ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Dear ASTC-ers,

I want to invite you to get involved with an exhibit development  
process project I've been working on for several months.

Have you ever found yourself sitting across the table from an exhibit  
developer who can't read your blueprints, or an exhibit designer who  
can't convey the core idea of an exhibit?  As the divide between  
"developer" and "designer" increases, and as more museums are relying  
on outside designers to implement their exhibits, we often end up  
with communication disconnects where the "content" person and the  
"design" person can't work together productively.

Here at The Tech Museum of Innovation, we've been trying out a new  
way to address this divide and to get away from describing exhibits  
either in words or technical specs.  We're using the 3D virtual world  
of Second Life to bring people together to collaborate on exhibit  
prototypes real-time.  While Second Life isn't as robust a design  
package as an Autocad or 3D Studio Max, it's an environment where you  
can quickly convey your ideas in 3D, even if you don't have previous  
computer design skills.  That means that educators can put together a  
3D display to show how they feel the pieces should interrelate, floor  
staff can contribute a fun interaction, designers can adjust color  
palettes and sizes on the fly... and everyone can work together on a  
shared 3D representation of the exhibit in progress.  It's a social  
environment, meaning that you and I can talk real-time as we design,  
and the building tools are simple enough that we can make meaningful  
progress in a single session.  It's a prototyping tool that people  
who don't have CAD skills etc. can really use.

So far, The Tech has been running this project for two months, and  
we've been encouraging members of the Second Life community to design  
their own exhibits with us.  We're taking the best of these virtual  
collaborations and turning them into concept designs for real  
exhibits we're building this spring (to open in June--which means a 5  
month concept-to-floor design cycle).  Second Life has allowed us to  
work faster, take ideas from a wider group of people, and make  
prototyping (something that's getting value-engineered out of many  
museums) available to everyone.

We'd like to invite you to join us--either to develop your own  
exhibits or to try your hand by getting involved with ours.  While  
we've been focusing on generating exhibit prototypes for upcoming  
Tech exhibits, our grant provides money to support helping other  
museums check out this process as well.  We can hand-hold you through  
an introduction to Second Life, and we can help you get started  
brainstorming and developing exhibits with our community of  
interested creative, museum-energized Second Life exhibit designers.   
We functionally can subsidize free contractor time with creative  
exhibit developers working on your projects and challenges, and if  
you want to get deeply involved, we have some residency opportunities  
for paid work in this space.

If you would like to try this out or would like more information  
about this project, please contact me.  I know that all the press  
about Second Life can make it seem threatening or over-hyped.  But  
while it may not yet be a slam-dunk as a visitor experience venue, I  
do believe it's a great place to test out new ideas, to share a  
common concept design language across educators, designers,  
developers, fabricators, and visitors.  And we'd love to do that with  
you, too.

Nina

408.795.6267
[log in to unmask]
Second Life: Avi Marquez



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