Compass

The COMPASS Conference, generously funded by the NSF, was held September 6–7, 2018, at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA. Eighty participants from museum staff, visitor researchers, mobile location technology developers, cyber-learning scientists, STEM informal learning specialists, and others attended to assess the status of indoor location-aware mobile technology and practice in museums and establish a course for moving the field forward.

COMPASS aims to advance cross-disciplinary work, promote sharing of expertise, and support collaborative planning. To ensure broad access after the conference, presentations, commissioned articles, a bibliography, and a resource directory will be made available for download in an epublication in Spring 2019.  Additionally, a webinar sharing insights and findings will be hosted by the Association for Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) in Spring 2019. These resources and opportunities will be publicized through the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education’s (CAISE) website, ASTC, and other informal education organizations.

Keynote Speakers

Aaron Straup Cope
Recently Editor-at-Large for Mapzen; previously Head of Engineering for internal and public digital initiatives at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum 

Yvonne Rogers
Professor of Interaction Design at University College London; co-author of Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction 

Additional Speakers

Seb Chan
Chief Experience Officer at Australian Centre for the Moving Image; previously Director of Digital and Emerging Media at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Jennifer King
Director of Consumer Privacy, Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School; previously co-director of the Center for Technology, Society, and Policy at UC Berkeley and a privacy researcher at Berkeley Law School

Leilah Lyons
Dual appointment as Assistant Professor Computer Science and Learning Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Director of Digital Learning Research at New York Hall of Science

Theano Moussouri
Senior Lecturer in Museum Studies at University College London; co-author of Museum Learning: Theory and Research as Tools for Enhancing Practice 

Dave Patten
Head of New Media at The Science Museum, London, and founder of the Digital Lab work group at The Science Museum

Niranjini Rajagopal
PhD candidate in electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and member of the CMU teams that took first place in the 2015 and 2018 Microsoft Localization competitions

Matt Tarr
Director, Digital Architect, American Museum of Natural History; Member of Board of Directors of Museum Computer Network, previous roles include interaction designer and digital strategist

Keir Winesmith
Head of Web and Digital at SFMOMA; Member of Board of Directors of the Museum Computer Network; previously Manager of Digital Media at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia 

Conference Goals

• Promote dialogue between informal education practitioners, academic researchers, and technologists.
• Share results of experimentation in developing and deploying location-aware mobile apps in informal education environments.
• Identify challenges of tracking and timing data collection, consent, anonymity, and privacy.
• Review strategies for implementing this technology, understanding constraints, and  assessing current technical parameters.