A very good and comprehensive overview of some of the issues discussed at some of THATcamp, as they affect museums, can be found in this report: www.nmc.org/pdf/2010-Horizon-Museum.pdf. The report identifies and describes the 6 new technologies that are likely to have an impact on museum education in particular, over the next 5 years, including augmented reality and the semantic web. Major trends and challenges impeding adoption are discussed and benchmark projects incorporating the technologies and key readings etc. There’s a free webinar on Monday that may be useful to participate in. midea.nmc.org/event/horizonreportmuseumwebinar and go.nmc.org/midea-connect-signup.

The title is silly, so free to change it.

Thank you, Jon, for suggesting I suggest this.  The basic idea is such — digital collections thrive and decline in part on the metadata, and there’s a lot going on in the area of data. Linked Data appears to promise the implementation of the Semantic Web that we’ve all been waiting for, and Open Data has becoming a rallying point in the private and public sectors. A session on what people are working on in terms of acquiring, enhancing and/or disseminating metadata for their library, archival and other collections would be very informative, I believe.  What successes have been seen/experienced, what attempts failed to yield results, what questions/doubts remain? Are institutions and vendors on-board?

Feel free to hone this, give it more focus, break it up …

Cheers, Eli

My bio:

A major reason why I went to law school is to learn more about legal issues that affect libraries, especially in the digital arena (copyright, cyberlaw and First Amendment/free speech). I’m interested in library technology, especially the use of Web 2.0 software and protocols to make information more accessible to  information seekers, students, users, etc. I see THATCamp Bay Area as a great juxtaposition of tech, formal and informal education initiatives, and open information flows (Creative Commons, Open Access, Open Content, Big Data). I hope to be able to contribute my legal and library knowledge and be part of the ongoing library/open content/tech community.