Anne, Director of Legal Affairs & Intellectual Property at Newfields and editor of the book "Rights and Reproductions: The Handbook for Cultural Institutions", Aleksandra Strzelichowska, Collections Engagement Team, Senior Online Marketing Specialist from Europeana, and Mikka Associate General Counsel at the J. Paul Getty Trust.

SPEAKERS:

Ariadna Matas, Copyright Policy Advisor, Europeana Foundation

Sarah Pearson, Legal Counsel, Creative Commons

Andrea Wallace, Lecturer in Law, Exeter University

Organized by the Special Interest Group on Intellectual Property, Museum Computer Network and friends from the Open GLAM community!

The current global health emergency forced libraries and museums to organize digital engagement strategies, from #MuseumFromHome to making digital broadcasts. However, this doesn’t mean that copyright laws have been suspended from working. How do we deal with copyright in this public health emergency? What are the important things we need to be looking at when we make our digital engagement strategies? Where can we go to find openly available content from museums and libraries? How do we make sure that we can legally preserve some of the current records being created by these digital engagement strategies?

Friday, November 8, 2019

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh was interested in creating a virtual experience of We Are Nature: Living in the Anthropocene, an exhibition that looks at how human behavior is impacting the Earth and creating what some scientists call a new era. The exhibition invited visitors to explore the evidence and to consider how the changes that are occurring affect their lives in practical ways. The museum's goal is to reach a wider audience with this story and to convince funders to support an expanded version of the exhibition.

GuidiGO, in collaboration with MediaCombo, produced the virtual and interactive tour experience of “We Are Nature: Living in the Anthropocene." Users can visit the entire exhibition with an Oculus Go headset and "wander" into the gallery as if they were visiting a real space with interactive hotspots. The experience is based on a 3D capture of the exhibition shot in photogrammetry in August, 2018, as well as more than 150 HD 360 panoramas.

Panelists will talk about their collaboration and what they learned along the way about creating a completely new version of a museum exhibition, and the different objectives this project can achieve.

Session Type30-Minute Session (Presentation or Case Study)

TrackExperience

Key Outcomes

- hear first hand about the work flow between one museum and two vendors to produce this product

Speakers

Session Leader : Robin White Owen, Principal, MediaCombo

Speaker : Becca Schreckengast, Director of Exhibition Experience, Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Speaker : David Lerman, CEO, GuidiGO

Friday, November 8, 2019

In the Fall of 2018, de Young Museum organized a pioneering exhibition entitled, ‘Contemporary Muslim Fashions’. The exhibition focused on the complex, diverse nature of Muslim dress codes worldwide. As we were the first major US museum to have ever explored this topic, we were up against a large amount of misinformation and Islamophobia. The questions quickly became: how do we educate our visitors on this subject while ensuring the museum is a welcoming environment to the Muslim community? We will tell the story of how we created a Facebook Group within the official museum Facebook page that grew to 500+ members sharing discussions on Muslim fashion, what it’s like to be Muslim in America, etc. These weren’t topics this community would have felt comfortable discussing in a public digital space, but by carving out a platform within our brand’s ecosystem, we fostered discussion that led to productive community engagement. By integrating representation and community outreach into our digital strategies rather than layering it on top simply for show, we can build spaces that amplify the voices of our communities and build more authentic connections.

Session Type30-Minute Session (Presentation or Case Study)

TrackContent

Key Outcomes

After attending this session, participants will have tangible examples of ways they can more authentically engage the communities they strive to represent. They will have guidance on how to broach intimidating topics and speak authentically, even when their staff may not represent the voices they aim to amplify.

Speakers

Session Leader : Jessie Ayala, Digital Engagement Manager, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Co-Presenter : Miriam Newcomer, Director of Communications, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Friday, November 8, 2019

How can museums utilize technology to co-create content with the public in ways that feel equitable and rewarding to all parties? Through our digital interpretive practice, Mia has come to view its work in relation to the public in rough terms of push, pull, and partner. We broadcast (“push”) museum-generated content; we commission (“pull”) content from members of the public. And sometimes we share authority over decision-making and content development (“partner.”) This panel will present two of Mia’s digital content partnerships through this push/pull/partner schema.

In one case, Mia sought to co-develop digital interpretive materials about traditional Somali artworks with Somali students enrolled in a University of Minnesota course on oral history. This project challenged our assumptions about how and when to use digital tools and the necessity of partnership and shared commitment to see a project through. We will also present our use of Hearken, a digital tool designed for public media newsrooms, to partner with our public on the development of an interpretive strategy for a Buddhist sculpture exhibit.

We will conclude with a set of considerations to bring to future opportunities to partner with the public on digital content creation in meaningful and dynamic ways.

Session Type30-Minute Session (Presentation or Case Study)

TrackContent

Key Outcomes

Attendees will:

Speakers

Session Leader : Alex Bortolot, Content Strategist, Minneapolis Institute of Art

Co-Presenter : Gretchen Halverson, Digital Program Coordinator, Minneapolis Institute of Art

Friday, November 8, 2019

Over the course of the Collections as Data: Part to Whole project, Carnegie Museum of Art has not only increased points of access as related to the Teenie Harris collection data, but we are currently expanding our role as stewards by building in-gallery interactives for the public. Significantly, new information gathered from these interactives will then become a part of the collections as data that is then provided back into the community, beginning the cycle all over again. In the fall of 2019, CMOA will open a semi-permanent exhibition and community engagement space in its permanent galleries. This will be a dedicated Teenie Harris gallery space for exhibitions, community relations, and the omni-directional exchange of information with the public. This space will be staffed periodically by “citizen archivists” who will have a public facing presence to aid patrons in research and retrieval of images, as well as collecting image information of the who/where/when/why of Harris images. In addition to prints and gallery panels, these interactives will allow patrons to engage with faceted search, heat maps using GIS technology, personal and family identification using facial recognition technology, and public history using an amalgamation of newly developed programming.

Session Type30-Minute Session (Presentation or Case Study)

Chatham House RuleNo

Key Outcomes

After this session, attendees will walk away with concrete examples of how to consciously uplift the voice of under documented communities simultaneously within the walls of powerful institutions. All while using technology that has traditionally silenced those same under documented voices.

Speakers

Session Leader : Dominique Luster, Teenie Harris Archivist, Carnegie Museum of Art

Co-Presenter : Charlene Foggie-Barnett, Teenie Harris Archive Specialist, Carnegie Museum of Art

Friday, November 8, 2019

Even in the year 2019, wayfinding continues to be one of the major challenges faced by museums and cultural attractions. With the arrival of augmented reality (AR), there is a light at the end of the tunnel for addressing the navigational needs of all visitors with new, innovative wayfinding tools that don’t rely on expensive hardware infrastructure. In this session, we will: - Provide a brief history lesson and examine all of the approaches that have attempted to address wayfinding in museums over the past decade. - Discuss the commonly known challenges to past hardware/sensor-based approaches to indoor wayfinding. - Show how AR and machine vision (AI) can be used to create a new type of wayfinding experience where directions appear overlayed on the visitor’s real-world view. - Convey how this new technology can be used to assist visitors with accessibility needs.

Session Type30-Minute Session (Presentation or Case Study)

TrackSystems

Key Outcomes

After attending this session, participants will be able to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the various benefits of augmented reality (AR) as it relates to wayfinding, ease of use, and accessibility.

Speakers

Session Leader : Brendan Ciecko, Founder & CEO, Cuseum

Co-Presenter : A. Andrea Montiel De Shuman, Digital Experience Designer, Detroit Institute of Arts

Friday, November 8, 2019

Over the last 12 years, Isuma’s Media Player technology has brought high quality indigenous language videos to remote, low-bandwidth Inuit communities in Nunavut, the territory in the Canadian arctic where we are based.

We launched IsumaTV in 2007 as an indigenous language video streaming platform. Yet soon after we realized that the majority of the Inuit were unable to watch IsumaTV through the cloud, due to the fact that Inuit communities have one of the most expensive and slow internet connections in the world. We were pushed to find a way for Inuit to access the Inuktitut language videos on IsumaTV.

We came up with the idea of our Media Players, an edge computing network that gives remote communities access to their videos and films by locally hosting the entire content of IsumaTV (now 8,000 videos in more than 70 languages). The media players gradually synchronize and transcode new videos, audio, images and other large files to and from the central website as they are uploaded.

We have since installed Media Players in more than 15 indigenous communities. Many of these communities have used them as a repository of Inuit content in their libraries, schools, and local television stations.

Session Type30-Minute Session (Presentation or Case Study)

TrackSystems

After attending this session, participants will learn how our Media Players and edge computing can make multimedia archives engaging and accessible for remote, low-bandwidth communities.

Speaker: David Ertel, Developer, Isuma

Friday, November 8, 2019

With the introduction of the Pen in 2015, Cooper Hewitt established itself as a pioneer in digitally-integrated visitor experience. Four years on, we’re creating what’s next. Rather than working behind closed doors, we’re opening up our design process and living our mission – “to educate, inspire and empower people through design.”

The recently-launched Cooper Hewitt Interaction Lab will introduce a user-centered process to the museum’s visitor experience design process. We’ve designed the Lab’s activities to bring our strategic plan to life - emphasizing inclusive, digitally-integrated design.

As a space for research, experimentation and assessment, the Lab will keep with the pace of new technological development, grounded in visitor insight. In addition to an already collaborative design process, we will also launch a slate of public programs to involve an even wider community.

This year’s MCN theme aligns beautifully with our aims for the Interaction Lab, which itself will be a collaborative, transparent interface between the museum, art/technology/design communities and the audiences we’re designing with and for. This session will provide an overview of the Lab, with emphasis on “Lab as interface” and the methods and approaches we’ll use to bring this to life.

Session Type30-Minute Session (Presentation or Case Study)

TrackExperience

Key Outcomes

After attending this session, participants will have learned about a new way to approach visitor experience design that is collaborative and transparent, and how to align it with your organization’s mission and purpose.

Speakers

Session Leader : Carolyn Royston, Chief Experience Officer, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Co-Presenter : Rachel Ginsberg, Interaction Lab Director, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Friday, November 8, 2019

Human-centered design, service design, and design thinking represent the current zeitgeist, deeply embedded in how we think of our practice. Potentially a reductionist, jargonistic approach, these terms are at times used interchangeably. Yet the origins and use of each signify a distinct, specific approach to relationships between staff and visitors. We declare that museums are not neutral, and while well-intentioned and sincere, we as a field are actively choosing frameworks that are built on “othering”.

In this provocative session, I argue that human-centered design and related ideologies are important critical steps towards more inclusive institutions, yet they are ultimately hampered by their capitalist corporate roots. In adopting such an approach, museums can improve the visitor experience for the better while still neglecting larger community and mission-driven goals.

Our current practice values inclusivity, visitor input, and evidence-based practice. Yet through the choice of specific frameworks such as human-centered design for the development of our tools, programs, exhibits, and evaluation strategies we ultimately risk perpetuating a culturally dominant paradigm. By striving for empathy rather than sharing authority, we miss our mark. Seeking input on specific individual needs and motivations for use of a product feeds the tragedy of the commons.

Session Type30-Minute Session (Presentation or Case Study)

TrackExperience

Key Outcomes

Participants will be armed with deeper knowledge regarding choice of frameworks, and the implications on how inclusive and authentic our work truly is. Rather than choosing design frameworks that intentionally or unintentionally maintain inequity, participants will gain a broader set of frames to question, and then address, the underlying structures and processes related to how we develop technology and other museum content.

Speaker: Kate Haley Goldman, Principal, HG&Co