CFP: DIGITS FUGIT! Preserving Knowledge into the Future (33rd Annual Museum Computer Network Conference)
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Meeting Dates: November 3 - 5, 2005
Proposal Deadline: February 12, 2005
Proposal Forms: http://www.mcn.edu
We've all spent a great deal of time and effort organizing vast quantities of information in a variety of digital formats. We have now realized the time has come to focus on preserving the valuable results of that tremendous effort. In response, the theme for the Museum Computer Network's 2005 conference will be Digits Fugit! Preserving Knowledge into the Future. Come to Boston, where the city's historic downtown will provide a perfect setting to remind us of the value of preserving a proud past while keeping our eye
firmly on a glorious future.
As an organization, MCN has always championed back-office, mission-critical, "heavy lifting" aspects of museum technologies. We provided advocacy and professional development programs to help our membership accomplish basic networking and database efforts that transformed the record keeping part of
museum work. For years now, we have turned our attention to refining cataloguing standards, image digitizing technologies, developing smarter systems for inter-operability, sustainability, and electronic publication.
The good news is that collectively, we have become quite skilled at creating and delivering digital resources! The not-so-good news is that we now need to spend equally prodigious efforts at preserving the fruits of our labor. And as we know, this is not lacking in complexity! Fortunately, we have kindred spirits and friends in this effort and we will be making every effort to bring as many of them as we can to our conference. We will join forces with the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) who will produce a new two-day curriculum on Digital Preservation at the Omni Parker House, just before our conference. Speakers from Harvard, MIT, and the W3C will be on hand to lead workshops and speak on panels, and we will organize
facilities tours of some of the more well-known digital production and preservation sites in town.
Even though the theme will focus on digital longevity issues, MCN conferences are always open for presentations on all of the other technologies and concerns in our field. Accordingly, the Program Committee
is seeking presentations based on current and planned activities or research that focus on one of the following broad areas of interest:
Preservation Metadata Standards
Preservation Planning
Preservation Policy Development
Research & Evaluation
Storage Technologies
Standards & Interoperability
Digital Rights Management
Multimedia & Streaming Technologies
Collection Information Management
Collaboration & Data Aggregation
Point of Sale & eCommerce
Electronic Publication
Imaging Technologies
Intellectual Property Rights
Management Issues
Membership & Fund Raising
Proposals will be accepted in one of the following three formats: panels, workshops or roundtables. Each session must have a chairperson responsible for finding other speakers and coordinating logistics. All chairs must be affiliated with an institutional member or be an MCN individual member. Topics for the sessions should fall into at least one of the categories listed on page 1 of the proposal form. All proposals for sessions and/or workshops must be submitted on Call for Proposals form. To obtain additional copies or get more specific information, visit the MCN web site, www.mcn.edu or contact Susan Rawlyk at the MCN office by email rawlyks@igs.net or phone (403) 288-9394.
