Electronic RFPs, Please.

I recently completed an RFP that requested six paper copies in addition to a digital version of the proposal. Why not just skip the multiple paper copies and eliminate the rigamarole involved with collating and FedExing and just accept electronically submitted PDFs?

It seems to me there are only two arguments against this modest proposal:

1) "Making people go through the process of preparing multiple paper copies of PDFs shows that they are serious about submitting." The previous statement is actually a paraphrase from a museum person, made when I suggested that electronic/PDF responses be allowed. I don't think I could summarize how mindless much of the PDF process is better than that.

2) PDFs of finished submissions with graphics and images will be too large to easily send electronically. Well that's a bogus excuse, and here's why: YouSendIt.

YouSendIt is a service that lets you easily transmit large files (up to 100 MB, using the free version) without any FTP hassles or email bouncebacks.

Even though a standard of Electronic RFPs might not happen anytime soon, you can put YouSendIt to good use in your own workstream today.

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Exhibit Design Resource: TheGameStore.com

For a recent exhibit project, I needed to prototype a set of "spinners" (the rotating arrow devices found in a million board games.) I could have mickey moused something out of laminated cardstock or Sintra, but instead I ordered a set of DIY plastic spinner arrows from TheGameStore.com.

Why buy something (albeit a cheap something) instead of just mocking it up with duct tape and string? Two reasons: 1) I wasn't going to be around to "babysit" the temporary prototype to make "wear and tear" repairs on the fly for the client, and 2) The pieces I bought from the "Game Parts" section of GameStore's website can ultimately be used in the final version of the exhibit component. I love making good stuff cheap!

Have fun nosing around The GameStore.com website. I'm sure tucked in amongst the dice, timers, and spinners you'll find something useful for your next project!


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Exhibit Design Resource: Nature Rocks

Richard Louv, the author of Last Child in the Woods, contends that many kids have "nature-deficit disorder." That is, aside from the pallor created by too many rounds of Wii, or surfing the Web, children (and adults!) often lose touch with nature, due to lack of access, or lack of interest.

Many museums, like the "worth a special trip" institutions the Montshire Museum of Science and ECHO Science Center (both coincidentally in Vermont --- must be something in the water...) help visitors appreciate the local environs and encourage people to enjoy and appreciate the outside as well as the inside.

But what do you do if your museum is in a more urban setting, or you just need some fresh ideas for nature/outdoor programming at your institution?

Fortunately, The Nature Conservancy and REI have teamed up with the Children & Nature Network to create Nature Rocks --- a website chock-full of ideas, maps, and activities geared towards empowering families to enjoy nature. One of my favorite features is the Google Maps mash-up that lets you find natural places and facilities to explore.

So what are you waiting for? Take a break from that darn computer and go explore the outdoors outside your door!

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Museums In The Middle

I'm worried about museums. Specifically "museums in the middle."

As will come as no news flash to intrepid ExhibiTricks readers, the wretched economy is playing havoc with the museum biz (and all the adjunct players like designers, fabricators, architects, etc. who work with museums.) Just the other day, Design Craftsmen announced they were closing up shop after 40 years.

But this posting is about "museums in the middle" as in middle of the bell curve.

Not BIG museums like those that form The Smithsonian, or MOMA --- these battleships will keep moving in the same direction even if you cut their engines tomorrow. To borrow a phrase, these iconic institutions are simply "too big to fail."

Nor am I concerned about many smaller museums, the ones that didn't overbuild, the quirky little gems that bask in the love of their respective communities --- they've always lived by their wits, rather than endowments or visitor attendance projections, and will continue to do so, even if their forms and formats change somewhat.

No, I'm worried about the mass of mid-sized, perfectly nice, but not exceptional, museums who bought into the notions that the only way to get better was to grow bigger, or to jump onto the traveling exhibits treadmill to boost visitation statistics. When the donor and governmental money was freer-flowing it seemed like every building expansion, or every dodgy ploy to boost attendance, was a smart bet.

But now in the midst of this recession/depression/whatever these notions have become largely unsustainable --- and thus comes the reduction in staff, the reduction in hours, the reduction in, let's be honest, quality and service to the public.

So what happens now? What's the best way to use this time to rethink and reshape our current museums? I'm worried that many museums --- traditionally risk-averse, will just shrink their operational footprint and wait until things "get better."

Rather than just waiting, how can we thoughtfully, and boldly, use this time to make things better now?

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200th ExhibiTricks Post!

Today is my 200th ExhibiTricks post! Since I tend to be more of the tortoise than the hare regarding blogging, that is an accomplishment indeed.

I'd like to thank everyone who reads and subscribes to the ExhibiTricks blog. I really appreciate your support.

As I look back at the last 200 posts (and look forward to the next 200!) I think some of my favorites have been the interviews with Tim McNeil, Harry White, Kathy McLean, Nina Simon, and Aaron Goldblatt. All of them well worth re-reading.

I'm still on my crusade to eradicate crappy PowerPoint presentations from museum conferences, but if you have any other suggestions for future posts or other aspects of the ExhibiTricks blog, please let me know.

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Exhibit Design Inspiration: Canon Creative Park

O.K. maybe it is some sideways advertising for Canon computer printers, but the Creative Park website sure is filled with lots of fun projects to produce utilizing your (even non-Canon) printer. Also, I like the idea of combining high-tech and low-tech techniques to produce projects.

The Creative Park is divided up into categories (things like Paper Craft, Calendars, and Cards) that you can choose from. Once you click on your selection, a PDF with instructions and all the pieces is downloaded to your computer.

There's even a Science Museum category that has Insect, Universe, and Dinosaur projects you can work on! (There's an amazing Architecture section as well that let's you assemble models of buildings and monuments from around the world.)

So fire up the computer, get out the scissors and glue, and check out the Creative Park website for yourself.

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Plants vs. Zombies

Plants vs. Zombies is a super fun game developed by the folks at PopCap. (I've been "testing" it to learn more about interface design.)

I admit this isn't the usual kind of posting for ExhibiTricks, but I figured since there has been so much talk recently about games and the "future of museums" that I would share a recent favorite computer game of mine. (Also I feel compelled to make the conversation about "games" and "the future" a little less serious/ominous and a little more fun --- they're GAMES, and MUSEUMS, people!)

PvZ is just the sort of goofy (and witty!) kind of experience I think museums could benefit looking at and thinking about as they continue to move forward in their forays into interactive and/or social media. (Not the Zombies part, per se, but you get my point.)

One of the best things about PvZ is that you can tell the people who developed it had fun putting it together. That's the mark of a good museum or museum exhibit, too, I think --- when you feel like you get a sense of the time and effort and enjoyment that a real person put into creating something, as opposed to some bland mediocre exhibit experience that feels like it was put together by --- well --- Zombies.

So take Plants vs, Zombies for a spin. There's a free demo to download via PopCap's website, or you can purchase the game there as well.

BRAAAAAAINS!

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