro.pdf) We will also be streaming much of the event (see program for times) in new near-high definition streaming (H264) at http://mediavision.case.edu/H264/caselive.html CollabTech 08 is sponsored by Case Western Reserve University's Information Technology Services, University Libraries, UCITE, Office of the Provost, Human Resources, Council of Technology Officers, and Faculty Senate Committee on Information Resources. CollabTech08 is made possible through generous contributions of OneCommunity, Dell Computers, Apple Computers, PerceptIS, Mobile Discovery, IBM, EMC, and Cisco Systems. ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
[MCN-L] Interpretive Video Kiosk Software
If your videos are in a format that can be played by Windows Media Player, then you can embed them into a webpage (even if you only want to run them from a local drive). You can then use the SiteKiosk software or Open Kiosk developed for Brooklyn Museum (https://www.mozdevgroup.com/clients/bm/). Chad M Petrovay Collections Database Administrator The Walters Art Museum 600 North Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21210 P: 410.547.9000 x266 F: 410.837.4846 cpetrovay at thewalters.org www.thewalters.org -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Leah Fox Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2008 10:30 AM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu; talk at museum-ed.org; MUSEUM-L at HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM Subject: [MCN-L] Interpretive Video Kiosk Software Thank you to those who responded to my previous posting about kiosk software. We are now working with SiteKiosk by Provisio. We do have several other interpretive kiosks that have only one function which is to play interpretive videos. SiteKiosk does not support this as it works in a web environment. Currently, our interpretive videos (which are mostly on touch-screen) are playing on Windows Media Player, which opens the issues of closing down the program and accessing other programs within the computer. Can anyone recommend a program that will create a video kiosk that supports mpeg2 playback? I see so many wonderful interpretive videos in museums but do not know how the kiosk environment works. Thank you, Leah Leah Fox Director of Public Programs Currier Museum of Art 150 Ash Street Manchester, NH 03104 603.669.6144 x119 ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
[MCN-L] Google mail versus MS Exchange or others
Interesting. I know there has been discussion about how easy it is to migrate emails over to Google, has anyone posed the question about the ease of migrating them back, once Google is no longer the belle of the ball? What benefits exist with Google, instead of another email vendor like mail.com, which does offer business email hosting? Or, as an institution with a hosted webserver, would it be more beneficial to take advantage of a webmail application like Horde, since benefits like back-ups would be managed by the hosting company, but we would still maintain control over the system config (etc)? Chad M Petrovay Collections Database Administrator The Walters Art Museum 600 North Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21210 P: 410.547.9000 x266 F: 410.837.4846 cpetrovay at thewalters.org www.thewalters.org -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Dueker, Peter Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 12:50 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Google mail versus MS Exchange or others I am perhaps old fashioned in this regard but I am wary of Google's dependence on advertising revenue, and a potential creep of the ad world into enterprise applications and services. (sidebar ads are optional but for how long?) Google is a darling now - but the belle of the ball is rarely a permanent position. There is always the risk that Google will tighten the corporate screws, no guarantee that gmail will always be harmless or even inexpensive ... A backlash against Google at some point is probably inevitable - this could impact cultural heritage institutions sensitive about such associations (no different than say, considering corporate sponsors for an exhibition). I recently used a museum's collection search powered by Windows Live. I didn't find what I was looking for and as a bonus got a whole bunch of ads on the side. I found this distressing. Peter Dueker On 4/16/08 12:20 PM, Chuck Patch chuck.patch at gmail.com wrote: OK. I held off hijacking the thread until someone else did it for me.. Interesting. During the month(s) our internal systems were down following Katrina, I set up initial communications among the staff using Google groups and set up people without personal email accounts on Google mail. While we later developed an online staff directory that people could personally update while on the road, it was the initial use of the Google group that allowed us to get in contact. Although I suspect that there would still be significant resistance among our tech folk, the truth is that there is nothing that our institution does with Exchange that couldn't be done in Google mail, which is another way of saying that no one uses any of the useful features in Exchange, such as meeting scheduling etc. Or rather, a handful will and the rest never pay attention to those features which makes them useless. I also agree with Ari that staff will probably hate the Google apps and prefer Office, but then when has anyone's staff not hated anything other than what they've been using? Switch them to Office 2007 and I promise Google Apps will look fabulous. I think the real hump for most institutions to surmount is the sense that you're much more reliant on your ISP with this system. In fact, it's not email where web services are making inroads, it's in more peripheral stuff like event registration, online calendaring, shop stores, etc that are raising the comfort level for things closer to the mission. Chuck Patch On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 10:43 AM, Leonard Steinbach lensteinbach at gmail.com wrote: I have been strongly urging cultural institutions, especially those with minimal or overworked, overstretched technology staffs to give serious consideration to moving to G-mail under their education/non-profit organization program. Many colleges/universities have been going, or are considering going, this route, with Arizona State University among the leaders in this. (they have been a bit radical in some other technology approaches as well). The academic sector may prove a good role model in this. I wont recapitulate the full apps programhttp://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/org/index.htmlbut the increased storage capacity, sophisticated spam filtering, easy access to other google apps , migration assistance, retention of institutional email addressing, ease of remote access, become compelling cases for evaluation. Undoubtedly one factor would be the extent to which specialized features of Exchange used by staff can not be easily replaced. I have long posited that, generally speaking, the core competency of museums is not the management of complex systems, but the creative use of them and that museums should be vigilant in periodically reevaluating where there time and costs are dedicated. For some museums, internal email management may be appropriate, but for many it probably no longer
[MCN-L] Museum Community iPhone App
According to Canalys, in 2009 iPhones only had a 15% market share of smartphones. I hope that your platform will expand to include additional mobile OS's like Sybian (47% m/s), RIM (21% m/s), or Android (5% m/s and growing). (Source of data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone, http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/02/apples-smart-phone-market-share-dips-despite-strong-sales.ars, http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/googles-android-is-quickly-gaining-smartphone-market-share/19353103/) Chad Petrovay ?| ?Collections Database Administrator MIM-Musical Instrument Museum | 4725 E. Mayo Boulevard ?| Phoenix, AZ 85050 480.478.6000 main ?| ?480.478.6058 direct | 480.471.8690 fax ?| www.themim.org -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of MuseumPods Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 8:48 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Museum Community iPhone App Hello, I am looking for some museums interested in participating in a museum community based iPhone app. It will allow multiple museums to upload content from a variety of social platforms. The app will be a free download application for iPhone users in the iTunes app store. Please complete this short form if you might be interested in participating at: http://bit.ly/iphone-app-museums Thanks, Kurt Stuchell MuseumPods ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Effects of Google's 'search within site'? Anyone else affected?
I start to see this issue as one that is compounding. If the majority of searches are for an artist's name, consider the number of ULAN entries for Da Vinci or Caravaggio? Now multiply that number by the ability of people to spell that name. Lets put artist's names aside and consider an attribute name, an end-user may not be considering the standardized terminology that the museum cataloguers are using, so unless your search engine is utilizing something like the AAT, your terms will have a lower accuracy. Now feed misspellings into the equation. Does the algorithm also search through your user contributed tags (folksonomies) and, if so, does it account for their misspellings? How does it calculate misspelled words: using a soundex, the Levenstein distance, or is it using a pre-populated index of commonly misspelled words? This doesn't even start to address ranking issues - why does a search on our website for the term sword rank a Ceremonial Cup vastly higher then an object named Sword (Kilij) - or any of the other issues. Can't someone build a better search algorithm specifically to meet the needs of the museum community? Is the Getty preparing an API, so that search engine technology can be plugged into their multilingual/conceptual lexicons? Surely, if Netflix can improve their matching algorithm, Cinematch, by 8.57% (more accuracy), then we, as a community, can rally to build a better search engine. (Ok - granted, they're offering a 7 figure reward if that improvement hits 10% - but still). Or do we just accept that Google already did? Chad M Petrovay Collections Database Administrator P: 410.547.9000 x266 -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of j trant Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 12:07 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Effects of Google's 'search within site'? Anyone else affected? Frankie, You've done more than a lot of people have done in looking at your search logs. When i looked at the Guggenheims's -- as a prototype for some steve data analysis -- i did a literature search and couldn't find any serious studies of museum searching [this really surprised me, btw.] Each collection is likely to have its own patterns: in this modern art museum 63% of the most common searches (searched 10 or more times) were for artists' names. Amazingly about 25% of the searches of this collection produced no result [in an age of millions of results elsewhere, this is a real problem]. Looking at the search failures: - 36% were caused by spelling errors, so did you mean... would really help. - 50% of the unsuccessful artist name searches were caused by spelling errors. The paper, and a blog post with more detail, are at http://conference.archimuse.com/blog/jtrant/searching_museum_collections _on_line_what_do_peo Since search is a favourite navigation mechanism we really do need to pay more attention to it, both on and now off museum sites. /jt At 3:46 PM + 3/28/08, frankie roberto wrote: The most likely impact for us is in upcoming modifications to our own search. ... Do we give up, and acknowledge that doing search in any way different from Google is a) now competing more directly with them, and b) probably just getting more confusing for most visitors; or do we focus on these (probably fewer and fewer) visitors who come to our search expecting it to work just the way it should, not the way that's easiest? Hmm, very interesting point. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that we spend far far less time looking at our search interface than we ought to. Our site search is powered by a Google Mini, and other than providing thumbnails object pages returned, it's pretty much working in its out-of-the-box configuration. We haven't invested any time in editorially 'promoting' results for certain search terms, for instance, or in setting up synonyms. In fact, this discussion has prompted me to do a quick report of the most popular search terms, which are: 1. games - 1,1012 2. grain strain (old game) - 498 3. jobs - 488 4. wroughton (object storage site) - 474 5. search - 447 (amusing this is the default search text, so represents people pressing search without typing anything) 6. launchball - 280 7. opening times - 252 (shockingly, this doesn't return anything hugely useful, and so 11% try refining their search) 8. bbc micro - 202 (in the news recently, but only returns press releases) 9. builder - 192 (no idea what this is about) 10. energy - 150 (presumably teachers looking for energy microsite) This data is for the last month, and was gathered by the excellent 'site serch' function which can be set up in Google Analytics (which allows you to monitor search terms, regardless of which search technology you use). Generally, I site search seems to be hugely neglected by website owners (mea culpa), which is presumably why people are turning to Google more
