Culture Hack Day MCN


For the List of Data for Culture Hack Day MCN / THATCamp, please visit this page.

 

Scheduled:

Sat, 11/19/2011 - 9:00am - 3:30pm 

Room: International North

 

Submitter(s):

Name: Rachel Coldicutt

Title: Founder

Organization: Caper 

Name: Katy Beale 

Title: Founder

Organization: Caper 

 

Abstract:

The first Culture Hack Day in London in January 2012  brought together 12 cultural organisations with 3 media companies and over 100 software developers to make exciting cultural-digital products. To celebrate the theme of this year's conference, we'd like to recreate this and encourage attendees to engage in agile, iterative practices.

 

Bring along your museum's data - whether it's in a  CSV file, an open API or an RSS feed - and spend the day working in teams to create rapid prototypes and develop new creative ideas to make the next generation of tools, websites and applications.  Whether you're a developer, designer, produceror curator, you'll get the opportunity to create new products, enrich the museum sector and transform hidden data into exciting new applications. 

 

Culture Hack Day MCN is sponsored by the Balboa Park Online Collaborative (BPOC), the British Council, and THATCamp.

 

Session Description:

Culture Hack Day MCN will be an exciting day, full of creation, development and collaboration. The event will focus on collaborative working and rapid prototyping, embracing a range of disciplines from software development through to product development and fast, iterative design. 

 

What is a Hack Day?  

Pioneered by Yahoo! in the mid-2000s, Hack Days typically take place over a 24 to 48 hour period, creating an environment for intense creation and discovery and providing a platform for cross-discipline collaboration. Often attended by developers and creative technologists, Hack Days are a forum for making experimental products - away from the day-to-day business pressures and priorities - and invigorating attendees with creative energy and new outlooks that can help transform existing projects and be a seed-bed for entirely new products and creative opportunities. 

 

Why is it Relevant?  

Lots of museums and cultural organisations have data that is not yet exposed online, whether because the data sets are incomplete or uneven or because the organisational priorities have moved in different directions. By allowing developers and creative technologists access to these data sets and working across organisations, in collaborative multi-disciplinary teams, attendees will discover the potential for open data, the joy of rapid prototyping, and see the audience benefit of creating APIs and releasing linked open data. 

 

What Do I Need to Bring?  

Your ideas, a laptop, a pen and a piece of paper - plus programming skills if you have them (not essential).  Any API keys, data, links to data sources or physical artefacts that could be useful or inspiring - or just some good ideas and enthusiasm. 

 

What If I'm Not a Developer?  

A part of the Hack ethos is to develop rapid prototypes. If you work in digital content, user experience design or curation, then come prepared to work as part of a team to add your ideas to make new projects. They'll be an opportunity to do paper prototyping, brainstorm new ideas and network with interesting new colleagues - who knows what the day could lead to! 

 

What If I Am a Developer?  

Make sure you have access to your server space. And your laptop charger. 

 

What's the Format?  

Participants will be encouraged to share data and ideas ahead of the event, and then to work together - preferably with people and data from a range of disciplines and organisations over the course of the day. All groups will present their work to a judging panel, and the best Hacks will win category-based awards. 

 

I Have Data I Want to Share!  

Brilliant. Then send an email to hello@culturehackday.org.uk with the details. And if you've got questions, are worried about sharing data or just want to know more, then do the same. 

 

For the List of Data for Culture Hack Day MCN / THATCamp, please visit this page.

 

See you at the conference! 

 

Session Info

Type: Unconference session

Keywords:

Relevance: Curators, digital content teams, developers, designers, user-experience staff, cataloguers, records management - essentially anyone who makes Interactive things that help people to more easily discover or better understand culture(s). Hack Days are a great way to develop new digital products, to get to know your data and to discover the hidden treasures in other organisations' collections, as well as being a fast way to offer an adrenalin shot of creative energy and enthusiasm, and collaborative innovative working. In times of recession, this agile and iterative creative model become imperative if museums are to stay ahead of the curve and continue to engage audiences who have access to an ever-growing array of entertainment and discovery possibilities, as well as offering a valuable learning and development experience for all involved.