Saturday - from technology back to books

The case studies session on Saturday focused on Open Source software. Projects included the NMAI elaborate intranet, built using Mediwiki. It was pretty impressive; it had many similarities to Fletcher, but had a calendar feature that might be something for us to consider. Collections Space is another open source technology that was addressed. The highlight of all these presentation was the Omeka one, by Sharon and Sheila from CHNM. It was good to see the new version of Omeka, and their explanation of how different aspects of the system are meant to work was quite helpful. We also talked about the difference between Omeka and Drupal, which I found this especially helpful. The whole presentation made me want to work with Omeka,using a renewed focus. Sheila and Sharon are interested in either coming out to visit us or at least having a conference call in the future, after we have some time to play with the new version and get some more experience, hone our questions, etc. We concluded this very pleasant discussion agreeing to touch base after the new year. Obviously, I am happy to talk about this particular session in much greater detail.

My last session was Capturing the Past for the Future. Some very new technologies (most in R&D) were presented, and then the session brainstormed on how these could possibly be used by cultural heritage institutions. Considering what may come next was a good way to end the conference. Watch this for an example of my favorite potential future technology.

It was a good conference and a good experience; after it was over I went to the Library of
Congress and looked at some books.