FVM app is splitting (and starting new life)

Because we want to offer a polished public version of the FVM app as well as maintain our abilities to experiment and use a version of the app as a mobile storytelling research tool, the FVM app has been split into two versions.

Those of you with the FVM app already installed eventually will be getting a much more streamlined and commercially slick version, in preparation for the public launch in June. That app will be where tested material gets put to general public use.

The research branch of the app will be moved to a new version, dubbed FVM labs. This way, members of the public who just want to use and enjoy the app will not have to filter through the experimental material, or be frustrated by it, while those eager to test the latest efforts can get sneak peeks into where we are going with the project.

Button redesign, as part of prep for public launch in June

We are redesigning the look of the FVM app to better reflect our growing partnership with the National Park Service, as we prepare to move parts of the FVM app out of beta testing and into a public product (where the other parts will go is covered here).

To recap, we want to move away from the lone arrowhead button, because of the conflicts that icon might cause with the branding of National Park Service apps in the future. We also want to match the style and standards being set by the National Park Service, through its National Mall and Memorial Parks app.

So the buttons here show the trademark black bar on the top, and the menu screen uses the National Mall app as inspiration for the fort version. The image on the menu screen is for spacing purposes only, and an image will need to be selected in the near future, if we use photography (rather than illustration; that page also could be a graphic). The menu bar is shown on the bottom here, but it also could be placed on the side. Text also likely will need to be added. ...

From here, we need to decide which of these button ideas (or suggest another one) will replace the arrowhead button we are using now and give lead designer Marsha Matta feedback about the designs, in terms of what you like, what you don't like, etc. ... We have a design committee looking at these, too, but we also want to open the process up to the public as much as possible. So, if you have a comment, please post it here.

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Per the comments, here are the images mentioned:

From Greg Shine:

From Kapuanani Antonio:

Columbian coverage of the FVM app

The FVM app was featured in a front-page and Sunday centerpiece of The Columbian recently, a story which covered many of the basics of the project and illustrates why we are so excited about the potential of the work. In short, we are the first group in the country working with the National Park Service on the creation of interpretive mobile apps, rather than wayfinding or expositional apps. We are creating all of our own media, doing all of our own coding, making new app designs, sharing our workshop with the public (through this blog), and learning and having a lot of fun along the way. If you would like to know more, or to help us beta test in the coming months, as we prepare for the public launch in June, please contact me at fortvancouvermobile(AT)gmail.com.

WSU News coverage of the FVM app

A plug for the Fort Vancouver Mobile project news coverage of late ran on WSU News today:

Template for the National Park Service

During our recent discussions with John Tobiason, New and Social Media coordinator for the National Park Service, we talked about developing a consistent look across the agency's apps, based on the National Mall and Memorial Parks app, already being used as a way-finding tool in Washington, D.C.

Some examples of this look include:

The button

The toolbox screen

And the menu bars screen:

Even though our niche is interpretation, rather than way-finding or expositional information sharing, the National Mall app has a solid structure upon which to base the architecture of the Fort Vancouver Mobile app. So during our upcoming redesign for the 1.0 public release of Fort Vancouver Mobile, we will be working closely with John and the National Park Service to meet basic design and accessibility standards.

John Tobiason visit

John Tobiason, New and Social Media coordinator for the National Park Service, graciously visited Vancouver for several days over the holiday break to work with us on the Fort Vancouver Mobile project. He met with the FVM research and development team as well as the local National Park Service staff at Fort Vancouver, plus local media members. John did a demo of both the Android and iPhone versions of the Fort Vancouver Mobile app. We talked at length (with Chief Ranger Greg Shine) about a variety of ways we could work together within the National Park Service system, to provide the agency with a model for investigating the potential of interpretive storytelling through mobile devices. We received John's many helpful suggestions and insights about the app -- as well as about the broader app world on a national level (thanks again, John!). John even had the opportunity to raise the Union Jack over the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site one morning (Fort Vancouver was a British trading post). Much more to say about this visit, but I will do that in increments as more of the ideas are developed further in the next few months. Overall, though, we are very excited to see how this partnership with the National Park Service can continue to grow.

"Call to Action" designation

The Fort Vancouver National Historic Site recently designated the Fort Vancouver Mobile project as one of its two national "A Call to Action" projects. As the National Park Service prepares for its second century, it is refreshing its goals and refocusing its mission. As part of that, this document outlines those objectives, including No. 10, dubbed "Arts Afire," as a means to "showcase the meaning of parks to new audiences through dance, music, visual arts, writing, and social media. To do so we will launch 25 artist-led expeditions that involve youth in creating new expressions of the park experience through fresh perspectives and new technology."
The FVM project, as part of that effort, is described this way: "A partnership between FOVA and the Creative Media and Digital Culture (CMDC) Department at Washington State University Vancouver, is utilizing the talents of student and professor digital artists and storytellers to create a free smartphone app that helps connect visitors to the significance of this national park. Recognized as a nationally significant program through the recent awarding of a NEH Digital Start-up Grant, it is in its second year of 1) utilizing the talents of students and professors in digital humanities and 2) engaging the digital humanities and arts community to connect the public to park stories in new, creative new ways. The program reaches out to youth through the digital arts and humanities, creating new, collaborative interpretations of the park through young eyes, using current and cutting-edge arts and technology. It provides direct and sustained interaction with park staff both inside the classroom and the park, especially interpretive and resource specialists. In 2012, through partnership with the park, the CMDC Digital Storytelling course will focus students' learning entirely on developing a new component that explores the woman's experience at Fort Vancouver through film, digital art, animation, photography, spoken word, creative writing, and other media -- supported by park subject matter specialists in interpretation, history, and archaeology. This course will utilize park resources onsite and immerse participants in the park experience and cultivate a deeper understanding of the park's natural, cultural, and historic resources."

Two iDMAa presentations today on mobile media and the FVM project

I'm in Savannah, Georgia, today at the International Digital Media and Arts Association conference, with the rest of the Washington State University Vancouver faculty in the Creative Media and Digital Culture program, including several of the FVM project contributors: Dene Grigar, John Barber, Will Luers, Michael Rabby and Aaron May.
Our group presented a panel on "Teaching Mobile Design" in the morning, and then I presented an individual talk in the afternoon on "Net Locality: Exploring New Ways of Storytelling and Learning with Mobile Devices at a National Historic Site." Both went wonderfully, as did John Barber's individual talk on "Thoughts Toward Situation-Centered Mobile Apps Usability." We all spread the word widely about the CMDC program and the Fort Vancouver Mobile project, and several people approached me throughout the day to talk about FVM, from across the country and even abroad, including a professor from the School of Digital Media at Sripatum University in Thailand.

FVM app back in the App Store (for iPhones / iPads)

We had to switch Apple accounts for the FVM app, which caused the Apple version of the app to disappear from the App Store for a couple of weeks. Argh! ... But the app is back now. If you have an Apple device, please download the app and let us know what you think.

Logos of our biggest sponsors

The Fort Vancouver Mobile project would not have been possible without the generous support of all of the many volunteers but also these primary financial sponsors. Just thought I would say thank you, again!

Photos from the Kanaka video shoot

Fort Vancouver's chief ranger Greg Shine sent a few images from the video shoot on Friday. Here they are! ... Thanks, Greg!

Frank van Waardenburg as William Kaulehelehe in sermon scene

Videographer Troy Wayrynen filming actors Sandy Bunda and Randy Chang approaching the makeshift church

Working on close-ups with Dale Magsayo

Sandwich boards that closed down part of the site for our filming

The cast and crew, from left to right: Brett Oppegaard, Troy Wayrynen, Dale Magsayo, Sandy Bunda, Randy Chang, Deva Yamashiro, Chayton Barnes, Robert Barnes, Frank van Waardenburg (holding his granddaughter Fallon), Greg Shine and Kapuanani Antonio.

WSU Vancouver historian gets FVM tour

Dr. Steve Fountain, a WSU Vancouver historian, who has been consulting on this project, took a full-fledged look at the Kanaka module last week on site. He made many positive comments about the FVM app, and he raised ideas about how such apps could be used in tandem with the release of scholarly books, for marketing as well as for providing deeper context about geographical spaces in which the physical environment adds to or enhances understandings of place in conjunction with digital media.

NEH meetings and Phase 2 of the FVM project

With the Kanaka module in the final stages of polish, we are turning our attention more now to the second phase of development in the Fort Vancouver Mobile project, a module about women and domestic life in The Village in the mid-1800s. Dr. Dene Grigar, the director of the Creative Media and Digital Culture program at WSU Vancouver, is the principal investigator on that module, and she is in Washington, D.C., this week to talk to National Endowment for the Humanities staff members supporting our work as part of a $50,000 Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant. Dr. Grigar is participating in a NEH workshop about the grant and also preparing a pitch for a Summer Institute for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities at WSU Vancouver. She also is keeping a separate blog about the women and domestic life module here.

Kanaka video production just about wrapped up

Friday was a busy day for the FVM project. Videographer Troy Wayrynen and I shot the final round of footage for the Kanaka module version that is scheduled for a full release (the interactive narrative already has been through proof-of-concept and prototyping stages, and is being beta tested now). We plan to edit that footage and integrate it with another session of media production from a few months ago, that one focused on recreation, such as hula dancing, at the site. The goal is to create a video that illustrates the conflict Hawaiians had (and many people still do today) between spending Sunday as a day off for recreation, or for spiritual pursuits. Letters from various sources in the 1840s noted that the protagonist of the Kanaka module, William Kaulehelehe, had a tough time convincing his fellow "Sandwich Islanders" to spend their lone day off each week in his makeshift place of worship. So we are reflecting that piece of history with this segment. Chief Ranger Greg Shine once again gave the FVM project all of the support it needed, including the help of many other National Park Service staff members at the Fort Vancouver National Historic site. All of the on-screen talent came from the ranks of the Ke Kukui Foundation, the region's top Hawaiian/Polynesian arts and culture organization, led by Deva Yamashiro. Visitors to the set this time included the Fort Vancouver Superintendent, Tracy Fortmann, and a team of Columbian news reporters, led by veteran writer Tom Vogt.

Forrest Burger and KBTC

Our longtime supporter and key partner in the Fort Vancouver Mobile project, Forrest Burger, recently accepted the local production manager job at the KBTC public television station in Tacoma. Forrest has had a distinguished journalism career, including working for CNN Tokyo and "60 Minutes" in New York, and we feel very fortunate to have collaborated with him so much on the FVM project. He helped in countless ways and always went above-and-beyond for this project, from providing technical advice and testing gear to the superb work he has performed for FVM behind the camera (as the lead videographer on several FVM videos that are yet to be released, as part of The Village opening module). His new job includes being responsible for the overall production of local programming on KBTC, including creating public affairs and documentary programs. We don't know fully yet what that means for his future involvement with the FVM project, but we do know that Tacoma will be lucky to have him at the helm.

Apple App Store account in transition

We have decided to move our Apple FVM app from a personal iTunes account to an organizational account, so if you see it missing from the App Store for a few days, you will know why. Apparently, Apple does not allow direct transfers, so we had to delete the app in the store and resubmit it with the new account. Will keep you posted on the new link, when it appears.

Hudson's Bay Company grant program is suspended

I recently came across an old call for historic preservation/interpretation grant proposals for the Hudson's Bay Company, which operated Fort Vancouver more than 150 years ago. So I wrote the company a note about the FVM project, and the response was not promising. A nameless employee at The HBC wrote back that the grant program had been suspended, and that it only funded projects within Canada, when it was operating. But the person did ask for the project web site. So maybe the door is not completely closed.

Added to the list: The Old Apple Tree story

With two modules nearly completed (Kanaka and Kane), one module about 3/4th of the way done (Village Opening), and a fourth module well underway (women and domestic life), we have been thinking about what will be next for the Fort Vancouver Mobile project.
Brady Berkenmeier and Allen Anderson, the creative drivers of the Kane module, are ready to begin work on another phase. The Old Apple Tree story has been put through significant preproduction work. So it made sense for us to return to The Old Apple Tree story for the fifth FVM module, with Berkenmeier and Anderson leading the effort.
This piece originally was developed as part of a (DTC 354) Digital Storytelling class at Washington State University Vancouver in the fall of 2010, also the origins of the Kane module. Berkenmeier was a member of that class, and he worked with the students who developed The Old Apple Tree story to the point it is now. He therefore was the logical choice to help bring that core of an idea (har har) to fruition. He has many ideas already for the module and said he will begin soon on the framework.

Kane module is nearly ready for beta testing

Brady Berkenmeier and Allen Anderson and I spent a few hours testing the Kane module on Tuesday, and it is expected to be ready for beta testing by Sept. 17, when Fort Vancouver has its largest event of the year, Campfires and Candlelight.

Welcome, bienvenue, bienvenido, National Park Service Digital Media Webinar participants!

Greg Shine of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site said you might be stopping by today. ... So let me add just a bit more to what I wrote below for this group. Digital media, especially through mobile devices, creates many new opportunities. It is not magic, though, and digital media does not get created through wizardry. Digital media is the result of a process, often a complicated and creative process, and to help you visualize this activity, here are two illustrations taken from the Elements of User Experience work by Jesse James Garrett. Both of these graphics helped me in the beginning of the Fort Vancouver Mobile project, as launching points, and I suspect they also might help you in whatever you want to accomplish. More details on each of the labels are available through Garrett's sites and books.

If I can be of any further help to you or your project, please feel free to contact me anytime via the email on the upper right-hand side of this page.

- Brett

10 tips for making great mobile place-based media

Greg Shine, Chief Ranger at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, and I have been working on this FVM project for a couple of years now. He asked me recently what were my top tips for people considering starting such a project in other places. He wanted to share those, along with his tips, as part of the National Park Service's first Digital Media Webinar at the Washington D.C.-area training center, which is being attended right now, as I type, by Shine as well as by more than 90 employees from throughout national parks in the U.S. & territories (such as Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam).

Here is what I wrote:

1. Make friends. No one person can create a high-quality mobile app alone, no matter how talented. The process just requires too many things to be done, in too many different fields, with too much expertise needed. Sweat equity builds these mobile apps, and the payoff for friends is the fun of collaborating together on a cool project.

2. Focus on something small and achievable. Ambitions will grow, no doubt, in the process, but the original idea should be something that a small team can build and celebrate as a success. Mobile devices can do it all – text, images, audio, video, animation, plus interactivity with contextual awareness – but an app creator will do best by starting with a series of small goals, and gradually chipping away at the bigger dream.

3. Stay focused on that original goal. It will be tempting to follow the siren call of mobile app possibilities. Just remember, something inspired you to build the mobile app for your site. Whatever that was, keep your eyes on it. Build it. When you are done, there always can be a Phase 2.

4. Don’t skimp on the backend. While the least interesting part of the mobile app is the invisible coding that makes it work, think of that component like the engine of a car. If your Ferrari of an idea can’t make it out of the driveway, then it’s just as valuable as your garden Gnome. Such backend work on a mobile app is much more complicated than even your programmer probably understands, because of the interactions it creates with non-coded physical space. Whatever your most conservative estimate is for programming costs and time, triple it. Then, triple that.

5. Avoid old patterns. A mobile app offers radically new opportunities. Explore them. Porting a wayside sign onto a mobile screen, for example, is no different in ambition than the companies in the mid-1990s who thought it was innovative to transfer their tri-fold brochures, as is, onto a web site.

6. Get to know your visitors. Take the time, do the research, and get to know your users in as much depth as possible. It is not just sufficient to know what users do at your site, because they very well may be following the rat maze you have created. Instead, try starting with a blank slate, and asking visitors what they would like to be doing at the site, and how, and let your imagination and your mobile app try to respond to those ideas.

7. Challenge all of your assumptions. The world of mediated spaces has changed so significantly during the past decade, with the mass adoption of mobile devices, and the growing abilities of them, that almost any habitual interpretive process you have could be outdated. Systematically test what you are doing. Don’t just assume it is working. Find out what actually is making connections with visitors, what isn’t, and what your visitors want right now and in the future. Move resources away from the past and toward the future. Serve your users, not your habits.

8. Quality is more important than quantity. It might be easy and seemingly helpful to dump all of your desktop-oriented web pages into the mobile device. But if those pages do not look good or work well on the device, then your users will develop a negative perception of your app and site. It might be difficult to create a small, yet high-quality object, on the mobile device, such as a high-res image, aligned with the physical space, and pushed to the user at a specific geolocated place, ripe for intellectual engagement. But which do you think would have a greater positive impact?

9. A professional app requires professional contributors, with professional equipment. It might be tempting to bring along cousin Billy, and niece Billyette, with the camcorder and a box of tapes, and try to reenact a scene from history in your backyard. And it certainly would be cheaper and less hassle. But the difference between that approach and a partnership with professional actors, videographers, costumers, editors, script writers, etc., is the difference between a Ken Burns’-like documentary aesthetic and a hack’s YouTube channel.

10. Do something fun. Don’t create a mobile app because you think you have to, or it should be done. Don’t assign it to somebody, or create an elaborate bureaucracy to handle the “mobile” issue. Find some aspect of your interpretation that you really think would be exciting as a mobile app. Work in that inspired space, of wanting this new piece of digital media to exist, because you want it to exist. If this project becomes just another chore, or task, to check off, everyone loses. If this project expresses something you passionately want to share with your visitors, because you know they want it, too, then you should start today. There is a lot of work, a lot of agony, and a lot of glory ahead of you.

Updates about the growing FVM audience

Just a quick note to document that this Fort Vancouver Mobile blog surpassed 5,000 overall page views last month (July 2011), the biggest month yet (more than 700 page views in July alone). The beta version of the location-based app has been downloaded now by hundreds of people, according to market statistics, and anecdotally, we are getting all sorts of interesting feedback. A 13-year-old girl approached fort staff last week with suggestions for expansion of the app. A visitor to the site yesterday suggested to a friend in Spanish to "descargand" ("download") the app on Twitter, and even included the #fvmobile hashtag. Very cool!

The Columbian "cheers" the FVM project

The local newspaper's weekly list of good and bad in the community featured the Fort Vancouver Mobile project, saying:

"Cheers: To a new smartphone app that shows smartphone users images, maps, audio and video about a portion of Fort Vancouver. The application was developed by students in Washington State University Vancouver’s creative media & digital culture program. So far the app covers only the area outside the stockade known as the village, but assistant professor Brett Oppegaard, who oversaw its development, hopes it will be expanded."

Kanaka module videos have been re-encoded

Forrest Burger of RiverBend Productions recently re-encoded the Kanaka module videos through a Matrox video encoder, which kept the file sizes roughly the same (to avoid buffering) but significantly increased the quality level of the imagery. The results look good, and that encoding process will be our new standard. ... Thanks, Forrest!

Kane's Wanderings animations

The voice talents of Ben Coder, a Fort Vancouver National Historic Site park ranger, have been added to the Paul Kane animations, produced by Brady Berkenmeier and Allen Anderson. Here is the context of the module and previous versions, and here are the latest drafts:

Animation 1-Good Audio from Brady Berkenmeier on Vimeo.

Animation 2-Good Audio from Brady Berkenmeier on Vimeo.

Animation 3-Good Audio from Brady Berkenmeier on Vimeo.

Animation 4-Good Audio from Brady Berkenmeier on Vimeo.

Feedback?

Another beta testing opportunity ... Thursday morning, July 28

After a very busy beta testing session yesterday, July 25, that lasted almost the entire day (with the sunburn to prove it), I will be offering one more guided Fort Vancouver Mobile best testing session for the Kanaka module on Thursday morning, July 28, from 9 a.m. to noon. No RSVP needed. Just come by The Village (west of the stockade, between the bastion and the Land Bridge) during that time and find me in the area.

The next round of beta testing, probably starting in late August or early September, will be on the Kane's Wanderings module, which is nearly complete. More details to be announced on that soon.

The Columbian makes notice of the FVM project

As part of a July 19 story about Fort Vancouver's annual archaeology field school, writer Tom Vogt also added this helpful sidebar about the Fort Vancouver Mobile project. Thanks, Tom!

FVM on the local Fox News channel

Just found out that a short piece about the project ran on Fox News at 4:37 p.m. Monday, July 18:

Here's a link to the clip

Women & Domestic Life at the Village of Fort Vancouver

Dr. Dene Grigar has been working diligently on a new module for the Fort Vancouver Mobile project based on the women and domestic life at Fort Vancouver, funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Start-Up grant. She is keeping a separate blog on her process and product here. It is an impressive bit of documentation, including a bibliography, project updates and project details.

WSU News creates a video story about the FVM project

Matt Haugen from WSU News was given a demo of the FVM app a few weeks ago, and here is the story he produced from that experience:

From: "UREL.WSU.News"
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:42:10 -0700
Subject: WSU VANCOUVER NEWS: WSU mobile app offers interactive experience for Fort Vancouver visitors

7/18/2011

WSU mobile app offers interactive experience for Fort Vancouver visitors

Source:
Brett Oppegaard, assistant professor, 360-546-9788, brett.oppegaard@gmail.com

Media contact:
Matt Haugen, WSU News, 509-335-0487, mhaugen@wsu.edu

Editor’s note: A video version of this story can be found HERE:



VANCOUVER, Wash. – The future is to immerse yourself in the past. A smart phone application (app) is providing visitors to the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site with a new way to experience history.

Designed by The Creative Media & Digital Culture Program at Washington State University Vancouver, the mobile app shows users images, maps, audio and video related to where they are at the site. Still in its infancy, the app covers a small area called “The Village,” which recreates living conditions from when the fort was active.

WSU Vancouver assistant professor Brett Oppegaard said the app is joining an ever-converging world of history and technology.

“Any of the media that we can present digitally can be packaged into this app and then put onto a phone… The user can access it when they need it, when they want to learn about something in particular,” he said.

Research assistant Brady Berkenmeier said the technology opens the fort to visitors in entirely new ways.

“It’s different than an audio tour; it’s different than a wayside sign," he said. "It’s an interactive way to learn about history… I think it’s the future of this historic site.”

Working with the National Park Service, Oppegaard said he hopes the mobile app can be expanded to more areas of the fort and used as a model for apps at parks across the nation.

To learn more about the mobile app, click here

See an earlier article here.