Electric Telegraph to e-Scotland: Networking remote and rural communities

There are said to be parallels in the impact that the advent of the telegraph and the internet had on their respective societies. This chapter looks at two examples of state intervention and subsidy in the development of those two communications infrastructures in remote and rural areas of Scotland, at either end of the revolution in electric communications. Both applied the technology of the day to break down geographical barriers, to increase connectivity, to spread information, and to enhance social and business links. Both initiatives grew in part out of a government concern that Scotland should not fall behind the level of technological provision available in other European countries, thereby disadvantaging Scottish business as well as citizens (a comparison with the state-owned telegraph systems in Belgium, Switzerland and France informed the 1868 Telegraph Act, and the development of a broadband infrastructure across a range of European Union countries has been quoted by the Scottish Government). The emphasis in both cases was on affordable wide-ranging availability to benefit individuals as much as business, though with an understanding that business needs would be the driver and would provide the bulk of the finance to establish and maintain the infrastructure. The first was a product of nationalisation with the expansion of the telegraph network from 1870 to 1872 driven by demand. Following is an analysis of that demand and its impact, alongside a description of the development of the network across remote and rural areas over the two years of the scheme. The second examines the rationales behind Scottish Government initiatives since 2001 to extend broadband provision and outlines the technical solutions devised in partnership with commercial operators and funding bodies to reach non-commercially viable areas and to stimulate take up

TIM, PAT and ISAAC: synthetic speech on display at the National Museum of Scotland

In its communications gallery, staff at National Museums Scotland were keen to include a fundamental of human communication – speech. This paper will outline a display of speech mediated by machines, from the experiments first speaking clock to the now omnipresent synthetic voices of devices of satnavs and smoke alarms. It will explore how the Museum might approach collecting apps and devices to enhance communication for people with no voice and limited mobility. I hope this presentation will form part of this conference's later discussions to explore not only what museums collect, but how that material can be interpreted for diverse audiences. This paper attempts to set out how National Museums Scotland (NMS) tackled the issue of displaying speech in a gallery on communication. We chose to do so through speech mediated by machines. Today I will show you how we approached this and also include a few examples of speech related objects in other museums, as an indication of what can be, and what has been, collected, as well as examples of what is still to be collected

Collecting contemporary science, technology and medicine.

Museums are often associated exclusively with bygones. This can be problematic, especially for those who manage science, technology and medicine (STM) collections. In seeking to correct this misconception with contemporary collecting, they also face other problems, especially in scale and complexity. While acknowledging such challenges, this opinion piece proposes opportunities afforded by the material culture of recent STM. Contemporary material can be used to tell stories as well as explain technicalities; it can connect with visitors using everyday objects and put 'difficult' material into context. Against the backdrop of practice and publications from across the sector, we present examples from the redisplay at the National Museum of Scotland in 2016, and from our current collecting initiatives. We thereby bring our perspective on the current state-of-play in STM collecting to the attention of the wider museum sector, drawing scattered practices together and weaving in our own. This is a text only version of the article, to see the full images please go to the publisher website

A logical layer to interpret user interactions

Some computing user interfaces include a large number of user-selectable options which can make it difficult for a user to locate the right option. Another frequent user interface problem is inadvertent or unintended invocation of actions, e.g., by selection of an incorrect icon from two icons placed close to each other. In some user interfaces, simple actions sometimes require a disproportionately tedious sequence of interactions. This disclosure introduces a layer between the user and the application such that user commands or interactions are interpreted in light of past interactions, and corrected, filtered or automated as appropriate. Past interactions are utilized, and interpretation or corrective action is performed only upon permission from the user. For ease of interaction, such permission is obtained, e.g., at initial setup, and is modifiable

One model for the care of corporate heritage: The BT Connected Earth partnership in practice since 2002

Connected Earth is a web based museum of the history of communication,underpinned by a series of major physical collections, distributed among a network of museums around the UK. It represents a £6 million investment by BT (British Telecommunications plc), to promote the widest possible access to its collections of historical artefacts, while ensuring proper standards of care for the collections. Following the closure of the BT Museum in London in 1997, the object collections had been unavailable to the public for several years. The idea of creating a museum on the internet, supported by the distribution of the physical collections to a network of UK museums was first discussed in 2000 and launched in April 2002. The vision was that Connected Earth would provide: · UK wide access to a national, distributed collection for research and interpretation · collections, exhibitions and curatorial posts endowed by BT, but managed in partnership with museum professionals · An engineering, social and economic history of the industry accessible to a wide audience. · The preservation of key artefacts for future generations

Terminology and Public Access: Developing a thesaurus of telecommunication object names

The presentation will outline plans for the development of a terminology database for use by both a specialist and general audience. It will examine work carried out to date to create a classification system which both specialist and non-specialist groups can use to access the Connected Earth collections, and then look at plans to expand this to create a thesaurus of telecommunication terms which can be used both as a museum cataloguing tool and as a public search aid to access information on the collections

Connecting collections through the congruence engine

Like all museums, what we have on display at any one time barely scratches the surface of the 12 million objects in our collection. We try to make these collections more accessible to as many people as possible. So we’re excited to be part of a newly launched partnership of organisations exploring how we can tell more connected stories about the important objects we care for

Cybraphon: collecting the physical or the digital at National Museums Scotland?

In 2013, National Museums Scotland collected Cybraphon, an interactive autonomous internetconnected robot band, created in 2009 by artists’ collective and musicians FOUND. Cybraphon obsessively Googles itself every 15 seconds to see how popular it is. All Cybraphon activity rests in the hands of the online community and as such provides a means of displaying online social interaction in a unique way, manifested through an object. It captures its makers’ interest in social media interaction at a point in time, 2009, when the phenomenon was still relatively new. This case study will provide background on the making of Cybraphon and then explore the Museum’s approach and the audience reaction to this experimental foray into social media ‘collecting’

Electric telegraph to e-Scotland:nNetworking remote and rural communities

There are said to be parallels in the impact that the advent of the telegraph and the internet had on their respective societies. This chapter looks at two examples of state intervention and subsidy in the development of those two communications infrastructures in remote and rural areas of Scotland, at either end of the revolution in electric communications. Both applied the technology of the day to break down geographical barriers, to increase connectivity, to spread information, and to enhance social and business links. Both initiatives grew in part out of a government concern that Scotland should not fall behind the level of technological provision available in other European countries, thereby disadvantaging Scottish business as well as citizens (a comparison with the state-owned telegraph systems in Belgium, Switzerland and France informed the 1868 Telegraph Act, and the development of a broadband infrastructure across a range of European Union countries has been quoted by the Scottish Government). The emphasis in both cases was on affordable wide-ranging availability to benefit individuals as much as business, though with an understanding that business needs would be the driver and would provide the bulk of the finance to establish and maintain the infrastructure. The first was a product of nationalisation with the expansion of the telegraph network from 1870 to 1872 driven by demand. Following is an analysis of that demand and its impact, alongside a description of the development of the network across remote and rural areas over the two years of the scheme. The second examines the rationales behind Scottish Government initiatives since 2001 to extend broadband provision and outlines the technical solutions devised in partnership with commercial operators and funding bodies to reach non-commercially viable areas and to stimulate take up