Museums Computer Group » museums on the web uk

UK Museums on the Web 2011: The innovative museum: creating a brighter future

mia — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:56:03 +0000

Date: 24 November 2011

Pre-UKMW11 networking and drinks event, the Marlborough Arms, 36 Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7HJ from 5.30pm.

Date: 25 November 2011

Venue: IWM London (find out how to get to IWM London)

Tickets for UKMW11 are now on sale at http://ukmw11.eventbrite.com.

The annual UKMW conferences, convened by the Museums Computer Group, have long been the place for high quality presentations and discussions on the matters that are shaping museums online today. As the UK heritage sector continues to live through difficult times, this year’s conference is an opportunity to reflect on the new landscape museums are now in, learn from inspiring speakers and network with your peers.

As the MCG’s Spring Meeting in Brighton showed, a renewed emphasis on partnerships inside and outside the sector will continue to challenge museums to be more flexible in their working practices. Sharing the stories of our successes and learning to discuss failures constructively is more important than ever before. The conference will frame solutions for the issues affecting the museum sector, and feature positive case studies with actionable lessons.

We’re excited to announce that our keynote speaker is Mark O’Neill (formerly CIO at the Department of Media, Culture and Sport), founder and leader of the UK Government’s ‘Skunkworks’, which brings together developers and government in an innovative, collaborative, agile space.

To be held at the Imperial War Museum in London on 25 November 2011, the conference will also include inspiring and practical sessions on getting projects right from the start, redefining success and designing for the future.

By remaining in touch with the leading edge of research, the politics of policy, as well as the day-to-day realities of professional work, UKMW continues to appeal to practitioners and academics, technologists and curators, policy makers and the commercial sector – with over 100 delegates from across the sector attending each year. And the event has built a reputation for the calibre of its speakers, the affordability and accessibility of its content, as well as the focus of its debate.

We’ll keep this page updated as speakers are announced, and will include details of the schedule for the day and the AGM.

Time
9.15-9.45	Registration with tea and coffee
9.45-10.00	Welcome: Ross Parry, Chair, MCG and Carolyn Royston, Head of New Media, IWM
10.00-10.30	Keynote: Mark O’Neill, Head of Innovation and Delivery, Government Digital Service “The chaos of memories” – why we never learn from our corporate experience and how we can change that Mark will be asking the question ‘What’s the difference between museums and Ikea?’
10.30-11.30	Session 1: ‘Getting it right from the start’Chair: Ross Parry
	Peter Pavement, Surface Impression and Marc Steene, Pallant House Gallery‘Intensive collaboration between museum, developer and participants’ Pallant House Gallery, Chichester’s ‘Outside In’ project in 2006 offered opportunity to “outsider” artists – those marginalised by disability, health, social circumstances or because their work doesn’t fit a prescribed art norm. This case study will show how the project’s close involvement of all parties has really benefited quality, accessibility and engagement over the long term – and how the project has extended reach, profile and collaboration between heritage/art institutions.
‘	Claire Ross, UCL and Tom Grinsted, IWM‘Cultural Collaborative Exchange: Collections, Social Interpretation, Partnerships and Project Management’ Social Interpretation and ongoing Cultural Exchange (SICE) explores how social media models can be applied to museum collections and interpretation. The SICE Project, led by IWM, KI and UCL, utilises Agile project management principles and a user-centred approach to provide museum objects with profiles, social circles, crowdsourced comments, and community moderation tools, creating truly social, shared objects.
11.30–12.00	Tea and coffee
12.00–12.30	Session 2: ‘Redefining success’
	Jane Finnis, Culture24‘Let’s Get Real: How to Evaluate Online Success’ How to measure and define the success of cultural websites and online services is a problem common to all parts of the cultural sector – museums, archives, galleries, arts organisations, libraries and publishers. This presentation will bring the key findings and recommendation from the action research in which 24 organisations and agencies from across the cultural heritage and arts sector in the UK collaborated.
12.30-13.00	MCG AGM AGM Minutes 2010 – Museum of London AGM Agenda 2011 – Imperial War Museum
13.00-14.00	Lunch
14.00-14.30	Open Mic It is a UKMW tradition to have an energising session in the day where, through a series of super short ‘micro presentations’, members from the floor have just 4 minutes to update on a project, call for partners, pitch an idea, ask for support, highlight a new initiative, or just contribute to the event and the life of the MCG more widely. (Details on the ‘Open Mic’ slot will be advertised closer to the event.)
14.30-15.30	Session 3: ‘Designing for the future’Chair: Carolyn Royston
	Alex Bromley, Rhiannon Looseley and Matthew Rose, Museum of London ‘Integrating collections data to build sustainable online resources’ Collections Online launched earlier this year, the first stage of a large-scale project to overhaul the way that online collections resources are created and managed at the Museum of London. Key to the project was the specification and commissioning of a CIIM (Collections Information Integration Module). The CIIM pulls data from the Museum’s collections management system and other data repositories,allowing staff to augment and customise it for a variety of different outputs. This paper will look at the ‘hows’ and whys’ of COllections Online and the CIIM, it will use the new Picturebank for schools as a case study of the kinds of outputs the CIIM makes possible and will then share some of the quality assurance procedures and data standards that are essential to making projects like these sustainable and making the data in the CIIM re-usable for the future.
	Luke Smith and Giv Parveneh, IWM‘Lives of the Great War: Building First World War life stories across archives through crowdsourcing’ Lives of the Great War is a ground breaking online and broadcast project to allow millions worldwide to work together piecing together the life stories of those who lived and died during the First World War. This paper will provide an overview of the project and explore the technical challenges and currently identified system components.
15.30-16.00	Tea and coffee
16.00-17.00	Session 3 continued: ‘Designing for the future’Chair: Mia Ridge
	Seth van Hooland and Max De Wilde, Université Libre de Bruxelles Information and Communication Science Department Ruben Verborgh and Rik Van de Walle, Ghent University, IBBT, ELIS – Multimedia Lab Johannes Hercher, Hasso-Plattner-Institute, University of Potsdam ‘Bringing your collection into the Linked Data cloud: how to use Google Refine to get more out of your metadata’ This paper will focus on reconciliation, the process of mapping domain specific vocabulary to another (often more commonly used) vocabulary that is part of the Semantic Web. This means the metadata is then available to the Linked Data Cloud. This paper aims to examine the feasibility of using subject vocabularies as linking hub to the Semantic Web.
	Joe Padfield, National Gallery‘Presenting and Referencing High Resolution Images on the Web’ How many times have we been presented with a phrase like, “.. as you can see from the detail, figure …”, and then been unable to clearly distinguish important features because the printed detail was too small? This paper will introduce an example system demonstrating the possibility of linking traditional or web-based publication to live high resolution images as one might reference other articles or publications.
17.00-17.15	Jon Pratty, Arts Council EnglandNews of recent ACE digital funding opportunities; including more info about a new ‘pop-up’ IPTV arts channel for 2012 and progress of the NESTA digital R&D fund.
17.15-17.30	Wrap-up and close

It is a UKMW tradition to have an energising session in the day where, through a series of super short ‘micro presentations’, members from the floor have just 4 minutes to update on a project, call for partners, pitch an idea, ask for support, highlight a new initiative, or just contribute to the event and the life of the MCG more widely. (Details on the ‘Open Mic’ slot will be advertised closer to the event.)

Register now on Eventbrite

Event management for UK Museums on the Web (UKMW11) powered by Eventbrite

UK Museums on the Web 2011 – call for papers

mia — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 15:28:28 +0000

The Museums Computer Group’s annual conference Museums on the Web ‘The innovative museum: creating a brighter future’ – UKMW11 – will be held at the Imperial War Museum in London on 25 November 2011. Join the MCG email list or follow @ukmcg on twitter for updates.

The MCG committee often gets enquiries from people interested in speaking at our events about calls for papers. Due to popular demand, and because we want to make sure the presentations at UKMW11 represent the latest work in the sector and cover the issues that affect our members, we’ve decided to open a call for papers. We’re giving this a go within a pre-defined set of themes to try and keep it manageable. (All the work that goes into organising events for the MCG is done on a voluntary basis and each committee member balances our MCG roles with busy full-time schedules.)

The three themes are (we’ll refine the titles and order once we know what the papers are!):

Session 1 – getting it right from the start (project infrastructure – tendering, management, partnerships, collaboration)
Session 2 – designing for re-use/for the future (making the most of what we’ve got)
Session 3 – redefining success (better metrics and beyond)

For each theme we would like to have one paper that frames the subject and puts it in the context of the landscape we are currently working in, and one or two positive case studies/success stories. We would like all speakers to include actionable lessons in their papers.

If you would like to propose a paper for one of these three themes, please email contact@museumscomputergroup.org.uk by 2 September 2011 including the following information:

Your name
The organisation you work for if applicable
The theme under which you envisage your paper sitting
A short summary of what your paper will cover (up to 200 words)
Have you given this paper or talked about this project at a previous conference? If so which conference and when?

We will aim to make a decision on which papers to include and let you know by 9 September 2011.

If you know of any projects, even if they aren’t your own, that you think we should know about for the conference, please let us know by emailing contact@museumscomputergroup.org.uk

We look forward to reading your proposals. Please don’t hesitate to contact us via twitter (@ukmcg) or contact@museumscomputergroup.org.uk if you have any questions or comments.

Best wishes,

Ross, Gemma, Denise, Mia, Rhiannon, Carolyn, Angelina, John, Angus, Dafydd, Dave and Linda for the MCG Committee

UKMW10 – Doing more with less: rising to the digital challenge in difficult times

mia — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:16:44 +0000

The Museums Computer Group ‘UK Museums on the Web’ Conference 2010

hosted by the Museum of London

Including a joint evening session with Wikimedia UK

hosted at the British Museum

The hashtag for this event was #ukmw10.

Themes of the day:

The UK cultural heritage sector is entering a turbulent period. The policy landscape is being reshaped, funding streams renegotiated and portfolios of responsibility changing hands. The challenge we have been set is to think creatively about the future, to show courage and ingenuity, as well as share illustrations of what we do well.

Confronting head-on our immediate digital challenge, this year’s ‘UK Museums on the Web Conference’, convened by the Museums Computer Group, will explore the ways digital heritage can respond to these difficult times. As well as decoding what the recent policy and funding announcements will mean for you and your institution, and for our community of practice as a whole, the conference will highlight four clear and distinct ways in which, together, we can engage with the challenges ahead: through smart aggregations of our digital collections; open-source tools and methods for designing our systems; creative approaches to collaborative working; and new and imaginative models for funding our work.

The day will aim to highlight how these open, creative and smart approaches might allow us to rise to the digital challenge … and, crucially, do more with less.

For over six years the annual UKMW conferences have been the place for high quality presentations and discussions on the matters that are shaping museums online today. By remaining in touch with the leading edge of research, the politics of policy, as well as the day-to-day realities of professional work, UKMW continues to appeal to practitioners and academics, technologists and curators, policy makers and the commercial sector – with over 100 delegates from across the sector attending each year. And the event has built a reputation for the calibre of its speakers, the affordability and accessibility of its content, as well as the focus of its debate.

We very much look forward to welcoming you to the Museum of London on 26 November, and to UKMW10.

The event was held in the Weston Theatre, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, LONDON, EC2Y 5HN

Programme

Time	Topic
9.30am-10.00am	Registration and coffee
10.00am-10.10am	Welcome Ross Parry (Chair of Museums Computer Group; Academic Director, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester) Cathy Ross (Director of Collections and Learning, Museum of London)
10.10am-10.30am	Keynote address‘Rising to the digital challenge in difficult times’Nick Poole (Chief Executive, The Collections Trust)
10.30am-11.15am	Fund imaginitivelyOur funders and policy makers have begun to stress what they see as an importance in being entrepreneurial in this new climate of public finances. We are hearing more reference to corporate sponsorship and to philanthropy and the increasing roles, it is said, that these might play in all of our museums. From online fundraising to new cultures for financing institutional websites, this session will explore some of the new business models that are coming to shape our digital heritage practice.Including contributions from: Alex Morrison (Managing Director, Cogapp)John Stack (Head of Tate Online) Martin Bazley (Online Experience Consultant, Martin Bazley & Associates) Peter Pavement, (Director, Surface Impression)
11.15 a.m. – 11.45 a.m.	Mid-morning coffee
11.45 a.m. – 12.30p.m.	Collaborate creativelyHow strong is our instinct for partnership in the digital heritage sector? And how do difficult times such as these cultivate new and creative ways for us to collaborate? With invaluable perspectives from one of the UK’s Research Councils, as well as individual researchers and the MCG’s own experience of working collaboratively over the last year on its collaborative ‘LIVE!Museum’ networking project, this session will look to explore some of creatively collaborative ways in which museums, the commercial sector, and knowledge-based institutions (such as universities) are finding to work together.Including contributions from: Joanna Pollock (Knowledge Transfer Strategy and Development Manager, Arts and Humanities Research Council) John Seton (Head of Regional Strategic Partnerships, BT Innovate and Design) Kevin Walker (Research Officer, London Knowledge Lab) Angelina Russo (Associate Professor, Media and Communication, RMIT University)
12.30 p.m. – 1.00 p.m.	Museums Computer Group AGMDownload AGM Agenda 2010 – Museum of London Download Draft MCG Constitution V1.6b 21NOV10 Download AGM Minutes 2009 – Sackler Centre V&A
1.00 p.m. – 2.30 p.m.	Buffet ‘networking’ lunch provided
2.30 p.m. – 3.00 p.m.	‘Open mic’ session, curated by Mia Ridge It is a UKMW tradition to have an energising session in the day where, through a series of super short ‘micro presentations’, members from the floor have just 4 minutes to update on a project, call for partners, pitch an idea, ask for support, highlight a new initiative, or just contribute to the event and the life of the MCG more widely. (Details on the ‘Open Mic’ slot will be advertised closer to the event.)
3.00 p.m. – 3.45 p.m.	Aggregate smartly Just as these difficult times might bring us together in more creative ensembles (convergence between museum institutions but also with the creative industry sector more widely), so we might also harness the potential of aggregating our online collections in more strategically intelligent ways. Drawing upon the experience of the Culture Grid and Europeana over the last year, this session will look at the opportunities open to institutions to link their data in efficient and effective ways and with the greatest public benefit.Including contributions from:Jill Cousins (Executive Director, Europeana) Adrian Cooper (Intelligent Heritage) Linda Ellis (Project Manager Online Collections, Wolverhampton City Council / Black Country History) James Grimster (Director, Orangeleaf Systems Ltd)
3.45 p.m. – 4.15 p.m.	Mid-afternoon tea
4.15 p.m. – 5.00pm	Build openlyAs well as being smart, creative and imaginative, our digital heritage community may also need to look at what tools and platforms it uses to develop its resources and services. Difficult times may require fresh strategies in both procurement and software choice. With this in mind, this final session of the day will draw upon the experiences of a range of practitioners who have made positive decisions to use open source solutions in their work.Including contributions from: Paul Clifford (Programme Manager (Digital Learning), Museum of London) Trevor Collins (Research Fellow, Knowledge Media Institute, Open University) John Lea (Open University) Mark Polishook (Open source artist)
5.00 p.m. – 5.30 p.m.	Final words and take-homes
7.00 p.m – 8.45pm.	A Wikimedia UK – Museum Computer Group joint event At the end of our main programme, delegates will have the opportunity to make their way across town to the British Museum, where we will host a joint session with our friends in Wikimedia UK.‘The free-conomy & the cultural sector’BP Theatre, British MuseumFree admission for GLAM-WIKI & MCG conference delegates. Keynote: Kenneth Crews (Director, Copyright Advisory Office of Columbia University) Panellists Paula Le Dieu (Director of Digital, British Film Institute) Gilane Tawadros (Chief Executive, Design and Artists Copyright Society [DACS])

And in recognition of the MCG-Wikimedia partnership this year, UKWM10 delegates were able to register for a preferential (half-price) rate for Day 2 of the GLAM-WIKI:UK event (27 November).

RT @ ukmcg UK Museums on the Web conference programme and registration now live at http://bit.ly/ukmw10. Hope to see you all there! Pls RT!

UK Museums on the Web 2009: The everyday web: situated, sensory, social

mia — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:55:08 +0000

Hochhauser Auditorium, Sackler Centre, V&A, London

Fully booked!

For over five years the annual UKMW conferences have been the place for high quality presentations and discussions on the matters that are shaping museums online today.

The Sackler Centre

By remaining in touch with the leading edge of research, the politics of policy, as well as the day-to-day realities of professional work, UKMW continues to appeal to practitioners and academics, technologists and curators, policy makers and the commercial sector. And the event has built a reputation for the caliber of its speakers, the accessibility of its content, and the focus of its debate.

As museums’ activity online continues to be drawn into the power and possibility of the social Web (of networking and user-generated content) and the machine Web (of semantics and APIs), this year’s conference takes us back to the everyday, sensory and ubiquitous experience and encounters of online content.

Today, the Web is becoming increasingly a more multi-sensory place, with new visual interfaces, rich sound content, where content can adapt to our physical location, and even where interactions can be triggered by bodily movement. Likewise, software and services (just like our content) can today move with us.

This year UKMW will look at digital heritage in the everyday – situated, sensory, social.

Programme

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