A Short History of Social Media at the AANM
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology, Work
I was recently asked by the fine folks at Museum Identity to write a short (300 word) piece on how the Arab American National Museum uses social media. My write-up will be included in a forthcoming article on the ways that social media is being used by museums. Here is what I submitted for inclusion. I’ll provide an update later when the article is published. I’m looking forward to learning more about social media usage from other museums around the world.
Similar to other institutions, the Arab American National Museum (AANM) began using social media in a rather piecemeal fashion. The community-based museum opened to the public in May 2005 and, with a relatively young staff, immediately began finding ways to incorporate social media into its outreach strategies. The nature of social media lends itself well to an institution so rooted in its community. Usually, a staff member would propose using a particular social media platform, present to staff on how it could benefit the institution, and adopt the day-to-day management and oversight of it.
In September 2009, the AANM hired its first Social Media Marketing Coordinator. Shortly thereafter, the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan (CFSEM) launched its inaugural Challenge—Arts and Culture, which sought to help raise much needed funds for the 75 cultural arts organizations that make up the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan. Recognizing the importance of individual giving via the Internet, the CFSEM online Challenge required institutions to use social media as a primary tool for raising funds. The Challenge lasted approximately 12 hours, and the AANM placed fourth among all institutions, raising over $300,000 in unrestricted funds (see our Challenge video here).
Currently, the Social Media Marketing Coordinator manages the oversight of all social media tools at the AANM. At this time, the Coordinator is developing a social media strategy for the Museum. In addition, the Coordinator works within the Marketing and Communication Department to produce online messages while also monitoring conversations relevant to the AANM.
The AANM is currently utilizing several social media outlets: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Delicious, blogs and iTunes U. Further, the AANM is developing other social media tools for collecting community history and building community (e.g Wikis). Lastly, social media tools are now being used within exhibits to enhance visitor participation.
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Technology, Work
Five Great iPhone Apps for Photography and Design
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Art & Design, Technology
Whether you’re an artist, designer, photographer or creative hobbyist, there are many excellent iPhone apps for you to use when inspiration strikes. Here are my top five recommended applications for creativity.
Color Expert
By Code Line, $9.99
This is a great tool for building color palettes when you have those moments of inspiration throughout your day. Did you see the foliage on a tree during peak Fall colors? Or was it the peeling paint on a building that got your creative ideas percolating? With Color Expert you can take a snapshot with your iPhone camera and get a color reading from the photograph. It’s easy to create a custom color palette when you’re on-the-go and inspired by what’s around you. The price tag on this app is a bit hefty, but having used the application for the past year I am confident it was a good purchase.
Features:
- Color Expert’s exclusive “snap & tap” technology. Just snap a photo and let your finger select that perfect color. From your eyes to the screen.
- Powerful, interactive color wheel with multiple color schemes including Monochromatic, Analogous, Complementary, Split Complementary and Triadic.
- Quickly search through PANTONE® solid coated, PANTONE® solid uncoated, PANTONE® Goe™ coated, PANTONE® Goe™ uncoated, Web Safe Colors, HTML Colors.
- Email your palette ideas to friends, colleagues and clients. Color Expert provides a rich, HTML based email you can send from your iPhone or iPod touch.
Brushes
By Steve Sprang, $4.99
Did you catch the cover art on the June 1, 2009 issue of the New Yorker? If so, you were looking at Jorge Colombo’s artwork, which was created using the Brushes application. This is another great app for creating artwork when you’re out and about. You can start with a photograph or you can begin creating finger sketches from scratch. Either way, this application let’s you create a digital canvas whenever you want. Be forewarned, this application is highly addictive. I should note that I liked Colombo’s cover piece so much that I purchased another print from him shortly after I saw the cover of the New Yorker!
Features include:
- Three different brushes ranging in style from smooth to bristly. Choose any brush size from 1 to 64 pixels in diameter. Erase with adjustable transparency.
- Each painting can have up to four layers. Layers can be rearranged, deleted, merged, and copied between paintings. You can also adjust their opacity.
- Select virtually any color (with transparency) using the familiar hue/saturation color wheel. Quickly choose black or white via the preset swatches. Fill the entire painting with any color (use a semi-transparent color to tint your painting).
Photoshop.com Mobile
By Adobe, Free
It’s what we’ve all been waiting for! Now you can edit and tone those iPhone photos. While this is a very stripped down app for those familiar with Photoshop, there are still several important features that make PS Mobile useful. Don’t despair photographers, you need to get this app if you haven’t already done so! Your iPhone photos will look that much better.
Features:
- Edit exposure, saturation, tint or convert to black and white
- Includes sketch and soft focus filters
- Ability to crop photos
- Includes several effects, such as vibrant, pop, border, vignette blur, warm vintage, and rainbow
QuadCamera
By Art&Mobile, Free
I was a huge fan of the Nickelodeon Photo Blaster. Do you remember it? This fun toy camera would break-up a 35mm negative into four frames so that you could compose funny, segmented photographs (144 images on a 36 exposure role). It was a fun way to tell a story.
QuadCamera is a digital version of this fun camera. This app allows you to adjust both the exposure speed and the number of exposures. For $2, this application is a steal. It’s a lot easier and much cheaper than searching for a Photo Blaster (but, it shouldn’t stop you from it either!)
Features:
- Custom layouts (2×2, 4×1, 4×2, and 8×1)
- Color (vivid, bright, dull, hi-con) or black and white mode
- Adjustable timer
CameraBag
By Nevercenter Ltd. Co., $1.99
Another great $2 camera application. Similar to QuadCamera, CameraBag is a digital version on many popular toy cameras. Take a picture and choose which effect you want to use! “Cameras” include: Helga, Lolo, Instant, 1962, Cinema, Fisheye, Colorcross, Magazine, Mono, 1974, Infrared and Original. With so many choices there’s bound to be a “camera” for each image you compose.
I should mention that I have been using all of the applications in this review for a least a few months. I know there are many other great photo and design applications in the App Store. Speaking to this, I plan on exploring several of these newer applications in the near future. However, the ones listed above are tried and true, and I recommend them all without reservation. Have fun! Create something!
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Art & Design, Technology
Handheld Guide Survey and the AANM #handheldsurvey
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology, Work
Learning Times recently published the findings of its Handheld Guide Survey for museums. The goal of the survey was to gain “a better collective understanding of the museum community’s use and ambitions with handheld guides and mobile interpretation.” Our museum was among the many institutions that took part in the survey. For the sake of clarity, the term “handheld” refers to the following in this survey: all types of digital, mobile interpretation tools including audio tours, PDA/multimedia tours, MP3 download tours, iPod Touch tours/applications, interactive tours, and cell phone tours.
Not surprisingly, the three main reasons museums utilize handheld devices are to provide supplementary information to visitors, to create a more interactive experience and to provide multiple voices into the visitor experience. I would say that these all hold true for our institution. Additionally, the fifth-ranked objective – to provide a foreign language provision – definitely ranks in the top two for us. On the other hand, the majority of challenges facing other institutions haven’t been much of a problem for our museum. Updating content is definitely a requirement, but we don’t necessarily perceive it as a challenge.
Currently, our museum is hosting a cell phone-based audio tour for our guests. We launched this service in the Fall 2008. At the time there was only one other local museum utilizing a similar tour, and they had employed the service for a temporary exhibit. I have recently noticed several other large museums in our area are now using similar platforms. I’m curious to learn more about their success and failures (sounds like a good session for next year’s Michigan Museums Association conference!).
When we first began exploring cell phone-based audio tours in 2005, there were only two providers offering this service and very few museums nationwide hosting such tours. We initially planned on hosting a more traditional handheld experience, but we weren’t too keen on the costs of developing and hosting the tour. Further, we found that with some providers there were gray areas on who owned the copyright/intellectual property rights of the tour. Not good. In the end we chose to host our service through Guide By Cell, which is based in San Francisco. We met early on with founder Dave Asheim and really enjoyed his laid back approach to the service. He offered to let us try the service out and, if we liked it, we could sign up at a very affordable rate. If you’re interested in learning more on some of our early thinking on the project, see the second presentation below.
Our audio tour is delivered in two languages, English and Arabic (each has its own phone number), and it is made available through both cellular service and museum issued iPods. We piloted the first phase of the tour last year and it focused on the first “permanent” exhibition space, as well as a temporary exhibit in one of the rotating galleries. At this time we are finalizing the second phase of the tour’s development, which will feature ten stops in the Coming To America gallery. While usage of the tour has been decent, we get limited feedback through the integrated feedback system on the phone service. This has been a bit of a bummer. We are certainly looking for other avenues to break down the walls between the museum and its guests.
Unlike some of our peer institutions, our tour rarely features museum staff on the audio tour recordings. Because we are a community-based museum, we incorporate community members into the tour. Some recordings are scripted by the staff, others are spoken from the heart by those featured on the recording. We feel this adds to the user experience, considering most of our exhibits utilize the personal narrative as a means of convening information. I presume we will begin the third phase of the tour in early 2010 (we have the tour planned out over four major phases, with minor ones throughout the process).
In addition, we are always exploring new ways of delivering and exchanging information with our guests. Some projects that are currently in the incubator include iPhone apps, online mash-ups that include audio and potentially video (say yeah to the API!), and hopefully a mobile website for the museum. Further, we are tossing around ideas for GPS and location-aware applications for the phone. Most recently we launched a museum site on Apple’s iTunes U, which has gotten off to a great start. In addition to providing museum content 24/7, visitors can download audio tours, interviews, etc. straight to their mobile phone. We will continue to develop this promising tool as well.
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Technology, Work
Xtra-Normal Makes For Xtra-Fun Times With Text-to-Movies
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology, Work
My friend @JRKnecht shared a hilarious video last night called Hipsters Discussing Cyclocross. This short clip was made on the Xtra-Normal website utilizing its text-to-movie interface. Xtra-Normal is a real time movie making site featuring drag and drop animations, automatic lip syncing and international voices. You can make movies in minutes by simply typing in your scripts. Here’s a pretty good overview of the site and its capabilities:
So, I had to take a stab at making a short movie. I decided to make something for work; a short advertisement. I’ll have to cook up something a little more fun in the future, but for now (just click on the shoulder below):
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Technology, Work
More Google Goodness – Google Local Business Center
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology, Work
Google manages to create new products at a lightning pace. Yeah, some of these stay in beta forever and others don’t seem to be the most useful. However, overall, Google does have a pretty impressive collection of web tools.
Recently I was informed of one such tool, the Google Local Business Center, which let’s you create a free listing for your business to help customers find your location on Google Maps. Think about how often a customer/client Googles your company for information on your business and its location. The Google Local Business Center let’s you claim your business’ location on Google Maps. Further, it provides an opportunity to add rich content to your listing, including photos and videos, and information on parking, payment options, and other relevant information for guests.
Like all things Google, there is a terrific dashboard for registered users that captures vital analytics. This includes:
- Impressions: The number of times the business listing appeared as a result on a Google.com search or Google Maps search in a given period.
- Actions: The number of times people interacted with the listing; for example, the number of times they clicked through to the business’ website or requested driving directions to the business.
- Top search queries: Which queries led customers to the business listing; for example, are they finding the listing for a cafe by searching for “tea” or “coffee”?
- Zip codes where driving directions come from: Which zip codes customers are coming from when they request directions to your location.
Another great features is the ability to create web-based coupons for your listing. We just piloted this and looking forward to seeing how frequently the coupons are used.
We’re really excited about this simple, yet important web tool. The analytics and coupon features are great, and we look forward to monitoring the details to help better inform our marketing.
If your business is not yet listed on the Google Local Business, you are missing out!
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Technology, Work
New Media Tools For Information Collection and Dissemination
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology, Work
It’s official, our iTunes U site is now live! Be sure to visit often for new educational and public programming materials from the Arab American National Museum. This is just one of many tools we are utilizing, or planning to implement, to help better inform the public on the history and contributions of Arab Americans.
In other news, we are in the process of exploring additional ways to build community history and collective memory through electronic means. This includes collaborative digital tools such as wikis. Additionally, one particular tool that has caught our attention is the MemoryMiner software developed by GroupSmarts, LLC. According to its website:
MemoryMiner is the award-winning Digital Storytelling application for Mac and Windows used to discover the threads connecting peoples’ lives across time and place. It lets you zero in on the stories depicted in your photos by linking them to each other based on people, places and time. Using simple drag and drop actions, you specify who is in the picture, where the picture was taken and when… A variety of other digital media, including sound, video, documents and URLs, can be added to each frame. The story elements are linked to each other by way of annotation layers identifying the people, places, dates and events captured in each frame, and can be exported for automatic publishing online.
The Magnes Museum has a nice project, called Memory Lab, that utilizes this software to “focus on narrating the history of the networks of Jewish life in California and beyond.” From what I’ve seen, this software looks promising. However, I plan to take a more in depth look at the software later, and I hope to place a call to the Magnes to hear about their experiences with the application.
Our institution seeks to become the premier destination for information on Arab Americans. To meet this goal, we plan to utilize collaborative, new media tools that permit our audience and diverse communities the opportunity to document its history collectively. This is particularly important given that we are a community-based institution. Additionally, these resources extend beyond the physical boundaries of the museum and provide important, timely information to a national and global audience.
If you have recommendations on other software or tools that you think would be useful, please shoot me an email or drop a line in the message section below.
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Technology, Work
Is Social Media A Fad?
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology
A colleague of mine shared this video with me last week. I’m fascinated by some of the information presented in this short piece. It’s amazing how far social media has evolved over such a short period of time. It’s transforming the ways in which we communicate and interact. It’s changing how we conduct business and disseminate information.
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Technology
Coming to iTunes U
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology, Work
At last, we are about to go live on iTunes U! For the past several months I have been building our institution’s profile. This has been a slow moving, and occasionally annoying, project. However, earlier today I submitted our final edits and we are set to have a public launch on Tuesday, October 20.
Before I point out some of the lessons learned, I need to explain iTunes U. According to Apple:
iTunes U is a part of the iTunes Store featuring free lectures, language lessons, audiobooks, and more, that you can enjoy on your iPod, iPhone, Mac or PC. Explore over 200,000 educational audio and video files from top universities, museums and public media organizations from around the world. With iTunes U, there’s no end to what or where you can learn.
iTunes U was launched in mid-2007 to help manage, distribute, and control access to educational audio and video content for both students and lifelong learners. There are three main types of educational providers within the iTunes U store: Universities and Colleges, Beyond Campus, and K-12 Education. Content is both free to host and download, which makes this a wonderful conduit for disseminating educational materials to the public.
Museums fall under the Beyond Campus umbrella. Currently, there are approximately 62 providers within this category, which also includes historical societies and public radio/television. Of the 62 profiles, approximately 15 are museums.
I learned a few lessons along the way that will be useful to others building their profile. The first tip I recommend is to remember that iTunes U is built on the same infrastructure as the popular iTunes Store. This has both advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, millions of people are already going to the iTunes Store for audio and video content. The disadvantage is that you must remember that everything needs to be constructed as an album. For example, when organizing the content for our biannual arts conference, I created one album with seven tabs for various content (a general bucket for miscellaneous content, one for the opening performance, and five for individual panel presentations; see below).
Seems like a reasonable way to organize content, right? After receiving feedback from an Apple representative, I learned this was a big mistake and it was not recommend from a usability standpoint. Therefore, I needed to reorganize all of the material (various tabs) as individual albums. In addition to better usability, this has the added advantage of optimizing better results from search inquiries.
Next, be sure to get your metadata right on the first attempt. Once you have uploaded your content, you cannot edit the metadata without making the necessary changes and then re-uploading the content. The upload process is slow, and this can set you back hours! Here is a shot of the back-end, which is accessed via a web browser and it is where you upload and organize your content.
Here are a couple of shots of our profile (note that the blue “edit” column to the right will not be seen by the visitor, and this will bring the content higher up). We are hoping to add much more content in the near future. If you get a chance to visit our profile, send some feedback my way. I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.
On a final note, be sure to check out the Walker Art Center’s New Media Initiatives blog for additional information on building an iTunes U profile.
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Technology, Work
What Type of Social Media User Are You?
Posted by Devon Akmon | Filed under Technology, Work
I’ve slowly been reading Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s book, Groundswell: Winning In a World Transformed By Social Technologies (Harvard Business School Press). So far, it’s been a really informative read. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the ways in which social media are transforming our daily lives and professional work.
We are currently in the process of developing a social media plan for our institution. While conducting some additional research, I stumbled upon this useful presentation on social media technographics developed by Li, Bernoff, and their company, Forrester Research. Most of this material is featured in chapter 3 of the book. In short, like most things, it pays to know your audience when developing or utilizing these tools.
So, what type of social media user are you, dear reader? I clearly fall within the “creator” category.
On a final note, I just discovered the Groundswell blog and have added it to my RSS subscriptions. Recommended reading.
- Devon Akmon
Tags: Technology, Work
