Os4 Museums

Open Source for Museum Professionals

Who Am I?
Rob Stephenson
biologist Curator, Tech Virtual

What is Open Source? When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. … freedom to distribute copies … (and charge for this service if you wish), … (to) receive source code, … (to) change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs…. - GNU Public License Powerful, reliable software and improved technology are useful byproducts of freedom, but the freedom to have a community is important in its own right. - Richard Stallman Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Defined

FOSS/Open Source Principles
Freedom to use
Freedom to redistribute
Freedom to adapt and improve
Freedom to release improvements, so entire community benefits
Obligation to contribute back to the community

Sharing and Collaboration are Basic Human Values

Open Source Museum Exhibits

Links
http://TheTechVirtual.org
The Tech Virtual in Second Life: on The Tech Island
Me: Rob Stephenson, rstephenson@thetech.org

Museums in a Virtual World - Are You Serious?
Is this:
A scientific experiment?
A commercial venture?
A joke?
Chasing a fad?

Why The Tech Museum is in Second Life
Access and interaction. Reaching visitors that can’t come to San José.
Rapid prototyping. Using SL’s 3-D tools to test exhibit concepts, gallery designs.
Open source design. Teams of strangers compete to design exhibits. We choose the best and build them for the real museum.

Access and Interaction

Rapid Prototyping 1 2 3 4

The Story of an Open Source Museum Exhibit

Exhibit Creation Process idea & sketch museum floor Virtual thetechvirtual.org Second Life EOD

Economics
Currently funded by a grant from Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.
Cost of building one new interactive exhibit:
$40,000 US 6 months SL/Open Source $60,000 US 18 months Traditional method

The Future
Rapid exhibit turnover
More modular exhibits
A bazaar for exhibit ideas
An open source exhibit economy

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. To view a copy of this license, visit http: //creativecommons .org/licenses/by/2.0 or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

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