We’re excited to ship two new Portable Storykiosk Kits out this week — our next generation combination of hardware and software designed specifically for gathering video stories and testimonials in public places. We’ve developed these kits for a new hybrid model of museum exhibit, one that includes both a long term installation in the museum, and also a portable version that is easy to take out to community spaces beyond the...

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If you’re heading to ACM Interactivity, the national children’s museum conference this week, be sure to stop by our booth and check out the latest: our prototype  allowing visitors to create and share puppet shows between museums in different countries. The idea behind this: simple, fun moments of creative family expression go a long way toward building connections. I’ve been working on this with Vicky Cave, an exhibit...

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I’m quite excited to announce a new frontier in our community storytelling mission — the use of visitors’ own mobile devices to record stories. The Museum of Durham History incorporated our cloud-based tool to record stories of members of the Ar-Razzaq Islamic Center in Durham. Ar-Razzaq is one of the oldest Muslim communities in North Carolina, and a year long community-storytelling initiative culminated in an exhibit at the...

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How can museum exhibits foster empathy? This is a long overdue post of our session for the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) Interactivity conference this last year. It’s a topic that is increasingly relevant in a polarized country (and world), where studies show an alarming decline in empathy the last three decades (the “empathy deficit”), and increases in stress and isolation. How can museums respond proactively...

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We’re excited to announce a new prototype we’ve developed: an Augmented Reality application where visitors’ stories become embedded throughout a community. People often ask: “What can you do with stories after you’ve recorded them in exhibits?” We’ve been happy to provide a number of ways that extend the reach of exhibits: 1) share them on the museum’s social media feed, 2) incorporate them in a...

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Happy to share notes from the “Community Storytelling Workshop” (aka, “brainstorming session”) Katie Spencer and I led a few weeks ago at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle. We’re quite primed to be pushing the boundaries of the field with partners like MOHAI, Friends of Waterfront Seattle, and other potential partners who are doing great work connecting with community. 1. Intro. Community Storytelling...

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