Museum interpretations (was: With great sorrow)

In article &lt;p06240806c63a69751ede(a)[192.168.1.199]&gt;9]>, "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> writes: Well, for starters I'd probably get some used RIOs off ebay that are preloaded with the MP3. Supply your own headphones? I don't want to have grungy earbuds that people have to use. Lots of people have phones that can play an MP3 audio file if it is loaded onto the phone. USB/Bluetooth from a server would be an option. Maybe if it was a series of MP3 files, one for each 'station', then you could skip past bits that aren't interesting to you. Static museums with printed text placards are kinda boring to me, particular with computers unless you're a real geek. But hey, that's what most of the CHM is, considering that visible storage takes up most of the floor space. With computer graphics, its ultimately about interactivity, but everyone's gotta start somewhere and a static exhibit with interpretation is where most of us start. I have a web site, but I'm not happy with the CMS software I'm currently using (DotNetNuke), so I'm looking for something better. That's why I haven't invested much time in putting information into it. I have an alternate system I'm evaluating but haven't had a chance to get much further than obtain the software. I'm thinking the museum will probably proceed in this form of evolution of the interpretation: - "Visible Storage" with pamphlet highlighting elements from the collection. - Expand the pamphlet into booklet form. Booklet contents on the web site with elaboration. - Add interpretive audio tour, single MP3 about ~15 minutes of listening. - Enhance audio tour with numbered stations, one MP3 per station, varying amounts of time per station, about an hour of total listening. - Add some interactive stations exploring graphics of different periods. These would most likely be SGI octanes (since I have an abundant number of them) with emulation software showcasing earlier period experiences. Include some form of multistation networked gaming. - Enhance interactive stations with playback of historical footage (animations, shorts, films, etc.). Increase period experiences (really this could go on for quite some time). - Enhance animation/short film experience with a small theatre seating 15-30 people, with an interactive kiosk allowing the participants to queue up films of interest, otherwise it cycles through random films as long as someone is in the theatre. All of this will be colocated with my friend's arcade game collection, so realistically all the boring stuff listed above will be riding on the coattails of the free arcade :-) -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>