IT Challenge Fund
Introduction
The aim of the Challenge Fund was to encourage innovation in the
application of new technologies to museums, and the
documentation and evaluation provide a fascinating and valuable
insight for anyone considering how ICT can be applied in their
museum. The Fund ran for 18 months between 1999 and 2001, and
provided £500,000 to 11 projects. Each project was developed in
collaboration between three or more partners.
Guidelines on the management and implementation
of ICT projects
At the end of the Challenge Fund, MLA funded a summative
evaluation project aimed at drawing together all of the
experiences of the project managers. This project produced a
series of evaluation reports, which have now been edited to
create a guidance document called 'ICT Projects - Management and Implementation'.
The guidelines provide simple, practical advice on the following
areas of implementing an ICT project:
- Addresssing the ICT Skills Gap
- Content Creation for the Web
- Partnership & collaborative working
- Working with Communities
- Project Management and ICT
The real value of these guidelines lies in the fact that they
have been developed from the experiences of people implementing
ICT-based projects in museums. You can download them in the
following formats:
ICT Projects - Management
and Implementation : a guideline - PDF 543Kb
ICT Projects -
Management and Implementation : a guideline - Word 276Kb
ICT Projects - Management
and Implementation : a guideline - RTF 285Kb
The guidelines have been published in electronic form only.
These guidelines are published with thanks to the following:
- Roger Drage, Jewels of Milton Keynes project
- Andrew Alvarez, Three-Cornered Gallery project
- Fiona Henderson, Planes, Tools, Automobiles project
- Dr Alex Smith, Romans in Sussex project
Outcomes
The IT Challenge Fund enabled museums to participate in the
vision for ICT services outlined in the 1999 report Netful of
Jewels: New Museums in the Learning Age, commissioned by the
National Museum Directors Conference in association with the
Museums & Galleries Commission and MDA.
Each project involved three or more Registered museums to develop
online material under four broad themes:
- support for lifelong learning
- support for collaborative working
- development of interactive and participatory services
- creation of innovative applications for new technologies
Individual Projects
Cornwall Heritage Access Information Network (CHAIN)
http://www.penleehouse.org.uk/chain/chain.htm
The CHAIN project created a portal website to enable access to
collections information for five museums in the Cornwall area.
Users can access information about the Royal Cornwall Museum
(lead organisation), Penlee House Art Gallery & Museum,
Falmouth Art Gallery, Wheal Martyn Museum and North Cornwall
Community Heritage Service.
CHAIN has also arranged to become part of the South West Grid for
Learning through Cornwall County Council, providing vital
content for CCC's intranet and making use of the high speed
links that CCC is establishing for schools and colleges in the county.
Darwin Country
http://www.darwincountry.org
The Darwin Country project has created a database-driven website
containing over 1000 pages of information on scientific,
technological and social developments in the area covered by the
Shrewsbury Museums Service in partnership with the Wedgwood
Museum and Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.
The website makes use of innovative technology to deliver an
extraordinary depth of information. It is among the first museum
sites to have been listed with the National Grid for Learning.
East West Central
The East West Central project created an online resource bringing
together the collections of the three London-based partner
museums - the London Transport Museum, the Ragged School Museum
and the Grange Museum of Community History. These museums have
very different collections and are each located in distinct
parts of the city, but have been able to collaborate online to
create an extraordinary richness and diversity of content.
Jewels of Milton Keynes
http://www.mkheritage.co.uk
The Jewels of Milton Keynes project has created a portal website
enabling access to online information about the collections of
the Milton Keynes Museum, Cowper & Newton Museum, the Old
Gaol Museum and the other members of the Milton Keynes Heritage
Association. An additional 'Jewels' section has been created to
highlight special features of the collections.
Netting the Bay
http://www.nettingthebay.org.uk
Netting the Bay is an interactive, multimedia website which
captures the fishing history, social history, natural history
and ecology of Morecambe Bay, the Irish Sea and beyond. The
project is being carried out by Fleetwood Museum (part of
Lancashire County Museums) in partnership with Lancaster
Maritime Museum and the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside.
North Devon on Disk
http://www.ex.ac.uk/northdevonondisk
North Devon on Disk is a joint project between North Devon
District Council, Torridge District Council, the Beaford Centre,
Devon County Council, Pallas (Humanities Computing) University
of Exeter and other groups.
The website enables museums, archives, libraries, schools and
community groups to build up an interactive, computer-based
archive of historical and contemporary information, based around
the fascinating collections of Northern Devon's 10 local
authority and independent museums.
Planes, Tools and Automobiles
http://www.virtualgallery.org.uk
The Planes, Tools and Automobiles project has created an
interactive website which enables users to create their own
virtual online exhibitions using collections information and
images from the Midland Air Museum, Hebert Art Gallery &
Museum and the Museum of British Road Transport.
Romans in Sussex
http://www.romansinsussex.co.uk
The Romans in Sussex project has created an educational website
which provides an in-depth look into how people may have lived
in the Sussex region during the later Iron Age, the Roman
period, and early Anglo-Saxon times. The website is targeted at
three specific groups, 9-11 year-olds, 12-16 year-olds and those
in Higher Education and features a fully-searchable database of
information, images and resources.
Three Cornered Gallery
http://www.3corneredgallery.com
The Three-Cornered Gallery brings together images and information
from Wolverhampton Art Gallery, the Sainsbury Centre for Visual
Arts and the Wallace Collection into a searchable online
database. The website also provides themed 'trails' through the
information as well as educational interactives.
Victorians in London
The Victorians project created an extensive online educational
resource focusing on various aspects of the Victorian era in
London including transport, health, commerce and the army. The
information has been derived from existing paper-based resources
within a large number of London museums, and includes
downloadable worksheets and activities.
Virtually the Ice Age
http://www.creswell-crags.org.uk/virtuallytheiceage
The Virtually the Ice Age project has created a substainable
lifelong learning resource centred on the Ice Age archeology of
the Creswell Heritage Area. The website provides virtual access
to the caves at Creswell Crags and encourage visitors to explore
the Ice Age remains stored within a wide range of museums across England.
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