[SCC_Active_Members] Museums and the Web 2005 ** Best of the Web Awards b

[H.M. Gladney]

This message, and the sites it points to, are likely to interest many of the
recipients of this message.
 
Best wishes, Henry
 
H.M. Gladney, Ph.D.   HMG Consulting
http://home.pacbell.net/hgladney/
Saratoga, California 95070
        ============================

>From : "J. Trant"  <mailto:jtrant at archimuse.com> jtrant at archimuse.com
Date: 05/03/05   Subject: Announcing the MW2005 Best of the Web winners

** Museums and the Web 2005 **  Best of the Web Awards **
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2005/best/

Recognizing achievement in cultural and heritage Web site design, a
committee of museum professionals selects the Best of the Web each year.
See the conference web site at  <http://www.archimuse.com/mw2005/best/>
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2005/best/ for full details about the
competition, the judges, and the judging criteria.

Congratulations to the following sites:

Best Educational Use: Making the Modern World Online - Stories about the
lives we've made
<http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/learning_modules/maths/06.TU=>
http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/learning_modules/

Institution: The Science Museum, (London, UK)

Judges' Comments: Learning Modules are an exemplary illustration of what a
museum can do with its collections to support specific educational usages
for the K-12 educational system.  Two of the most compelling aspects of
education are the notion of  relationships and theory/application. This site
addresses both in an  elegant manner.

Best On-line Exhibition: Cycles: African Life Through Art
http://www.ima-art.org/cycles/

Institution: Indianapolis Museum of Art

Judges' Comments: The design of this online exhibit is a piece of art
itself.  Beautiful and fun to explore. ... A highly visually appealing and
thought provoking site which provides a rich user experience through
interactivity, text and images. A particular highlight is the 'context' link
that a user can click on when viewing an object.  The graphic elements also
nicely enhance the content and navigation= al options available to the user.

Honorable Mention: Raid on Deerfield
http://www.1704.deerfield.history.museum

Institution: Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (PVMA), Memorial Hall
Museum, Deerfield

Judges' Comments: .raises the bar for historical interpretation online. The
site models the value of the whole that derives from a consideration of
multiple perspectives.  The designers have cast a magical spell that draws
the user into  another place, another time, another world where one finds
truth painted  in many shades of grey.

Best E-Services Site:  Seminars on Science  http://learn.amnh.org

Institution: American Museum of Natural History

Judges' Comments:  The human touch in the interface gives nice feeling that
the = seminar is tutored.. by real humans and that the learner is
interacting  with real people.

Best Innovative or Experimental Application:  Eternal Egypt
http://www.eternalegypt.org

Institutions: Egyptian Government: The 20 Supreme Council of Antiquities and
Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage, and IBM
Corporation

Judges' Comments:  An arresting site. Visually appealing and quite
innovative.  Good execution of multiple pathways towards making discoveries
about Egypt, including multiple languages and collaboration with like-minded
institutions. Text-to-speech feature lends itself nicely to those with
visual restrictions, and for ESL candidates, but computerized voice effect
can become monotonous ...

Best Museum Professional's Site:  ASTC (Association of Science - Technology
Centers)   <http://www.astc.org> http://www.astc.org

Judges' Comments:  ... covers the gamut of basics -- references,
publications, articles, and such.  With the addition of the online
workshops, ASTC shows itself to be responsive to the field and willing to be
innovative.

Best Research Site:  Timeline of Art History  http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/

Institution: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Judges' Comments:  ... an excellent site for a range of audiences, including
researchers....  considerably expanded and geographical and time coverage is
much more comprehensive than a year ago.  Good content depth (in a variety
of formats, e.g. multimedia) and opportunities for drilling down, as well as
relevant interactive features to enrich user experience.... a great balance
of content and visuals and alternative exploratory routes for both the
serendipitous and more serious researcher.  beautifully done, easy to = use,
visually engaging, and intuitive. I didn't even need to read any directions
-- the  user interface was easy to grasp and use ...

Best Overall Museum Web Site:  Making the Modern World Online - Stories
about the lives we've  made    http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk
<http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/> /

Institution: The Science Museum, (London, UK)

Judges' Comments:  "Making the Modern World" is a robust demonstration of
how museum artifacts can be offered online to engage audiences in an
innovative learning experience.  ... a highly interactive site that gives
the user many options for shaping their experience and makes good use of new
technologies (I = especially liked the use of rich media). It is deep and
provides interdisciplinary learning. I was fascinated and could have stayed
for hours just poking around and exploring.  ...  Great site. Funducational
and very informative. Something for everyone! The whole family will be
fighting for computer time!

Congratulations to all of the winners, and thank you to all who
participated. A full list of sites nominated, is available at
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2005/best/list.html

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: ../attachments/20050513/e73fe8fc/attachment.html