This is the second of the daily updates of the Cultures Connected:  Automating
Museums in the Americas and Beyond conferences, being held in Washington, D. C.
this week.
 
  Monday (Aug 29) started off with opening remarks and a keynote address
delivered in the auditorium of the Rennaisance Hotel.  Among the speakers were
Jim Blackaby, Mary Case and Yanni Herreman, with portions delivered in Spanish.
  "Culturas Conectadas", a poem by Jose Amozurrutia, of Mexico, was read, and
has been posted seperately to CIDOC-L.
  After a break for coffee, the planned sessions were under way.  Among the
first of the events was "Cultural Heritage Documentation Centers", held in the
auditorium so that its translating facilities could be used.  Many interesting
presentations were made, only a few of which were:  Maria Ismenia Toledo's talk
on information exchange in Venezuela, Angel Alejandro Borque's description of
the Argentinian plan for dealing with dialectic differences among spannish
speaking regions, Pat Young's update on what CHIN is doing, and Robin Thornes's
address regarding the battle against the illicit trade of cultural objects.
  Meanwhile, in one of the smaller meeting rooms, Jim Blackaby explained an
interesting experiment done with Historical Societies in New Hampshire.  This
was within the context of "Cultures Connected...And Beyond", at which several
others also spoke.
  Elsewhere, conference attendees heard about the special problems involved in
the documentation and categorization of contemporary art objects, in "Sharing
Information:  On Contemporary Art".
  After a break, during which a luncheon was served, the afternoon sessions
commenced.  At "Documentation Issues in the Integration of Image and Text",
Helene Roberts put it best, when she said, "A picture is worth a thousand
words...and if you're going to catelogue that picture, you'll need every one of
them."  Following this, Jennifer Trant clearly demonstrated that (in her words)
"Without standards, we are lost adrift in a sea of references...without a
reference point."
  Most unfortunately, Donna Romer was unable to attend.  On her behalf Michael
Ester summarized some of the key points she had planned to address, such as the
vast differences between how the "commercial world" wants images documented and
how academia has traditionally handled image documentation.  John Perkins,
Project Manager for CIMI, then spoke about "Project CHIO:  Cultural Heritage
Information Online", stressing the need to look first to the user model when
developing interchange standards.
  Also during this time, "The Diffusion of Knowledge:  A botanical model"
examined, among other issues, the movement, by many herbaria, to commit their
specimen data to automated form in the light of the loss of or changes to
biodiversity across the globe.
  Later in the afternoon, conference-goers attended "Sharing Information:  On
Terminology", in which the efforts to develop a consistant system for the
translation of terminology were examined.
  During the afternoon, "Progress Reports and Projects" parts I, II and III,
addressed a collection of issues.  Included among the talks given were a
description of the Institute of Computer Science: Heraklion's examination of
object-oriented models for database design, and a look into the sometimes absurd
conditions museums in the Netherlands must work within, due to changing
copyright laws in Europe.
  To conclude the day's events, everyone went over to the National Museum of
American History to hear about some of the Smithsonian's forward-looking plans
for making their holdings more available to the general public through various
interactive and multimedia means.  This was followed by an evening buffet that
was enjoyed in the appropriate surroundings of the Information Age exhibition
gallery.
 
A few people have approached Cary Karp to thank him for these updates, and he
has asked me to fess up, as Cary is *not* the one posting this.  The last post
had his name on it because I sent it to the list through him, for various
reasons.  I (Glenn Frazier), though not permanently associated with ICOM, CIDOC,
MCN or the Smithsonian Institute, am working as a volunteer, along with Bill
Buick from the Smithsonian Institution, National Zoological Park, to put
together these updates.  The creation of CIDOC-L, though, is entirely Cary's
doing, and all credit for it should go to him, if anyone.