75. Museduino: Using Open Source Hardware to Power Museum Exhibits
Proprietary technology that runs museum interactives—everything from buttons to proximity sensors—tends to be expensive to purchase and maintain. But Rianne Trujillo , lead developer of the Cultural Technology Development Lab at New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU), realized that one way museums can avoid expensive, proprietary solutions to their technology needs is by choosing open source alternatives. She is part of the team behind Museduino , an open-source system for exhibits and installations. On this episode, Rianne Trujillo and fellow NMHU instructor of Software Systems Design Jonathan Lee describe the huge potential to applying the open source model to museum hardware. Topics and Links 00:00 Intro 00:15 Proprietary Technology in Museums 01:04 Rianne Trujillo 01:24 The Cultural Technology Development Lab 02:04 Museduino 02:35 Jonathan Lee 02:50 Open Source Software and Hardware 04:09 Arduino 06:35 Hardware Lock-In 07:02 Where Museduino is Already Installed 07:24 Museduino Workshops 08:55 Archipelago At the Movies 🎟️: Lisa the Iconoclast 09:44 Outro/Join Club Archipelago Museum Archipelago is a tiny show guiding you through the rocky landscape of museums. Subscribe to the podcast via Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Overcast , Spotify , or even email to never miss an episode. Unlock Club Archipelago 🏖️ If you like episodes like this one, you’ll love Club Archipelago. It offers exclusive access to Museum Archipelago extras. It’s also a great way to support the show directly. Join the Club for just $2/month. Your Club Archipelago membership includes: Access to a private podcast that guides you further behind the scenes of museums. Hear interviews, observations, and reviews that don’t make it into the main show; Archipelago at the Movies 🎟️ , a bonus bad-movie podcast exclusively featuring movies that take place at museums; Logo stickers , pins and other extras, mailed straight to your door; A warm feeling knowing you’re supporting the podcast. Transcript Below is a transcript of Museum Archipelago episode 75. Museum Archipelago is produced for the ear, and only the audio of the episode is canonical. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, refer to the links above. View Transcript On Museum Archipelago, we focus on power in museums. On how cultural institutions have a tremendous amount of unchecked power. But power takes many forms and one of these forms is control over the technology that delivers museum content to visitors. From a button that plays a bird call when you touch it, to a projection screen that plays a story about the Battle of Gettysburg when you get close to it, every museum interactive requires a technological solution. Rianne Trujillo: Oftentimes, museums will purchase proprietary solutions. Oftentimes they're very expensive, especially to maintain them, and if they break you are sort of forced to rehire the same company or rebuy new equipment, and that can be fairly costly really quickly. This is Rianne Trujillo, lead developer of the Cultural Technology Development Lab at New Mexico Highlands University. Rianne Trujillo: My name is Rianne Trujillo. I'm the lead developer of the Cultural Technology Development Lab at New Mexico Highlands University, and I’m also an instructor of Software Systems Design. The Cultural Technology Development Lab is an R&D program where university faculty and students, museum professionals, and other partners work together on technology and design solutions for cultural institutions. Through working these institutions across New Mexico and the U.S., Trujillo realized that one way museums can avoid expensive, proprietary solutions to their technology needs is by choosing open source alternatives. Rianne Trujillo: So by using open source hardware, we can basically solve that issue of cost by using fairly inexpensive, off-the-shelf components from various electronic suppliers. And that’s how Museduino came to be. Museduino is an open source hardware c