I would check out the Swedish African Museums program at www.samp.org their web site is absolute crap, but the director Elisabet has connections all over Africa and she would be able to put you in contact with people who have implemented various and sundry IT projects.
As a master's student of museum studies and an intern who is working for a company that produces similiar devices, I have to agree with most posts: the tech isn't really new, nor is the idea, and human guides are desirable in many situations. However a digital guide provides many more possibilities of user accessibility and interpretation: information can be distributed in many languages, text, audio, video etc, this is imporatant for persons with disabilities. The content can be tailored to provide alternate interpreations, this is especially important for ethnographic exhibitions where the point of view of the institution often differs from that of the source community.
For the tech, the company I work with produces guides that are gps enabled, others that allow you to use your own device, and more that take you through an interactive game which is part tour part treasure hunt and part RPG. We are currently building a guide which is user updateable wiki style so that a visitor can post their own interpretations/images/soundbytes etc for others to see/hear, again not a new idea, but any way.
That said the technology is currently lagging and lugging a gameboy or even a palm around is a problem. More so the screens are too small and touch screens can be a problem for persons with low vision or arthritis. In addition digital guides increase user interaction with the exhibitions and allow them to move at their own pace; they can decrease visitor interactions with each other, as each visitor is a self-contained unit rather than a group of interacting individuals.
As always it is a give and take situation. Additionally museums must consider cost, one full time human guide costs as much per year to maintain (salary, benefits, etc) as it does to custom produce a small "fleet" of digital guides. The finance situation of the cultural sector is dismal and we will be, and are, seeing fewer and fewer human guides. Hopefully more museums will be making use of such technologies to maintain visitor comprehension, or they willl cease to be relevant.
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I would check out the Swedish African Museums program at www.samp.org their web site is absolute crap, but the director Elisabet has connections all over Africa and she would be able to put you in contact with people who have implemented various and sundry IT projects.
Jacob
As a master's student of museum studies and an intern who is working for a company that produces similiar devices, I have to agree with most posts: the tech isn't really new, nor is the idea, and human guides are desirable in many situations. However a digital guide provides many more possibilities of user accessibility and interpretation: information can be distributed in many languages, text, audio, video etc, this is imporatant for persons with disabilities. The content can be tailored to provide alternate interpreations, this is especially important for ethnographic exhibitions where the point of view of the institution often differs from that of the source community.
For the tech, the company I work with produces guides that are gps enabled, others that allow you to use your own device, and more that take you through an interactive game which is part tour part treasure hunt and part RPG. We are currently building a guide which is user updateable wiki style so that a visitor can post their own interpretations/images/soundbytes etc for others to see/hear, again not a new idea, but any way.
That said the technology is currently lagging and lugging a gameboy or even a palm around is a problem. More so the screens are too small and touch screens can be a problem for persons with low vision or arthritis. In addition digital guides increase user interaction with the exhibitions and allow them to move at their own pace; they can decrease visitor interactions with each other, as each visitor is a self-contained unit rather than a group of interacting individuals.
As always it is a give and take situation. Additionally museums must consider cost, one full time human guide costs as much per year to maintain (salary, benefits, etc) as it does to custom produce a small "fleet" of digital guides. The finance situation of the cultural sector is dismal and we will be, and are, seeing fewer and fewer human guides. Hopefully more museums will be making use of such technologies to maintain visitor comprehension, or they willl cease to be relevant.