Interpret Scotlandissue 18 | January 2009

the journal for Scotland’s Interpreters

A’ Foillseachadh na h-AlbaInterpret ScotlandIssue 18: Technology and interpretationWill taped commentaries replace live guides? Will museum visitors of the future explore the galleries with theireyes glued to an iPod? What is Web 2.0? This issue looks at technology and interpretation, and you can read thearticles inside to find out!

In keeping with the theme, Interpret Scotland is now published as pdf files. All of the articles in this file areavailable individually from the Interpret Scotland website www.interpretscotland.org.uk where you can also jointhe free subscription list.

If you view the articles on screen, hyperlinks in the text mean you can easily find more details and follow upreferences. You're welcome to print the articles, save them on your own computer, or share them with others.

James Carter, editorjames@jamescarter.cc

ContentsConfidence with a PDAJohn Paul Sumner describes a new project in Glasgowthat aims to help people explore themselves, as wellas Kelvingrove’s collections.

Canned or live?Viola Lier gives live commentaries as a tourist guide.Alex Pringle manages a fleet of tour buses on whichthe driver plays a recorded commentary. James Carterreferees a wee chat…

MyPeakBill Bevan is trying to use social networking to getpeople talking about the Peak District National Park.

Will the long tail wag the dog?Geocaching, independent podcasts, rude words onWikipedia. James Carter sorts out what makes Web2.0 so different from Web 1.0.

Flickring round East LothianEast Lothian Museums Service has been postingimages of their collections on photo sharing siteFlickr. Sarah Cowie takes us through the slideshow…

Speak the lingoA guide for the perplexed to the jargon of the web.

Interpreting the land of songPaul Hibberd describes a study trip to Latvia.

NewsWhat’s up in interpretation.

John Paul Sumner describes how a new project in Glasgow aims to help people explorethemselves, as well as Kelvingrove’s collections.

It is appallingly obvious our technology hasexceeded our humanity

Albert Einstein, Mathematician

Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery andMuseum re-opened in July 2006 togreat press coverage after a £35 millionrestoration programme. A supplementaryelement to the project is an extension tothe Campbell Hunter Education Wing, tocreate an ‘Object Cinema’ for young people.The Hunter Foundation, Sir Tom Hunter’sventure philanthropist charity, generouslyhelped us create this high-tech space inKelvingrove to inspire young people.

Both Sir Tom and Glasgow Museums werekeen to attract young people from excludedand disadvantaged backgrounds. Initialideas were tested with a group of 200teenagers, who contributed information ontheir attitudes and the values that inspirethem. We discovered that the groupconsidered museums in general ‘Uncool’;‘Boring’; ‘Geeky, unfashionable and dull’.

Another obstacle to inspiring young peopleis that their confidence and self-esteem canbe low. A World Health Organization studyfound that Scottish kids lack confidence:they ranked 23rd out of 29 countries. Thenew Scottish ‘Curriculum for Excellence’aims to enable young people to becomeconfident individuals, with self-respect,secure values and ambition. But how tocreate confidence? How to instill ambition?

The Centre of New Enlightenment (TCoNE)is one response. A cinematic and digitaltour experience for pre-booked groups, itinvolves a physical visit to Kelvingrove,supported by a pre-visit interactive CD anda post-visit bespoke webpage.

The key philosophy in developing TCoNE wasthat this experience should use technologyas a tool to interpret the collections andcreate meaning for visitors. It was not abouttechnology for technology’s sake, andshould not rely simply on high-tech effects.Our Educational Psychologist ConsultantDr Alan McLean described our targetvisitors, 10-14 year-olds, as intrinsicallyself-centred and self-absorbed. They are notreally aware of the world outside their ownsphere of influence. They are concerned withtheir looks, their status, and how othersperceive them, and they’re not really keenon engaging with adults. The subtle useof technology is a useful tool forcommunicating with this target group.

The visitor experience starts when theyarrive in a white, dust free, high-techroom that challenges their preconceptionsof a museum. We take a digital photo ofeach visitor, and their first name is enteredinto the system: an important first stepbecause it establishes this as apersonalised experience.

A facilitator then tells them how to usethe Personal Digital Assistant (PDA – ahandheld computer) that is used in theproject. This takes about five minutes, andallows a colleague time to upload thevisitor’s identity – their photo and name –into their PDA via an infrared link. Thevisitors then see a short film, and areamazed to see their own photos and namesintegrated into the production. The noveltyand personalised nature of this reallyimpresses them. Adults are sometimes not

Confidencewith a PDA

Interpret Scotland: Issue 18January 2009

Will you make Elvis cry by telling himhe’s a terrible singer?

so keen! Then, using the PDAs, they embarkon a journey through Kelvingrove to interactwith the collections. The PDAs give themclues that become progressively easier tosolve. The visitors find this part, ‘the treasurehunt’, most enjoyable.

The PDAs do not recite information andfacts about the collections; instead theyprompt the visitor to question how they feelabout the painting, sculpture or specimenin front of them. An infrared beam at eachobject triggers the PDAs to activate,confirming that the visitor has reachedthe correct destination. Visitors’ individualresults and feedback are collated ‘live’ by acentral server, to be displayed in the finaleto the visit.

During this journey the collections are usedas a tool for visitors to explore their ownpersonality. Subjects addressed on the tour

include family bereavement, empathy withothers, judgement in relationships, andconfronting prejudice. All serious issues,but presented in fun-packed challenges.Will you make Elvis cry by telling him he’s aterrible singer? Will you make friends withthe refugee girl by telling her jokes? Can youread the emotions on other people’s faces?On return to the room where the tourstarted, visitors’ achievements are shownand their strengths revealed.

Our pilot phase in spring and summer 2008catered for approximately 2,000 invitedvisitors. Our in-house evaluation was veryencouraging – 92% said that the experiencewas fun, and 8% said it was just OK – 0%said it was boring. It was most rewardingthat at the end of the experience 81% ofvisitors said that they felt confident orvery confident.

At TCoNE we aim to use technology to tapin to visitors’ emotions, and contribute totheir interpretation of the collections ina new and personalised way. Professor JohnMacBeath of Cambridge University will havecompleted a more in-depth educationalevaluation by the end of 2008, and willshow whether we’ve demonstrated thattechnology can be more than a vehicle forfacts, figures and fun.

John-Paul Sumner is Learning and AccessCurator with Culture and Sport Glasgowjohn-paul.sumner@cls.glasgow.gov.uk

A coach tour with a liveguide was once the staple ofScotland’s tourism industry.

Now the open-top buses thatply the streets of Glasgow

and Edinburgh use recordedcommentaries, controlled bythe driver. So will technology

spell the end of the liveguide? James Carter pickedup a microphone, and put

some questions to Viola Lierand Alex Pringle.

JC: Alex, how did you first get into usingpre-recorded commentary onyour buses?

AP: Six or seven years ago our whole marketfor tours in Glasgow changed. Beforethen people coming here would havesome knowledge of English, and theycame for the city’s culture; now theycome because they can fly here for £1.A huge proportion of them don’t speakEnglish, and they don’t want the sortof tours we used to do, looking atarchitecture and design: they just wantan impression of what you can do here,a familiarisation tour really.

So now we use a pre-recordedcommentary in eight languages, storedon a hard drive. The commentary’sdivided into very short units, alldisplayed on a screen so the driver canplay one after the other, or skip throughthem. If he’s stuck in traffic, there’s anadditional menu of ‘fillers’ – guideswork in the same way, with material inreserve for when they need it.

JC: What do you see as the particularadvantages of the two media?

VL: The human touch, that comes withpassion and enthusiasm; flexibility, ofreacting to circumstances, and thechance to have a tailored approach,where a guide can really add meaningfor a particular client.

AP: Technology means we can meet ademand from people who don’t speakEnglish – we couldn’t viably run a livetour in all those languages.Pre-recording also gives you aconsistency in the quality of the tour,and we can cater for very few people –often live tours get cancelled becausethere aren’t enough customers.

JC: How do the two approaches standup to different circumstances, forexample a 45-minute city tourcompared with a week-long tripround the Highlands?

Canned or live?

Interpret Scotland: Issue 18January 2009

Viola Lier is a tourist guide and training manager for the Scottish TouristGuides Association

VL: It really comes down to using the righttool for the job. For the week-long tour,you need a live guide to tailor theexperience to visitors’ needs, and guidethem to discover the place forthemselves. It’s a real interpreter’s job,linking places and topics to themes andbeing flexible to the circumstancesaround you.

AP: As a coach operator, I’m looking at itfrom a driver’s point of view, and what’sthe best use of the driver’s time. If youhave long tour with a recordedcommentary, all the customer care sideis left to the driver, and the driver’s gotenough to do. When you get to a hotelat night he’s got to unload all theluggage and get the bus cleaned –how’s he going to look after thecustomers as well?

From my point of view, a recording on alonger tour is a waste of money – it’snot going to give you a qualityexperience. There are technical problemstoo: if the system breaks down in the

Highlands you’re stuck: it’s not like oursituation here where we’re within acouple of miles of the garage.

JC: What do you see as the future inthis field? Will live guiding becomejust a niche product for theluxury market?

VL: I think live guides will use technology.At the moment we might have picturesof Kings or Queens; in future we mighthave really high tech things – maybeholograms of them that can speak for awhile and then the guide can come inagain. I think there’s also a role forguides to do the recording work:I’d rather do that than have linguistsreading commentaries.

AP: I agree that there’ll always be a rolefor live guides. We have a tremendousdemand for English-speaking guides –from Americans and Australians, andfrom the ‘dinkies’: they want a liveguide, and they’ll wait for a bus thathas one.

JC: So technology is here to stay…

AP: But so is the live guide!

VL: I think new developments in tourismwill also support the market for liveguides: people coming off big cruiseships want to continue the incrediblyhigh standards of service they’ve had onboard, and live guides can provide that.

AP: It’s all about the product the customerwants – it’s got to be customer led.

Finding a good bus driver can be as important asfinding a good musician.RebaMcEntire, country singer

Alex Pringle, Tourism and Training Manager at City Guides in Glasgow runs a fleet ofbuses in the city. His collection of model buses reflects a long career in running coachtours.

My Peak Experience is a user-generated website where people can contribute their own comments, pictures,videos and audio clips of their experiences of the Peak District’s heritage. The website was created by the PeakDistrict Interpretation Partnership as part of the Peak Experience project, and on the back of my own interestin Web 2.0 and social networking websites. The site was launched in May 2008 after a long gestation andtesting period.

It is a commonplace of modern technology that problems havesolutions before there is knowledge of how they are to be solved.

JK Galbraith, economist

The aims ofMyPeak are to:• Develop a stronger senseof connection and‘ownership’ of the PeakDistrict amongst visitorsand local residents whobecome part of a virtualPeak online community.We hope this will lead toa greater understandingand further return visits.

• Enable others to participate in interpreting the Peak District. By ‘others’we mean people who are not employed as Rangers, Wardens, Interpretersor Guides. They might be visitors who want to share their favourite place,or folk from local communities who want to publicise their area. Manypeople have their own favourite places and their own stories to tell, aregood photographers and innovative mini-video makers. Let us harness thisenthusiasm for a landscape.

• Encourage others to widen the number of information sources availableto the millions of web users who regularly use the web for destinationresearch, content-sharing and social networking

MyPeak Bill Bevan goes networking

Interpret Scotland: Issue 18January 2009

We developed the website by lookingat other social networking and contentsharing sites such as YouTube, Flickr,Facebook and MySpace to identify howthey worked, what their appeal was andhow they encouraged use. We thencommissioned web company SurfaceImpression who have experience ofcreating websites based on user-generatedcontent. An important considerationwas that MyPeak should not look like acorporate-owned website but shouldappeal as a place where an onlinecommunity can grow.

The site works by having a page for aplace in the same way that Facebookhas a page for a person. Any member cancreate a new place, which they then haveadministrative responsibility for. Oncethe place exists any other members cancontribute photos, videos and audio, whileanyone can add a comment.

Some essentials in setting up the site were:

• people have to join as members beforethey can upload content

• members have to agree to a set ofterms and conditions and a set of do’sand don’ts

• any submitted content is publishedimmediately it is uploaded

• content is peer moderated through a‘report this page’ function.

All of these elements have been borrowedfrom other long-standing and successfulWeb 2.0 sites. We also wanted to make the

www.mypeakexperience.org.uk

most of ‘mash-ups’. These are web-basedapplications that enable content from onewebsite to be shared with another.

On MyPeak, this works by allowingmembers with photos on Flickr or videoson YouTube to link them easily into theMyPeakExperience site. It also allowsMyPeak places to link outwards, toapplications such as Google Earth anddigital maps. Members’ favourite placescan link out to social networking siteFacebook and an interactive mapapplication can go to any member’swebsite, blog or profile page.

Since May 2008 the website has grownsteadily. We seeded it with 50 places to

begin with, both to give an idea of howthe site works and to have some placesfor people to add content to. There arenow 67 places and a membership of 89.We are publicising the site through pressreleases, postcards, posters and by directpromotion through other onlinecommunities including special interestforums, Flickr groups, Facebook and blogs.This last form of promotion has been themost successful to date, because we aredirectly reaching other users of Web2.0 sites.

MyPeak is growing like a molehill ratherthan erupting like a volcano. We think thisslow-burner effect is inevitable because

this sort of site grows organically as moreand more people get to know about it. Wesee two main audiences for the site: one ispeople who use the internet to research aplace when planning a visit, and whomight just browse the site for informationand interest. But our target audience formembership is people who already activelyparticipate in social networking anduser-generated websites. This is a growingaudience, as more and more people growup using this technology!

Bill Bevan is Interpretation ProjectOfficer with the Peak District NationalPark Authoritybill.bevan@peakdistrict.gov.uk

Grindstones by earthwatcherwww.flickr.com/photos/earthwatcher

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Scotland is about to get its own versionof the My Peak Experience site. PlaceBookScotland went live for uploads on5 November. This exciting new projectaims to enthuse people and to capturethe essence of Scotland’s distinct placesand diverse landscapes – the good,bad, and even the ugly - as perceived bylocal people.

Everyone is invited to submit images, prose,poetry, music or song that evokes the

essence of the places they have strongassociations with. Places where people live,work or visit, urban and rural, dramaticand ordinary, the site will become a recordof what we think and feel aboutScotland’s places.

Supported by the Scottish Government,Scottish Natural Heritage and NationalTrust for Scotland, PlaceBook Scotlandseeks to capture people’s views increative ways and generate interest and

discussion about the sense of place intheir local areas.

The project is an initiative of the ScottishLandscape Forum, which exists to shareinformation, encourage discussion andpromote action for better care ofScotland’s landscapes.

Placebook Scotland

‘Web 2.0’ is a buzz word in commentaries on the internet. SearchGoogle for the phrase, and you’ll find over 90 million hits. But there’sno clear definition of exactly what it means, apart from the fact thatit is not a new version of how the web actually works, in the waythat new releases of computer programs are given incrementalnumbers. Instead, Web 2.0 is a way of referring to how the web, andthe way people use it, is evolving. Some commentators suggest thatit represents a maturing of the web: in its early years it mimickedconventional publishing, with all material controlled by theorganisation that provided it; now the way the web works isbeginning to be truly something new.

Jez: See, I was right to get us on the Internet. The Internet’s goingto be massive - I keep telling you.

Super Hans (dismissively): Yeah, yeah - we’ll see.Peep Show, Series five on Channel Four

Much of that new activity is rooted in howthe web allows users to collaborate andinteract. Social networking sites likeFacebook or Bebo are examples: sites thatdevelop self-defining communities ofinterest, and where all the content isgenerated by the people involved. Thatconcept of ‘user-generated content’ –stuff published, shared, argued over, andconstantly re-invented by anyone whocares to take an interest – is a keyfeature of Web 2.0, and the one thathas perhaps the most direct implicationsfor interpretation.

The article in this issue of InterpretScotland on how the East LothianMuseums Service used photo sharing siteFlickr is one example of interpretationtrying to tap into web-based communitiesof interest. Forward-looking marketingventures have also seen Flickr’s potential,using it as a source of imagery that hasthe ‘magic dust’ of user endorsement.VisitAviemore includes a gallery of imagesof the area drawn from Flickr, and has attimes made a special feature of particularlygood photographs. The site also taps intorelevant blogs – online diaries – as well asmaterial posted from YouTube.

Treasure HuntGeocaching is another phenomenon thatcould not have existed without the web.A treasure hunt for the satellite age, itinvolves hiding a small containercontaining a log book in a place thatappeals to you, recording the location witha GPS receiver, and then publishing thedetails on a dedicated website. Othergamers try to find the container, and writeup their experiences online.

The game has a direct interpretivepotential: it encourages people to visitspecific places, which can be interpretedboth through the description in the recordfor each cache, and in the contents of thecontainer. Shropshire County Councilpioneered the activity as an interpretationtool with a project that loans GPS units topeople wanting to have a go. But its realWeb 2.0 character lies in the way ordinarypeople choose and describe the placeswhere they hide their caches. Many ofthem use the game as a way of expressingtheir interest in an area’s heritage, andtheir descriptions are clearly intended tointerest others: the activity is a form ofuser-generated interpretation.

The Long TailGeocaching is a very effective way ofpersuading reluctant children to go fora walk, but it’s never going to be amass-market interest. It offers anappealing activity for a niche market, andin doing so it exemplifies another featureof Web 2.0 developments: the viability of‘The Long Tail’. This means simply that thedemographics of the internet make itworth providing for the relatively tinymarket that exists for specialist productsor interests. It’s the reason retailers likeAmazon can make a profit from obscurebooks and music. If interpretation taps intoWeb 2.0, perhaps it can provide a far morediverse range of experiences than would bepossible through conventional technology.

Podcasting is an example. A podcast – asmall audio or video presentation that canbe played on an mp3 player – is easy toproduce, and can be published at no coston websites where it can wait untilsomeone who shares the interests ofthe author decides to download it.

Will the long tailwag the dog

Interpret Scotland: Issue 18January 2009

James Carter gets in a tangle with newdevelopments on the web.

Finding a geocache is a smallmoment of triumph.

Jam

esCa

rter

Museumpods is dedicated to podcastsexploring museums, many of which exploresubjects too specialised or detailed for anyinterpretation aimed at the majority ofvisitors. Programmes from the RAFMuseum at Hendon, for example, includea study of a WWI battle in Palestine, a lookat the lucky charms RAF pilots took withthem on bombing runs, and ‘part 1 of aseries’ about the technical development ofthe Spitfire.

It’s not always clear that podcasts aredesigned as true interpretation, linkeddirectly to an experience of the resource,but they do offer a remarkably open formof publishing. Most of the material atMuseumpods has been developed by themuseums concerned, but Art Mobsspecialises in independent, ‘unofficial’podcasts for New York’s Museum ofModern Art. They include pieces of musicinspired by the museum’s collections.

That freedom, allowing interpretation totake forms no ‘official’ institution wouldever produce, is one of the great strengthsof Web 2.0. It’s also its greatest challenge.If the web now allows anyone to interpreta place, however they like, and to makethat interpretation instantly available forothers to share, where does that leave therole of the managing agency?

Fully embracing the implications andpotential of Web 2.0 means thatorganisations have to recognise they areno longer fully in control of how placesare interpreted. In many ways, of course,they never were: independent guides andguidebooks have always presented theirown points of view, and visitors rarelyarrive as ‘blank slates’, withoutpreconceptions or prior knowledge.

But Web 2.0 means that the range ofdifferent interpretations, the rate at whichthey can be developed and discussed, andthe variety of media through which theycan be accessed, are all expanding rapidly.

Some user-generated interpretation drawson conventional media for its inspiration:the description for the geocache atCrystal Well, on the River Tweed, takesboth its facts and its theme from a plaqueinstalled by the Tweed Rivers InterpretationProject. But the way is open for far moreindependent approaches, and some maybe too outspoken for even the mostliberally-minded agency to accept.

Wikipedia is a classic example of a Web2.0 product, and has become the standardstarting point for many people wanting toresearch a subject. Around 1600 hours on7 November 2007, the page dealing withsupermarket giant Tesco began: ‘Tescosells cheap and nasty food in unhygienicconditions. Scientists have discovered abacterium unique to Tesco which livesin the cold dark and dirty spaces at thebottom of the freezer cabinets’ andcontinued in a similar vein. By theevening, the page had been changed tothe neutral-to-positive review youmight expect.

Wikipedia is not strictly interpretation: itscontent is not designed to accompany andilluminate a visit to a site. But it is acommonly-accessed source of informationabout many places. Major institutions, orthose dealing with potentially controversialsubjects, would do well to keep a weathereye on how their sites are being presentedthere. They can edit Wikipedia to removewhat some see as legitimate protest; othersas vandalism. But they cannot control, or

in many cases even monitor, all the vastrange of content that exists in theamorphous world of Web 2.0.

Policies established by social networkingsites offer one way of addressing genuineconcerns about what ‘interpretation byanyone’ could mean. Bebo, Flickr, YouTubeand others all have clear terms of use thatprohibit offensive material. They also allowany user to ‘flag’ content they consider inbreach of these conditions; the content isthen reviewed by a moderator, and ifnecessary removed. This seems a practicaland effective way of dealing with offensiveor inappropriate content: it also has themerit of matching a Web 2.0 solution to aWeb 2.0 problem.

But if organisations really want to embraceinterpretation in the Web 2.0 world, thereare implications more far-reaching thanthe need to watch out for the hi-techequivalent of rude comments chalked onthe blackboard. All of the ventures we’velooked at are based on the idea of usersinteracting, collaborating and sharing. Theend result is the product of a community,and if organisations want to make the bestof what Web 2.0 has to offer, they willneed to dedicate time, creativity andenthusiasm to being active members ofthat community. What the communityproduces may be more diffuse, even lessdisciplined than what went before, but ithas the potential to be more diverse, moreindividual, and more thought-provoking.

James Carter FAHI is an interpretationconsultant and editor of this edition ofInterpret Scotland.james@jamescarter.cc

Listening intently to a podcast © Thomas HawkMax Beckmann’s Family Picture is one of the Museum of Modern Art’sworks interpreted through music on an independent podcast

East Lothian Museums Service has been posting images of theircollections on photo sharing site Flickr. Sarah Cowie takes usthrough the slideshow…

...the history of the modern media is littered with casualties ofpeople who believed in technology rather than content.

Michael Grade, chairman of ITV

‘The groom is wearing the trimmings of a Bandmaster and would have been an unpaidLocal Officer”’

When museum visitors can give additional interpretation like this, it’s a real blessingfor over-worked curators. But Tracy Clark was able to enlighten us without evervisiting the museums run by East Lothian Council Museums Service (ELMS).

Much has been written about the past authoritarian nature of museums, where onecurator’s interpretation of an object was seen as the only story it could tell. Over time,museums have recognised that visitors construct their own meanings and knowledge,and they have had to change their practices to accommodate this. Digitizedcollections on Scran have potentially a wider audience, but you need a subscriptionfor full access, and the information presented is still provided by the museums service.We needed a more democratic way to share our collections, and so ELMS set up theirown account on Flickr.

Flickr is a photo sharing website where people can share photographs and leavecomments about images that interest them. When we put a selection from ourcollections online, we hoped that people would comment on the objects, share theirstories, or perhaps even use the images in their daily lives.

But is a website mainly used to share personal photographs really the place toencourage public interpretation of our collections? It depends what you countas interpretation. Nothing much was really gained from the person who left thecomment ‘Nice bell!’ about our Samuelston School Bell. And most of ourphotographs, whilst they have been viewed many times, have had no comments.There are some success stories though. One of our most popular photographs,Victorian Children 1880s, has been viewed over 4,500 times. One Flickr member wasable to tell us who was in the photograph, as it was taken by his great-grandfather.He even corrected us on the gender of one of the children who we had thought was agirl! We have since altered our museum database to reflect this new knowledge.

We decided at the start that we would offer our collections under a CreativeCommons Licence. This means images can be freely copied, distributed and displayed,as long as ELMS is credited and they are not being used for a commercial purpose.Images from our collections have been used in many different ways, such as digitalartwork, a backdrop for a play, and within a Schmap (a digitaltravel guide).

Flickringround East Lothian

Interpret Scotland: Issue 18January 2009

Salvation Army wedding

Samuelston school bell

Many within the heritage profession interested in similar schemes have come to us muttering in hushed voices about rude commentsor inappropriate use of collections. Recently we had a request to use one of our Orange Lodge banners by a user called ‘orangekkk’.We declined. As yet, we have had no inappropriate comments left by users. Regular checking of comments and reporting of any usersleaving such comments is the relatively straightforward solution to this problem.

Indeed, the issue with Flickr is the staff time required to maintain our account. You need to become part of the community to encouragecomments. The more you network, the more feedback you get. Someone also has to be responsible for wading through the large numberof requests to become part of other people’s groups. I have now turned down the chance to become part of the Modern Architecture ofBaghdad group four times!

So what is the future for Flickr? One group we were looking to engage with through the internet was the 16-25 year old age market.It looks as if we have had little success in this area and our sights are turning to social networking sites such as Bebo. We hope insteadto create a more community-orientated Flickr account, by adding individuals’ family photographs to our collection online. This is part ofa wider European project that includes partners from England, Italy and Hungary, all of them interested in digitizing family photographs.By doing this, we hope that the ELMS Flickr site can become, like museums themselves, the holder of the local area’s identity and history,interpreted through the eyes (and keyboards) of the community.

Sarah Cowie is Museums Education Officer at ELMS.scowie@eastlothian.gov.uk

Victorian children, 1880s

The world of technology is full of strange words and phrases. If you’re not sureyou can tell a tag from a blue tooth, or you’re afraid of making a mashup in asocial media situation, have this bluffers’ guide to hand.

BlogShort for web log, and an exampleof social media. A blog is a websitedesigned to be updated regularlywith comments, articles, images andother media. Blogging started asan activity mainly for individuals,who run blogs as commentaries onfields of interest such as politics orconservation, or as online personaldiaries. Now many organisationsrun blogs as a constantly updatedweb-presence for a particular aspectof their work. Technorati is a searchengine that allows you to searchthe more than 112 million blogsthat exist.

Speakthe lingo

Interpret Scotland: Issue 18January 2009

BluetoothRadio technology that allows things like mobile phones or laptop computers toexchange data over short distances with other things, like headphones or printers.Bluetooth headsets are a common example, allowing you to speak ‘hands free’ ona mobile phone without a wire between the headset and the phone. Bluetoothcannot handle the large amounts of data possible with a wireless network, but itneeds less power and less complex electronics, so is ideal for hand-held equipment.Developed in Scandinavia, the name comes from a tenth-century Danish king,Harald Blåtand, who united (linked – geddit?) Norway and Denmark.

Some interpretation projects offer content that visitors can download, on site, via aBluetooth link to their mobile phone. Bluetooth is independent of a connection to aphone network, so it will work even in places that have no network signal. However,knowing how to activate your phone’s Bluetooth service seems to be a bit likeknowing how to program your video recorder: it’s a rare skill possessed by few.

DeliciousA website that allows users to sharelinks to websites that interest them,and to tag their suggestions soothers can find links to sites thatinterest them. Delicious describesitself as ‘the biggest collectionof bookmarks in the universe’.

TwitterA web-based service that allowsusers to exchange text-basedmessages of up to 140 charactersin length. Messages can be receivedin many ways, including via theTwitter website, email, and mobilephone text message. Anotherexample of social media, Twitter wasused by both parties in the 2008 USpresidential campaign to keep theirsupporters up to date with events.

MashupA web-based service that combinesdata from different sources so as tooffer content relevant to a particularinterest. Mashups often integratemaps such as Google Maps withimages, or with information andreviews of businesses such asrestaurants or taxi companies.

iGuide is an example close tointerpreters’ interests: describingitself as ‘an interactive travel guide’,it draws on data from seven differentsources, including Google Maps,YouTube and Wikipedia.

Twitteriffic

DiggA website that allows users to post links to, vote for and comment on news articlesand other publications on the web. Items that get the most votes appear onDigg’s front page, making it an example of how social media can interact withmainstream publishing.

TagA keyword that you associate withthings like pictures, pieces of musicor recipes, and that describes theassociations or meanings they havefor you. Leonardo’s Mona Lisa mightbe tagged with: Leonardo, da Vinci,masterpiece, Louvre, smile. Tags onsites such as Flickr are useful waysof finding images of a particularsubject.

As more and more tags are addedby different people, they can buildup to show an interesting spreadof meanings – a sort of collectivedescription of an object that’s calleda folksonomy. The Steve project isan experiment in using thisphenomenon to engage peoplewith museum objects.

Social mediaInternet-based systems that allow people to share and discuss just about anything you can think of. Social networking sitessuch as Bebo and MySpace are the most familiar examples. Wikipedia, where encyclopaedia content is developed throughcollaborative effort, or SmugMug, dedicated to sharing and discussing images, are also examples of social media. There is abewildering array of offerings, each with its own demographic: both Facebook and LinkedIn have similar functions, but LinkedInfeels more sober and professional.

There’s no doubt that social media represent a genuinely new development in the way people communicate, and the way we needto think about publishing. But it’s all very new, and changing fast – which makes it hard to predict whether a particular projectusing social media will ‘work’. It’s also essential to understand that social media needs constant attention: as Nathan Williams, aspeaker at a recent Museums Association conference put it, ‘You don’t watch social media, you participate in it.’

PodcastA small presentation, a bit like a mini radio or TV programme, that can be played onan mp3 player such as an iPod or a mobile phone. Podcasts began as audio-only, butnow many include still or moving images. They’re ideal for listening to in the gym,out jogging, or on a train. Many people use them to listen to radio programmesthey’ve missed or want to listen to again.

Podcasts have interesting potential for interpretation, but people needto download them onto their player before their visit: how many of us do that sortof advance planning?

A cluster of tags (called a tag cloud) associated withthe Web 2.0 concept

‘If you feel tired, overheated oryour body is suffering from thirstafter a randy night, but your soul

agonises in self reproaches….’

The interpretive panel at theworld’s most northerly vineyard -

Sabiles in Latvia – certainlyprovoked our interest. Who could

resist reading on after suchan introduction?

A bus full of British interpreters (sevenbased in Scotland and one ‘border reiver’from Durham) had descended on Riga justas everyone else left the city for the StJohn’s Day (summer solstice) celebrations.Refusing to take this personally, andimpressed by everyone’s connection withnature / desire to have a party, we set outon a week’s exploration as part of theARCH Network ‘Innovation in Cultural andHeritage Interpretation’ study trip.

We had an excellent week, generouslyfunded by the Leonardo da Vinciprogramme, and hosted by Latvijas DabasMuzejs (the Latvian Natural HistoryMuseum) and the Latvian Nature Guides.

One of the highlights was the invite to jointhe annual Nature Guides training camp.This year the theme was the nature-basedSt John’s Day celebrations themselves. Itcertainly illustrated the strong connectionwith culture and land that exists for manyLatvians. I think our nearest Britishequivalent would be the traditional Beltanecelebrations, but it struck us that in Latviathe festival is very much a national event.Has the country’s history of occupationmade Latvians more determined to

celebrate their own culture? By thesame logic, has our relatively peacefulrecent history disconnected us from ournative cultures?

As usual it was the personal interpretation,delivered with good humour and backed bya deep and passionate knowledge of thelocal stories, which made the experience somuch more enjoyable. The nature guides’admirable ability to burst into spontaneousand unembarrassed song set them apartfrom most UK interpreters (well meat least!).

In case you were wondering, theconclusion to the panel at Sabiles was;‘Good wine is the safest way to make yourlife delightful and beautiful’

Cheers!

Paul Hibberd is Interpretation Officer withForestry Commission Scotlandpaul.hibberd@forestry.gsi.gov.uk

The ARCH network organises trips thatare open to anyone working in thenatural and cultural heritage sectorwithin Scotland.

Interpretingthe land of song Paul Hibberd describes a study trip to Latvia

Interpret Scotland: Issue 18January 2009

Insects get big in Latvia - the Bee Trail, Lauma Park

The Witch’s Trail, Gauja National Park

Find images on the webGetting hold of good quality images can be a nightmare for many interpretationprojects. A new web-based tutorial should make it a lot easier.

The tutorial has been prepared by TASI, an advisory service about digital imageryfunded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). Its remit is to supportthe Further and Higher Education communities, but some of TASI’s services are alsoopen to the cultural heritage sector.

The tutorial is free, and gives an easy to use and well-structured guide to findinggood images without wading through the morass of a Google image search. Mostimportantly, it emphasises the need to respect copyright conditions, and explains theopportunities offered by Creative Commons licences, which can make millions ofimages freely available for non-commercial use.

News

Interpret Scotland: Issue 18January 2009

The well-wired galleryTechnology is everywhere. TheMcManus Galleries and Museum inDundee is undergoing a multi-millionpound redevelopment, and when itre-opens the entire gallery will bewired for WiFi: the technology thatallows computers, games consolesand mobile phones to connect over awireless network.

This opens up all sorts of potential forthe future: the galleries might set upgames based around the collections;visitors can surf the web for abiography of a painter while they lookat their work; or they might just emaila friend to meet them for lunch in thecafé. Whatever happens, thesystemwill continue a long tradition of beingat the forefront of technology: theVictoria Galleries, added in 1889,became the first building in Dundee tohave electric light.

Our on-line Journal surveySue Atkinson reports on our survey about what you think of Interpret Scotland:One hundred people responded to the survey … many thanks if you were one of them.And apologies if you tried to respond but were locked out! We used Survey Monkey torun the survey, and as a rookie I was unaware of the ‘100 replies for free limit’ until itwas too late.

The survey gave us lots of useful information and suggestions which will influencefuture issues. It was heartening to learn that the majority of respondents supportedour enforced decision to end paper publishing of the Journal.

Underground visionA powerful new virtual reality system allows geologists to ‘see’ underground – andcould have exciting potential for future interpretation projects. GeoVisionary is theresult of a collaboration between the British Geological Survey and virtual realitydevelopers Virtalis. It uses data about both surface and underground rock formationsto visualise and interpret the landscape in ways that have never before been possible.

Using powerful computers and the most advanced graphics cards, the system canprovide three-dimensional views of the land beneath our feet, allowing users to ‘fly’through solid rock. You can see something of its potential in a feature on the BBC’sBritain From Above series.

The system has been developed largely to help geologists and other scientists in theirwork. But with a little more development, it has great potential for giving the public adramatic understanding of how the landscape works. Watch out for an undergroundflight at a visitor centre near you!

Heritage Educationweb resourcesLearning Teaching Scotland have justcreated a section on their websitefor members of the HeritageEducation Forum (HEF). HEF membersinclude education representativesfrom national heritage organizations,many of which are InterpretScotland members.

The aim is to provide better links forteachers to the heritage sector andits resources, and there are plans toprovide links to more heritageinformation from the HEF site overtime. The project is partly a resultof work prompted by the Curriculumfor Excellence to provide moreopportunities for schools to useheritage resources.