Session title: The Collaborative Calendaring Project

Session chair: Rich Cherry (Director, Balboa Park Online Collaborative)

Presenters: Rich Cherry (Director, Balboa Park Online Collaborative); Matt Farina (Senior Front-End Developer, Palantir); Cathy Pierce (User Experience Consultant, CogApp)

Abstract:

This session will review the Balboa Park Online Collaborative’s (BPOC) open-source Collaborative Calendaring Environment project, including an architecture review, the results of a usability study, and a deployment status report. BPOC has developed an open-source, Drupal-based cultural calendar tool that handles the complex repeat requirements of cultural institutions and allows the aggregation of multi-institutional event data. This system supports content-heavy, complex, reoccurring dates (e.g., a tour that takes place at 2pm on Tuesday, 3pm on Wednesday, and twice on Saturday) for lectures, classes, tours, performances, exhibitions, etc. that existing systems are not flexible enough to support. This system works as a standalone, web-based calendar or can function in a multi-institutional environment such as Balboa Park, where it supports the aggregation of event content to a central site and then distributes event information to other media outlets and social networks en masse.

Session Info

• Type: Full Panel
• Keywords: Calendar, Collaboration, Drupal, Open Source, BPOC
• Relevance: Webmasters, Programmers, Event managers, Directors Focuses on a problem facing most cultural organizations with web based event calendars.

Presenter bios:

Rich Cherry

Rich Cherry is the Director of the Balboa Park Online Collaborative, a technology collaborative of 20 museums, cultural arts and science institutions in Balboa Park San Diego. Formerly he was the director of Operations at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, where he oversaw Information Technology, Operations, Admissions, Facilities, Security, capital projects and construction. He has also held positions as the CIO and Director of Facilities at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the CIO of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. He has taught New Media theory, web design and animation in the Media Studies department at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Matt Farina

Matt Farina is a Senior Front-End Developer, Engineer, and Team Lead at Palantir.net.  Matt has a wide range of experience developing Drupal sites for nonprofit organizations and religious institutions. He wrote his first computer program in 5th grade and has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University.

Cathy Pierce

Cathy joined Cogapp in May 2008 as User Experience Consultant, bringing her wealth of experience to our fast-growing offering in user-centered research, design, and information architecture. Since joining the team, Cathy has conducted usability testing for a range of public sector, commerical and charity clients, including the UK Borders Agency, Transport for London and a major mobile and broadband operator. She has also carried out workshops for the National Archives, information architecture work for the Home Office, and ethnographic research and usability testing for the Arthritis Research Campaign. Cathy has extensive experience in this field, having previously worked as User Experience Consultant for Flow Interactive, Principal Consultant for CCD Design and Ergonomics, and Usability Engineer for IconMedia Lab. She has a range of skills in key user-research techniques including usability testing, card sorting, focus groups and workshops and environmental user experience. She is also experienced in collaborative design and product design evaluation. Cathy has an MSc in Human Factors of Human Computer Interaction from University College London and a BSc in Psychology from the University of London. She is a member of the Usability Professionals Association, the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Ergonomics Society.