Museums & Interactivity
I've written several posts about my evolving appreciation for how people adopt to new technology. I've also written specifically about the need for communities to get involved in encouraging their citizens to adopt certain technologies like SMS.
Just the other day, a friend was brainstorming with me some ideas to incorporate interactivity and multimedia interfaces for museum goers.
Two technologies came to mind:
1. SMS
2. Bluetooth
How SMS would work:
As a museum visitor walks through the exhibits, the plaque describing each piece in the collection will have a little Google icon (or whichever search service is funding the project) and a unique number to send an SMS to. The visitor can send an SMS to the given number, with any question related to the piece they're looking at.
The unique SMS number will aide the search service to pull more accurate answers because the unique SMS number will indicate to the search service that the inquiry is related to a specific work of art. I envision this working similarly to Google's SMS service which I use all the time, and is generally accurate as long as I include enough information. Most of the time I use it to find stuff in NYC, and I'd love it if there was a unique number for NYC, so I didn't need to type "new york city" each time...
Using SMS promotes the use of an easy to use technology which every phone around the world has pre-installed. It promotes the use of an already adopted interactive technology. Accuracy can be high, and ease of use is already high. Furthermore, there is low overhead to a project like this. Lastly, users can have the answers saved on their phone, for future reference and discussion.
How Bluetooth would work:
When museum visitors enter the museum, there will be a sign (and it will also be on their ticket or receipt for admission) advising them to activate Bluetooth on their phone, and which device to pair it with.
Alternatively, since many people will visit the website of a museum before going, the museum can offer users to pre-set their device to pair with the museum's computers, so that when they arrive, their phone will automatically sync up with the museum's computers and receive pertinent information. There can also be a download right from the site (similar to the already popular downloads of audio-guides to the museum). In addition, if the museum offers ticket sales on their website, users can store their receipt in their phone, and when they arrive they can be validated via Bluetooth at the entrance.
As visitors walk around the museum, each exhibit area can push multimedia data to their phone about the exhibit they've just walked in to, and each piece on exhibit will be feeding information about that specific piece. All of this can include links to the web, for web-enabled phones for further exploration once the visitors leave the museum.
Just some thoughts off the top of my head. Hopefully someone will do something like this soon. I'd use it ;-)
P.S. In the near future, I'll be posting ideas like these to Ideageneration.org - a blog I'm setting up with the specific purpose of posting solutions for various organizations that I simply want to see happen, rather than quit my job to create.
Labels: interaction, interactivity, Mobile, Phones, Technology
This entry was posted
on Apr 25, 2007 at 4/25/2007 01:46:00 AM.
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Measuring the Value of Your Work
"TV networks would get more money than ever. Creative and media agencies will too because while their work might change significantly, the tangible value of that work will become measurable."
This is the most significant line in an article I read today in AdAge about a company called Backchannel Media. What I like most about that line is that it can be applied to almost any sector of the Media industry. So many people in the media business are so scared of changing their daily routine, that change is a fact of life... and that change often brings good things to those who fully accept that reality early on.
As for the article - Backchannel's business is really interesting & worth a read. I have complete faith that the direction they want to take the TV business is the right one it should go in. What I have less faith in is that TV will remain an independent, closed network - separate from the Internet. It simply doesn't make sense to me... Feel free to leave comments and debate points in the article.
This entry was posted
on Apr 23, 2007 at 4/23/2007 05:27:00 PM.
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Credit Score
While I could write a book about how flawed our credit systems in the US are, I'll save that for a later date. Right now I just want to help you check on your credit... You are entitled to a free credit report from each of the credit reporting agencies - once per year.
Get yours at annualcreditreport.com
Good Luck!
Labels: Personal_Credit_Score
This entry was posted
on Apr 18, 2007 at 4/18/2007 04:22:00 PM.
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Face to Face
One aspect of improving myself in '07 has been focused on connecting with people; and involves three steps -- in this order:
1. Email more people, more often
2. Email less, call more often
3. Call less, face-to-face more often
I'm not doing as well as I had hoped by now, although I think about it every time my first instinct is to type an email, or pick up the phone. I will do better.
Today I read an interesting review by Kathy Sierra on the importance of face-to-face. She took a good look at why, as more tools are created to give us reasons to communicate remotely, we still flock to meet each other in person. The article was a sober reminder that I should be working harder at my three steps above.
One of the most thought provoking phrases she used was "Legacy Brain":
"...[O]ur legacy brain... still has no idea we aren't living in caves where human contact and social face-to-face interaction are key to our survival."
I don't want to get too esoteric, but there is a lot to that concept above. Not long ago I was so interested in the future, and the capability we'll attain from tech we haven't dreamed up yet, that I was ignoring the merits of the tools we have today. Ray Kurzweil had a big effect on that. While I'm still VERY interested in what the future holds, my focus has shifted to sharpening the tools I have today. I believe this will allow me to contribute to future advances in a more realistic way.
Where I started:
One of the many lessons my yoga practice has been teaching me is to be aware of every muscle in my body, and the affect my mind has on my physical body's tension. We'll be in Warrior Two, and an instructor will ask me why my back toes are crunched, or why my shoulders are crouching up against my neck instead of extending down my back -- only then will I realize that I was even doing that. Over time, using a little abstraction, I've applied this to other aspects of my life. I began to watch myself closely, and began to acknowledge the incredible power of another person's presence. I noticed my physical and emotional reactions to the energy people brought into situations. From these interactions, I have learned so much about myself and others -- bringing me closer to appreciating the power of presence: my own and others'.
LikeMind, started by Noah Brier - a great friend & awesome dreamer - is certainly helping. There's probably one in your city. Try it!
In a later post, I'll try to approach the even more incredible power of touch.
*********************
P.S. If you love the intersection of technology and personal interaction, try these services:
Meetro, Area/Code, Pacmanhattan, Meetup, Barcamp, and leave comments for others if you know of good ones!
Labels: face-to-face, interaction, Life_Tools, personal, Philosophy
This entry was posted
on Apr 17, 2007 at 4/17/2007 12:39:00 AM.
Great Philosophical Point
People change when they have to — not when we tell them to.
One of the best lines from Thomas Friedman's latest article for the New York Times, "The Power of Green" - a really well written, and well thought out essay. I recommend it to all.
If the article above sparks any interest in what YOU can do - read my post from February 19, 2005: http://www.kalifowitz.com/2005/02/green-power.html
Leave comments if you have any other ideas.
Labels: action, Activism, environmentalism, green, Philosophy
This entry was posted
on Apr 15, 2007 at 4/15/2007 01:26:00 PM.
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Cause-based Concerts - how effective are they?
Today, all over the news we heard about the announcement of Al Gore's Live Earth Concert Series. I heard Gore on the BBC this morning talking about how he sees this as a way to kick off wide-spread awareness of global warming, with the goal of seeing results within 3 years. He spent about 10% of the interview discussing that. He spent the rest of his time talking about Live Earth being the biggest concert in history, taking place on every continent, with an unprecedented number of bands from al genres, bla, bla, bla. I can't wait to hear what Danny Goldberg has to say about this (if you don't know him, I suggest reading his book, How the Left Lost Teen Spirit).
The timing of this is interesting for me. Mainly because the other day I was thinking of the Live-8 concert, and cause-based concerts of the past decade or so. I was thinking about how they failed to produce any results.
A little background: In high school and college my brother and I were heavily involved in Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) -- Justin was lucky enough to get an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama when he came to Central Park a year later. In 1998 we helped put on the massive Tibetan Freedom Concert in Washington DC. Since then I worked at Woodstock '99 (for the television company that put it on) and have been involved in countless conversations with people hoping to produce a concert in order to raise awareness for a cause. Justin attended Woodstock '99 as a representative of SFT, and has also been involved in many of the same conversations about concerts.
I'm completely convinced that putting on a concert for a cause in today's world has but one attainable goal - raising money by selling tickets, dvd's, and the rights to air it live & to re-broadcast it. If the goal is to raise awareness, it's hopeless. Why does everyone conveniently forget that we live in a society that has an attention span of 5 minutes? What's worse is that we live in a "it's all about you" society. Yesterday Justin and I were in Dunking Donuts/Baskin Robbins and Justin pointed out that every sign in the store was encouraging consumers to treat themselves "because you deserve it".
As for the music aspect, I don't think there has ever been a time in history where experiencing music is what it is today: a remarkably personal experience. Something to be enjoyed by yourself - with your little ear buds in your ears, whether at your desk, in the park, on the train or in your room. While people still go to concerts, and lots of them, I find that the experience today is different than it was ten years ago. I'm not suggesting this is a bad thing, or a good thing. My point is that the intensely individual nature in which music is experienced today, in my view, is making it harder to get people to connect to a common cause through a song or a concert the way they did in the past.
There is one more element I think everyone has completely ignored: the Woodstock (1969) cause/effect dynamic. Woodstock '69's success was based on the spontaneous nature of it. This is impossible to repeat with today's overwhelming corporate-commercial nature and hyper-sensitive news media which rushes to categorize, analyze and criticize every cultural movement before it's even happened - with irrelevant pundits who enjoy hearing their own voice. Furthermore, Woodstock '69 didn't have a very specific message other than three days of "peace and music" - which could be interpreted in many different ways - but primarily spoke to it's "hippie" audience. We don't have that today. We don't have a subset of society who's identity is inherently tied to music the way hippies were.
Every time a cause-based concert is forced upon us, with tons of media hype and corporate sponsorship - where sponsors expect more attention on them than the cause - the cause is trying to speak to an audience that doesn't exist. Last summer's Live 8 concert is a shining example. Everyone who went to a concert, or saw it on AOL or MTV did so for one reason: they wanted to see a live performance by artists they liked. End of story.
That said, I haven't given up on the potential music has to influence our society. I'm confident there's a way to rally people around a cause, which speaks to us the way music does. When I figure out what that method is, I trust you'll hear about it in a big way!
In the mean time, if you have ideas, please post a comment.
Labels: Activism, Concerts, Music
This entry was posted
on Apr 11, 2007 at 4/11/2007 02:06:00 AM.
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More on plastic bags...
My mom called me up today posing an interesting question about my rant on the distribution and use of plastic bags. She said that she never buys garbage bags because she uses the ones she gets from stores like Whole Foods. She asked, "if plastic shopping bags are reused as garbage bags, does that make it environmentally OK to distribute them?
It took me a little while to formulate an opinion, and here it is:
- Few plastic bags distributed by stores are as large as the average garbage can. As a result, for every one normal sized garbage bag, you likely use two store bags. Total plastic usage goes up.
- Few garbage bags use plastic that's as thick as that used at stores. Total plastic usage goes up.
- Few garbage bags have any printing on them (a process which is rather destructive to the environment). While store distributed bags are full of ink.
- I have no numbers to back this up, but I see many plastic bags in public trash cans, which weren't reused as garbage bags. Even if the number is 10%, it's not good.
In summary, the theory that it's OK to distribute plastic bags at stores because they might be used as garbage bags sounds good on the surface. After digging down though, while reusing plastic bags lessens the environmental impact, it's still worse for the environment than the alternative: using cloth bags when shopping to carry goods home, and buying garbage bags that are thin, with no printing, and large enough to fit your garbage can.
If you have suggestions, or think I'm wrong, please leave a comment.
Labels: bags, environmentalism, green, plastic
This entry was posted
on Apr 10, 2007 at 4/10/2007 02:17:00 AM.
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Blogger's Code of Conduct?
My friend Noah Brier, an avid blogger, awesome networker, and great idea man recently blogged about Tim O'Reilly's suggested Code of Conduct for bloggers. I was inspired to leave a comment, which I did... and I've posted it here for future reference (in case I offended Noah, and he subscribes to O'Reilly's suggestion...) ;-)
Noah, you're dead on with being concerned about point #2, "We won't say anything online that we wouldn't say in person" (and the whole concept of a code of conduct). Imagine if the internet existed when there was slavery... would we want to silence Southerners who favored a ban on slavery - just because they likely wouldn't/couldn't say it in person? Their words would certainly be inflammatory and considered offensive by the majority of Southerners (hence the Civil War). Should that kind of discourse be muted? Who determines what is offensive? Remember last summer's riots in Muslim communities because of a cartoon containing the Prophet Muhammad? In the West we were baffled by this reaction.
And suggesting that you can't anonymize (sp?) something is ridiculous. Consider that The New York Times uses "anonymous sources" every day. How else could the Valery Plame incident have been brought to light? Remember how hard the NYTimes fought to maintain their right to keeping their sources anonymous? Why would bloggers so readily accept a code of conduct that their competition, the established media, would never consider?
Any form of attempted censorship (that dirty word O'Reilly chose to omit) shouldn't be tolerated by anyone. It's a reactionary response to a problem open societies will always confront. Noah, you said it best - you can't have it both ways.
Labels: blog, content, Philosophy, Rights
This entry was posted
on at 4/10/2007 01:58:00 AM.
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Parking Meters - got SMS?
I was in Vancouver this week, and saw these remarkable parking meters. You could either pay with coins, or pay using your cell phone. This is such a wonderfully progressive use of technology that is not too complex for the average citizen to use, while utilizing the most advanced tools available to make life better.
Bravo Vancouver!
Why does this interest me, you may ask? All over Europe, and Israel as well, you can buy food and drinks at vending machines by SMSing a code to the number on the machine, which then causes the product to be dispensed. In Japan, they've taken it a step further and put a credit card chip into the cellphone, replacing the card all together. Here in the great USA, I can't expect consistent service in my home town. Forget about using my phone to make purchases for anything other than what the cell phone company wants to sell me...
How do we expect to stay at the top if we can't efficiently enable and encourage our country mates to embrace technology?
Labels: Mobile, Phones, Progress, Technology
This entry was posted
on Apr 6, 2007 at 4/06/2007 01:28:00 AM.
Whole Foods Bowery - Are they really green?
Whole Foods Bowery is the first one I've seen in NYC that got it right - they have a sign at each cash register reading, "Spend an extra $1 and get a reusable Whole Foods Market shopping bag While Supplies Last."
I was excited until I read the big letters "Go Green For Earth Month" - coupled with the line, "while supplies last." It then hit me that I saw this on March 31st, and that in the next day or so, all of the Whole Foods locations will have this sign, along with the cloth bags. While that's a good thing - I'm assuming that as with other corp. image campaigns, this isn't intended to be a long-term investment on the part of Whole Foods to encourage customers to use fewer plastic bags... It appears as though it's another stunt to ride the wave of media attention drawn to
earth day / month.
It's more than likely that by May, Whole Foods won't be green anymore, having reverted back to happily distributing plastic bags, and give out more of those
silly discs I wrote about below...
I hope I'm wrong...
Labels: environmentalism, green
This entry was posted
on Apr 1, 2007 at 4/01/2007 01:17:00 PM.
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