Open Exhibits will develop a library of extensible software modules for all major platforms that exhibit developers can configure in almost unlimited ways. Built using the popular Adobe Flash and Flex authoring tools, museum professionals will be able to creative innovative floor and Web-based exhibits more easily and inexpensively.
Project Partners
Open Exhibits is a collaboration between Ideum and the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), this planned project also has three museum partners: The Don Harrington Discovery Center, the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, and New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Research and evaluation will be conducted by Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI) and Rockman et. al.
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What is Open Source?
"Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in."
Modules and Templates
The heart of Open Exhibits is innovative professionally designed modules that can act as building blocks for creating new exhibits. Templates will allow novices to create their own floor or Web exhibits. While universal modules will allow more advanced developers to connect to online collections, play multimedia, read RSS feeds, connect to Web services to create mashups, and more. Modules and templates will be touch and multitouch enabled.
Practical and open
Since most developers of computer-based interactive exhibits use Adobe Flash, it makes sense that Open Exhibits does too. All modules are authored in Flash while templates will use Adobe’s Open Source Flex framework.
Multi-Platform
Mac, PC, or Linux, Open Exhibits will be available on each platform. This flexibility will not only expand the number of potential developers but it also gives museums many alternatives when it comes to hardware.
A Community of Practice
Support and community of Open Exhibits users is planned for this site pending funding. OpenExhibits.org will have screencasts, Wiki documentation, research findings, forums, and of course software. This site will be a place for Open Exhibits developers.
Applied Research
Understanding the most effective practices in computer interactive exhibit design is essential the success of Open Exhibits. We’ve planned a series of rapid prototyping sessions, we’ll be publishing the results here.
Plays Well with Others
Open Exhibits is part of a larger open source movement in the museum field. We’ve sought out advisors from the other museum open source initiatives (Open Collection, Omeka, and Pachyderm) to help make all of these tools more interoperable and more effective.