The Affiliate

The Vodafone Americas Foundation has launched the Wireless Innovation Challenge to promote innovation and increase implementation of advanced wireless related technology for a better world. To that end, the Wireless Innovation Challenge will provide up to $600,000 in total awards to support projects of exceptional promise using wireless-related technology to address critical social issues around the world.

The challenge is open to projects from universities and nonprofit organizations based in the United States. Projects must demonstrate a multi-disciplinary approach that uses an innovation in wireless-related technology to address a critical global issue in one or more of the following areas: access to communication, education, economic development, environment, or health. The technology should have the potential for replication and large scale impact. 

Vodafone Americas Foundation will select up to eight finalists who will present their projects before a panel of judges with expertise in the areas of wireless engineering, international development, and social entrepreneurship. Winners will be selected for awards of $100,000, $200,000, and $300,000, which will be paid in equal installments over three years.

Proposals are due February 2, 2009. For complete program information, visit http://challenge.vodafone-us.com/innovAbout.html.  

What a great challenge!

  On Monday, January 12, the Smithsonian will be hosting some of the world’s leading scientists to discuss and debate the differing perspectives on the changes in tropical landscapes, and their impacts.  The event will be webcast live from 1 - 6:30pm - at www.si.edu/tec.   

The symposium’s 8 specialists will discuss topics related to tropical extinction including deforestation, climate change, values and threats to tropical nature reserves, and possible conservation actions.  Hope you can join!

Presenters:

Congratulations to our friends and colleagues at the Office of Exhibits Central, who just hosted us all for an open house in their new, absolutely fantastic new facility, the Pennsy Collections and Support Center! 

The renovated 360,000 square foot facility features specialized space and equipment for exhibit design and fabrication and conservation.  It also serves as additional collection storage for the American History Museum and the growing collection of the African American Museum of History and Culture.

According to the project director, “This wonderful new facility represents an innovative model for the Smithsonian that combines a variety of uses under one big roof… the Center sets a milestone in increased efficiency and support capabilities for the Smithsonian’s mission.”

Although it’s not open to the public, we’d love to show it off to Affiliates!   Just give us a call.

(More fun pics below.)

Mockup of a new artifact case at NMNH

We’ve been thinking about new media as a possible session at the Affiliations annual conference, and also wondering,  what does this even mean?  there is alot of talk in museum circles about digitization, web 2.0, social networking, etc., but how do you make sense of it and actually make it meaningful for your museum or organization?

We’re fortunate at the Smithsonian to have a Director of Web and New Media Strategy who thinks about this all the time.  He recently invited Josh Greenberg, director of digital media and scholarship at the New York Public Library, to lead a fascinating seminar for Smithsonian staff and share his thoughts on their efforts to develop a coherent policy.  Among his many salient points:

we are shifting from a world defined by scarcity of access to scarcity of attention.  Design accordingly.

make information access user-centric, not system-centric.  this was particularly challenging to NYPL… people go to their site to search their catalog, right?  No.  they go to find out the hours of their local library, to see if any events are going on, or find a literacy curriculum.  keep in mind that what you think your users are looking for may not be true in practice.

meet users where they are.  NYPL wanted to find out why their ‘homework help’ site was so poorly visited.  guess what?  kids don’t use the library’s site when doing homework - they use google or wikipedia almost exclusively.  AND, the majority of traffic for kids online goes through platforms like facebook, itunes or instant messagers.  so don’t reinvent the wheel - just put yourself (via widgets, etc.) in the places where your users already are.  this goes for staff too.  if your staff has expertise in a certain area, encourage them to comment as an expert on relevant blogs, or respond to newspaper articles online, etc.

every one of your web pages is a home page.  alot of users will find you because something, somewhere, on your site pops up in their Google search.  make sure that if a user finds you via some remote page deep in your site, they can identify your organization and get back to your home page.

finally, digitization is not an end unto itself.  it’s a means for encouraging creative use of your content.  which means, to some degree, you have to let go of absolute authority over it, and let users make it their own. 

What do YOU think?  Interested in a session or more conversation about this?          

For the past 2+ years we here in Washington, DC have been awaiting not only the election results of the U.S. Presidential campaign, but the reopening of the Smithsonian’s American History Museum. The museum will finally reopen its doors once again to the public on Friday November 21, 2008. The opening celebration will include a “festival” - a weekend chock full of family programming. As very clearly articulated on the museum’s website the renovation will be a “transformation” of what was once a dated, dark building. Possibly the most striking new feature is the atrium skylight opening up the center of the building on all levels, finally allowing natural light to highlight the visitors experience.

The renovation will dramatically transform the museum and create new ways to present the objects of our nation’s past. The building will be much easier to navigate with a central staircase between the first and second floors.  New and improved features include 10-foot-high artifact walls on both the first and second floors showcasing some of the museum’s 3 million objects, a new welcome center, a state of the art exhibition hall for the Star Spangled Banner and new museum stores. The transportation hall will encompass nearly 26,000 square feet, includes 340 objects, and features 19 historic settings in chronological order. America On the Move is still a popular favorite at the museum.  As an opening bonus, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address will be on view from November 21, 2008  through January 4, 2009. 

For more information about the renovation and reopening, visit the museum’s website at http://americanhistory.si.edu/index.cfm

     On September 24, the Smithsonian Channel’s ‘The Magic of Motion’ won the network its first emmy for outstanding achievement in cinematography in nature documentary.  At only just over a year old, SI Channel is the youngest network to win such a prize.  The show is part of Nature Tech - a series that explains biometrics - bringing technology and nature together.

Affiliates recently received a mailing from the Channel inviting them to collaborate and partner - either through joint marketing or by submitting story ideas. 

From their press release:

The digital marketing industry is growing rapidly and the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery are taking advantage of its momentum. The museums are launching a marketing campaign using Bluetooth technology for the opening of “Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur,” Oct. 11 through Jan. 4, 2009, at the Sackler Gallery.

Already a phenomenon in Europe and Asia, and now launching in cities across the United States, this new medium of advertising prompts Bluetooth phone users to opt-in to receive a free downloadable message. Clear Channel Outdoor and Qwikker, the leading providers of location-based mobile content distribution infrastructure, are offering this mode of advertising. Bluetooth-enabled bus shelters, located in Washington, D.C.’s major pedestrian areas, will deploy a silent prompt to mobile users with Bluetooth within a 30-foot radius.

The galleries will be able to target new and younger audiences through this innovative medium of advertising. A message from the Smithsonian will appear on pedestrians’ mobile screens, and those who accept the message will receive a detail of the bus shelter advertisement and a message urging them to visit the featured exhibition, “Garden and Cosmos.” This advertisement magnifies the eyes of a Nath Yogi from the exhibition and gives users the opportunity to use the artwork as wallpaper for their mobile devices.

How cool is that?! Read the Associated Press story about it.