Author: IDEA

This is the first post from IDEA’s new blog. This blog tackles the challenge of  boosting the general public’s literacy in science, culture and the arts through various lenses, such as  business models, communications policies, social media, new technologies and interactive experiences. The focus of ths blog will evolve over time. We will bring you both a curated collection

Like museums in the physical world, WebExhibits presents information that is, for the most part, timeless. Yet WebExhibits also demonstrates a radical departure from physical museums, in terms of 24/7 accessibility, adaptation to support multiple learning styles, and cost-effectiveness. As of October 2010, 75% of U.S. households have high-speed Internet access, and virtually all students have Internet access at schools or libraries.

Virtual exhibits are cost effective. It costs only a few pennies to serve a WebExhibits visitor, in contrast with a typical U.S. museum’s cost of $23 per visitor.

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If you share our passion for leveraging technology to increase scientific, artistic, and cultural literacy, then get involved! You can nurture bold ideas so that they grow and flourish. (more…)

IDEA presented and demonstrated “Concept Maps for Online Exhibits” at the 2010 Museums and the Web Conference, April 13-17 in Denver. Concept maps are a useful component of online exhibits, as they help meet the needs of multiple learning styles and provide an innovative way to visualize information. SpicyNodes’ radial mapping engine improves upon previous

We’ve just launched a new blog for SpicyNodes, our new concept mapping tool. In that blog, we’ll follow news about the SpicyNodes project development and use, as well as a broader view about concept mapping, mind mapping, and related ways to visualize information.

Not everyone sees the world as you do

You can try the Color Vision tool yourself by selecting an image and choosing a color blindness or cataract simulation. In the process, you can gain an understanding of why it’s important to design web sites that are accessible to people with these vision problems.

Why it matters

Hundreds of millions of people have vision problems. Two primary vision problems are cataracts and color blindness. When a person has a cataract, the lens in his or her eye is no longer entirely transparent. Because aging is the most common risk factor for the condition, increased life expectancy has made cataracts the leading cause of blindness worldwide. (more…)

In 2008, IDEA conducted a study about online experiences. The report (download PDF here) outlines key findings from surveys that explored factors that drive online experience as expressed by the three different subject groups – nonprofit organizations and cities, web designers and firms, and the general public. (more…)

Author: Sean Liu

Problem

Flash does not display correctly in browsers on Ubuntu 7.10 Gusty. (more…)

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria In summer 2008, IDEA collaborated with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria on their Warhol: Larger than Life exhibition. Working with Jonathan Lathigee and curator Helen Delacretaz of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, IDEA helped adapt its interactive color-changer of Andy Warhol’s famous Marilyn Monroe silkscreens into a kiosk that visitors

Adding depth to online learning through hands-on experiments. (more…)