Data Unity
Data Unity
by James Forrest, Web Creative Director, Peabody Essex Museum
James is the award-winning Web creative director of the Peabody Essex Museum and also the principal of Ambalogic Interactive Studios. With a background in new media design, fine art and sound design, Forrest has created new possibilities for the changing experiential landscape online and beyond. His work has been featured in many articles, presentations and shows about experience design, personalization, bookmarking, cultural exchange and community outreach. As part of PEM’s Integrated Media team, he works to create rich, engaging experiences in varying learning models and cultures.
So what do we mean when we say Data Unity?
“Data Unity strives to bring together disparate data sets into a centralized, searchable interface or experience.”
When analyzing this statement I think it is important to understand that each institution is going to approach this challenge differently. At the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) we have focused on the experience part of the definition far more than we have on the centralized interface component. This makes sense since we are very visitor focused and the majority of our visitors are not researchers but art and culture lovers.
When we think about Data Unity currently in the connected world the best example that comes to mind is Google and specifically Google Images in relation to arts institutions. A search for “Man Ray Metronome” brings up 32,700 visual results in a matter of .38 seconds. This is amazingly impressive if you know what you want and the term you are searching for is well documented. But what happens if a user doesn’t know what specifically what they are looking for and instead is looking for a unique, unexpected, contextual experience? This is a question we have answered in many different forms throughout my tenure at PEM and will be the main component of Data Unity that I will focus on in this paper.
So to get started lets define data so we are all on the same page.
Data = Any accessible character, image, media, or other output which information and knowledge are derived[1]
Now that we know what data is I think we can agree that most everything machine readable could loosely fall into this definition. Because of that our jobs in museums and libraries is that much more important and challenging for the following reasons:
I. Unifying this data poses a major technical issue. Not only do all of us have an overabundance of date (documents, card catalogs, media, objects, publications, etc) but storing, preserving, and connecting that data is time consuming, expensive, and technically challenging. Typically most of us have many servers, hard-drives, etc where this data is stored and cataloged but not-necessarily standardized to talk to each other thus creating the need for a comprehensive rule based data dictionary to be created and applications and infrastructure created to help these systems talk.
II. Translation issues are inevitable. With so many varying standards and lexicons throughout museum and library collection and cataloging systems finding commonality is a complex, labor intensive job that is not necessarily visitor focused but deeply rooted in academia.
III. Audience. As previously noted it is important to realize that a lot of data pursuits stem from academia and academic thinking but is this your audience? If it is than great but if it is a small percentage of your visitation than you need to cater to them in ways that only you or better yet your marketing, education, and interpretative staff would know.
IV. Interpretation. We all learn differently. Once you know your audience(s) you can then start to strategize on how to deliver your experience. It is important to not be too rigid but true to your audience(s) and offer unexpected delighthers for the myriads of visitors to your content.
V. Interface. This is where the rubber hits the road. A beautiful interface with shallow content is debatably as off putting as loads of data for the wrong audience. This has to be perfect and tested by your target audience at every stage possible. A good interface recedes into the background and allows the visitor to seamlessly interact with content, think of the dashboard in a car.
Highlights of Data Unity at PEM
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ARTscape:
Gallery personalization device and PEM’s first comprehensive online collection.
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Joseph Cornell microsite:
Remixing objects from the exhibit in thematic theatrical sets and interactive games.
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Origami Now microsite:
Video tutorials of origami master Michael LaFosse designed into a skill level game
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Wedded Bliss
Mosaic Flickr photo feed of cultural celebrations of weddings.
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Samuel McIntire microsite:
Using an archival map and imagery we contextualized McIntire’s work with his hometown.
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Creatures of the Fiery Pool touchtable:
A reactive multi-user experience based around sea creatures found in Mayan culture |
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Write like an emperor touchtable:
Using a calligraphy brush visitors are taught the ancient art onscreen.
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Current state of collections based Data Unity at PEM
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Since 1996 PEM has been authoring collections online and on-site. Our first project was a maritime archive put together by volunteers of paintings, signal flag systems, and a rigging guide for American sailing vessels. Since then we have authored numerous projects such as permanently installed touch-screens in historic East India Marine Hall focusing on objects installed in our Cabinets of Curiousity, ArtScape™, our branded interpretative gallery and online bookmarking system, Data Unity Pilot application which connects data from Artscape to our internal collections management system Argus, and currently a prototype application unifying ARTscape, ARGUS, and Philcat, our libraries cataloging tool.
The latter 2 projects conceptually bring together all of our data into one searchable interface thus accomplishing Data Unity in a technical sense. One thing to bear in mind is that this type of unity has a very specific purpose and at the moment will only serve certain audiences such as internal staff and outside researchers, curators, and developers.
This type of unity exposes some of the fundamental issues that we all have to deal with in our institutions when we embark on such projects. Now that we are swimming in data and everyone is in the same room lets talk about how to go about getting something truly useful and transformative!
Goals of Data Unity
When thinking of setting goals for a project like this most likely there will be many camps in your institution that will feel stronger about one goal verses the other. This difference in opinion and priority is extremely important to respect because your colleagues are presenting their value systems which are deep rooted and sometimes unflinching. It is important to have a strong mission to help keep the group on the right track. These projects can have many tentacles and it is important to hear all possible solutions but there are only so many hours in a day to accomplish this work so focus on goals is key.
Here are some of our goals at PEM:
I. Connect disparate data sets.
II. Create positive user experiences for our target audience(s).
III. Expose our objects and interpretation to the widest audience.
IV. Allow serendipity like exhibitions and research.
V. Promote scholarship and new understandings.
VI. Create new transaction methods.
VII. Connect with API’s(Application Programming Interface), mobile applications, augmented reality, and social media channels to allow mash-ups.
VIII.Strive for consistency and ease of use.
IX. Reduce strain on limited internal staff.
Challenges
Two distinct cultures
A lot of museum professionals mistake the technical side of this work as being the biggest challenge but debatably that is the clearer component of the work. What I have felt is the most difficult is unifying value systems between staff, and agreeing on who we are doing this for. At PEM we have two distinct professional cultures merged together - art museum and library. Serving as a bridge between them for many years has taught me to be mindful of the different value systems and experiences each offer and to always communicate a common goal that the team can get behind. The results of these collaborations are always exceptional because the combined knowledge of museum and libraries can provide visitors with a deep, thoughtful, entertaining, and well-researched understanding of a topic.
Audience
It is vital to define your audience. The more specific your team can get the better (i.e. 35 year old mother of two, college educated, upper middle class living in Salem, interested in hands-on family activities and exhibits on photography). Once you have some profiles than it is useful to find their similarities, what are multiple groups going to respond to positively, what is their tolerance threshold, will they be alone, will they prefer to guide their experience or be walked through it, etc. Once you feel you have collected enough data on your audience then it is time to start sketching. It is good practice to go back to that group again with prototypes and see how accurate your predictions were.
You will likely have many audiences and it is important to decide who your priority is going to be in relation to resources. It is in our nature as museum and library professionals to want to help all of our audiences but I feel it is unfortunately unrealistic. The audiences that help you fulfill your mission are the likely first candidates and should be addressed first.
We need to be more audience focused and reach out to them as opposed to waiting for them to come to us which has been true for too long.
Social Radius
So where is your audience? Most likely on Facebook or Twitter or looking up movies and restaurants on their mobiles. Why not meet them half way? Another part of understanding your audience is knowing where they spend their time when they are not in your institution. Are they reading Art magazines or are they at the bowling alley? We need to find out and reach out to them there as well. Social media has made this a lot easier but we still need to be strategic about it.
Using Facebook and Twitter to push Data Unity concepts is a perfect fit. A while back our PR department posted a few paintings of ships from our collection caught in treacherous storms when we were getting weather from hurricane season. To me that was a home run in regards to connecting with our regional audience and showcasing relevant content from our collection on the fly. All it took was creativity, wit, and a few digitized images. Data Unity can be very simple if we are clear on who we are doing it for and what they need.
Other Challenges consistent with those of many museums:
I. Museums are about experiences and not solely objects
II. Collection audiences only account for 25% of web visits at PEM
III. Most of the data collected wasn’t intended for a general audience
IV. Technical support for such projects is costly and inconsistent
V. Funding for data projects is competitive and spotty
VI. Online collections are not consistently a top priority
Future Thoughts
The future looks promising in regards to data. With sites such as Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, etc we can guarantee that our content will be widely disseminated and archived. This dissemination in connection with API’s will allow for our general audience to not only connect with our data but also to use it to build new experiences. A great example of this is the Brooklyn Museum’s API (http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/api/) and the We Feel Fine project (http://www.wefeelfine.org/) by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar which harvests the phrases “I feel” and “I am feeling” from blog entries worldwide and visualizes them ultimately as an artwork authored by everyone.
Mobile applications are popping up every day in the commercial world and in response museums have followed suit. Currently most of these experiences in museums fall short of what I discuss in regards to audience and experience but developing for this platform is very flexible and exciting for all of us in the museum space. The fact that GPS (Global Positioning System), Rich Media, and Augmented Reality are built in to every smartphone creates a lavish palette for us to take advantage of and build incredible experiences that we could only dream about a few years back. Although this platform is amazingly exciting it requires an entirely new mind set in regards to design and experience and being realistic about what your audience comes to you for in the first place may not always be mobile’s best ally. Just like all other technology, knowing when and how to use it is key.
Retail plays an important role within Data Unity because not only do visitors like to shop but they especially like to share and showcase what they have found. A great example is PEM’s collection bag that showcases a mosaic of our collection, properties, and performances that accompany it’s owner and acts as a great conversation piece and ambassador to PEM.
Conclusion
I. Find your institution’s unique voice and skill sets
II. Strive to alleviate all bottlenecks
III. Publish accurate and consistent data
IV. Focus on audience and not OUR value systems
V. Create experiences and impart knowledge
VI. Share and provide feedback for future engagement
With new new tools, approaches, and audiences.....what strategy fits your institution?
Special thanks to the amazing minds of Dan Elias, Will Phippen, Martha Almy, Alyssa Langlais-Dodge, Sidney Berger, Barbara Kampas, John Grimes, Jay Finney, Dan Monroe and most importantly my wonderful wife Melanie Salerno
