American Association of Museums
From Digital-JumpStart
American Association of Museums
Museums without Borders
- May 23-26, 2010, Los Angelos California
- Jump Start Digital Work in Your Institution: An Interactive Planning Session” is scheduled for Sunday, May 23rd from 2:45 P.M. to 5:30 P.M.
- Follow and tweet using: #djump
Do you have a digital project you'd like help with? An idea you'd like to talk through? Or do you have a project that's stuck in a planning or implementation state? This un-conference-like double session pairs participants with teams of Web and New Media experts to work through the issues of starting and completing real-world technology projects and "Web 2.0" initiatives.
This session will be most useful for those thinking about online exhibitions, mobile content delivery, collecting stories or photographs from different audiences, or creating a digital archive. We expect to engage a wide range of participants representing small to medium sized institutions, those new to museum technology work, and seasoned professionals willing to share their expertise and insight with the rest of the community.
First, session participants and leaders will meet together for brief introductions and raising of discussion issues. Then, we will break into smaller working groups for one hour of brainstorming with participants driving the conversation. The groups will be joined by one or more of the 6-12 experts in social media, digitization, online exhibitions, education, exhibit AV, networking, e-commerce and marketing that we have recruited to contribute to the conversations. Our groups may touch on education, networking, strategy, fundraising, marketing, exhibit and in-building technology, multimedia, etc. We will reconvene for the last fifteen minutes for general discussion.
We expect participants to share their experiences with building digital projects, implementing new technologies, and winning the support of non-technical staff. We hope that participants will come with well-formed project ideas and questions, and that they will leave with a to-do list for moving forward with their work. This style of session, based on brainstorming and sharing of experiences, increases the sense of community and collaboration among museum professionals who work with new media.
The successes of recent unconferences, such as the Center for History and New Media's THATCamp, suggest that professionals working with new technologies need concentrated time to share their problems and insights with others in the field. The opportunity is ripe for this session to capitalize on the wisdom of the
crowd and our collective experience with free and open source technologies, agile development, and tricky institutional relationships.
Session Organizers
- Sharon Leon, Director of Public Projects, Center for History and New Media, George Mason University
- Mike Edson, Director of Web and New Media Strategy, Smithsonian Institution
