Sunday May 18, 2003

Making Meaningful Use of Museum Objects: Directions for Museum-School-University Collaborations. Effectively using evaluation methods to improve museum projects deploying technology. The chair is Ilona Holland. She teaches evaluation at Harvard, and has an excellent overview of what is required for effective evaluations of projects. We feel this is an especially important topic, because there is a real dearth of evaluation when it comes to projects utilizing media. Institutions rarely review projects, and are usually focused only on the next project. The panel will review some exceptional programs and effectively balances large and small museum concerns.

2:15 PM-3:30 PM

Technologies: Who's Using Them and How? Models for Evaluation.

2:15 PM-3:30 PM

Yours, Mine or Ours - Whose Is It Anyway?

2:15 PM-3:30 PM

Connective Tissues: Biohistory Analysis of Human Remains

3:45 PM-5:00 PM

Storytelling and Museum Media. This session brings together representatives of exhibits, live interpretation, the Internet, and object theater to explore how these different media can be used when telling stories in a museum setting. This panel is a reprise of a very successful panel at Dallas It was one of our highest rated panels there. It is also a rather novel approach for an AAM panel. The chair will provide to the panel, just before the conference, (and then a ‘warm-up’ session at Portland) a topic for storytelling. This group of experienced ‘storytellers’ from different perspectives will contribute how they would best use their given medium to embrace the story. It created a very lively exchange and opened up fresh ways of thinking through how media can be used in museums without concentrating on the technology side.

3:45 PM-5:00 PM

Monday May 19, 2003

Lecture/Demonstration- Photoshop for Beginners

8:00 AM-9:45 PM

Creating Technology Exhibits that Foster Collaboration

9:00 AM-10:15 AM

Expanding Your Audience and Extending Their Visit: The Museum Online. This session brings together representatives from collections, education, interpretation, and audience research for an active, practical exploration of ways the Internet can extend the life and reach of museum programs. There are so many good proposals this year it was hard to rank them. This panel is similar in style to the storytelling panel (#2). In fact, the chair, Steve Boyd-Smith, was the chair for last years very successful storytelling panel. Here, again, with a novel approach for AAM, Steve will get panelists to construct something for the audience with a focus on the process, spontaneity and enthusiasm that the panelists bring from their respective disciplines. Rather that have the usual 20 minutes of prepared talks, they will have instead 5 minutes to explain their methods, and then actually, before our eyes and ears, with other colleagues, put together the best online vehicle for a fictional museum. It will be a different and engaging method for highlighting some very practical issues

9:00 AM-10:15 AM

Serving Multiple Audiences

9:00 AM-10:15 AM

Lecture Demonstration- Databases Demystified

10:00 AM-12:00 PM

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Preservation and Documentation in the Age of Technology

10:30 AM-11:45 AM

Weaving Technology Successfully into Museum Projects. Featuring IMLS National Leadership grantees, this panel will focus on practical project planning with a strong emphasis on team-building, creative thinking and testing to illustrate best practices in technology. This panel is an excellent example of using what is happening in the field to best advantage. Museums of various sizes independently produced excellent projects that were recognized by the IMLS and supported with National Leadership grants. Here they will revisit these projects and ask the basic questions of why they worked and what the nature of the successes were. It is an important method for sharing with the broader field the best practices of a few. Diana Folsom is the Chair of the Media and Technology SPC and is personable and invested in the topic. She will insure a strong and clear panel.

10:30 AM-11:45 AM

What is the Nature of Interactive Experiences? Linking Research and Practice

10:30 AM-11:45 AM

Meeting Audience Expectations with Online Collections

12:15 PM-12:45 PM

Marketplace of Ideas

AAM Media and Technology Committee Marketplace

3:30 PM-5:30 PM

AAM Media & Technology Committee 14th Annual MUSE Awards Champagne Reception

5:00 PM-7:00 PM

Tuesday May 20, 2003

AAM Media and Technology Committee Networking Breakfast and Idea Exchange (#24)   ($ 12.00)

7:30 AM-8:30 PM

Bringing Animal Bones, Skulls and Skeletons Alive!

8:45 AM-10:00 AM

Making the Net Work for Art Museums: Collaborative, Tool-Based Approaches to Internet Content

8:45 AM-10:00 AM

The Process and Application of Hand-held Media Devices. This panel will provide an overview of the process of designing and implementing pocket sized computer devices, developing innovative content, and the resulting impact these systems can have on the day-to-day operations of a museum facility. This panel really evolved over the last month from a panel of industry led specialists to a panel of highly regarded museum professionals looking at an important trend that is/will be challenging the field; the growing use of interactive technologies in institutions. The chair, Andrea Weatherhead, prior to starting her own firm worked for a number of years at the Experience Music Project, on their award winning (MUSE and others) projects. She will guide the panelists through a discussion of how museums must embrace emerging technologies, or be left behind by the rest of popular culture. However, the issues are not just large museum issues, the take-away here is that wise planning can improve the museum experience no matter what size the interactive project may be.

8:45 AM-10:00 AM

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Websites on a Shoestring or Getting the Most Hits for Your Buck

8:45 AM-10:00 AM

Wired for Culture: How the Internet Is Revolutionizing Museum Marketing

8:45 AM-10:00 AM

Technology 101: Small Museums and the Internet

1:45 PM-3:00 PM

The "Finding Significance" Project: Testing Methods For Encouraging Personal Meaning-Making

1:45 PM-3:00 PM

Better Web Site Design in 30 Minutes: Take a Test Drive in the Usability Lab. Under the guidance of experienced facilitators, members of the audience will test a variety of museum web sites, including general museum sites, virtual exhibits, and collections databases to discover the best practices in usability testing. This is, again, not the usual panel format. Debora Howes is the chair for these sessions. She has been very effectively involved for many years with the M&T board, and has been instrumental in developing the MUSE awards that recognize the best uses of media and technology within the museum community. She is enthusiastic, and can think quickly and clearly at the podium. The premise for these sessions is to ‘take apart’and put back together a selection of the muse award winning projects (with their approval) during the session, and to have the audience participate. This critiquing will emulate what happens in a usability lab…that special set of circumstances when technology projects are tested and concepts are firmed up. Usability testing is somewhat of a specialized field; hence, most institutions don’t access the process as often as could be useful. This show and tell of the process will give the audience a real hands-on experience. The need for the double session is a time issue. In order to cover the variety of media recognized by the MUSE awards, and to give a breadth of types requires the longer time. An investment well made.

1:45 PM-4:30 PM

Staff Development at Your Desktop: Web-based Education and Training for Museum Staff and Volunteers

3:15 PM-4:30 PM

Wednesday May 21, 2003

Bridges to Provenance Information: Remote Access to Research Resources

9:00 AM-10:15 AM

Protecting Museum Images in the Digital Age

9:00 AM-10:15 AM

Digital Assets: Creating, Managing and Sharing the Wealth. Provides an overview of the necessary tools and practical guidelines for understanding, reviewing and strategizing an effective course for the management, delivery and reusability of digital assets. The topic is of particular relevance as institutions are moving quickly towards building large archives of digital information, but not moving nearly as quickly on recognizing the importance of preserving, maintaining and/or just making available these resources. The panel will give a clear overview of these complex issues. Jim Blackaby from Mystic has consistently received high evaluations for speaking; Rose Falanga represents the Exploratorium and their leadership role in this arena.

2:00 PM-3:15 PM

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Space: the Final Frontier? Smaller Museums Discover the Web as a New Exhibition Venue. This session addresses how smaller museum museums can translate their curatorial expertise into the digital environment of the Web and use virtual exhibitions as a new educational and interpretive tool. Klaus Muller, the chair for this panel wrote an engaging article for Museum News in the most recent issue on issues facing smaller museums and web projects. The topics being explored are timely, as pressures continue to mount on museums for spending on a variety of projects. Technology while embraced early on can be a continued drain if not managed effectively. This panel balances a variety of perspectives on using the web and building wider audience relations. Ruth Perlin, representing the Phillips Collection, is a long time contributor to AAM conferences, and has for many years provided leadership to the M&T board. Her experiences of working for the National Gallery with large projects and now, more concise ones at the Phillips is a welcome perspective.

2:00 PM-3:15 PM

Critiquing Museum Exhibitions XIV: Bridging Disciplines

2:00 PM-4:45 PM

Not a One-way Street: Learning Through a Range of Options in Two-way Communication. This session presents a range of options for how museums can use technology to speak to our audiences -- and let our audiences talk back with options from established methods for distance learning to tantalizing glimpses of some next big things in outreach. Here is a field that is maturing quickly. A few years back, museums jumped on the build-a- website-now bandwagon with mixed results. There is increased pressure to utilize technology to extend two-ways with remote audiences (them communicating back). This is timely, this is exciting, and also creates lots of new challenges. A nice blend of what works now, and what to look out for in the near future. David Schaller from Educational Web Adventures, is on the M&T board, has worked on a number of AAM MUSE award winning projects and with the other panelists walk the audience through a rich but confusing field.

3:30 PM-4:45 PM

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Videoconferencing handout
Two-way via the Web handout

Seeking the Online Audience: Exploring New Tools for Developing Interpretive Products

3:30 PM-4:45 PM

Weaving a Community: Strategies for Museum Outreach and Inclusion.

3:30 PM-4:45 PM