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HANDSCAPE - Handheld Access to the Museum Landscape

Mobile Computing and Wireless Networking Technologies in Museums

Call for Expressions of Interest in Participation

14 February 2001

CIMI is pleased to announce The Handscape Project, developing means
for using handheld devices to provide mobile access both to
innovative and legacy services in a wireless networking environment.

CIMI members are invited to participate in this project. Museums
that are not currently members of this organization will be eligible
for participation in Handscape if they commit to joining CIMI.
Information about CIMI and how to join is found at:

http://www.cimi.org

Handscape is funded by The Intel Corporation's Committee for
University Sponsored Research Applications, Interface and Media
(AIM Committee). The first year of the proposed three-year
project has been approved with the remaining two years pending an
evaluation of the initial results.

A full description of the project is provided at:

http://www.cimi.org/public_docs/Handscape_long_desc.doc

This was modified somewhat during the finalization of the
application to Intel. In addition to the concepts developed in
the cited project description, Handscape will pay close attention
to research being conducted by the Cornell University Digital
Library/Computer Science program and the Cornell Human-Computer
Interface Group (HCI).

In particular, these bodies have produced two software prototypes
that appear to have direct relevance to mobile computer-mediated
museum visitor experiences. One is a JAVA application that allows
the posting and receiving of context-aware notes. This could, for
example, be used in museum tours where specific notes pop-up at
relevant locations or times or allowing visitors to post notes for
others on their impressions or reactions to specific locations or
events. A second prototype involves the use of SyncML
<http://www.syncml.org/> to allow synchronization and updating of
information between a centralized museum database and hand-held
devices. The combination of these prototypes and ones to be
developed by the participants will allow the exploration of new
applications that go beyond what museums have been experimenting
with to date.

A further important contribution is from the HCI group. HCI will
be contracted to work with CIMI over the life of the research
project to develop the evaluative framework and usage scenarios
for testing. HCI participation is core as they are knowledgeable
about social navigation and context-aware issues. This is
essential as Handscape's interests are more in usage and patterns
of user behavior than in an engineering exercise or
experimentation with novel devices.

Handscape will also be taking an inventory of pre-existing
intiatives within its area of concern, ensuring that the project
is conducted in cognizance of as much other relevant research and
experimentation as can be identified. In addition to avoiding the
inadvertent repetition of efforts already in progress, this will
establish a basis for the extension of earlier action through
Handscape's resources.

It is currently expected that up to 4 participants will be
selected on the basis of their abilities to contribute
intellectually, their experiences with mobile technologies and
methodologies, and a commitment to fulfill obligations of
participation. The participants will explore the understanding of
mobile computer-mediated museum experiences involving
context-aware delivery of information and social navigation.
These experiments are expected to involve a cross-department
museum team of technologists, educators, new media, and content
specialists and represent a range of interesting projects. The
budgetary and temporal constraints under which at least the
initial phase of Handscape will be conducted, render it likely
that participants will be expanding the scope of work already in
progress, rather than initiating completely new applications.

Members interested in participating in the Handscape project
should send an expression of this interest via e-mail to
Cary Karp <[log in to unmask]>, CIMI Project Manager, by no later than
February 24, 2001. This should include the name of the
institution and contact person as well as a description of the
innovative aspects of the proposal, the target groups, the
networking technologies to be used, the mobile devices to be
employed, the nature of the information resources to be developed
or adapted, and any other information deemed relevant to the
evaluation of the proposal.

Shortlisted potential candidates will be called to a meeting that
will be collocated with the Museums and the Web 2001 Conference in
Seattle, March 14-17, 2001. Its purpose will be to examine the
potential for reinforcement of Handscape's value by collaborative
action on issues that may be shared by several proposals. The
deadline for the submission of the final detailed proposals may be
discussed during that meeting but is currently set for the end of
the following week, on March 23.

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