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The winners shown below, chosen by a distinguished panel of judges, are outstanding examples of tools to help people work together better, make better decisions together or solve tougher problems together to create a better world.  The final winner(s) of the Program for the Future Challenge will be chosen in a few weeks by staff from The Tech Museum and other participating museums, after the entrants have time to develop "demos" or museum exhibits for their entries. The project that won the Engelbart Award, HealthMap, is a web platform that combines official and informal (e.g. Google News) sources for an up-to-the-minute global map of human and animal diseases.  The platform has been recognized as a leading indicator of disease outbreaks such as the H1N1 flu. The Engelbart Prize carries an award of $1000 USD.   In addition to the five semi-finalists, other projects deemed worthy of honorable mention by the judges and/or the conference organizers are Charity Connect, The Synergy Engine,  Transit Everywhere, Bloomer--Collective Intelligence,  Intelligent Web,  Fair-Share Spending and Hugging Media.

Dr. Douglas Engelbart (right) congratulates Clark Freifeld, a co- author of the HealthMap project via Skype (photo by Bill Daul).

The Program for the Future Challenge Semi-Finalists

	HealthMap: Global Disease Alert Map	John Brownstein, Harvard Medical School; Clark Freifeld, Mass. General Hospital; et al.
Engelbart Prize Winner		HealthMap brings together disparate data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health.
	Your Health vs. The Crowd	Alex Carmichael, Cure Together
		How does your health compare to thousands of other people? This interactive exhibit will compare visitors' biometrics with all other visitors, and allow people to look up recommendations from the crowd for how to deal with a number of health conditions, drawing on the wealth of data collected at CureTogether.com.
	The Deliberatorium: Towards Large-Scale Structured Deliberation	Mark Klein, MIT Center for Collective Intelligence
		Large numbers of people view, comment on, rate, and contribute issues, ideas, pros, and cons for solving a complex multi-disciplinary challenge in a way that enables radically improved signal-to-noise ratios, encourages evidence-based reasoning, and allows effective allocation of community attention.
	Sourcemap	Leonardo Bonanni, MIT Media Lab
		A web tool for understanding where things come from and what they are made of in order to foster an informed discussion around the issues of environmental and social sustainability.
	Dreamfish: a global work cooperative	Tiffany von Emmell, Dreamfish
		A global work cooperative, we are building a work world for all that alleviates poverty and empowers the disadvantaged through microenterprise development networking. Women entrepreneurs moving out of poverty, unemployed professionals, elders starting next career, young independents making a difference - All are welcome to dreamfish.com.

Don't miss this unique conference on collaboration systems happening this Wednesday, March 3 at The Tech Museum in San Jose.

Organized by a batch of collaboration specialists known as Program for the Future, and basing their ideals on Doug Engelbart's vision of developing tool systems that can deal with the world's complex and "wicked" and problems - this conference will be an experiential dive into the real-time use of multiple collaobration systems.

Finalists  of the Program for the Future Challenge will be announced during the day - along with the announcement of one winner of the Engelbart Prize in the evening program (brief agenda)(full agenda).

Meshing virtual worlds, Google Wave, real time reporting from tables, video and more, this is one not to be missed.  Less than 8  "real world" attendee spots remain open  for the venue in San Jose, and if you can't make it in person, register as a virtual participant.  Join in with all the collaborative tools you can bring to this unique experiment.

Real and virtual registration at: http://colaboration2010.eventbrite.com

There will be multiple opportunities to link up with some of the most talented tool makers and users there, so here's your invitation to get involved on all these levels.
See you there,
- Bob Ketner

advisor Hirishi Ishii on the front cover.

Not only that, I was happy to see featured in the issue the artwork of CoLABoration 2010 organizer Eileen Clegg, Chuck House of Stanford Media X, Martha Russel, and SRI VP Stephen Ciesinski. It's great so see so many of our direct community featured in this magazine under the feature Advanced Design Research in issue 142.

-Bob Ketner

The Tech Virtual was blogged about recently by Claudia L'Amoreaux (Claudia Linden).
Here's the post in it's entirety.

https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/learninginworld/blog/2010/02/05/prototyping-real-world-museum-exhibits-in-second-life-at-the-tech

I attended Bob Ketner's presentation at the Second Life Community Convention in San Francisco in August 2009. Bob is the Virtual Community Manager at The Tech Museum in San Jose, California. The Tech currently has three sims in Second Life: The Tech which is a "museum" with finished works, The Tech 2 which is a "workshop" with prototypes, and in Teen Second Life, The TechTG, a "workshop" with prototypes created by teens. At SLCC09, Bob talked about how The Tech was using Second Life to do rapid prototyping of real world exhibits. SL to RL? I was intrigued. I finally caught up with him for an interview.

Claudia: Thanks for giving me a tour of The Tech Virtual project today. I was really intrigued by your presentation at the Second Life Community Convention last summer. You mentioned that you were prototyping museum exhibits for the real world using Second Life and I wanted to find out more about it. How did the idea for this initiative originate?

Bob: As you can probably imagine, museums are challenged to develop very complex installations that not only have to be informative but interactive as well. This especially applies to science and technology museums that rely less on unique artifacts and more on interactivity. So the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation funded this idea in 2007 (that's Gordon Moore as in Moore's Law).  Basically they asked,  what if you could use Second Life to prototype exhibits with simultaneous input from experts and casual visitors as well?  It opens up the creative process to a much wider talent base, and means that you can preview ideas before you ever even order any materials. It's the open source method of development, applied to exhibits.

Claudia: I understand that you have some teen interns doing some prototypes...can you tell us what teens are up to?

Bob: Over the summer of 2009 our intern Kyle Walker built a Second Life model of a specific section of The Tech Museum. The purpose of this was to be able to do a complete "before and after" visualization of  a renovation.  It's not hard to imagine, if we can prototype exhibits individually, why not an entire room or gallery? We have other teens who are partnering to build and script exhibits such as the recent work done by Christopher Organiser and Mikeza Obolensky on an exhibit called The Macrochip. They do very detailed and high quality work and I'm hoping that this work can support their art and design portfolios.You'll find a preview here.  Wally Oyen and Riden Blaisdale have done an amazing remodel which we'll be using as an example when they're all done.

 

The Macrochip by TSL residents Christopher Organiser & Mikeza Obolensky

 

 

 

Claudia: Now that this project has been running over a year and a half, and was even a Linden Prize finalist, what's new with The Tech Virtual?

Bob: We are really excited to be partnering with 3 new museums in 2010.  Starting first will be Citilab Cornella in Barcelona which has opened an adventurous project called Expolab.  Basically they want to experiment with the whole concept of museum interactions and exhibitions and open up the design of the interactions to a worldwide community.  Second Life is obviously the perfect place to do this! Science Center Singapore will be working on all aspects of "water"- from its physical properties to art pieces. See that preview here. Sometime before summer Lemelson Center at The Smithsonian will be joining us with a topic they'll announce soon. The opportunities for Second Life users to show their talent and ingenuity to this professional audience are really growing. Want to see your work in these awesome places? This is the way to make that happen!

Claudia: Where can people see the exhibits in Second Life?

Bob: Our "virtual museum" is "The Tech" sim.  You can see some of the prototype exhibits from completed design rounds at http://www.tinyurl.com/ParksideHall, and there's an entire museum there as well to explore.  The prototyping sim is "The Tech 2" and you'll find the newest work there at http://tinyurl.com/TheTech2sim

Claudia: How long will these initiatives run?

Bob: The Citilab project will be developed and installed by June 2010 so they're on the fastest turnaround. The "water" exhibits will likely be realized in early 2011 and the others are on longer time frames. It's good for aspiring exhibit designers to start early, because we can help refine the idea and approach and make it more likely that your exhibit can actually be fabricated in the real world.

Claudia: How can someone get involved?

Bob: It starts with creating a profile. Then, just look at the topic list and think about an exhibit on a topic that interests you. Then, click on "Create a Project".  You'll be prompted to sign up and describe your project. We'll contact you to assign a space where you can build your prototype in Second Life!

The Details
URL:     http://www.thetechvirtual.org
SLURL: http://tinyurl.com/TheTech2sim
WHAT: Prototype museum exhibits for real world museums using Second Life.
WHO:  Rob Stephensen (avatar Stephe Roux), Curator and Bob Ketner (avatar Agent Heliosense), Virtual Community Manager

GROUPS: Second Life group to join is: "Tech Exhibit Designers" and in Teen Second Life,  "The TechTG"

 

 

 

To see the current entries or add a new one, go to
http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/program-for-the-future/program-for-the-future-challenge

The judging criteria for the Challenge entries, determined by a distinguished panel of advisors, are in three parts:

Your Method, Tool or Technology

• Can your innovation be a stepping stone towards enabling people to solve an important problem?
• Does your innovation promote communication and collaboration? 
• Will your innovation enable changes in the way people work together that will lead to better decisions or outcomes?
• Does your innovation scale, continuing to support better outcomes even as more people use it? 
• Does your innovation have the potential to change social and cultural practices for the better? 

Your Demo 

• Is your demo hands-on and interactive? Is the museum visitor's experience an improvement over Web access? 
• Does your demo adequately explain how and why your method, tool or technology works? 
• Will your demo inspire others? 

Your Plan for Impact 

• Is your plan likely to lead to successful adoption and widespread dissemination?
• Would winning a prize make a significant difference to your innovation’s potential impact? 
• Does your plan favor community contribution and global connection?

Many really interesting ideas have been submitted, but few have a well-developed idea for a demo (a.k.a. museum exhibit).  Apparently, developing collective intelligence tools and museum exhibits require quite different skill sets.  Who knew?  The advisors have therefore decided to split the judging process in two: deciding first on the merits of only the "method, tool or technology" and the "plan for impact."  Judging the merits of the demo will not occur until about a month later, in coordination with the sponsoring museums (The Tech Museum, the MIT Museum and Science Centre Singapore).

Accordingly, we are giving entrants an **EXTENSION** of about a month (details coming soon) to complete their demos.  This will not; however; change the Feb. 8 deadline to enter; describe your method, tool or technology; and your plan for impact.  The selection of the first stage of judging (but not the final winners) will be announced at CoLABoration 2010, the second Program for the Future Conference, on March 3.  The final winners will be announced a month or two later.

Finally, speaking of the PFTF Conference on March 3, it will be a collaboration mash-up.  At CoLABoration 2010, we are experimenting with Doug Engelbart's idea of "co-evolution" -- by bringing together technology leaders with experts in human facilitation and representatives of many disciplines -- all focused on improving collaborative techniques.  Can you help us fire up the global brain?  Our  goal is to launch a collaborative community that will become an intentional neural network for global problem solving.  Humanity could find innovative ways to handle our world crises (not to mention our day-to-day problems)  if we all could put our heads together and our egos out of the way.

Because it will be focused on doing collaboration not just talking about it, attendance will be limited.  If you would like to attend in person at The Tech Museum in San Jose, please fill out this application and we will contact you.  We will announce plans for virtual participation soon.  For more information, see programforthefuture.org/conference.

I've started an open souce exhibit project with Kyle Walker at
http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/water/water-projects/3-ationz

Here's a bit about how it got started, stage by stage.  It's a "diorama of sorts that illustrates the water cycle via the landscape of ice, water, clouds, precipitation etc" .  Remember this from school?

This project is a type of diorama that may have representative or stylized elements. The visitor will control heating and cooling elements which can put into motion the water cycle. Notice the "sun" element is on a support, not just floating in space. In modeling these we need to remember we're designing for the real world! How would this actually work in the real world? Still figuring that bit out, or whether it's worth it for that matter. That's what prototyping is all about.

Prototyping in Second Life (tm) is extremely rapid.  We both worked on this and got this sketch worked out in less than 30 minutes.  This provides a base model that you can develop from... that's where the open source bit starts!

This is an open source project, please join it if you'd like to collaborate on this concept!

We start with a basic black exhibit frame.

Add a bit of watery looking items as a base.

Center it and add some motion via a script.

Then, a backing surface.  This exhibit will be back against a wall.

Added a depth to the water as if it is sitting in the container.

How to illustrate ice?  Where should ice go? Mountaintops have ice that melt into water.

Ok, clouds, clouds are water vapor.  How can these be illustrated or even built?

The sun is a vital element that drives the cycle.  Let's add the sun as a heating element.

We were joined by Avatar Mactavish who offered some feedback in real time.

Kyle added light rays to the sun and snow caps to the mountains.

It is coming along, but still needs a lot of work.  How for example should the sun move?

If the sun element moves, will this mislead visitors that the sun revolves around the earth?

Kyle completed the clouds and added a photo box.  This black frame closes off distracting elements so that you can see the model.

In the remaining minutes, we looked at how to move the sun. Two types of cranks were suggested in real time.

This exhibit is to be continued... Got any suggestions? You can join the project or start one of  your own here: http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/water

Avatar Kaznats Oh has kindly donated a warehouse for the Expolab Project. 

We'll start here, and we have the option to make it larger, which will probably be required.

Dive in and take a look at:

Click here to download the full design brief

There are a couple of articles out today about how Ford Motor Company is using virtual prototyping to design cars. 

This is exactly how Tech Virtual aims to apply virtual testing to museum exhibits.

Via: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ford-united-space-alliance

Exerpt:
"Engineers at United Space Alliance (USA) and Ford Motor Company are sharing their animation software experiences to create virtual reality simulations that benefit both astronauts and drivers.

Ford is applying virtual reality animation software that is used by movie animators and video game creators to improve real-life driving situations before the first prototype is even built.  In an immersive Virtual Evaluation lab (iVE), Ford engineers create virtual vehicles complete with exterior views. 

Engineers for United Space Alliance, the prime Space Shuttle contractor, are using the same technology at the Kennedy Space Center to help build future space vehicles safer and more efficiently.  Current applications include using the technology to track and characterize launch debris during ascent.  Past applications include developing processes to more efficiently remove and re-install the reinforced carbon-carbon panels on the Space Shuttle wing leading edges.

"In this virtual environment, we can evaluate early vehicle designs against a backdrop of virtual conditions and literally experience a vehicle from someone else's vantage point before it is built, helping us to create a car, truck or crossover that provides the perfect environment for the driver and its occupants," said Elizabeth Baron, Ford's Virtual Reality and Advanced Visualization Technical Specialist."
Via: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ford-united-space-alliance

And some more articles at:

http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/22302/Ford-Space-Alliance-share-expertise

http://finchannel.com/news_flash/

http://www.ford.com/about-ford/news-announcements

Expolab held their kickoff event at Citilab on Thursday January 14.

The full account is at http://expolab.net/eng/?p=338

Citilab is kicking Expolab off strong with their event last week. 
Mix 31 people, a batch of images and raw materials and a batch of questions about technology and it's impace and what do you get? Expolab!

Facilitators  Ramon Sanguesa, Astrid Lubsen and Irene Lapuente led the group through some interesting prototyping sessions in which otherwise inert objects became infused with meaning and context.  The concepts seem incredibly alive and relevant....

* the evolution from analog to digital.
* the change from hanging pictures on a wall to hanging them on platforms such as Flickr
* an analogy between a football team and the possibilities of working together that Internet gives you.
* senior citizens sending mobile messages that were even more extremely abbreviated than those of their
    grandchildren
* a debate on the advantages and disadvantages of e-books
* the dangers of immersion when you leave the pot boling
* is exploration still exploration with GPS?
* “Today we need to measure everything”
* advocates of chaos, people who were at ease with it and find it a positive force being more vocal.
* which senses do you lose in online environments?  Which do you gain?

Click here to download the full design brief
- Bob Ketner

After the basic  prototype was produced, designers were able to renovate the space quickly, to produce an "after" view of the plan.   Through this process we are able to compare versions and receive feedback from users during the process.

Artist and Second Life designer Kyle Walker built the blank prototype from photographs and measurements. 

We began with a scaled floorplan and worked just on the areas needed.

A few textures were added, mostly paying attention to the interior color schemes.

Doors were added and the interior space began to take shape. 
The virual space often seems a bit smaller than the real space due to the camera position.

A cieling texture was added, photographed from the real location.

.

The cieling was made transparent on top, so that a view into the space remained possible.

Proportions were carefully extrapolated from the real room.

Subtle textures add to the realism, such as adding shadow elements and shine to objects.

One pre-existing exhibit was fabricated as well, the "Multi-step Machine".

Developers could obtain an entire "blank" room, then renovate it.
Wally Oyen prepares to develop from the bare walls.

The completed room is nearly indistinguishable in photographs from the real room without close inspection.

Elements such as basic furniture can be placed to determine space. 

 The curator and designer set about to renovate the space.  With a clear vision they were able to do this within a few hours.
  These are conceptual visuals for now, and helped to set the tone of the approach.

We will be posting more before and after photos of this process on this blog.
Still more can be found in the photo gallery section at http://thetechvirtual.org/photo-gallery

On January 13, Irene Lapuente and the Expolab team arranged a "a warm-up" for their January 14 workshop launching Expolab.  They've posted a very thourough account at http://expolab.net/eng/?p=333 and some photos at http://boc.citilabblog.com/?p=642  (English)

 
Photos by Citilab

Participants sat at tables and put together objects to begin thinking about exhibitions. This was tied into discussion about ways the internet as changed society and interacting with exhibitions and artifacts.  "Learning by doing", and "real time" and the idea of enabling visitors to work with the entire layout of Expolab.

The complete post is at http://expolab.net/eng/?p=333

If you'd like to engage with this unique process online, we'll be hosting a version of the entire experiment you can find the project page at http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/expolab

and in Second Life at
http://world.secondlife.com/place/dd8974fe-6c94-56a8-0511-6e1f7b6222e7  just click "Visit this Location".

More to come!
- Bob Ketner

 

Citilab Cornella is launching their experimental participatory project " Expolab" (http://expolab.net/eng) tomorrow.  You can participate in the experiment from anywhere via http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/expolab

This fascinating project will,  "present how digital technologies have changed different aspects of our lives. It will be organized around six areas of interest. For each one a new physical exhibit will be designed and created. On the six areas different ways of exhibition will be developed reflecting different perspectives on the concept of exhibition from contemplative and passive to to participatory and active."  You can read the full description at http://expolab.net/eng/?page_id=105

As they write, Expolab is a laboratory for creating new interactive exhibitions involving technology, innovation, science and design, which form the core of Citilab's activities.  It will portray a general perspective on the evolution of exhibtions from "contemplative" and discursive modes exhibits to participatory ones. Expolab is in itself an experiment in participatory exhibition creation and it will involve user both online and offline.

Perhaps most interesting is that they will be applying design research to exhibition design and creation through Expolab. 

Click here to download the full design brief

"Expolab"  will be created through external developers and designers, using The Tech Virtual as a collaboration tool to collect the entries for the expolab kiosks.  More on this and the submission details at:  http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/expolab

"Exploring interactions between materials, curators, and users in science and technology exhibitions"

 “From contemplation to participation and beyond...”  

Subtopics:
The internet has changed the way we...

1. Share memories

2. Connect

3. Travel through time and space

4. Work

5. Experience safety

Phases for each subtopic:
Expolab will explore 5 steps or phases within each subtopic.
1. Observe (see things, read text)
2. Interact  (communicate/input)
3. Participate (create or build something)
4. Citilab (synthesis of 1-3)
5. Future (what could the future of these look like?)

Each theme will be built around a square thee-walled 'kiosk'. (Photos to be added soon).
Exhibit designs should explore the 5 steps within a subtopic, and around a cube of sized 6.5 feet (2 meters) per side. Within the 'kiosk', the interaction and user experience is important.  How can we show the evolution of these types of interactions?

About the exhibits:
A total of six exhibits stationed in "islands" with five sections each. Three or four will be positioned in a large space at the entrance of Citilab of approximately 130 square feet (40 square meters) and two or three in smaller locations of approximately. 50-65 square feet (15-20 square meters) each in the first and second floor of Citilab.  The intention is to really use the virtual exhibit designs in the physical exhibition. Depending on the feasibility of the winning concept this will be a close translation or an interpretation.

Thinking about interactives:  How does presentation of interactives evolve from artifacts to books and computer manuals, interactive blackboards, possibly connecting to blogs/Flikr, Twitter etc,  possibly a workshop with Second Life and how internet has changed their lives,  maybe make a circuit with wires,  Maybe a question with 3 different ways to solve it.  There can be many ways to explore the evolution of the topics.

More questions to explore in the exhibits:
- What is an exhibition?
- How does the internet change education, communication, audiovisual arts, museums, programming?
- Citilab is interested in the impact of the evolution of technology on peoples' lives, and how it influences their thinking and behavior.

 About Citilab
Citilab-Cornellà is an experimental centre for the convergence between the new Internet generation and the new Knowledge Society.  It is a workspace dedicated to activating, stimulating and expanding creative and innovative capacity in entrepreneurs' technology, companies, and citizens of the Knowledge Society.

Citilab-Cornellà is orientated to the promotion of Social Internet-related projects and pays special attention on the evolution of new places, concepts and methodologies related to the impulse of the Information Society and the new economy of telecentres, living labs and e- learning.

Therefore, Citilab-Cornellà is:
• a centre for spreading and training on the TIC technologies and its organization and knowledge creation paradigms.
• a Research Centre on new technologies and social and managerial innovation that rides on them.
• an entrepreneurial centre for the development of companies arisen from the knowledge generated at Citilab-Cornellà, both technological and organizational.

 
Expolab website
Expolab on
Expolab on 

Start your own Expolab project here:

On January 9 Rob Stephenson and Bob Ketner of Tech Virtual attended Community Leadership Summit (CLSWest). 
Rob led a session on the  Program for the Future challenge at both CLS and Ignite in the evening. Sam Hahn, Aaditya Bhatia, Claudia Brenner, and Rich Reader of Program for the Future were also in attendance.

On Sept. 24 and 25, 2009 the SLActions academic conference (http://www.slactions.org) on virtual worlds will be held at The Tech Museum (http://www.thetech.org) in San Jose, CA. 

The conference program is available at: http://www.slactions.org/slactions.php?s=ProgrammeSlactions

Registration is open and available at: http://www.slactions.org/slactions.php?s=Local_Chapters_Berkeley-USA

The event will be composed of simultaneous meetings in Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo (Brazil),  Jyväskylä (Finland),  Hong Kong (China),  Tel-Aviv (Israel),  Braga (Portugal), Manchester  (UK),  Austin, TX  and San Jose, CA (USA).  Those who cannot attend a physical chapter meeting may attend virtually through the New Media Consortium Conference Center (http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Conference%20Center/210/19/51/) and should register at: http://www.slactions.org/slactions.php?s=Registration. 

The fast-paced 2-day schedule (http://www.slactions.org/slactions.php?s=ProgrammeSlactions) is organized into 20 minute segments of virtual worlds research results on such topics as:

"The use of Second Life to share knowledge in Graphic Design, Game Design and Visual Arts classrooms" by Marcos Pereira

"Brands and Consumption in Virtual Worlds" by Ioanna Nikolaou, Shona Bettany and Gretchen Larsen    

"A phenomenographic study about the future of the electronic commerce in the Second Life" by Martine Bernardo and Leonel Morgado

The San Jose chapter of the conference is organized locally by Sneha Veeragoudar Harrell (http://edrl.berkeley.edu/people/sneha/) who will be presenting on "Second Life: Offering Marginalized Youth a Second Chance" on Sept. 24. 

San Jose location hosting sponsored by The Tech Museum via The Tech Virtual (http://www.thetechvirtual.org) project. 

We hope you can join us for this unique and fascinating set of virtual world research presentations!

Bob Ketner

This event will be held in Second Life at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Tech/104/133/38

During the Tech Challenge 2009 (http://techchallenge.thetech.org/) event on April 25,  Tech Challenge Director Bill Fisher announced that the topic of the 2010 Tech Challenge will be "International Space Station Mission: Space Junk". The challenge will involve attaching thrusters to a moving satellite suspended in air.  Looks like this will be another flying machine/projectile style challenge, but more details will be forthcoming on it later from the Tech Challenge team.  

What it means for Tech Virtual developers is that the Tech Challenge will not be using any of the submitted projects from our project challenge (http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/tech-challenge/) for 2010.  There were about 17 entries, and a few more "sketch" entries started in the Second Life environment.  There's a full list List of projects submitted at: (http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/tech-challenge/).  Even though there were lots of great entries towards this, the requirements for putting together a Tech Challenge are very stringent, and we learned some of these details while well into the competition.

For example,  each team has to set up their solutions or "rigs" in 2 minutes, and then they only have 3 minutes to attempt the challenge. There are many reasons why it takes a team of experienced engineers several meetings to nail down the details of each Tech Challenge - it has to be executable in an action packed way, involve specific learning standards, and be extensible to educational programs run by the museum.  So in a way, I'm not surprised that we were unable to garner a fully implementable solution on this one.  Bill is going to get back to us if plans for future years include any of the submissions.

The Tech Virtual Hosts Online Training for Museum Professionals during May and June

The Tech Virtual, The Tech Museum of Innovation's "open source" exhibit development program will host a series of free trainings specifically for museum professionals during May and June, 2009. 

Registration is required and open now at  http://techvirtualtraining.eventbrite.com    

The purpose of these trainings is to open The Tech Virtual's collaborative exhibit design platform to additional museums as a new resource saving method of exhibit development.

These online sessions are intended for curators, exhibit designers, exhibit engineers, managers or other employees at museums, cultural or technology institutions of all sizes.  The trainings will cover a number of topics and enable the curator to leverage the benefits of the platform.  Trainings will be conducted in English.  Registration is required.  Admittance will be preferred for employees or volunteers of a named museum institution.  For other institutions, or interested individuals, please therwise contact the team at http://thetechvirtual.org/help/contact-info  to request exception.  Registration is limited to 20 participants per session.

Through enrolling in the program, curators can work with exhibit designers from a wide range of expertise and will have the ability to prototype exhibit concepts and actual designs, using shared online workspaces. The core of the program is http://www.thetechvirtual.org online workspaces with additional prototyping sessions hosted in the virtual world of Second Life at  http://tinyurl.com/TheTech2-Office

Times, online locations, and registration can all be accessed at http://techvirtualtraining.eventbrite.com , or through the link on our main page, http://www.thetechvirtual.org

Requirements for webinar:
Operating system: Windows XP/Vista/2003/2000, Mac, Linux
Browser: Firefox 1.5/2/3, IE 6/7, Sarari 2/3
Adobe Flash 9 or higher  (http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/)

Optional requirements:
If you would like to participate in the meetings using a desktop share (optional)
Dimdim plugin (Windows and Mac OSX only)
(http://www.dimdim.com/support/dimdim_tools.html)
If you would like to participate in online exhibit design (optional)
3D exhibit design
(http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php) (http://secondlife.com/support/sysreqs.php)

We've been pulling together this list to bring some order to the exhibit development process.  Many of these fields are already part of the exhibit (project) creation process here on http://www.thetechvirtual.org. The list below goes into much greater detail. 

I've found it helps to just start filling in the blanks, and in doing so, you may see your exhibit take shape before your eyes. 
What have we missed?  Let me know! http://thetechvirtual.org/help/contact-info

This could also be placed on your project's wiki page, or on a seperate webpage for seperate "iterations".
Check it out!

Major database fields for an exhibit

Exhibition:  What exhibition was this exhibit initiated for?
Sub-topic:  What sub-topic is the exhibit about?
Status:     Exhibit life cycle stage

Project Title: A creative, unique working title.
Big Idea: In one sentence, what is the point of the exhibit?
Description:    More extensive, physical description of exhibit.
Leader:     Project designed by and attributed to whom?
Key technology: What key hardware or software is at the center of this exhibit? 

Interactivity:  What do visitors do, see, press, hear, feel?
Backstory:  A story about the historic and socio-cultural background of the exhibit    
Target Audience: kids, parents, adults w/o kids, teachers, tourists   

Project Assets: Videos, still photos, sound files to be used in the exhibit itself. 
Artifacts:  What non-interactive objects, if any, are on display?        
URL:  Link to the exhibit's Website
Webpages: Web content associated with this exhibit
TechTag data: what data, if any, is linked to by TechTag?  

Future Layer:      How can we "future proof" the exhibit?
Basic Science:    Education Layer - Primary science - Learning objective
Text:    Signage text used in this exhibit
Relevant Curriculum Standards: What educational objectives the exhibit relates to.
Curriculum Packages: Resources for educators (lesson plans, etc.) around the exhibit topic.
Engineering Documents: EODs (engineering operational documents), sketches, blueprints, CAD models, bills of materials, code

-Bob Ketner

On doing some web searches today, I located this paper: http://membres-liglab.imag.fr/donsez/pub/publi/icps08-nfcmuseum.pdf

The paper states that it was presented at the 2008 International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors (http://www.icps2008.org/) by researchers at LIG Laboratory, of Universite Joseph Fourier (www.ujf-grenoble.fr/) , in France.  It describes the use of a software program (apparently open source) which is downloaded to a museum visitor's phone, enabling interactivity and tracking during the museum visit.  I thought the graphic might help to form ideas about making similar experiences, or someone may find a way to incorporate their program.

from: http://membres-liglab.imag.fr/donsez/pub/publi/icps08-nfcmuseum.pdf

- Bob Ketner

Last week somone forwarded a link of a TED (http://www.ted.com) talk about a wearable interface "Pattie Maes & Pranav Mistry: Unveiling the "Sixth Sense" (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html). 

I found that their project is part of the "Fluid Interfaces Group" at MIT (http://ambient.media.mit.edu/projects.php?action=details&id=68).  This technology and design department is producing amazing new configurations using some commonplace pieces of technology such as cell phones, cell phone cameras, Bluetooth earpieces, mini-projectors, LED lights and the like.  Take a look at these projects at http://ambient.media.mit.edu/projects.php

Although highly experimental, these are invaluable looks at some of the things we might find commonplace in just a few years.  In planning for the Art - Film - Music - Games exhibition (http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/creative-engines), we have an opportunity to consider the uses of these types of interactive experiences in a museum setting. Anything you use in an exhibit design has to be robust enough to withstand heavy use and abuse. Maybe this setting could also provide a useful testing environment for some of these new types of interactions, as the museum environment is by definition a highly controlled one.

So take a look and consider, how can I use interactions or objects like these to produce interactive experiences that engage and educate?  Consider what kinds of interfaces may be available in a few years - even if they are only prototypes now?  What if we take even one of these ideas to their next logical steps? 

I particularly found these interesting:

Embodied Emergence:  explores how simple localized interactions between elements of a system can sometime result in unexpected complex patterns.
http://ambient.media.mit.edu/projects.php?action=details&id=41

Invisible Media:  augments objects to make them sensitive to, and able to inform, the focus of our attention. 
http://ambient.media.mit.edu/projects.php?action=details&id=13

Siftables:  aims to enable people to interact with information and media in a physical, natural manner. 
http://ambient.media.mit.edu/projects.php?action=details&id=35

Surflex: a programmable surface for the design and visualization of physical objects and spaces.
http://ambient.media.mit.edu/projects.php?action=details&id=55

Take a look at some of these projects and then prototype one of your own at:
http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/creative-engines/creative-engines-projects

- Bob K.