Cross-posted from the Open Exhibits blog. Great news about a new museum, collections software initiative.

We are excited to announce a new partnership between The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, Ideum (makers of Open Exhibits)  and the University of Connecticut’s Digital Media Center.

Our organizations have been awarded a National Leadership Grant for Museums from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences to extend two open museum platforms: Open Exhibits and Omeka.  (A full list of awardees can be found on the IMLS website.)

The project is called Omeka Everywhere. This new initiative will help keep Open Exhibits free and open for the next three years (our NSF Funding ended last month). In addition, a set of new initiatives for Open Exhibits and Omeka are planned. Here is a brief description of the project.

Dramatically increasing the possibilities for visitor access to collections, Omeka Everywhere will offer a simple, cost-effective solution for connecting onsite web content and in-gallery multi-sensory experiences, affordable to museums of all sizes and missions, by capitalizing on the strengths of two successful collections-based open-source software projects: Omeka and Open Exhibits.

Currently, museums are expected to engage with visitors, share content, and offer digitally-enabled experiences everywhere: in the museum, on the Web, and on social media networks. These ever-increasing expectations, from visitors to museum administrators, place a heavy burden on the individuals creating and maintaining these digital experiences. Content experts and museum technologists often become responsible for multiple systems that do not integrate with one another. Within the bounds of tight budget, it is increasingly difficult for institutions to meet visitors’ expectations and to establish a cohesive digital strategy. Omeka Everywhere will provide a solution to these difficulties by developing a set of software packages, including Collections Viewer templates, mobile and touch table applications, and the Heist application, that bring digital collections hosted in Omeka into new spaces, enabling new kinds of visitor interactions.

Omeka Everywhere will expand audiences for museum-focused publicly-funded open source software projects by demonstrating how institutions of all sizes and budgets can implement next-generation computer exhibit elements into current and new exhibition spaces. Streamlining the workflows for creating and sharing digital content with online and onsite visitors, the project will empower smaller museums to rethink what is possible to implement on a shoestring budget. By enabling multi-touch and 3D interactive technologies on the museum floor, museums will reinvigorate interest in their exhibitions by offering on-site visitors unique experiences that connect them with the heart of the institution—their collections.

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