Handheld Online Conference / June 3 2009

The Handheld Online Conference is for museum professionals who want to know more about how the recent wave of mobile devices and portable computing can benefit their institutions, their patrons and their learners.

[snip] ... By contrast, in the past decade, one new technology after another has been heralded as a revolutionary tool for the next generation of museum interpretation: multimedia tours, phone tours, podcasts and downloadable audio tours; even text-message tours have all come on the scene amid high expectations, but have so far failed to transform significantly the traditional museum landscape of wall labels and catalogues. [snip]

So are the new technologies doomed simply to replace the traditional audio tour with an ever more sophisticated and be-wildering, but no less marginal, array of solutions for providing museum interpretation?

It’s in the context of this repeating cycle of dashed new technology hopes that the Handheld Online Conference aims to frame the question of mobile museum interpretation differently. There is no specific technology or platform that will revolutionize our visitors’ museum experiences, but rather our visitors are transforming the museum visit themselves through new informational practices that they are importing to the museum from their Web 2.0 lives.

WWW has come to mean “whatever, whenever, wherever” and the question of the future of museum interpretation has become not one of what technology our visitors will prefer, but rather of where, when, and how they want to engage with the museum, both on-site and beyond.

Museum and education professionals with real-world experience in handheld program design and development facilitate interactive, real-time discussions with participants across the globe during this one-day completely online event ... .

Source

[http://www.handheldconference.org/about/]

Program

June 3, 2009 / 11:00-11:55 am EDT
Handhelds! Getting It Done at Museums Large & Small

Chris Alexander / San Jose Museum of Art / The Little Engine that Could - Mobile Tours on a Shoestring Budget

Silvia Filippini Fantoni / Sorbonne University and British Museum / The Challenges of Developing a Multimedia Guide for Large Museums

June 3, 2009 / 1:00-1:55 pm EDT
The Future of Mobile Interpretation

Koven Smith / Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Future of Mobile Interpretation

Nancy Proctor / Smithsonian American Art Museum / Beyond the 2 Minute Stop: Soundtracks, Soundbites and Smartphones

June 3, 2009 / 3:00-3:55 pm EDT
No Time Like the Present: Rapid Deployment with Open Source Technologies - At What Cost?

Titus Bicknell / Experius-Gateway Auto Museum
Bruce Wyman / Denver Art Museum

Audio As Well As Discussion Forum Postings Are Available At No Charge For Each Presentation

Source

[http://www.handheldconference.org/program/]

Tech Check

This diagnostic test will ensure your computer and network connections are properly configured to provide you with the best possible Connect Pro meeting experience.

• The diagnostic test checks for the following:
• Supported version of Flash Player
• Clear connection to Adobe Connect Pro
• Bandwidth availability
• Latest Acrobat Connect Add-in

[more]

[http://www.handheldconference.org/technical-check/]