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Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

Hey Wayne:  Remember our experiment with doing this four years ago  
with Connections?  It was pretty fruitful, yielded some good ideas. I  
think you participated some, maybe not.  We had 20 or 30 folks from  
all around the world for a little while. We also thought the idea of  
open source exhibition development would be useful, but there are a  
few caveats:

1) There is so much stuff out there for people to do that you need to  
create some sort of incentive.  We offered ipods, as I recall, for  
the most substantive poster and the most frequent poster (they turned  
out to be the same person).
2) Is the stuff you are creating really open source?  Is Onomy going  
to create something under the "copyleft" license ( http://www.gnu.org/ 
copyleft/copyleft.html )? I know that several of the most innovative  
pieces we commissioned for connections we licensed from the artist  
under traditional copyright rules. They certainly don't allow for the  
pieces to be given away and for the source code to be modified/added  
to, as is required by the open source movement.  From the artists  
point of view, the R&D they did for a piece in Connections was part  
of their stock in trade for the next piece that they might do.
3) We gave specific challenges.  For example, we wanted to create an  
"analog analogy" of emergent systems.  Some cool ideas came up (we  
tried building a series of pole magnets mounted in an array).

The best thing about this approach is that we were introduced to some  
good creative minds who were willing to share ideas, but it fell far  
short of the "open source" model that has had a few runaway  
successes.  There is a whole fascinating dynamic to those successes  
that has been explored in some of the literature on emergent systems  
and "tipping points."  I could dig up some references about the  
social dynamics of open source development if you are interested.

See you in a couple of days!


Eric Siegel
Executive VP
    Programs and Planning
NY Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street
Queens, NY 11368
www.nyscience.org

On Oct 12, 2005, at 4:03 PM, WAYNE LABAR wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology  
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related  
> institutions.
> ********************************************************************** 
> *******
>
> Hello all,
>
> As I hope to see many of you at the upcoming conference, I am able  
> to provide a link to a new project that has been initiated.  This  
> project is called the Exhibit Commons
>
> Information can be found at our new site (some bugs still being  
> worked on) which is:
>
> www.exhibitcommons.org
>
> The idea, taken from the phenomena that is occurring across the  
> world, is to open up some of the exhibits we are developing and  
> allow the general public to develop, design, create an imagine new  
> ways of operating, new content, whole new directions. In other  
> words allow the public to play with our toys. Rather than run from  
> the power that the general public now has at their fingertips we  
> hope to embrace the fact that we live in a world that has the power  
> to interpret what we do. Through the Exhibit Commons we hope to  
> offer a chance to work with This new energy.
>
>
> Although the exhibits in the Commons are Liberty Science Center  
> exhibits now, we are looking for other science centers and museums  
> who would like to experiment with This concept. We hope to make the  
> site a nexus of links to things such as This. Since many of our  
> exhibits are part of our expansion it will be a couple of years  
> till This really sees the exhibition floor, but we hope to engage  
> the public and field in making it work from the very get go - i.e.  
> right now.
>
> I look forward to your comments which can be emailed to me  
> directly. Be aware I get the ASTC Listserv in digest form so I  
> don't see entries very quickly.
>
> Wayne
>
>
>
> Wayne J LaBar
> Vice President, Exhibitions and Theaters
> Liberty Science Center
> 251 Phillip Street
> Liberty State Park
> Jersey City, NJ 07305
>
> voice: 201.451.0006 x-347
> fax: 201.451.7046
>
> ********************************************************************** 
> *
> More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
> Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http:// 
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