i think i finally get it!

On Monday, my classmate Michael and I attended the CLHO’s Out and About program in Waterbury. The seminar was about planning and installing a permanent exhibit. We were the only students there and it was slightly awkward, but it was still really interesting and informative. I mention the program because in addition to designing the space, planning the layout, hiring the workers, etc, etc, the museum allotted a (big) chunk of money to digitize a large portion of the exhibit. This is when a light went on for me. As it was explained to us, a huge amount of information could be ’stuck’ into a computer, and by utilizing a touch screen, the viewer could navigate around, looking at pictures, reading stories, and enhance their visit by seeing things the room held and learning more about them on the computer. The ladies on the panel commented that when they were giving the information to the techs, they kept asking, “do you really need all this stuff?” Of course, the answer was yes. And it really was needed. Think of museums and the amount of stuff that sits in basements, or where ever because there is just not enough room to display it. Through digitization, many of things that might have been overlooked are now prominently displayed on a computer screen. And more interestingly, during the planning phase, they were told that the average person would spend about 30 seconds at a computer kiosk. Undaunted, they went ahead and now, with the exhibit up and running, they have found that people can spend up to 40 minutes exploring the databases. When we finally got to peruse the exhibit, we played with the computers and one could literally spend an hour just navigating the program. So that’s how i finally learned the importance of the digital age in a public space (Of course, the physical stuff in the room was interesting, as well).

Now let’s get to the case studies. I’m no computer whiz and I proved this to myself tonight as I tried to navigate the podcast websites. I downloaded this, downloaded that only to find that I didn’t know what to do with it once it was downloaded. Hmmph. Call me a dummy, I don’t care. I’ll stick to itunes if I want a podcast, I guess, or keep doing what I do: listen to the Metropolitan’s various podcasts if they seem interesting, or tool around NPR looking for interesting soundbites. It’s probably my lack of patience with technology, I don’t know. I will say one thing; homework for this class really does not seem like homework when suddenly you look up and an hour has gone by because you’re so absorbed in these sites. That’s a good thing, but it doesn’t mean that I know what I’m doing.

As far as the readings, I like good-looking websites and I think aesthetics are important to spending time at a website (I’m shallow?). But as they say, accessibility means more information and more people utilizing it to get to that information. With Cohen teaching the non-computer people to set up their own history websites, I think the balance of aesthetics and accessibility can be achieved, but probably not by me.