Submission deadline: June 30, 2014
The Museums Computer Group will be holding our annual UKMW conference
at the Natural History Museum on Friday November 7 2014. This year our
theme is ‘Museums Beyond the Web’.
What does ‘the web’ mean to those of us working with digital and
museums today? Increasingly, our visitors’ online experiences are moving
away from the humble browser (though perhaps email will always be with
us). From simple mobile apps and games to the internet of things and
wearable technology, new forms are displacing the World Wide Web as our
primary experience of being connected to the internet.
While new technologies offer ever-more different ways of being
digital, digital disciplines are advancing rapidly. Is ‘experience’ the
new core of digital for visitors? Is ‘service design’ a better way of
looking at what we do than ‘web design’ or even ‘user experience’? And
in our organisations, are all departments ‘digital departments’ now?
At the same time, many of the advances in museums technology in
recent years, like Linked Open Data, are crucially dependent on an open
and interoperable World Wide Web. Museums across the globe recently
raised their voices to protest against threats to net neutrality: we
know that the value of cultural heritage online can only thrive on an
equal and open internet. What web freedoms do we need to preserve to
benefit museums and our audiences?
UKMW14: Museums Beyond the Web will tackle these issues and more.
Digital museum professionals and the museum-curious alike will find this
day conference a useful, interesting and enriching experience.
Don’t miss tickets going on sale: sign up for occasional event
notices from our low-traffic MCG Events list to make sure you’re one of
the first to know when tickets go on sale: http://eepurl.com/r3Y6H
The Call for Papers for UKMW14 is now open at http://bit.ly/UKMW14CfP
Like the web, the shape of our theme may experience rapid change, as
we’re hoping for a range of creative responses from within and without
the cultural heritage sector. If you have any questions or can’t view
the proposal form at http://bit.ly/UKMW14CfP then please email contact@museumscomputergroup.org.uk.
If you have suggestions for keynote speakers, or would like to help out on our Programme Committee, please drop us a line!
Best regards,
Mia Ridge and Danny Birchall
UKMW14 Programme Committee Co-Chairs
About The Museums Computer Group: Connecting, supporting, inspiring museum technology professionals
The Museums Computer Group (MCG) is a UK-based independent group for
museum, gallery, archive and higher education professionals who work
with museum technology and digital heritage. Our members include
technologists, educators, academics, marketing people and more working
in or around museums and digital technologies, from backend collections
systems to the latest social media.
We provide a forum for discussion between technology, marketing,
education, outreach, new media, documentation, collections management or
traditional IT departments. We connect, support and inspire our members
through annual events at museums and other venues throughout the UK, a
mailing list and other channels for debate and practical help.
