Presentations, abstracts and biographies - User specified

Biography:: Simon Waldman joined Guardian newspapers in 1996 to work on some of the company's earliest forays onto the internet. He was launch editor of Guardian Unlimited in 1999 before moving into general management and becoming the company's first director of digital publishing in 2001.

Guardian Unlimited has been named best daily newspaper on the net for the last five years in the UK newspaper awards, and recently won the newspaper category in the international Webby Awards ahead of the New York Times and Washington Post. Simon received the Chairman's award at the 2004 Association of Online Publishers' Awards ceremony for his contribution to the industry.

Before joining Guardian Unlimited Simon was a freelance journalist specialising in media and technology. He is married with a daughter.

Jennifer Trant (Archives and Museum Informatics)

Title: Museums and Web 2.0: Connections + Community

Abstract: The current wave of web applications - collectively termed Web 2.0 - offers museums new social and collaborative technologies to build public awareness of and investment in their collections. But taking advantage of Web 2.0 affordances will require some changes to the ways that museums have traditionally approached distributing information about collections. Through a survey of illustrative Web 2.0 applications, and an exploration of the motivations behind the steve.museum collaboration exploring social tagging and folksonomy in museums, we'll review possibilities offered by new social software and data-driven applications, and highlight some of the challenges museums face in their adoption.

Biography: More about Jennifer

Brian Kelly (UKOLN Web Focus)

Title: Impact Analysis For Web Sites

Abstract: Who is coming to my Web site? Do they find what they are looking for? Are they satisfied with the experience? Traditionally the main way of answering such questions has been through analysis of server log files. Perhaps surprisingly, however, the results of such analyses can be misleading. Web log analyses may be helpful in detecting trends, but a more effective way of determining the effectiveness of a Web site is through use of a broader range of impact assessment techniques. This brief talk describes the pros and cons of usage log analyses and outlines a range of complementary techniques which can form part of a impact analysis strategy. More...

Biography: Information about Brian

Caroline John (Education Officer), Thinktank, Birmingham science museum

Title: From evaluation to engagement

Abstract: This paper will examine how responding to user evaluation at all stages of website development can produce more engaging museum websites - and particularly collections websites - that appeal to a wider audience. It will use as an example the Birmingham Stories website produced by Thinktank, Birmingham science museum in partnership with Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery.

Museum websites may have many purposes - to provide visitor information, virtual tours, educational resources etc. However, what makes museum websites different from those of other visitor attractions is what makes museums unique - artefacts and specimens. Therefore, an understanding of what visitors want from a collections website must begin with considering how users they approach collections.

A model set out by consultants Morris Hargreaves McIntyre has identified four modes of meaning making: browsers, followers, searchers and researchers. The paper will explain these modes and summarise how users in each one selects objects to look at (both online and in physical exhibitions) in different ways and the levels of prior knowledge that they bring and the depth to which they engage with objects.

When producing a website, each mode therefore requires a different approach to interpretation and the quantity of objects included on the site. Adopting this model as Thinktank has done challenges the assumption that providing digital access to as many objects as possible meets the needs of the majority of users. Front end evaluation with a range of potential users then provides an opportunity to explore possible themes for a site, and examples will be given from Birmingham Stories. It is important that museums are open to new themes, ideas and challenges emerging from evaluation.

Moving beyond simple technical testing of a prototype, formative evaluation with focus groups of potential users provides an opportunity to evaluate whether content is genuinely engaging for the target groups. Good content needs to be easy to find, simple to navigate and sufficiently interesting to not only hold a user's attention but promote further exploration of the site. In the example of Birmingham Stories, the final version of the site was extensively restructured and entirely new content was developed to replace much of that in the prototype version.

Summative evaluation of a live site offers a chance to test the effectiveness of changes made to a site, together with actual levels of engagement. The flexible nature of the web means that even at this point the site need not be finished, and the paper will conclude with an argument for ongoing development of sites and their content, based on options presented by evaluation.

Mukti Bawa

Title: How people find museum collection content online

Biography: Mukti Bawa is a doctoral research student based in User-Lab. She is currently completing her research in the usability of museum web sites. She has worked as a consultant, running focus groups and usability testing, and has taught user-centred design techniques to university students and external clients. She studied Interior Design at the Institute of Environmental Design in India and worked in the design industry before pursuing her Masters. She completed her MA in Interior Design and Information Technology at the University of Central England, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.

Ross Parry

Abstract:

Biography: Dr. Ross Parry is Lecturer in Museums and New Media, and Programme Director for the campus-based Masters course in the Department of Museum Studies, University of Leicester. He is also currently a HIRF Innovations Fellow. He is chair of the Digital Heritage Research Group, and devised and convenes the 'Spring School in New Media', an annual three-day event for practitioners and researchers to reflect upon the impact of digital technology on their museum work. Ross is also leading the development of Leicester's proposed new postgraduate degree programme in Digital Heritage. His research is interested in the relationship between new technology (including pre-digital technology) and the ways memory institutions such as museums manage information and display knowledge. He has two books to be published with Routledge in 2007 - a reader entitled 'Museums in a Digital Age', and a monograph on the theories and histories of museum computing.

Gail Durbin

Title: What do user contributions tell us about developing museum websites?

Abstract: Museum mangers see the web as an important means of giving people images and information about the content of the collections. This is a central function of museum websites but to stop at this point is to do only half the job because what the web is also good at is creating online communities of interest. Using a large number of images, largely from the V&A site, I want to examine online behaviour and demonstrate that even where the museum has not set out to create a sense of community there are strong impulses amongst users to do so. Where museums think creatively about working with this impulse then the benefits to both museum and user are huge. The approach is not without risks. Museums have to be prepared to give away some of their power, to learn how to cope with 'wrong' answers and how to set tasks that minimise the need for moderation. Done well however, encouraging visitors to make contributions leads to all sorts of surprising results, more interesting and varied websites and an extension of the activity of the museum into people's homes.

Biography: Gail Durbin is the head of the Online Museum at the V∓A where she has worked since 1991. She came into museums from education and has worked in regional museums for Norfolk Museums Service as well as for English Heritage. At the V&A she restablished the schools service and worked in gallery education followed by five years managing the educational aspects of the British Galleries. From there she moved to the web where she is most interested in ways of encouraging audiences to engage with the museum on line so that the site becomes a two way channel of communication. She has written extensively on educational topics ranging from learning from objects in schools to setting up galleries that fulfill the needs of their audiences. The most difficult (and profitable) thing she ever wrote was a text book for infants on back garden archaeology.

The website she manages at the V&A contains about 90,000 pages, had 11.5 million user sessions in the last financial year and contains a very high proportion of user generated content from tattoos, through knitting to creative writing.

Dan Phillips, Director, The SEA dan AT the-sea.com

Title:'The kind of thing that our age wants to do': putting younger visitors at the centre of the museum experience - online and on site.

Abstract: Myartspace is a service on mobile phones and the web for enquiry-led museum learning. It enables students to create their own interpretations of museum objects through descriptions, images and sounds. These are automatically transmitted to a personal online gallery that they can use to reflect upon and share their experience. Dan will talk about how the service helps to put the visitor at the centre of the experience whether they are in school, visiting your venue or at home.

Biography: Dan started the SEA in 1998. He previously worked for Ove Arup in the UK, Europe and Africa. He studied Interdisciplinary Design and Engineering at Cambridge University and Imperial College. He has lectured in Environmental Design and written a book on Ecofriendly Homes, published in the UK, France and the United States. Myartspace is one of a number of learning based projects that the SEA have developed.

Jon Pratty

Title: The Inside Out Web Museum

Abstract: As we look around us and take in some of the hubbub that accompanies Web 2.0, it is becoming clear the digital building blocks of a new kind of virtual museum could soon be in place.

Let's look forward to an online museum where staff author content, collate user-generated content, sort it into themes and promote semantic links between sets of subject-related online resources.

This new museum doesn't just promote its own content, but also, in the spirit of public service broadcasting, promotes the content of its partners too. This virtual museum of the future may even be more of an idea, or practice, than a single web identity.

Biography: Former Daily Telegraph technology writer Jon Pratty is responsible for creative and editorial direction of all content on 24 HM. Research interests include cultural RSS and wider use of mass publishing techniques in the cultural sector.

Mike Ellis

Title: Web2.0: why Museums are scared and excited all at the same time,

Biography: Mike Ellis is Website Manager at The Science Museum, London. He looks after several websites for the Museum, which between them attract well over a million visits a month. As well as managing the operational running of the sites, he spends a lot of time building e-strategy and policy frameworks.

He is particularly keen on developing innovative multi-channel content which puts users at the centre of the equation and which cross real-virtual boundaries.

When he isn't at work he drinks cider, spends time with his family, and (sadly) continues his internet addiction by managing websites like www.electronicmuseum.org.uk and www.stufflinker.com.

Lena Maculan

Title: Museums and Podcasting: What are the challenges?

Abstract: How can museums make their collections more accessible? This paper will look at how podcasting might offer an exciting new medium of communication for museums.

It will look at some approaches to museum podcasting in order to show the many ways one could apply this technology within the museum setting. Secondly, it will question the notion that podcasting can be produced very easily. Through looking at a few examples, this paper is going to point to some of the challenges of museum podcasting.

Biography: Lena Maculan is researching a PhD at the Department of Museum Studies, University of Leicester. She is writing a thesis with the working title 'Museums, Web 2.0 and the illusion of access: The divides and challenges of the new publishing and broadcasting models of communication for Europe's digital culture.' Lena also writes for Austrian art magazine Parnass. Other publications include the Catalogue Raisonné of the American artist Elaine Sturtevant, which she edited in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art Frankfurt. Lena has previously worked for commercial art galleries and the Vitra Design Museum in Berlin.

Marshall Mateer, RBC Consultant www.shapesoftime.net

Title: What schools need.

Abstract: This talk will cover the developing use of ICT in schools - how pupils and teachers are using ICT today and planning for tomorrow. The opportunities of the National Education Network for the MLA sector - audience, delivery, licencing and community. The learning and cultural sectors - working together; the raw and the cooked; knowledge and beyond

Biography: Marshall works for the RBC and with UKERNA, Becta and the DfES developing national access for digital resources through the National Education Network. He has recently completed research for Becta on 'Cultural Resources: Mapping and Provsion'. Prior to becoming an independent consultant Marshall was Project Director YHGfL, LEA Adviser in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Senior Lecturer in Education at Middlesex Polytechnic and a teacher in London and Humberside. He authors learning resources, has researched, written and lectured on Media Education and runs his own arts/media project Shapes of Time. www.shapesoftime.net

Bruce Phillips, ARKive education officer and University of West of England research associate (Wildscreen; ARKive)

Title: Using ARKive films and images in education - a case study and lessons learnt.

Biography: Bruce has been ARKive education officer for 9 months, prior to this he has worked as a secondary school teacher, as a tutor for the field studies council and in eastern China where he taught western teaching techniques to local teachers. His most interesting post was working and living out of a hammock in the rainforests of Belize with the local Mayan tribes whilst setting up a research centre in a jaguar reserve. His interests are in natural history, multimedia and visual learning.

Helen Wright, (Acting Manager of Effectiveness Strategies, Learning Services, Children and Young People's Services, Leicester City Council)

Title: The active use of archive material in the classroom

Abstract: Helen is going to show us how teachers use digitised cultural material in the classroom. Using an interactive whiteboard she'll take us through the 'tricks of the trade', outlining the wide-ranging ways in which teachers are relating artefacts, images and information to the curriculum, to classroom technologies and to children's needs and interests.

Biography: Currently Acting Manager of Effectiveness Strategies leading on learning and teaching across the age ranges. In my substantive post I lead strategically across the LA Leicester City (2001 - 2006) on all aspects of ICT in Schools agenda across all ages. I am responsible for providing advice and support for all schools.

Twenty Two Years teaching experience in Leicestershire Schools
Main subject areas, History, Geography, Religious Education and ICT
Nine Years Advisory work from ESG Advisory Teacher to ICT Curriculum Consultant Leading Strategically on ICT for Leicester City Schools.