Re: [MCN-L] Assistance needed with ULAN data
I strongly encourage and use open source software, but most of these positive attributes don’t get at core motivations or reluctance that people might have. In many instances, especially where human resources are limited, proprietary models provide convenience and reassurance — if there is a problem, there is a company or person that you can reach out to for support. Every time that you introduce something new and complex that people rely upon or is mission critical to a one or two person support team. It’s daunting. So, in an average business setting, going with Microsoft Word or Excel is a pretty safe bet, aside from it being proprietary, being from a large corporation with different interests than mine, and I have no insight into future features. But, that under-resourced IT person certainly has a deep knowledgebase and a direct line to support if one of their users starts to get a weird error. When some user comes to them wanting to run LibreOffice, I can *easily* understand how that feels entirely out of left field and who knows what it introduces into their small ecosystem. Or when someone suggests that the design department starts using GIMP instead of Adobe Creative Suite. It’s part of why SaaS works. RHEL makes linux easier for a lot of places to administer. Or hosted web services. Or even the slew of proprietary software systems that museums run on that are now presenting a cloud-based option. The maintenance and problem solving becomes partially someone else’s problem, even if you’re paying for it (and it can also be argued that creates some responsibility). I think you need to find transition arguments as opposed to just championing the benefits of open source. For example: - As a user, I’m willing to take primary responsibility for this software that I want to try. How can we sandbox what I’m doing to have the least amount of impact on IT? - For xx software, there’s a strong support community that I’ve been a part of for xx months. As a user, I’m willing to do basic troubleshooting with that community and ask for limited support from IT - xx software is being used at these other similar museums and I’ve talked to the staff their about support and maintenance, can I set up an appt for our IT depts to talk about the overall effort? - I’ve done some commercial comparisons and this open source software has additional benefits that are important to me as a user, can we talk through those needs and see if this software really is my best solution? - I understand the general policy of open source, can you help me better understand the underlying concerns and reasons so we can make sure we address those? None of that is to remove responsibility from IT but it makes the attempt to understand where they’re coming from and why and then find a common transition point that makes it a shared approach and resolution. -bw. Bruce Wyman | Principal bwy...@usd-mach.com | 720.208.6586 USD Design | MACH Consulting | www.usd-mach.com Strategy • Design • Concept • Implementation > On Aug 19, 2019, at 9:31 AM, Sina Bahram wrote: > > To build on that great list. > > You can control your data because it's not trapped in a proprietary format. > > Because of the above, transitioning to a different software in the future is > now not impossible, like it can be if a proprietary tool goes out of business. > > If you wish to fix/enhance the software, you're not at the behest of a large > corporation whose interests may be quite different than yours. You can hire > internal or external staff to modify the software for your needs. > > Integration and interoperability are often-times easier as a result because > open source software tends to favor open standards. > > Due to the management tooling around open source, defect/feature tracking is > a much more transparent process e.g. you can track that feature you're > excited about and its progress through development, testing, and eventually > production. Similarly, you can check the status of a bug, see reports from > others on that issue, and even collaborate wen multiple organizations may > care about the same bug, thereby lowering the cost of getting it fixed. > > Take care, > Sina > > President, Prime Access Consulting, Inc. > Phone: 919-345-3832 > https://www.PAC.bz > Twitter: @SinaBahram > Personal Website: https://www.sinabahram.com > > -Original Message- > From: mcn-l On Behalf Of nikhil trivedi > Sent: Monday, August 19, 2019 11:55 AM > To: Museum Computer Network Listserv > Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Assistance needed with ULAN data > > Hey all, > > My go-to talking points when people talk about their trepidation with open > source because of perceived insecurity: > > - Open source f
Re: [MCN-L] Assistance needed with ULAN data
Nik (and others) — I agree, it’s a surprising viewpoint and I’m always a bit surprised when I encounter it but usually expect that it’s a by-product of other internal factors. In this instance, I wonder if it’s simply that it’s a small museum with limited resources and with an IT staff (or person) that has limited experience outside of a range of solutions. And, with limited resources to spend on exploring something new vs something that’s known. That doesn’t mean it’s a good situation but clearly a support system and possible mentorship from experienced colleagues in the field may get that museum closer to an open-source solution. It’s also certainly possible that they’ve been burned in the past. (If only there was a stuffed therapy dog handy so they could point out where it hurts). In which case, not only mentorship but ongoing resources of assistance or guidance would help ease that path to recovery. -bw. Bruce Wyman | Principal bwy...@usd-mach.com | 720.208.6586 USD Design | MACH Consulting | www.usd-mach.com Strategy • Design • Concept • Implementation > On Aug 17, 2019, at 12:45 PM, Nik Honeysett wrote: > > This is a great left-turn from a ULAN question. Both the point of view of OSS > and the empowerment role of IT rather than as gatekeeper is fairly ubiquitous > in our field, and while I know this comes from frustration, (and I am guilty) > critique and antagonism, I’ve learned is not the answer. How do we engage and > educate these folks? > > -nik > > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > Nik Honeysett > CEO, BPOC > e: nhoneys...@bpoc.org > m: (805) 402-3326 > via mobile > >> On Aug 17, 2019, at 10:15, Sina Bahram wrote: >> >> Wow. Your network team is exhibiting professional negligence, bordering on >> pure incompetence, if they are asserting that open-source is not secure. >> That's an incredibly concerning lack of understanding of the most basic >> tenants of technology and modern operations. This debate was solved decades >> ago, not months ago. Trillions of dollars of operations occur over >> open-source technologies in the most relaxed environments in the world to >> the most secure ones. >> >> There are a myriad of examples of where open source and open standards is >> the "only" way to ensure true security, interoperability, accessibility, >> data transparency, and so much more. >> >> Good luck. You have my empathy. >> >> Take care, >> Sina >> >> President, Prime Access Consulting, Inc. >> Phone: 919-345-3832 >> https://www.PAC.bz >> Twitter: @SinaBahram >> Personal Website: https://www.sinabahram.com >> >> -Original Message- >> From: mcn-l On Behalf Of Matt Morgan >> Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2019 7:06 AM >> To: mcn-l@mcn.edu >> Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Assistance needed with ULAN data >> >> Shyam's being kind here. It's 2019. I can't believe I'm seeing that >> statement. If that's what they really said, it's completely >> unprofessional at this point. >> >> OpenRefine is in a category unto itself. It's worth them spending some >> time "securing" it, if they're serious. But what they're really saying >> is "we want to control what software you use to make our jobs minimally >> easier." What they could be saying is "IT is about empowering the staff >> with tech, even when it's hard." >> >> Matt Morgan >> CTO >> Curtis Institute of Music >> >>> On 8/16/19 4:17 PM, Shyam Oberoi wrote: >>> "My network team took it away because they believe open source is generally >>> not secure." >>> >>> That's insane, the product was developed by Google! >>> >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenRefine >>> >>> >>> Shyam Oberoi >>> Chief Digital Officer >>> Royal Ontario Museum >>> O: 416-586-7935 >>> E: sobe...@rom.on.ca >>> >>> >>> >>> -Original Message- >>> From: mcn-l On Behalf Of Nancy Hoffman >>> Sent: Friday, August 16, 2019 2:48 PM >>> To: Museum Computer Network Listserv >>> Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Assistance needed with ULAN data >>> >>> Hi Samantha - >>> >>> I have a question related to your answer for Erin. Do you know of a program >>> other than OpenRefine that can fetch URIs from the Getty's reconciliation >>> services? I have been using OpenRefine for AAT vocabulary terms in a data >>>
Re: [MCN-L] Preparing for quickly approaching GDPR deadline
Glen — From what I’ve been reading lately, I think Nik’s observation about location is the critical piece. Here’s what I’m understanding at the moment: 1. Is the transaction happening with someone physically located in the EU? If no, you’re all done. GDPR does not apply. If yes, proceed to step 2. (Article 3 of the GDPR is the relevant bit here) 2. Are you collecting uniquely identifiable data (ie, name, address, phone number, DOB, picture, etc) or behavioral data of someone in the EU? If no, you’re all done, GDPR no longer applies. If yes, proceed to step 3. 3. Is the material (marketing or products) targeted or localized to a member of the EU? (I admit that the *product* part seems iffy to me) If no, you’re all done, GDPR no longer applies. If yes, you need to be in compliance with GDPR In particular, if a german user comes across your english-only website with marketing or content geared to a US consumers (or B2B), then that german user doesn’t have GDPR protections, they weren’t part of the target audience. I do think this is a bit of a grey zone and when in doubt, it’s probably better to be opting for GDPR compliance. -bw. > On Feb 7, 2018, at 6:32 PM, Glen Barnes <mailto:g...@mytoursapp.com>> wrote: > > "The GDPR not only applies to organisations located within the EU but it > will also apply to organisations located outside of the EU if they offer > goods or services to, or monitor the behaviour of, EU data subjects. It > applies to all companies processing and holding the personal data of data > subjects residing in the European Union, regardless of the company’s > location.” > > If you collect data on an EU resident it counts. We have had to abide by > rules the US has pushed on the rest of the world in relation to money > laundering, travel and other areas for years. Our bank is making small > businesses in NZ who have no business outside of the local community fill > out forms declaring US based income, etc. (See FACTA: > https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/79049481/thousands-of-bank-customers-called-on-to-reveal-us-connections > > <https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/79049481/thousands-of-bank-customers-called-on-to-reveal-us-connections> > ) > > The US is about to get a taste of its own medicine ;-) So yeah, welcome to > the club! > > Cheers > Glen Barnes > CEO/Founder > Authentic - Home of My Tours, Curtis, STQRY and 7scenes > p: +64 (21) 0429 471 > e: g...@getauthentic.io > w: www.getauthentic.io > >> >> >> Message: 1 >> Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2018 11:33:45 -0800 >> From: Nik Honeysett >> To: "mcn-l@mcn.edu" >> Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Preparing for quickly approaching GDPR deadline >> Message-ID: >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 >> >> James - I don?t think that is right otherwise every business in the U.S. >> would be potentially liable. >> -nik >> >> >> >> Nik Honeysett | Chief Executive Officer | BPOC | www.bpoc.org >> >> >> M (805) 402-3326 P (619) 331-1974 E nhoneys...@bpoc.org > nhoneys...@bpoc.org> >> 1549 El Prado, Suite 8, San Diego, CA 92101 >> >> A non-profit technology collaboration connecting audiences to art, culture >> & science. >> >> >> Bruce Wyman | Principal bwy...@usd-mach.com <mailto:bwy...@usd-mach.com> | 720.208.6586 USD Design | MACH Consulting | www.usd-mach.com Strategy • Design • Concept • Implementation ___ 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@mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
Re: [MCN-L] Tapping the MCN Brain Trust
The 75% number comes from this study - <http://purple.ai/latest-survey-people-use-wifi-public-places/> in which people responded to a survey question. All human interaction there, not automated polling. Admittedly, not much detail on the study other than 2540 people in 30 countries. No idea the breakdown nor how representative they may be in comparison to people strolling through Balboa Park. I’d love to see other studies that either confirm or repudiate that ~75% number. -bw. > On Dec 5, 2016, at 11:33 AM, nikhil trivedi wrote: > > I just want to put a thought out there on the idea of people "looking for > free wifi." I wonder if the numbers you you're seeing don't translate to > people actually opening up the list of available networks on their devices. > I think our devices are constantly scanning for networks, and each scan > might result in a ping to our wireless systems. > > For example, the way Location Services generally works (if i'm not > mistaken) is if we have wifi enabled on our devices, they've constantly > scanning for networks to triangulate our location. The more accurate the > location is as we move, the more scanning our devices need to do. So I'm > not surprised that 75% of mobile users are "looking for free wifi." I think > that's more a reflection of our devices constantly scanning wifi networks. > > On Fri, Dec 2, 2016 at 11:38 AM, Nik Honeysett wrote: Bruce Wyman bwy...@teufelkind.net ___ 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@mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
Re: [MCN-L] Tapping the MCN Brain Trust
ore, can you use sampling tecniques to do this on the cheap? I'm >> sure you know more popular sections VS not. In fact, you could use existing >> wifi to tell you this. so, in certain areas to do the necessary leg work, >> but then use that to feed a larger model to validate and/or debunk your 12M >> number. >> >> In all seriousness, if your goal is not production, but rather limited >> data collection, is it out of the question to put conventional (even >> battery powered) presence detection devices in a few key places where you >> have at least one other form of ground truth e.g. a camera? >> >> My goal with any/all of these suggestions is to simply find out, >> eventually, which metric has higher accuracy. >> >> I am happy to be wrong, but with that many "bags of mostly water", I just >> don't buy that a wifi-based counting system that relies on back-scatter and >> reflection counting, with some phase calculations thrown in, is going to be >> worth anything other than maybe order of magnitude. >> >> Take care, >> Sina >> >> President, Prime Access Consulting, Inc. >> Twitter: @SinaBahram >> Company Website: http://www.pac.bz <http://www.pac.bz/> >> Personal Website: http://www.sinabahram.com <http://www.sinabahram.com/> >> Blog: http://blog.sinabahram.com <http://blog.sinabahram.com/> >> >> -Original Message- >> From: mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu <mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu> [mailto: >> mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu <mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu>] On Behalf Of Nik >> Honeysett >> Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2016 7:46 PM >> To: mcn-l@mcn.edu <mailto:mcn-l@mcn.edu> >> Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Tapping the MCN Brain Trust >> >> Sina - that took 3 minutes? You’re awesome. Many thanks... >> >> Bruce - this is kind of thing I’m looking for - many thanks. >> >> Obviously, my friend is me. The accepted park visitorship is 12 million - >> no idea where this comes from. Institutional attendance (museums and zoo) >> reports in at about 6.5 million but there is double, triple and quadruple >> counting hiding in these numbers. I’m interested in whether the 12 million >> is accurate, so yes, interested in the joggers, dog walkers and picnickers, >> etc. I’m inclined to think the 12 million is inflated significantly. >> >> Its Ruckus equipment and we tried counting all devices in the area, but >> the differential between users on the wifi and devices wasn’t very big, so >> I didn’t trust it. However, if 75% of smartphone users are looking for free >> wifi (I thought it would be much lower), then maybe I should take another >> look at that number. >> >> We serve an average of 100K users per month on the wifi and tomorrow and >> saturday is our signature event when we’ll “officially" see 350K people in >> the park - no idea where this number comes from either, but like to support >> it it or debunk it. >> >> Thanks for the thoughts and data much appreciated. And while I’d love to >> use some drones, we’re on the SAN flight path and only a mile from the >> airport. >> >> -nik >> >> >> Nik Honeysett | Chief Executive Officer >> >> BALBOA PARK ONLINE COLLABORATIVE >> >> M (805) 402-3326 P (619) 331-1974 E nhoneys...@bpoc.org > nhoneys...@bpoc.org> <mailto:nhoneys...@bpoc.org > nhoneys...@bpoc.org>> >> 2131 Pan American Plaza, San Diego, CA 92101 >> >> A technology collaboration that connects audiences to art, culture and >> science. >> >> >> On Dec 1, 2016, at 4:18 PM, Sina Bahram wrote: >> >> I'm familiar with Mostofi's work, but wen I last looked at it, the >> out-door performance was far less accurate than in-door, due to not being >> able to rely on reflections, etc. >> >> When I googled it now, I notice casual references to outdoors. What I >> don't know is whether the team did further work, or whether they are simply >> echoing the original paper's comments, but not properly accounting for >> in-door VS out-door when it comes to accuracy? >> >> >> Take care, >> Sina >> >> President, Prime Access Consulting, Inc. >> Twitter: @SinaBahram >> Company Website: http://www.pac.bz >> Personal Website: http://www.sinabahram.com >> Blog: http://blog.sinabahram.com >> >> -Original Message- >> From: mcn-l-boun
Re: [MCN-L] Tapping the MCN Brain Trust
(huh, it looks like I use my personal email address for this listerv, this was my original message) Nik — It’s worth reaching out to these folks: <http://www.ece.ucsb.edu/~ymostofi/HeadCountingWithWiFi <http://www.ece.ucsb.edu/~ymostofi/HeadCountingWithWiFi>>. They may be able to give you the coarse estimator that you’re looking for even if they’ve patented their refined version. Aside from that, This survey out of the UK in 2014. <http://purple.ai/latest-survey-people-use-wifi-public-places/ <http://purple.ai/latest-survey-people-use-wifi-public-places/>> did a survey which indicates ~75% of people are looking for & using wifi. (mileage may vary, no idea the size of n or how biased the survey pool may have been) Additionally, the Wireless Broadband Association indicates that by 2017, 60% of carrier network traffic will be offloaded to Wi-Fi. And Pew Research last year indicates that 68% of adults have smartphones. <http://www.pcworld.com/article/2999631/phones/pew-survey-shows-68-percent-of-americans-now-own-a-smartphone.html <http://www.pcworld.com/article/2999631/phones/pew-survey-shows-68-percent-of-americans-now-own-a-smartphone.html>> (and another study that I can’t find at the moment suggests that 90% of smartphones have Wifi which seems low to me, but we’re quibbling at this point). So. 2/3 of the population have smartphones, 75% of those smartphone users are looking for free wifi, stringing together a few studies and looking at some tough commonality. That gets you somewhat close for estimate purposes. And then validate with a small tracking study and / or the UCSB folks in the first link. -bw. > On Dec 1, 2016, at 3:21 PM, Nik Honeysett <mailto:nhoneys...@bpoc.org>> wrote: > > I have a friend who runs a large, free public-access wifi network in a park. > The network requires no authentication. There is modest promotion of the > availability of free-wifi. He’s looking to estimate the total number of > visitors to the park from the number of unique clients he sees on his wifi > network. Despite the fact that a significant proportion of visitors have > their smartphone with them, only a certain percentage will appear on the > network due to a variety of factors including phone settings and a user > checking to see whether there’s wifi available. > > What percentage of the total visitor number does the MCN brain trust think he > will see on his network? Or maybe put another way, what percentage of the > population looks for free wifi? > > -nik > Bruce Wyman bwy...@teufelkind.net ___ 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@mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
Re: [MCN-L] Tapping the MCN Brain Trust
Nik — One more bit of esoterica. If you’re using Cisco equipment, their mobility services for tracking folks. To work around the spoofing of IP addresses that happens with some devices (iOS, that’s you) you can mitigate this to some degree by setting “Enable Locally Administered MAC filtering” to *off*. That will likely improve your numbers of devices being counted. -bw. > On Dec 1, 2016, at 3:21 PM, Nik Honeysett wrote: > > I have a friend who runs a large, free public-access wifi network in a park. > The network requires no authentication. There is modest promotion of the > availability of free-wifi. He’s looking to estimate the total number of > visitors to the park from the number of unique clients he sees on his wifi > network. Despite the fact that a significant proportion of visitors have > their smartphone with them, only a certain percentage will appear on the > network due to a variety of factors including phone settings and a user > checking to see whether there’s wifi available. > > What percentage of the total visitor number does the MCN brain trust think he > will see on his network? Or maybe put another way, what percentage of the > population looks for free wifi? > > -nik ~~~~ Bruce Wyman bwy...@teufelkind.net ___ 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@mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
Re: [MCN-L] Budget for Digital
://www.mcn.edu) >> >> To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu >> >> To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: >> http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l >> >> The MCN-L archives can be found at: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/ >> >> >> ___ >> You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer >> Network (http://www.mcn.edu <http://www.mcn.edu/>) >> >> To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu <mailto:mcn-l@mcn.edu> >> >> To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: >> http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l <http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l> >> >> The MCN-L archives can be found at: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/ >> <http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/> >> >> > > > -- > Douglas Hegley > Director of Media and Technology > Minneapolis Institute of Art > 2400 Third Avenue South > Minneapolis, MN 55404 > (612) 870-3072 | dheg...@artsmia.org <mailto:dheg...@artsmia.org> | > www.artsmia.org <http://www.artsmia.org/> > ___ > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer > Network (http://www.mcn.edu <http://www.mcn.edu/>) > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu <mailto:mcn-l@mcn.edu> > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l <http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l> > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/ > <http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/> > ___ > 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@mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/ Bruce Wyman bwy...@teufelkind.net ___ 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@mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
Re: [MCN-L] 360-Projection Examples and Experience
Michael — At the Canadian Museum for Human Rights up in Winnipeg, we put together a 360° theater telling a first nations story that’s done in both english and french. We partnered with Electrosnic on the AV installation for the museum (and that piece in particular) with RAA doing the overall exhibit design. Steve Haas Acoustics did the final sound tuning and the fabrication done by Kubik. If memory serves, we used 7 Barco CNWU-61B projectors and the overall production is run through Dataton’s Watchout software on a pair of Showsage Model 6444 servers. You can see the rig used to film the outdoor scenography at <https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.620674134622071.1073741827.463919590297527&type=3> And an image of the theater itself is at <https://humanrights.ca/exhibit/indigenous-perspectives> And, an external view of the theater is in CMHR’s flickr collection at <https://www.flickr.com/photos/cmhr_mcdp/15350911771/in/dateposted/> We’ll run into each other in Minneapolis — feel free to ask me more about it this week. -bw. > On Nov 3, 2015, at 9:57 AM, Haley Goldman, Michael > wrote: > > With the NYTimes about to launch its VR documentary "Displaced," I'm trying > to find good past or present examples of 360-projection domes at museums (I > already have plenty of examples of VR headsets, thank you). > > Most of what I've seen so far has been science based - which is great but > less applicable - so I'm looking for a variety of examples and a better > sense of the options in technology being used. > > Thanks for any suggestions. > > Michael Haley Goldman > USHMM - Future Projects > ___ > 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@mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/ Bruce Wyman bwy...@teufelkind.net ___ 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@mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
Re: [MCN-L] (no subject)
yeah, i think we all are at this time of year. -bw. > On Sep 29, 2015, at 12:18 PM, Leslie Meyer wrote: > > I'm at so many > ___ > 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@mcn.edu > > ~~~~~~~~ Bruce Wyman bwy...@teufelkind.net ___ 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@mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
Re: [MCN-L] Introduction to DAMS video?
Despite the music, this doesn’t suck: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPOKfXyQg24> -bw. > On Aug 18, 2015, at 2:47 PM, Perian wrote: > > Does anyone happen to have a favorite introductory video for staff who are > unfamiliar with DAM systems? We're kicking off a new project and want to > illustrate what DAMS are in a neat, friendly, concise way. Unfortunately, all > we seem to be finding are marketing videos about specific products, or MCN > and MW talks (which are a bit long for this purpose...). > > Thanks in advance. > > ~P > ___ > 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@mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/ > Bruce Wyman bwy...@teufelkind.net ___ 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@mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
Re: [MCN-L] Media monitoring services
John — A couple of years (2012) back I’d found just over 200 companies that did some sort of social media monitoring (realizing at the moment you didn’t restrict to social media). There were only a handful that I’d ended up playing around with, finding most to be fairly underwhelming. But, in the interest of sharing, maybe this list gives you a few more to sort through. You can usually tell within a few minutes of most sites if they’re in the neighborhood of what you’re looking for. Google Sheet: <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Kf4euXXhWtUGSClXYE4k23X8gGffWedumgCg879XFxg/edit?usp=sharing> -bw. > On Aug 4, 2015, at 12:48 PM, Gordy, John wrote: > > Hello Hive Mind > Do any of you have media monitoring services that you like? > I've seen mentions of Vocus, Cision, Meltwater, and MyMedia Info. Any first > hand experience? Do you use a different one that I haven't mentioned here > Thanks y'all > John Gordy > Chief of Digital Outreach > National Gallery of Art > 202.842.6872 > > ___ > 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@mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/ Bruce Wyman bwy...@teufelkind.net ___ 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@mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
[MCN-L] Online vs physical visits
Bernard ? Here's the quick answer: Online experiences and availability don't cannibalize physical visits. That you're still having this conversation is, um, unfortunate. I think most staff would acknowledge that books ? with their incredibly high resolution images and detail that can be copied and reused ? have never been a deterrent to exhibits. Your digital presence, website, publications, whatever, is scarcely different. But you asked for quantifiable information rather than pontification. ;) Paul Marty has a pretty good paper on the topic at <http://arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/bitstream/10150/106394/1/marty_mwmv_part1.pdf>. He even has tables for the text-impaired amongst our colleagues. The paper references great sources (which will lead to other quantified information). Quoting from the paper: "?The concern focuses on whether museums providing online access to their collections will see a corresponding decrease in physical visits. At some stage in the planning process, someone usually asks, ?if visitors can access our digital collections using the Internet, will they still come to the museum in person?? The commonsense answer to this question is that, to the best of current knowledge, online visitors are also physical visitors. Logically, this makes sense; no one asks: ?If people can look at pictures of beaches online, will they still vacation in Florida?? In theory, the ability to access virtual museum resources online should serve as a lure, encouraging potential museum-goers to visit the physical installation. But is this true? Haley Goldman and Wadman wrote, ?The relationship between virtual museum sites and physical sites has not been extensively researched. [...] Museum Web site staff that we spoke with felt that the museum Web site boosted attendance for the physical museum, but they had no concrete evidence to prove it. While there are no studies disproving the commonsense approach, one can always have more studies with solid, detailed data that backs up this theory? (Haley Goldman and Wadman 2002; cf. McKenzie 1997). Recently, a number of surveys have provided compelling evidence that online museums actually drive physical museum attendance instead of discouraging physical visits; in the majority of studies, planning a museum visit is consistently cited as the primary reason people visit museum websites (Haley Goldman and Schaller 2004; cf. Bowen, Bennet, and Johnson 1998; Chadwick and Boverie 1999). Kravchyna and Hastings (2002) found that 57% of museum website users visit museum websites both before and after they visit physical museums. Similarly, Thomas and Carey (2005) found that 70% of museum visitors specifically looked for online information prior to a museum visit, and that 57% said the information they found online increased their desire to visit the museum in person." -bw. On Jul 31, 2013, at 12:59 PM, Bernard Hamlin wrote: > Hey there, > > I've been having a long running discussion with our team about the impact of > our website on physical visits to our building. > The rub appears to be the idea that offering a Web experience of objects and > exhibitions will cannibalise real experiences. > I'm not convinced that this is the case but I don't have any numbers, which > are important! Would anyone out there be willing to share door numbers say > before and after launching an online collection? Or a similar metric? > > Thanks > > Bernard Hamlin > IT Coordinator > Otago Museum > > ___ > 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://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://mcn.edu/pipermail/mcn-l/ > Bruce Wyman bwyman at teufelkind.net
[MCN-L] ticketing / retail point of sale
Does anyone on this fine listserv have direct experience with Gateway ticketing and either Retail Pro or Counterpoint for point of sale operations? If so, I'd love to pick your brain for a bit and hear about your experiences either good or bad. Thanks. -bw. Bruce Wyman bwyman at teufelkind.net
[MCN-L] Twitter chat: What's the point of social media for museums?Tuesday, 4/23, 4-6pm ET
Oh! Almost a functioning web browser. (the joke only makes sense if you know the obscure 18 year old dilbert reference: <http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-11-14/>) -bw. > Kate Woodall <mailto:Kate.Woodall at tepapa.govt.nz> > April 22, 2013 3:21 PM > Vng > > H > mw > Y > M erupt u colsdlo > > Sent from my iPhone > > > +++ > Visit the Te Papa website http://www.tepapa.govt.nz > The email message together with the accompanying attachments may be > CONFIDENTIAL. If you have received this message in error, please notify > mail at tepapa.govt.nz immediately and delete the original message. The > views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, > except where the sender specifically states them to be views of Te Papa. > Te Papa employs strict virus checking measures and accepts no liability > for any loss caused either directly or indirectly by a virus arising > from the use of this message or any attached file. > +++ > ___ > 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://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ > > Allen-Greil, Dana <mailto:D-Allen-Greil at NGA.GOV> > April 22, 2013 3:02 PM > Before we can measure success, we must first be able to answer the > question: Why is social media important for museums and what are we > hoping to achieve? > > Join the next #musesocial chat on Tuesday, April 23, 4-6pm ET. This > chat will be about connecting our social media efforts to broader > strategies and goals. > > We will discuss: > ? How do you craft your goals for social media? > ? How do you define social media "engagement"? > ? What parts of your mission and/or strategy align with your social > media outreach? > ? Do you have a separate social media strategy or is it part of a > broader digital plan? > ? How do you currently report social media success? Is it proactive or > requested by leadership? > ? Do your reports inform and alter your tactical approaches to social > media outreach? > ? Are you happy with your current goals, measurement (metrics), and > reporting process? Why not? > ? What are your burning questions about defining and measuring social > media success in museums? > > Your host: @danamuses (Dana Allen-Greil) > > Best, > > Dana > > > ___ > 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://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ -- Bruce Wyman bwyman at teufelkind.net
[MCN-L] Server advice requested
Robin ? Are cloud-based servers from Amazon / Rackspace / Linode an option or do you need a physical server on site? I'd lobby pretty hard for the former if you're not sure. -bw. On Dec 6, 2012, at 9:50 AM, Robin White Owen wrote: > Hello all, > > First, thank you to the people who got in touch with examples of on-line > learning platforms built in Drupal. Now I have a request for completely > different kind of information. > > We need to spec a computer to act as a server for a Linux based (LAMP) > project and would greatly appreciate recommendations for what to buy. It > seems unnecessary to buy a Dell and pay for Windows when we won't be using > it. But, maybe I'm wrong about that. > > Any advice based on your experiences would be helpful. Thank you, in advance, > > Robin > > Robin White Owen > M: 917/407-7641 > T: 646/472-5145 > robin at mediacombo.net > www.mediacombo.net > http://mediacombo.net/blog > twitter.com/rocombo > > > > > ___ > 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://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ Bruce Wyman bwyman at teufelkind.net
[MCN-L] showing video in small museum?
two easy options, assuming that you're looking for just looping video: - if you have existing tv screens that have a via or hdmi input, then a mac mini can be used pretty easily. I used these back in Denver all the time without flaw. - iPads. at the moment, they require a bit of hackery to autostart and to disable a few features, but the next release of iOS is supposed to have a single app mode (with museums in mind) that shouldn't require the usual hackery. oh, and a third option would be to use a simple mpeg playback device like <http://www.adtecinc.com/products-and-solutions/playback/signedje> but I usually prefer the above two options since they're useful beyond just video playback and offer long-term flexibility?. If it's useful, I'm happy to provide more detailed info for any. -bw. On Aug 30, 2012, at 9:46 PM, Nina Simon wrote: > What would folks recommend these days for showing video in a small museum > exhibition with minimal tech infrastructure? Are the digital photo frames > good enough yet, or is a computer really still needed? We've been using > crappy TVs with built-in DVD and running them on loop, but neither the DVDs > nor the TVs are really made for that much continual use and I'm looking for a > reasonable replacement. > > Thank you, > > Nina > > > Nina Simon > 831.331.5460 > nina at museumtwo.com > skype, twitter, flickr, facebook: ninaksimon > > > ___ > 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://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ > Bruce Wyman bwyman at teufelkind.net
[MCN-L] Lean Startup advocates?
I'm a huge fan of Eric's writing and his general approach was reflected in a bunch of the original work that we did in Denver Art Museum's galleries. I'd recommend him to anyone in a heartbeat that's trying to figure out how to make some change and is frustrated by your institution's process. Hell, even if you're not, it's still a good read. When I first joined DAM in 2004, before the expansion opened, we chose an early exhibit about the construction of the expansion to start trying out a slew of interface ideas and pieces of tech. There were maybe a half-dozen interactive bits that tested out RFID, tangible interfaces, oversized projections, and interactions that embedded visitors in the experience. They were all relatively simple in execution and we treated the exhibit as the testbed for more complex tech elements that we would develop later and, more importantly, how our visitors would interact with the ideas that we were proposing. Everything we did later --- experience, additional software, and complexity --- all iterated on those early tests and we constantly refined what we were doing based on what we were learning. I ran the tech department as a startup in the museum and publicly described it as such to the rest of the senior staff, trustees, and outside advisors. It was very much ingrained into my thinking and we frequently did most of our work on a shoestring budget and with only 1-2 people. It meant that we were able to do a fair bit of work that couldn't be done elsewhere at a much lower price point in the end. We had to build internal tolerance for iterating on projects and creating awareness that an opening wasn't a finish line, but instead just another milestone in the longer-term view that we had of tech in the museum. I am a huge fan of just getting stuff out into the public. We can discuss and prototype ideas ad nauseum but seeing how visitors interact with something over the course of a few days will tell you far more than all the anticipatory discussion and wondering will do. You just need to be prepared to iterate, accept that all of your original assumptions about the experience could be wrong, and, perhaps most importantly, be prepared to quickly capitalize on opportunities you might see in how people interact. > Nate Solas <mailto:nate.solas at walkerart.org> > July 20, 2012 1:43 PM > Anyone out there implementing (or wanting to) advice from Eric Ries's book > The Lean Startup? It's been vigorously recommended to me and at a glance > some of the ideas are pretty appealing. Especially a fan of testing before > committing to big projects / changes, etc... > > Article from Wired last month: > http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/07/features/the-upstart?page=all > > Just curious if anyone's drunk the kool-aid? Tips / ideas / warnings? > Happy > Friday! > Nate > > ___ > 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://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ -- Bruce Wyman bwyman at teufelkind.net
[MCN-L] Position Available: Director of Technology, Denver Art Museum
Job Opening DENVER ART MUSEUM April 6, 2010 Director of Technology Technology Department This is a full-time position with benefits. If you are interested in this position please email a cover letter, resume and list of three references to: . Application Deadline: April 30, 2010 Position Purpose: The Director of Technology (DoT) oversees and directs all technology-related projects throughout the museum. The DoT will represent technology design and implementation as well as technology infrastructure needs at the senior management level and will report to the CFO. The DoT will be responsible for the maintenance and implementation of a comprehensive technology strategy, "road map" and priorities that support the museum's mission and vision. The DoT will also be responsible for developing and managing relationships, in collaboration with the museum's other departments, with potential donors, vendors, partners and advisors in the technology industry. Essential Duties/Responsibilities: - In collaboration with staff, shape, refine and prioritize a comprehensive plan to implement creative technology applications throughout the museum complex. - Supervise Technology Department and staff. - Identify applications and trends in the technology field that can be used to meet the museum's needs and further the museum's mission and vision. - Responsible for all of the technology design, infrastructure, and implementation of the institution for business systems, networking, online, and in the galleries (with the exception of those maintained by Security and Facilities). - Act in the role of Executive Producer for outsourced technology projects. - Oversee selection, implementation, and maintenance of cross-departmental business systems. - Plan, collaborate, and develop uses of technology that touch the visitor experience. - Support staff technology needs and growth. - Ensure close communication between key museum departments with respect to technology. - Develop and manage relationships with technology advisors and donors. Job Qualifications: - Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly, both verbally and in writing, in an informed and persuasive manner, to multiple constituencies, including curators, artists, administrators, staff, and external parties - Ability to successfully manage and implement projects within deadlines and budgetary constraints - Must understand new technologies, exhibition techniques and development, IT infrastructure, interface design, information architecture, web development and design, network operations, database design, business flow and analysis, and technology troubleshooting - Ability to work cooperatively and independently to solve problems and deliver solutions - Must be able to work well with end users, technologists, and management. - Ability to play an outward facing role within both the local business/tech community as well as the tech vendor community - Capacity to collaborate with museum professionals to develop and conceptualize ideas that result in applications of new technologies tailored to the museum's mission, vision and needs - Knowledge of the technology field with both hands-on and strategic experience - Experience in shaping technologies for visitor and staff workflows, experiences, and collaboration - Ability to assess feasibility of new technology ideas or elements - Experience in developing models or prototypes for presentation to staff, advisors, and donors Education or Formal Training: Master's degree or equivalent experience in related fields or equivalent experience Experience: - Minimum 6 years of experience in technology related work environment - Minimum of 3 years of experience in managing, developing, or supporting software and other new media projects - Working experience a wide variety of software platforms, production techniques, and creative technology solutions. - Experience with museum and non-profit business systems - Programming and web development experience - Experience in design of technology systems relating to visitors or customers Other: - Small assembly tools - Computers - Computer workstation operation - 75%. - Hardware and exhibit manufacture and installation using small assembly tools. - Routine on-site visits to other staff offices and other museum buildings (1/3 mile distance). It is the policy of the Denver Art Museum to prohibit discrimination against any person or organization based on age, race, sex, color, creed, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, transgender status, gender identity, gender expression, ancestry, marital status, gender, veteran status, political service, affiliation or disability. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] MW2010 Crit Room, call for sites for review
[Apologies if this is a resend for some. -bw.] Please submit your sites for review at the MW2010 crit room - send 'em to me via email at bwyman at denverartmuseum.org Chair: Bruce Wyman, Denver Art Museum Panel: Dana Mitroff, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Christina DePaolo, Seattle Art Museum; Nate Solas, Walker Art Center How it Works: The Crit Room is an interactive conversation between the presenter (whose site is the topic of discussion), the panel, and those in the session. We have two hours in which to review four sites (1/2 hour each). In that time, we'll run the same process for each site... - brief intro (1 min) - the site representative will present the site briefly (max. 5 minutes) highlighting the challenges they face and the areas where they'd like feedback. - each of the two panelists will respond with their reactions and questions for the representative (5 minutes each) - we open up the commentary to the group in the room (10 minutes) Thanks! -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] Museum Community iPhone App
>I don't think it is ethical for me to $ charge for apps on iTunes >considering museums are providing free content for subscribers. Kurt -- I'd disagree with that statement. I don't think there's anything unethical to it, especially if what you're trying to do is recover the costs of the app development in the first place. Museums charge all the time for access to content; many museums have paid admission. All your doing is charging access to a portion of your digital content. Even further, museums that cover the cost of free admission many times also offer ancillary programs and events that are covered by a fee. That being said, I'm always in favor of free, but there's also nothing that prevents you from changing prices later in the app store (start at $1.99) until / if you recover costs, reduce to free. Or, flip it around and make the content separate from the distribution of the content. Your framework may/may not cost money (your app), but the content -- which can be provided by any museum -- is distributed for free within the app. With the current versions of the app store and iPhone OS, you have the capability to charge for in-app downloads of additional content. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] Follow a Museum Day is 2/1
>That link doesn't work... does for me, I bet you're running into link-wrap issues in your email client. Try: <http://followamuseum.com/> -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] On-Line Retail
>We noticed more than a few Museums use Yahoo Store, among others. While I don't have direct experience, I've heard of a bunch of people in the private sector using shopify , <http://www.shopify.com/> lately with pretty happy results. Looking at their online presence and what they offer, it doesn't seem to suck. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] FW: chat?
Yeah, ok, I'm an idiot and didn't mean to send this to the list. However, that being said, the interesting part is the five people that have responded so far to tell me how their chats went. The funniest bit is that the original message wasn't intended for someone that's even on the MCN listserv. So, yeah. Hi everyone. Glad to hear that things are generally going well with so many of you. :) -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] chat?
so, how did your chat go? hopeful or discouraged? hey, are you going to be at mcn in november? -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] Attachments sent in email
>Many other businesses do not accept files larger than 10. Any experience >or policies to share about this issue? We limit email attachments to 10mb. If someone has something larger, we'll put it on an ftp site or our website and encourage the end user to download from there. We had the excellent opportunity to transition our users to this policy about 4 years ago when an internal user had created a 120mb powerpoint of images from a staff party and sent it to all the internal staff. The email system in place at that time creating a copy for each user, tried to deliver to everyone, and then thoroughly hosed the disk space and processor utilization. It took about three days to recover from the incident but gave me the cover to upgrade the mail system and give our users a direct reason to understand the 'why' behind the policy. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] dictabelts
>Does anyone know a vendor for conversion of Dictabelts? One of our >members has 400 dictabelts containing local oral histories that we >are looking to convert. I've no personal experience with any of these companies, but they all seem to offer conversion services. <http://www.precision-ar.com/price.htm> <http://www.videointerchange.com/tape_conversion.htm> <http://www.vidipax.com/index.php> -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] Mac vs. PC
>Management. PC environment much easier to control users with AD and >user profiles (when roaming). Jeff, you might be interested in Apple's current document (updated last in April, 2009) - Best Practices: Integrating Mac OS X with Active Directory available at <http://images.apple.com/business/solutions/it/docs/Best_Practices_Active_Directory.pdf> Or, if you prefer, Apple also offers an online seminar (view in the browser or download) at <http://seminars.apple.com/seminarsonline/activedir/apple/index.html?s=301> covering much of the same material. We maintain a mixed environment here in Denver and have had no problems over the last 5 years with mac users in our AD controlled network. In fact, half of the Technology Department uses OS X with virtualized windows environments. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] Museum Jobs: A Summary
>Clearly there is some lack of awareness and understanding about the >role of Visual Resources professionals in the museum environment >that needs to be addressed. In light of overall concerns about the >future of our profession, this may be a timely and pertinent topic >for discussion at the Museum VR SIG (special interest group) meeting >at the next Visual Resources Assn. conference in Atlanta--for those >of us museum VR professionals who still retain jobs and will be in >attendance. You've got a forum here, why not start here instead of waiting for the next VR SIG meeting? Your criticism is certainly valid and it looks like that museum jobs summary is mostly cited material from a decade ago. Heck, my own position doesn't exist on the list. Or web-related folks. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] image sizes
>In late 2008, we began publishing >our materials on Flickr, in relatively high image sizes. We also started >releasing information about our collections in ways that were easily >findable by researchers. In March of this year, my boss commented that >we had already generated somewhere in the order of $10,000 in fees - >just in the first three months of 2009! That's awesome. I agree with others here that the museum stranglehold on clinging to the desperate dreams of deep licensing revenue doesn't bear out in cost-analysis for *most* museums. Ken's also spot on to reference creative commons licensing and whoever else pointed out that Cory Doctorow's observation that he's selling more through cc licensing his work. There was a recent study which I can't find at the moment that people who most frequently shared music online were also the most frequent purchasers. It stands out as being a european observation, so I'm sure will instantly dismiss it here in America, but it was an interesting reference point. It seems that pretty consistently the real world is showing us the having a fairly open commons pays off financially (and philosophically). I'd rather spend time on creating stuff to help users rather than restrict them. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] If not a big set of headphones than what? A little help please....
Attached is an image (assuming that the MCN listserv doesn't get all fussy about image attachments) ...turns out the listserv does get all fussy. If you want to see the image of the soundtubes at the Tech Museum, here's a link instead - <http://support.denverartmuseum.org/soundtubes.jpg>. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] If not a big set of headphones than what? A little help please....
>We have had a lot of good results with sound cones. Is that a >possibility for your installation? They are affordable and easy to >install/manage. We use them in our African and Native American >Galleries and special exhibits. The Tech Museum in San Jose did an exhibition about four years ago in which they built their own sound domes -- sound tubes, really -- in-house. They worked just as well as the commercially available sound domes for a fraction of the cost (I'd guess around $200 vs $2k). Attached is an image (assuming that the MCN listserv doesn't get all fussy about image attachments) in which you can see three of the sound tubes hanging form the ceiling (I've overexposed the image so you can actually see them). The trick there was to have enough vertical space to make the tube long enough to work. I'd imagine if you were working with a drop ceiling you could hide part of it in the ceiling to reduce the overall visual impact. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] IP SIG: Copying DVDs to personal computer -- RealNetworks sued by movie studios
>Good luck with that. After trying to figure out how to rip a DVD to AVI >last week (our own video), I learned that there're plenty of free >solutions out there. Not that I would condone or suggest one should rip DVDs, but if one were to do so for personal use and was curious what kinds of software are free and good for the task, you'd probably want to look at Handbrake - <http://handbrake.fr/> -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] Podcasting Advice
> I have been told by senior staff that we do not have enough space >on our website, I wonder if anyone knows how much space a 60 minute >podcast would take up. Also, what kind of technology would be >required to post a podcast on our website? Both Kurt and Avi have given some good answers; I'll chime in with a little more. Doing a quick round of snooping, it looks like you have about 10gb of disk space with your hosted web account. (I'm making some assumptions, but it looks like the IP address for your website is owned by web.com and their hosting plans based off their sitebuilder tool each have 10gb of disk space. See <http://www.web.com/Hosting/SiteBuilder.aspx#compareHosting> and click on hosting features) For what you're trying to do, 10gb is a fairly good chunk of space. Looking at the sizes of a half-dozen podcasts I have on my computer, that are all 45-55 minutes long, they're about 25-35mb (podcasts from NPR that are mostly talk). Based on that math, and not knowing what else is part of your site, you could potentially put 250+ podcasts on your site. (That being said, Kurt's made a great offer that potentially solves your problem without doing much additional work). The other part to consider is what you actually want to deliver. If you really just want to be able to play audio from your website, or let someone download the audio file, then Ari's advice is pretty good. If you want to make a true 'podcast' that other software will recognize (such as iTunes) and treat as a podcast rather than just another audio mp3 file, then you'll want to create an rss feed for the series (you *are* going to do more than one, right?). There are a variety of tools that will help you package up your audio as a true podcast -- if you want to head down this path, contact me offline and let me know if you're using windows or a mac and I can point you in a few directions. >The museum has a myspace profile, and part of the reason we >established it was the possibility that the podcast could be >downloaded from there. You can certainly do that, although it looks like people are generally just hosting audio files rather than true podcasts. One thing you'll want to be mindful of, no matter where you decide to upload your files, is making sure that the site's terms and conditions let you retain ownership and copyright to the files you're uploading. With Myspace, you're in the clear - <http://www1.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.terms> and scroll down to section 6, "Proprietary Rights on Content...". >We do have a completely edited podcast ready to go and hope to have >it up and running by the summer. If you've already done the hard part -- getting it ready to go -- get it out there. You'll get quicker feedback about what you're doing right (and wrong) and keep learning as you actually go through the process. Nothing says that you can't try to host in more than one place - the museum's website, Kurt's offer of Museumpods, and Myspace. I'm wiling to bet that they serve generally different audiences but in each case, you'll learn something. Don't aim for this summer. Aim for February to get it going. ;) -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] What is a Collections Management System supposed to manage?
>We are addressing some concerns regarding our collections management >system. Something that has become clear is that our staff is not in >agreement as to what a CMS is and what it should do. I'd think about the problem a little more broadly. The long view answer is that it doesn't matter where it lives, as long as it lives somewhere. If everyone agrees that it needs to be stored, there are a couple of different ways to approach the problem and you make the mental tradeoffs of short-term need and internal behavior vs. long-term scale and potential use. At one end of the continuum, you just have databases of stuff. Your authoritive records of information in the organization. The development department is probably authoritive about donors and members (people that matter to the org). Visitor services is probably authoritive about programmatic transactions -- ticketing, class registrations, etc. Your collections management system is probably the most authoritive record of the collection itself (if we're disagree on this point, we've got a deeper problem... ;) Your goal at this point is to simply make sure stuff is getting stored. The next point along the path is where secondary information starts to become important. It's easy to start associating label copy, additional images, exhibit text, podcasts, publications, etc and hang that off of the collections management system. Your goal here is to make it easy for end users to find the stuff associated with objects. The problem you quickly run into is an issue of scale and specialization. You may start to realize that not one answer fits all your needs -- you may add a digital asset management system to take on some of the burden that had been falling to your collections management system, for example. By this point, it's become very clear that meta-data is every bit as important as the information itself. And, your goal here is to let each system do what it does best. So now that you've built a bunch of specialized stuff and have decent enough meta-data, you start to *really* concentrate on is providing linkages between stuff and inferring information. You have systems that understand how to translate or pull a subset of relevant information from another system and present that to the end-user. A good example is some of the work that Koven Smith is doing at the Met that was presented at MCN. I can think of a few other data points in the continuum, but I want to circle back to your original question -- should we use our CMS for this extra stuff. I'd answer, why not? If it's the easiest path forward that you have and it gets people in the habit of thinking of multiple kinds of information, then it's a good solution. At the same time, think about the tradeoffs in your long-term view -- where do you hope to be in 5 years -- and if this presents a good baby step or if you need to take a few steps forward at this point. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] Museum internal Twitter-like service?
>Is there anything like this being >used anywhere in our museum/science center universe? The technology department at the Denver Art Museum falls back to Twitter from time to time when things are really busy and we start to realize that we don't see each other for a couple of days. It was mostly just as a quick status update to the rest of the team so we knew who was doing what and how things were progressing. On the whole, it was interesting. I've been the only person that's consistently used twitter -- http://twitter.com/bwyman, but then I've been the most digital of the dept for years. Users need to reach a certain point of casualness in conversation that wasn't second nature for everyone although we all agreed that it was pretty useful as a kind of on-going train of thought. There were certainly a few moments of unexpected assistance between colleagues based on what someone was stumbling over (and had tweeted), so that was cool. We also thought it'd be a good way for new hires in the dept to get a sense of who was doing what and how. So, why didn't it sustain? Self-censoring was a big issue, where people just didn't feel like something was important enough or it felt like a little bit of an extra burden to tweet (really? 140 characters was too much!?), but those were also people more inclined to use voicemail. But, back to your original point, I think there's *incredible* value in services like Twitter behind the firewall. Whether it's directed communication or just watching the river flow by, it's interesting to get that really high-level view of that moment's mental status of the organization. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] museum software foundation
>Does anyone know the status of the Museum Software Foundation project >which was announced at the MCN conference in Chicago? Attempts to >reach its site (www.museumsoftwarefoundation.org) have been >unsuccessful. The site is in the middle of being transferred to new servers and should be back online later this week. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] iPhone and email access
>I'm wondering if anyone has had success convincing IT it's not a big >issue/security risk or found another solution. I've considered forwarding >Walker mail to my gmail account but anticipate headaches keeping the >mailboxes in sync. Robin, opening up the exchange server was a no-brainer. If you'd like, we're happy to get in touch with your IT folks and help alleviate some of their concerns. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] multi-touch table installation
We wanted to take the opportunity to share some background information about our most recent project, especially if anyone is also developing or thinking about multi-touch experiences. As part of a travelling art exhibition, Inspiring Impressionism, we've developed a set of interactive multi-touch tables. The show opened last month at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and then comes to the Denver Art Museum in early February. So far, public response has been great and the technology works well. From an experience point of view, there were three fundamental goals: - introduce works of art that might not appear at all the venues - allow visitors to explore the detailed brushwork of masterworks and impressionist works - create a social experience in which multiple visitors can engage at the same time In short, visitors can choose from ten different works and when they touch the table surface a magnified view of the artwork appears, their fingertip is essentially the magnifying glass. The part that's worked out surprisingly well is that multiple users are naturally drawn to the tables and more than one person uses them at the same time, a departure from the limitations of traditional touchscreens. On the technical side, we've developed the tables as a platform that can be easily adapated and used for different experiences than what we've necessarily designed. The hardware and vision system work independently of the front-end user experience, with the vision system simply throwing a data stream to a receptive application. We've put a preliminary webpage together that goes into additional detail about the project available at <http://blogs.denverartmuseum.org/technology/projects/multitouch/>. There's also a youtube video showing the interface and technology at work at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVN-a4x9aTs>. If you're in Atlanta before mid-January, please stop by the High and check out the exhibition. After that, stop by and say hello in Denver. This project was developed entirely in-house (although the software is based on open-source software which is referenced on the above webpage). We'll keep adding to the webpage, but we're happy to share the technology bits, how we've adapted the software (and the software itself), and the physical setup and installation (costs for the physical setup is under $10k). Some of this was surprisingly hard, and if we can help some others suffer a bit less, we're happy to help. Please feel free to send email to if you'd like to know more or have any questions. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] DM SIG: digital projectors
>So for example, if the projector resolution is 1024x768, you should use >images around 1000 pixels wide, since anything larger is going to be reduced >to the projector resolution. You're absolutely right - images larger than the maximum screen size don't get you anything (unless the image gets cropped or only a small portion is used). Two tidbits I'd pass along -- First, if you're using photoshop to reduce the image from its original size, after you've shrunk use 'unsharp mask' instead of 'sharpen' or 'sharpen more' to clean up the image. For an image that's about 1000px wide, try something like amount: 40%, radius: 1.4px, threshold: 5 levels. Unsharp mask really gets at the actual edges between things and tightens those instead of the whole image. Also sharpen a little less than you want to. Second, for a ppt deck when saving the image to be used, you probably only need a jpg with about 60-80% quality. You can go higher, but you're not going to get that much more detail and the file size will reduce significantly. I'd be surprised if any image that was going to be used in ppt was more than 500k. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] MAC mini's for digital signage:
>A couple of questions: >1) Is there a good, free or low cost Powerpoint Viewer for MAC OSX? >MS don't offer one and TonicPoint Viewer seems very minimal and unsuited >to being set up to automatically play a signage-type presentation. Well, if you're willing to save out the ppt files as either pdf or jpg then you could use Preview which comes with OS X. Another option that comes to mind (assuming that you're using ppt on os x) is that you can save the presentation as a quicktime movie and then any number of things can view that on OS X. Pretty much as long as you're willing to do a little conversion, then you're in good shape on OS X. However, that being said, PPT as your graphics engine is always going to be fairly annoying and limiting, especially if you're going to go cross platform. That's a longer rant and I'll spare that conversation at the moment unless you're interested. I'll assume you have a good idea of what you're up against there and even though I'm a fan of hacking anything under the sun, that's a path of pain. >2) does anyone have experience streaming high definition VGA video from >PC to MAC? ...I'm interested in the hardware and software required. Do you need to stream in real-time or are you just doing playback of pre-recordered / pre-rendered video? The former is hard and I'd have some questions about what you're trying to do before figuring out a solution. If you're doing playback, why do you need a second computer? Don't you just need a single computer to do playback and either send video a great distance to a remote screen OR have the computer at the display for playback and suck the video content over the network from a file server (is that what you're imagining in your scenario above?) In any case, if you're wondering about lower cost solutions, take a look at the new Apple TV appliance - <http://www.apple.com/appletv/>. While it doesn't do full VGA, it is only $300 and will do up to 1280 x 720 at 24fps (other resolutions at up to 30 fps) which may get in the ballpark of what you need. Are the remote displays just doing dumb playback? Actually, let's make this a better discussion - would you be willing to step back and give the big picture view of what you're trying to do? It's easier to suggest general approaches to the whole problem rather than evaluating individual bits in isolation. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] MCN Flickr
>Well, since we're all talking about Flickr, Okay, since we're talking about Flickr, here's a few links to a protoype that we did recently. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMewv48E5oo> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJDFQpy6HFU> In the final version, the application pulls images from flickr.com that are tagged "denver+art+museum" and screened for certain licensing types. These images form a visual cascade with periodic images randomly coming to the foreground and an attribution appearing beneath the image. Interspersed with the random playback are additional content images (in this instance displaying a graph of the results of a quiz taken at an event a few fridays ago) which can either be static or dynamically created -- web pages, text feeds, video overlays, etc. (minor bit with which I'm particularly happy - we've custom size and shaped the viewable area to deal with the unusual geometry of our building) In the final installation, which will be projected in a different location, we'll also have a small panel of text that describes the experience and that the images are coming from flickr.com. If people want to participate, all they'll need to do is start uploading their images to the site. It's built using the new Core Animation libraries from the next release of OS X. We also made the window shape malleable so we could fit it into any odd architectural spaces (you can see it clipping the beam cover along the left side) in the building. At the event a few weeks ago where we were running the prototype, we were unknowingly using someone's images that was at the event. He saw them, was blown away, and loved it. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] videos in exhibits
>Is there some form of technology that has been developed that can >use one hard drive and 8 different point of displays showing 8 the 8 >different films? Do the movies run independently or are the synchronized with each other? My first thought would be to use a mac pro with 4 dual headed graphics cards (8 video outputs (There are also 4 port graphics cards, so 2 of those would do the same trick)). On each screen, play a single full-screen movie. (The computer's going to treat it as a single large contiguous desktop space). Depending on the movie resolution, the computer'll probably do fine with the playback, especially if you use a quicktime happy codec like H.264. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] videos in exhibits
I'm going to recycle an answer gave on the astc mailing list last year. The information is still valid, so apologies for anyone who's read this before: >A question for exhibit designers. I am in charge of creating an >exhibit that will have a 6 minute video loop as part of the display. >Can anyone reccomend what equipment will allow me to play the >video/DVD and have it loop continuously? I've used a bunch of stuff over the years -- starting with just DVD players then mpeg players (the adtec edje <http://www.adtecinc.com/products/edje1013/index.html> was a nice little piece of hardware) -- but we've been moving to using mac minis <http://www.apple.com/macmini/ > as a platform for all of our video delivery. The price point is a little higher, but it gives a lot of flexibility. We're able to deliver multiple resolution video from the same device, if we need interactivity, it's still the same device, if we want to change the content, we can do it remotely over the network, etc, The software that we use was developed in-house (and we're releasing the code as open-source sometime "soon") but it's essentially the quicktime player at heart, with a software wrapper. Here's what we're doing, all with the same device: - run a single video, looping, in perpetuity (we've had one of the machines doing this for about 12000 hours at this point, never being turned off) - run a single video, looping, with a pause at the end and displaying a couple of still graphics of information before starting the video again (yes, you could just make that part of the video, but when we want to change that content, we change one graphic as opposed to re-rendering the whole movie) - run a set of 16 videos in random order, with never any back to back randomness - run different audio tracks from the video, that aren't necessarily synchronized (a music track doesn't need to be timed or edited to match the video). - run a single video after receiving a touchscreen input. While the video is playing, we're adjusting a lighting control to make an object visible in a case and then fading down the light when the video is done - playing one of 25 videos using input from a tangible object interface (you place something in different locations on a table and it plays a different video) - playback of three different videos synchronized (audio and video) across three different screens. it's also pretty small and light. I can velcro it to the back of a large plasma display or tuck one up in a drop ceiling with no problem. And heck, if I did just want to use it as a dvd player, it has a dvd drive built in, so no worries. you get the idea. While the mini can do very simple, straightforward playback, it also opens a lot of possibilities that wouldn't be available with just a traditional dvd player. Best of all, if I don't need to use one in an exhibit any more, I can give it to a staff member and it's immediately useful to them. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002 -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] Origins of CSS - was Re: JPEG to be replaced by Windows Media Photo?
>MS gave us CSS, a very handy technology, and a good way to separate >content from presentation. A moment of history nitpicking tangent here... The original css specification -- the origins of the idea -- came from Hakon Wium Lie and Bert Bos. They were part of an original discussion in the W3C about possible style sheet languages to be incorporated into HTML back in 1994. They merged a couple of ideas to create the eventual standard. It was later in the final phases of the process that Stephen Pemberton and Thomas Reardon (from MS) were brought into the picture. With the release of IE3 the following year some elements of the new css standard were available, Opera followed about a year and a half later and then finally with IE5 for macintosh there was a browser with almost full support for the CSS1 standard. By this point, most of the major browser vendors had plans to bring broader CSS support in their next revisions of browser software. While I'd agree that MS help popularize CSS, I think it'd be a bit of stretch to say that they gave it to us. (There's always a heckler in every crowd, isn't there? ;) -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
Job Posting : Web Developer / Denver Art Museum
JOB OPENING DENVER ART MUSEUM January 23, 2006 WEB DEVELOPER INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT POSITION PURPOSE: To assist with a redesign of the DAM website and intranet sites, and implement a variety of new web-related projects. The web developer will collaborate with designers, editors, and other internal and external technology developers to create appealing user interfaces, integrate relational databases, and implement effective, professional web projects. ESSENTIAL DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES: Duties may include, but are not limited to, the following: * Work with Director of New Technology and Director of IT Operations on establishing new practices and technologies for internal web projects, exhibits, and other museum programs * Develop and maintain internet and intranet sites and web-related projects in collaboration with external design firms as well as internal content editors, web designers, and others * Monitor and analyze website traffic and recommend changes to site based on conclusions * Research, implement, and maintain web access to ecommerce (online store & ticket sales) JOB QUALIFICATIONS * Knowledgeable in and ability to keep abreast of current and developing trends in web and museum technologies, with an eye on long-term development and strategies. * Knowledge of and experience working with best practices in Information Architecture and User Interface design * Solid understanding of web technologies * Strong written and oral communication skills * Ability to communicate technical issues to colleagues with varying levels of technical knowledge. * Ability to self-manage multiple projects simultaneously and meet deadlines * Ability to work and collaborate with a variety of other museum departments and interests in developing web projects * Bleeding desire to learn, develop, and implement new and existing web technologies (must eat challenge for breakfast; Google-Fu is strong) EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE * Bachelor's degree or equivalent desirable, computer science degree preferred * 3-5 years of web development experience -- implementing technologies, programming/adapting web applications, refining interfaces and usability, and working with broad development teams * Experience in start-ups, non-profits, marketing, or advertising a plus * Experience maintaining Linux-based Apache Web servers preferred * Experience implementing and customizing Content Management Systems helpful * Experience using PHP, PERL, MYSQL/other databases, XML, AJAX, and other Web 2.0 buzzword compliant technologies; flash programming desired * Visual and graphic design experience and an effective aesthetics sensibility required * XHTML/CSS, standards-based web development; familiarity with OS X, Win XP, and Unix needed This is a full-time limited contract position, renewal option, without benefits. Posting closes February 3, 2006. If you are interested in applying for this position, please submit your resume with cover letter, references, and URLs of at least three recent projects to: Denver Art Museum, Attn: Human Resources (WD), 100 W. 14th Ave. Prkwy., Denver, CO 80204 or Fax #720-913-0002. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002 --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
Re: CMS
Those considering CMS applications might find the following interesting: and might also be interested in <http://www.cmsmatrix.org/> which lets you compare and contrast the feature sets of about 350 different commercial and open-source CMSs. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002 --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
[MCN-L] programmer salaries
I'd parrot much of what had already been said with the following additions: - If you go for the low end of the range, you're going to get someone who does simply what you tell them to do. If you're at a museum, I'm going to assert that you probably only partially know that answer, and whoever you you hire, you want them able to push back on your ideas and understanding to get a better end product. - The Boston market is a little unique in that you can more easily find people that are broad, technical generalists with exposure to a ton of different technologies and ideas. This is far better than getting a narrowly defined specialist unless you're already dead-certain that you need this-specific-programming-capability-and-no-more. - No matter where you are, you're going to pay for talent. Sometimes, it pays to be sneaky and while you may want a programmer, if they can also do some other function or add value elsewhere -- oh, I don't know, occasionally helping the IT department by doing active directory scripting, or something -- then you may be better able to support the multi-function position. Be careful with this path, however. You don't want to just end up bogging the person down with things that take them away from their core function. (Full disclosure: My Dir of IT used to work with me back in Boston. He's a programmer (and a good one at that (no, nobody better poach him from me (I'll come and haunt you unpleasantly (seriously but I didn't have the resources to hire him outright as just a programmer. He's also a good IT person and things have been a bit hairy (because of split workloads) as we've done a ton of stuff in the last 2 years, but it got him here, and we've done some decent work. As we can grow the department, we'll move him over to a proper position. - In the private sector in Boston, starting programmers (just out of school) were around $40-50k. Lead programmers were $60-70k. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] Folksonomy as Symbol
At 5:03 PM -0500 12/26/06, Mike Rippy wrote: >Sounds like an agenda driven article. > >Mike Rippy Mike, I'm not sure what you mean by that evaluation... are you saying that's bad? Do you agree/disagree with the general point of the article? Just parts of the article? Does it miss the boat entirely? To me, it generally sounds like the author asserts that the idea behind folksonomies has existed before (which I agree with) and then wonders why this current iteration of the idea seems to have garnered so much attention. Sticking it to the man, emergence, and the value *what* tags are used rather than just amassing as many as possible are also themes that resonate for me. And finally suggesting that we shouldn't rely on folksonomies alone as a way to organize the world, seems a fair statement, although he doesn't go into any detail. What rubbed you the wrong way? -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
[MCN-L] Drupal vs. WordPress MU as content management systems
We've done a half-dozen smaller sites in wordpress and I've flirted with the idea using wordpress for our primary site (www) but we've never gotten to actual implementation. Gerald's observation in this thread is a good one -- drupal started with the goal of being a comprehensive CMS and has worked it's way down the food chain, wordpress the reverse. However, I think the developer community around wordpress have decreased the pain point in wp playing as a grownup substantially. We started using wp because the back-end is surprisingly friendly for the average user. I always found an extra layer of abstraction in drupal that made simple things not straightforward and I always found my mental model expecting something slightly different than what drupal delivered. Admittedly, that was usually because I was trying to do something simple and dirty and drupal was the over-powered tool for the simple task (oh, but what an awesome tool at the end of the day). Drupal also generally struck me as something made by developers for developers, wordpress seemed to err on the side of users & designers. I know that the next major rev of Drupal will be going through a major overhaul of the back-end, I'm looking forward to the improvements. I think both systems have incredibly rich user communities surrounding them and more often than not, we can find a plugin that's close to some sort of functionality that we need / want and we can modify from there. Even luckier, there's a rich developer community for wordpress around Denver and we know the original developer (Matt) so we have something of a fallback position if we got really serious and got stuck along the way. I think drupal's being used for the larger sites that I know of (IMA redesign, Balboa Park Collaborative, to name a few) and I think your choice depends on familiarity, scope of project, and programming skills. -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
