The Museum Blogs directory site has been revised and relaunched. We have also added a companion site, Museum Podcasts (www.museumpodcasts.org). Both of these directory and aggregator sites are powered by our own RSS Mixer technology. The posts, episodes and information about each contributing blog or podcast come directly from their respective RSS feeds. The directories are updated about every hour.
Museum Blogs and Museum Podcasts have integrated widgets for viewing all posts and episodes in the directory. In addition, there is a ”detail” page for each blog and podcast each with its’ own individual widgets. All of these widgets can be freely cut-and-pasted into other Websites or blogs. Both directories accept new blogs and podcasts, so if you have any additions please send them along.
We’ve just posted a position for Web and Interaction Designer on Craigslist. We’re looking for designer to work with us as we develop multi-touch / multi-user exhibits and Web applications over the next year. This position is being offered, as our Lead Designer will be moving to a part-time position as he pursues a degree. You can read the full-description of the job and apply on Craigslist. (Please no phone calls.) (Update: January 27, 2009 – We’re not accepting any more applications for this position. Thanks to all who have applied, we’ll let you know.)
In January I will be teaching an online course for the Technology-Enhanced Communication for Cultural Heritage (TEC-CH) program. This online program is put together by the Università della Svizzera italiana in Switzerland. I’ve been teaching an in-person version of Museums and the Social Web for the last two years in Lugano, Switzerland each fall.
In my course we’ll be spending time within the online teaching environment and taking “field trips” to some of the social networking sites that museums are beginning to connect with. The TEC-CH online program has a full compliment of credit courses (European Credits) taught by professionals from all over the world. You can see the full course list here.
A serious hardware issue at the beginning of the month, sped up our decision to end the public alpha for RSS Mixer. For those of you who used the service, we sincerely apologize for the abrupt end to the free service. The site had nearly 47,000 feeds and over 4 million posts in the database.
We’re currently rethinking the future of the public site and we may make service available again sometime in the future. In the meantime, we are still using it to power the Museum Blogs directory site, we also see it as key element for our new multi-touch tables, download movies, and for the Open Exhibits proposal. We’ll keep you posted as to our future plans for RSS Mixer.
Recently we helped redesign the Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) website. CAISE is a NSF-funded center “devoted to advancing and improving informal science education (ISE) in its many and varied forms.” As part of this effort, we worked closely with CAISE to conduct video interviews with principal investigators (PIs) of four NSF-sponsored projects in Washington D.C.
The full video interviews appear on the CAISE site, and introductory clips are on YouTube. Below is the introductory clip interview with Frances Nankin a producer of Cyberchase, the popular educational television show on PBS.
Next year, we’ll likely be interviewing other PIs as we continue to work with CAISE. To see the full interviews, or to learn more about the center, visit the CAISE website.
