What is Digital-JumpStart
From Digital-JumpStart
Un-Conference May 23rd, 2010 at AAM
Join us in Los Angeles, or online.
Getting things Started
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? Digital-JumpStart un-conference-like sessions provide a forum for participants with a wide range of experience with web and new media projects to work through the issues of starting and completing real-world technology projects and "Web 2.0" initiatives.
Digital-JumpStart is based on the notion that members of our community should capitalize on the wisdom of the crowd and our collective experience with free and open source technologies, agile development, and tricky institutional relationships. This is not about experts and novices. It is about building a community of practice that allows for sharing and innovation. These sessions 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.
Also, see our FAQ
Before the Conferences
To prepare for our time together, we invite you share your questions and resources through this wiki. You'll notice that this digital space is being shared by participants at many conferences. You may not get to meet some of your most important collaborators, but in this space we'll be able to have an open exchange and to build our collective knowledge base. Creating a full participant profile will help to establish these virtual relationships, and hopefully, future collaborations. As you work with the wiki, please feel free to raise questions, edit topic pages, and create new ones. Your interests and insights will direct set the agenda for our time together at the individual conference meetings.
During the Conferences
During our face to face encounters, we will follow the lead of other successful un-conferences, like THATCamp, launched by the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University. First, session participants and discussion facilitators will meet together for brief introductions and raising of discussion issues (that will be drawn from this wiki). 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 experts in social media, digitization, online exhibitions, education, exhibit AV, networking, e-commerce and marketing that we have recruited to contribute to the conversations. Even though the session organizers have pulled together an initial list of people with significant experience in web and new media work to facilitate these conversations, we invite all comers to participate. These sessions will not consist of experts addressing novices. Rather, we will have open conversations that draw on all levels of experience. If you are new to this work, we need your questions and concerns to guide our time together. If you are one of those seasoned professionals, we need your voice in the room. Please bring your friends and colleagues.
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.
At the end of each session, we will reconvene for a brief wrap-up and closing thoughts. The successes of recent unconferences suggest that professionals working with new technologies need concentrated time to share their problems and insights with others in the field. We hope that the Digital-JumpStart sessions and virtual community will provide that space for cultural heritage professionals.
If you're not going to be at AAM, you can still ask a question at the Help Desk.
Join us May 23 at AAM!!
- Read the FAQ for Participants or the FAQ for Facilitators
- Check this cartoon that personifies the un-conference experience
- Check the list of Facilitators (growing every day!)
- Send your questions to our Help Desk and we'll pair you with an expert.
- Learn more: What is Digital-JumpStart? (this page)
- Can't come to AAM? Try our Digital-JumpStart Help Desk
