IDEUM, EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS
by Michelle Bienias
Jim Spadaccini is the founder and co-owner of Ideum, a design and consulting firm that develops multimedia-rich educational web sites. Ideum specializes in providing media services to museums, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and socially responsible companies. Some recent clients include the European Commission, NASA, Questacon, The Tech Museum of Innovation, Apple Computer, and the Exploratorium.
Prior to founding Ideum, Jim was the Director of Interactive Media at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, where he was the lead designer, major contributor and manager of the three-time Webby Award-winning web site. For his work at the Exploratorium, Jim received a Smithsonian Computerworld Award and an Association of Science and Technology Centers Award for Innovation.
Jim has also worked with Apple Computer, where he authored a book, created multimedia titles for CD-ROMs and developed a number of web-based tutorials. Jim (a very busy guy) is also a multimedia instructor at San Francisco State University.
 Exploratorium, online since 1993, was very forward thinking in its use of technology to create ‘real’ experiences rather than ‘virtual exhibits’ for its audience. Can you tell us about some of your most successful technological implementations?
 When I came to the Exploratorium in 1995, Ron Hipschman, the Exploratorium’s Webmaster had already developed a couple of online exhibits. So there was already this view that this new “online space” was essentially “floor space.” The Exploratorium has a deep tradition of experimentation and this was then applied to the Web.
With that already established, it gave those of us who followed, a great deal of freedom. So when you ask what was the most successful technological implementation, in a sense it depends on how you judge success. I think early on we learned as much from our failures, as we did from our successes.
In the broadest sense, I think our most successful technological implementation to emerge was an approach to use the least restrictive technology possible to achieve our goals. So, yes we were very eager to experiment with QuickTime VR, streaming video, Shockwave, etc.—but that was tempered with a great deal of caution, to make sure we weren’t using technology for its own sake.
Another “success” was the model of trying to bring in the “real world”--traveling to interesting places like scientific laboratories, factories, National Parks, etc., places with interesting people. Technology like streaming media, QuickTime VR, and others allowed us to share those experiences and “meet” interesting individuals. This was something beyond just trying to make “exhibits” in the same way we would for the museum floor.
When did you first get involved with Quicktime VR?
My first experience with QuickTime VR was when I worked with Apple Computers in 1996. I worked with Apple’s Developer University creating a tutorial for Apple Media Tool, a multimedia authoring tool. AMT allowed you to integrate and control QuickTime VR movies. After that introduction, I began shooting them myself.
LAB-VR, a project Ideum is currently working on, is an experiment on the use of panoramic pictures as an interface to gain access to scientific content developed in research institutions and laboratories. How did you get involved in this project, which is financed by the European Commission? And can you elaborate on the nature of the project?
This project came from a collaboration with Andrea Bandelli. I’ve known Andrea since 1995 and we’ve worked together on a variety of projects. He was the European manager for the Science Learning Project, a collaborative project involving about a dozen science museums around the world.
Andrea’s really the person who put Lab-VR together. Once he presented the initial idea to some of his partners (Patrizia Picchi and Chiara Mancinelli) in Torino, they wrote the grant to the European Commission. The project is part of the IST (Information Society Technologies) program funded by the European Commission and was produced in the framework of the "Turin Science Center" initiative by the Province of Turin.
The concept of Lab-VR is to give the general public, scientists, and students the ability to see research and the scientific process first-hand. The VR movies provide a look into spaces that normally, most people can’t visit. Beyond that, the movies themselves provide a means to navigate and view “real” scientific data and research materials.
We played a rather small role once the project began. The logistics of coordinating all of the participants, building the site, and gathering the research materials was a much bigger job. We did shoot and stitch all of the QuickTime VR movies. We shot over 60 panoramas and 8 cubic VRs at 12 locations in one week! We (everyone in the office) then spent one entire week back in San Francisco stitching all of these together.
You’ve also used QTVR panoramas on other projects, like the Robotics: Sensing, Thinking, Actingweb site. Can you tell us more about this experience? Did you consider using QTVR objects rather than panos?
When we developed the Robotics site with the Tech Museum of San Jose—we were really looking to push the model we developed at the Exploratorium a bit further. In addition, Craig Rosa from the Tech Museum was very keen on making the site as “immersive” and engaging as possible. So, we were really looking right from the start for opportunities to utilize QTVR.
For example, in the Robot Art section, we wanted the artists themselves to tell their story. We didn’t want to play a large role in mediating the experience for the visitor. Since where an artist works is so revealing, QuickTime VR of the artist’s studios was a natural choice. Seeing the artists space, how they work, what materials they use--helps deepen ones understanding of their process and their work.
As far as object movies are concerned. We did consider them, but time and money didn’t allow for us to implement them.
As an instructor at SFSU, you teach multimedia courses in class, and online, and you’re often asked to speak at industry functions. What are the current hot topics in these two forums?
In the Bay Area, the “dot com” boom and bust is still the hottest topic. We had this enormous growth and energy, and then as soon as it came it disappeared. Now we have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. So, there has been this boom and bust cycle that people are interested in understanding.
Beyond the economic issues, many of my students are interested in where web-based technologies are heading and which ones to implement. We are certainly in a period of consolidation, but not all of the standards have yet emerged. For example, which streaming video technology do you implement? Real, Windows Media, QuickTime, or do you use Flash MX? There is an interest in understanding how the decision-making process works for media projects.
Finally, I think there is a strong interest in how to create compelling experiences using the Web and all of the associated technologies. How do you tell a story with new media? How do you evaluate the user experience? This technology is still very new, still evolving, and the answers are very subjective.
As Ideum focuses on academic or non-profit clients, is there a philosophical reasoning behind this approach or just a dearth of commercial scientific web sites?
My wife Angela and I are very concerned about social issues. We feel that what you work on, and whom you work for, matters. We’ve rejected work in the past because we didn’t believe in the approach and practices of the company. We’ve been lucky enough to be able to work on projects that we find meaningful. It is a very good feeling at the end of the day.
I should mention we work with a variety of clients and numerous topics not just science related ones. In fact we’ve just signed a contract to work with The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. We’re fascinated by science, but we also have strong interests in history, art, music, technology, and social issues.
|  | |
| The purpose of this banner is to raise funds for a new VR community project VRMag will launch in a few months.
| |
