Bletchley Park Text: Using mobile and semantic web technologies to support the post-visit use of online museum resources

Abstract: A number of technologies have been developed to support the museum visitor, with the aim of making their visit more educationally rewarding and/or entertaining. Examples include PDA-based personalized tour guides and virtual reality representations of cultural objects or scenes. Rather than supporting the actual visit, we decided to employ technology to support the post-visitor, that is, encourage follow-up activities among recent visitors to a museum. This allowed us to use the technology in a way that would not detract from the existing curated experience and allow the museum to provide access to additional heritage resources that cannot be presented during the physical visit. Within our application, called "Bletchley Park Text", visitors express their interests by sending text (SMS) messages containing suggested keywords using their own mobile phone. The semantic description of the archive of resources is then used to retrieve and organize a collection of content into a personalized web site for use when they get home. In designing the interface we aimed to support exploration across the content archive rather than just the search and retrieval of specific resources. The service was developed for the Bletchley Park museum and has since been launched for use by all visitors. Editors: Ann Jones, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme and Daisy Mwanza. Reviewers: Kevin Walker (Institute of Education), Peter Lonsdale (Birmingham), Jenny Waycott (Australia). Interactive demonstrations: Figures 8, 9 and 10 in section 3.3 are available as interactive demos of Bletchley Park Text.

[1]  Kevin Li,et al.  Faceted metadata for image search and browsing , 2003, CHI '03.

[2]  Mirjana Spasojevic,et al.  Rememberer: A Tool for Capturing Museum Visits , 2002, UbiComp.

[3]  Mark Levene,et al.  Trail Records and Navigational Learning , 2003 .

[4]  Susan M. Pearce,et al.  On Collecting: An Investigation into Collecting in the European Tradition , 1995 .

[5]  Sherry Hsi,et al.  RFID enhances visitors' museum experience at the Exploratorium , 2005, CACM.

[6]  M. Wertheimer,et al.  A source book of Gestalt psychology. , 1939 .

[7]  M. Wertheimer.  A source book of Gestalt psychology. , 1939 .

[8]  Lloyd Rutledge,et al.  Finding the story: broader applicability of semantics and discourse for hypermedia generation , 2003, HYPERTEXT '03.

[9]  Steve Benford,et al.  Ambiguity as a resource for design , 2003, CHI '03.

[10]  John J. Leggett,et al.  Collection understanding , 2004, JCDL.

[11]  Keith Cheverst,et al.  The role of adaptive hypermedia in a context-aware tourist GUIDE , 2002, CACM.

[12]  Frank M. Shipman,et al.  Using paths in the classroom: experiences and adaptations , 1998, HYPERTEXT '98.

[13]  J. Falk,et al.  Learning from Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning , 2000 .

[14]  Eero Hyvönen,et al.  Application of Ontology Techniques to View-Based Semantic Search and Browsing , 2004, ESWS.

[15]  Ben Shneiderman,et al.  Leonardo's laptop: human needs and the new computing technologies , 2005, CIKM '05.

[16]  Jiri Zara,et al.  Virtual Reality and Cultural Heritage on the Web , 2004 .

[17]  Mika Käki,et al.  Findex: search result categories help users when document ranking fails , 2005, CHI.

[18]  Liam J. Bannon,et al.  Shaping experiences in the hunt museum: a design case study , 2004, DIS '04.

[19]  Zdenek Zdráhal,et al.  Spotlight browsing of resource archives , 2005, HYPERTEXT '05.

[20]  Samantha Kelly Hastings,et al.  Informational Value of Museum Web Sites , 2002, First Monday.