The document provides a summary of several technology conferences attended by museum professionals. It begins with a format outline for the session which will include rapid reports from 10 colleagues on various conferences, followed by analysis from two panelists. The conferences that will be reported on are then listed, including Museums and the Web, CIDOC, the American Association of Museums annual meeting, the New Media Consortium Summer Conference, the Texas Association of Museums annual meeting, a research roundup on DCMI and ASIS&T, the Tate Handheld Conference, and Design4Mobile. Each conference report is limited to 5 minutes.

1. Conference Roundup
October 2010
Douglas Hegley
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Museum Computer Network Annual Conference

2. • Museum technology professionals are BUSY
• So many great conferences, meetings,
organizations, consortia, publications, etc.
• How can you possibly keep up?

3. Goal of this session:
• Presenters share highlights from a variety of
relevant conferences/meetings
• We hope this will be informative and thought-
provoking

4. Format:
– Part One:
• Rapid-fire reports from 10 of your colleagues
• Time-limited (5 minutes maximum for each)
• Hopefully less …
– Part Two:
• Analysis, trends, etc. by our two Panelists
– Rob Lancefield
– Richard Urban
• Audience participation, Q & A

5. The Line-up Card (in order):
– Bruce Wyman - MW
– Erin Coburn - CIDOC, ICOM
– Rob Lancefield - AAM
– Rachel Varon - NMC
– Ruth Ann Rugg - TAM
– Richard Urban - "Research Roundup" (DCMI, ASIS&T)
– Ted Forbes - Tate Handheld
– Beck Tench - Design4Mobile
– Nancy Proctor – Design4Mobile, continued
– Paco Link - SXSW

6. Bruce Wyman
Second Story
Reporting on:
Museums and the Web

7. Museums and the Web 2010
April 13 – 17
Denver, Colorado

8. Attendees
• International participation
– 500+ people
– 20+ countries

9. Description
• Program built from the bottom up
– based on what people are working on and thinking about now
• A meeting of people really doing stuff
– with plenty to time to talk to other people and share solutions
• Flexibility in formats
– Different kinds of sessions for different things
– Responsive (e.g. intro of unconference sessions last year)

10. Highlights
• Social media activities highlighted
[this year's social media elephant plenary]

11. Resources / Backchannel
• Use media ourselves --> twitterfall / sponsor
backchannel display @ MCN
– @museweb for updates and other interesting stuff
• Online papers + searchable bibliography
– To learn from others, document developments

12. Next Year: 15th Annual Museums and the Web Conference
• Program live before end of Nov., including sessions on
– Organizational strategy
– Organizational change
– Collaboration
– Outcomes + process
– Tagging, searching and collections online
– Open source developments
– Wikis for content management
– Mobiles
– Research results [5 min. presentations]
+ unconference, crit room, usability lab, demonstrations, professional
forums, good food and drink ...

13. April 6-9, 2011, Philadelphia, PA
• Still opportunities for participation @ MW2011
– Demo proposals due December 31
– Unconference sessions proposed on site
• Future MW Conferences:
– April 11-14, 2012 in San Diego, California, USA
– April 17-20, 2013 in Portland, Oregon, USA

14. Erin Coburn
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Reporting on:
CIDOC - ICOM

20. Rob Lancefield
Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University
Reporting on:
AAM Annual Meeting

21. Conference Review Report: American
Association of Museums
Rob Lancefield
Manager of Museum Information Services
Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University
With some background content from Douglas Hegley’s MCN 2009 report on AAM 2009
MCN 2010, Austin, Texas 29 October 2010

22. • Widely known as AAM
• Founded 1906
• Membership across entire scope of museums includes more than:
17,000 individuals, 3,000 institutions, 300 corporate members
• Helps to develop standards and best practices, gather and share knowledge,
and provide advocacy for the entire museum community
• Represents all types of museums: art, history, science, military, maritime, and
youth museums, as well as aquariums, zoos, botanical gardens, arboretums,
historic sites, science and technology centers….
• Website: http://www.aam-us.org
• MCN is an AAM Affiliate Organization, as are many other such free-standing
organizations with shared areas of interest regarding the communities and people
we serve. Affiliate organizations are not part of AAM, but we seek alignment
from both sides wherever possible and useful in our service to the community.
American Association of Museums

23. AAM Media and Technology SPC
• AAM has Standing Professional Committees
• Media and Technology (MAT) SPC is one
• MAT overlaps with MCN in membership and
topics, but with somewhat different focus
• For more than 20 years, MAT has presented
annual MUSE Awards for excellence in media
produced by or for museums:
http://www.mediaandtechnology.org/muse/

24. Theme: Museums without Borders
Key soundbites from advance information sheet:
“The young 21st century is about connectivity.”
“Connectivity has helped to dismantle
borders—social, cultural and geographical..”
“Can we be a community of museums
without borders?”
Annual Meeting: AAM 2010

25. AAM 2010 Program
• Large and diverse program including:
– 160 sessions on a wide range of topics
– Networking opportunities
– Keynote and “thought leader” speakers
– Huge vendor expo with more than 300 exhibitors
– Numerous committee and business meetings
– Popular “Career Café”
– Onsite events at Los Angeles museums and more

26. AAM 2010 Attendees
• Over 6,000 attendees this year, despite
the challenging economic environment
• AAM members and conference attendees
span the full range of museum occupations:
– directors, curators, registrars, educators, exhibit
designers, art handlers, conservators, marketers,
development people, security managers, trustees,
volunteers, technology and information workers
(some familiar faces from MCN!), and on and on.

27. AAM 2010 Highlights
• Great discussions about social interactions in
home institutions between people with quite
different levels of comfort with technology
• Lots of dialogue (also in and out of sessions)
about the uses and implications, for museums,
of social networking and other technologies
• Key sessions this year included:
— “Demystifying the Mighty I.T.”
— “Beyond the Shiny Object”
— More!

28. Annual Meeting Value
One person’s very subjective take, in a nutshell:
• AAM includes virtually all museum topics, so…
• Can be diffuse, unless you focus yourself, but:
• Premier venue for serendipitous conversations
with other museum people who work in very
different institutional roles and settings, as
well as for learning from formal presentations
on a similarly wide gamut of subjects. That is…
• Knowledge-sharing and community-building
across the museum field’s diverse subfields.

29. Backchannel / Durable Traces
• Twitter (hashtag #aam10, some used #aam2010)
• Session audio recordings (sold for fee)
• Website seems to be partially swept over, or
to be rendered navigationally obscure(?), by
subsequent/upcoming conference content

30. 2011 AAM Annual Meeting
Theme: The Museum of Tomorrow
http://www.aam-us.org/am11
Houston, May 22–25, 2011
Come back to Texas!

31. Rachel Varon
New Media Consortium
Reporting on:
NMC Summer Conference

32. NMC Conference
Roundup Report

34. 2010 NMC Summer Conference
• Held in Anaheim, California
• Hosted by the University of Southern
California
• Over 75 sessions offered
• Attended by faculty members in new
media disciplines, mid- to upper-
management personnel, and senior
technologists at colleges and universities

35. Highlights
Keynote speakers:
– Mimi Ito
– John Sealy Brown
http://www.nmc.org/
2010-summer-conference/
highlights

36. Pre-Conference and Hands-on workshops
by Apple & Adobe

37. Five Minutes of Fame

40. 2011 NMC Summer Conference

45. Learn more at:
www.nmc.org

46. Ruth Ann Rugg
Texas Association of Museums
Reporting on:
TAM Annual Meeting

47. Conference Roundup Report
October 2010
Texas Association of Museums (TAM)
Ruth Ann Rugg
Executive Director
Texas Association of Museums

48. Texas Association of Museums (TAM)
http://www.texasmuseums.org
• TAM is a non-profit 501C3 museum service organization founded in 1975
• Supports professionals working in Texas museums, historic sites, and other
arts, cultural, and community organizations
• Provides professional development opportunities, skills training, and other
educational resources
• Promotes national standards and best practices for museums and
museum professionals, working closely with AAM and AASLH
• Works to keep membership informed of museum-related news,
challenges, trends, programming, advocacy avenues, and funding sources
• Includes 700 individuals and institutions in TAM membership, each
representing diverse subject matter and cultures
• Headquarters in Fort Worth and employs two full-time staff members

49. 2010 Annual Meeting Theme
“All Aboard: Museums on Track”
March 16-19, 2010
Bryan-College Station
Texas museums are facing many challenges in these uncertain economic
times. In addition to weathering a slower economy, many of our museums
in Texas are also recovering from devastating weather conditions and are
busy at work restoring their institutions. …
Our 2010 TAM Annual Meeting will focus on ways that museums can pull
together and ‘stay on track.’ Let’s explore resource sharing, collaboration
on restoration projects, creative and innovative fundraising, and ways to
motivate and inspire the ‘engines’ in our museum communities.

50. TAM Annual Meeting
• Attracts 500 museum professionals, volunteers, trustees, and
other colleagues from the cultural community for:
– Sessions, panel discussions, and workshops
– Keynote speakers and “Feature Speaker” forums
– Tours of local museums and historic sites
– Exhibit Hall and Vendor demonstrations
– Affinity Group Meetings
– Regional Museum Association Meetings
– Networking opportunities

51. 2010 Annual Meeting Highlights
• Keynote speaker Nina Simon, Principal of Museum 2.0,
addressed opening luncheon of 250 and presented a follow-
up session with 150 participants
• Keynote speaker Barbara Bush, former First Lady, addressed
the closing luncheon of 250
• Feature speaker Ford Bell, President of AAM, addressed
opening luncheon of 250 and lent expertise in small groups
• Feature speakers Beth Merritt, Founding Director, Center for
the Future of Museums, and Peter Bishop, Futurist and
coordinator of the graduate program in Futures Studies,
University of Houston, directed a working group on scenario
planning for the future of Texas Museums

52. More Highlights
• Offsite behind-the-scenes-tour of the Conservation Research
Laboratory at Texas A&M University working on the LaSalle
Shipwreck Project. Q&A with nautical archeologists.
• Over $6,000 in scholarship money provided by Affinity Groups
and Regional Organizations to assist accessibility, including
first-time GLBT scholarship award
• Mitchell A. Wilder Publication Design Awards Competition
honored 21 winners at 14 institutions
• Participants included over 40 university students
• Participants included 10% first-time attendees

53. TAM Affinity Groups
• AMAG Art Museums Affinity Group
• CMC Collection Managers Committee
• HSHAG Historic Site/House Affinity Group
• TAMEC TAM Educators Committee
• MIC Multicultural Initiatives Committee
• MELT Museum Emerging Leaders of Texas

54. Pro & Con: TAM Annual Meeting
• TAM seeks to improve technology and
availability of online meeting facilitation tools
• Discussions need a forum for follow-up
• Balance is often a challenge (small/large)
• High-value opportunity for job seekers
• High-value opportunity for collaborations,
resource sharing, development leads
• Relaxed environment

55. 2011 TAM Annual Meeting
• 2011 Theme: A Place to Discover
• Irving, TX, August 4-6, 2011
• Host Chair: Irving Arts Center
• Conference hotel: OMNI Mandalay,
Las Colinas (TAM rate $105 per night)
• Registration opens online May 2011

56. Richard Urban
University of Illinois
Reporting on:
“Research Roundup”

57. • @dublincore
• #dcmi10
• Proceedings Available
http://dcpapers.dublincore.org/ojs/pubs
• Attendance
– Library, information science
– Industry
– International
• Conference rotates between Asia, North America & Europe
– Next Year, Europe TBA

58. • DCMI Highlights
– Community is actively struggling with the
necessity of the DC Abstract Model and its
relationship to RDF
– Implications for the DC Application Profile
specification
– Focus on “linked data” and implications for DCMI
recommendations

59. • Papers
– The Case for Implementing Core Descriptive
Embedded Metadata at the Smithsonian
Christensen & Dunlap
– The One to One Principle: Challenges to Current
Practice
Steve Miller
– Building Metadata Application Framework for
Chinese Digital Library: A Case Study of National
Digital Library of China
Yunyun Shen, Long Xiao, Ying Feng

60. • Posters
– Towards a Premodern Manuscript Application Profile
Sheila Bair, Susan Steuer
– Universal Access to Cultural Heritage Material: The
Europeana Resolution Discovery Service for
Persistent Identifiers
Lars G. Svensson
– Creating Collection-Level Metadata: A TELDAP Case
Study
Hsueh-hua Chen, Chiung-min Tsai, Ya-Chen Ho

61. • American Society of Information Science &
Technology (ASIS&T)
– http://www.asist.org
– Established in 1968
(formerly the American Documentation Institute)
• ASIS&T and MCN have held a joint meeting in the past
– Conference proceedings published by the
Association of Computer Machinery (ACM) Digital
Library (but many can be found in individual
authors’ websites)

62. • @asist2010
– #asist2010
– In conjunction with:
• the International Conference on Knowledge Management (ICKM)
– Workshops like Getting Started with Business Taxonomy Design
• Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
• Four tracks:
– Information User/Behavior
– Information Retrieval
– Information Systems, Interactivity, Design
– Knowledge Management (industry)
– Information in Context (economic, cultural, policy)

63. • Museum Highlights
– Beyond Size and Search: Building Contextual Mass in Digital Aggregations for
Scholarly Use
Carole Palmer, Oksana Zavalina and Katrina Fenlon
– Digital Cultural Collections in an Age of Reuse and Remixes
Kristin R. Eschenfelder and Michelle Caswell
– Exploration of Adoption of Preservation Metadata in Cultural Heritage
Institutions: Case of PREMIS
Daniel Alemneh and Samantha Hastings
– How Historians use Historical Newspapers
Robert Allen and Robert Sieczkiewicz
– ImageSieve: Exploratory Search of Museum Archives with Named Entity-
Based Faceted Browsing
Yiling Lin, Jaewook Ahn, Peter Brusilovsky and Daqing He
– Rule Categories for Collection/Item Metadata Relationships
Karen Wickett, Allen Renear and Richard Urban

64. • Papers (con’t)
– Katz Out of the Bag: The Broader Privacy
Ramifications of Using Facebook
Shannon Oltmann
– How and Why Scholars Cite on Twitter
Jason Priem and Kaitlin Light Costello
– Triggering Memories with Online Maps
S. Tejaswi Peesapati, Victoria Schwanda, Johnathon
Schultz and Dan Cosley
– Questions are Content: A Taxonomy of Questions in a
Microblogging Environment
Miles Efron and Megan Winget

65. SIG-CON

66. Future Events
• ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit
March 30 - April 3, 2011
Denver, CO
http://iasummit.org
• Annual Meeting
October 7-12, 2011
New Orleans, LA
• Also check out regional chapters for events
http://asist.org/sigschapters.html

67. Ted Forbes
Dallas Museum of Art
Reporting on:
Tate Handheld Conference

68. Beck Tench
Museum of Life and Science
Reporting on:
Design4Mobile

87. The J

88. Nancy Proctor
Smithsonian Institution
Reporting on:
Design4Mobile, continued …

90. Truisms
• Mobile phones are Borg-like tech: Every new
technology they encounter, they absorb (video,
camera, gps…) @justlikeair
• Great mobile products are created, never ported.
@justlikeair
• "Web content management systems are the
mainframes of the mobile era.” @grigs
• Next gen CMS systems separate content from the
style presentation layer: single content entry,
many devices display @justlikeair

91. Audiences
• Who is your audience? Focus on audience as well as
hardware
• Users often misbehave, and they don’t follow the path you
expect
• "If someone runs into a poll using your mobile product it's
their own damn fault!”
• 3 minute rule: what were users doing 3 min before & 3 min
after?
• 3 motivations for mobile: I'm micro tasking, I'm local or I'm
bored

92. Contexts
• What role does mobile vs tablet play, integrated
cross-platform with technology & artifacts
• In-room or lobby experiences
• Car dealership as museum
• How can visitors to IBM briefing center influence
the experience, give mobile info as they are
coming in…
– Co-discovery, figuring out people’s tacit knowledge –
how do we discover that manipulating objects
– eLearning: can people come together to create a
world-wide museum?

93. People
• Itai Vonshak: @vonsh
– iPhone demo from Auntie Kath, aged 91: http://bit.ly/9Fr3Rk
– "Everything's amazing and nobody's happy" http://bit.ly/199gT1
• Cory Pressman @exprima
• Josh Clark @GlobalMoxie: see his book Tapworthy on designing
iPhone Apps from oreilly.com
• Jason Grigsby @grigs
• Luke Wroblewski @lukew see blog post Mobile First:
http://bit.ly/aIKxMs
• Oliver Weidlich @oliverw
• Rod Farmer @rodfarmer
• Shane Pearlman @justlikeair

94. Notes & Resources
• http://bit.ly/aLVzNr
• http://bit.ly/cBKFYh
• http://bit.ly/cqZyTo
• http://bit.ly/9J7NNd
• http://www.mobileactive.org – global mobile for social
• good@designcaffeine: Slides from my #d4m2010 talk:
Designing Resourceful Mobile E-Commerce Search
http://slidesha.re/d2Yshv

95. Paco Link
The J. Paul Getty Museum
Reporting on:
SXSW

96. Part Two:
Commentary, Analysis, Trends, etc.
– Panelists
• Rob Lancefield
• Richard Urban

97. Audience Participation
Comments? Questions?

98. Thank you
Reminder: please fill out a conference evaluation form at:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MCN2010
This presentation will be available on Slideshare at
http://www.slideshare.net/event/museum-computer-network-2010