[sl/ushmm] Tenth and final meeting with the U.S. Holocaust Museum Ambassador program
Today was the last official session of the Virtual Curation Program with the museum, and we were joined by about ten other ambassadors that had helped out with the original design process and choosing of media to go into the project. It was great being able to show them the project in its final stages.
We started off the day by having the Ambassadors go into Second Life, and go through the build to give feedback not just about aesthetics or content, but also about what it might be for a visitor who knew nothing about the project would experience going through it. They were to go through the build as if they had never seen it before and think critically about what the end-user experience was.
Andre commented about how much he liked the entry area, saying that when he first saw it it was bare, and wondered how all the space would be used, but thought the built out offices with desks, cameras and assignments really created the perfect feel to bring the visitor into the experience. Heidi voiced her concerns over the large amount of content that's being conveyed through text in the build, and we discussed various strategies, like the usage of sound clips and embedded photos, to integrate more multimedia into the content delivery in the build.
After we gave the final feedback on the build to Travis, everyone gave a huge round of applause to him and to the whole Digital Refinery team for all the hard work they've been putting in, staying up late nights and going through round after round of feedback with the group. High five to DR!
We closed off the day by breaking up into groups where Ambassadors reflected on the past month and their involvement in this project. Over the many voices I was hearing over Skype, I caught one saying: "Do you remember the first time we came in and started learning about Second Life?", and couldn't believe that most of the people involved hadn't even known what Second Life was when they started, and managed to create such an amazing project in such a short period of time!
Here's some of the feedback they had for the program:
Things to be improved:
- Unrealistic time frame during the feedback process, needed more time for Digital Refinery to create everything to avoid having feedback be repetitive.
- Some times there was confusion within the ambassadors, some things didn't click when people missed a day. People suggested possibly having updates at the beginning of everyday, or havepeople that missed a day check the blog posting to catch up on what happened.
- Food! Fuel is need on those early morning meetings. : )
- More time! Start the virtual curation meetings at the beginning of the ambassador program.
- Difficult to learn second life when you have other obligations within the Ambassador program.
- How do we keep everyone having ownership over the project throughout?
Things that people liked:
- Facilitators were very involved and engaged.
- Props to Mr. Klevan!
- Props to Barry and Rafi on modeling how to take really good notes for effective implementation of teens' ideas.
- People enjoyed the time spent over the week they met by themselves to the stories and other media that would be included in the project.
- Good process around choosing the overall topic.
- All the people involved were cooperative, open-minded and had pleasant attitudes!
- The project focused on the issues that the Ambassadors thought were important, and that motivated people to stay involved.
- Enjoyed working with Barry and Rafi. (Thanks guys! We loved working with you too!)
At the end of the session it was decided that for the closing day of the Ambassador program, which is tomorrow, there would be a demonstration of the exhibit for both the museum staff and the entire Ambassador group. Andre volunteered to facilitate the demonstration, and we're incredibly excited to share this project with the rest of the people at the museum. A great close to a great program!
