The National Museums of Scotland have become the first major museum organization in the world to fully implement HTML5.

Museum digital media tech manager Simon Madine explained in a blog post that the implementation across the five allied sites was married to an overall redesign. That redesign saw the site gain color and shoulder-room and emphasize more visuals. But the implementation of HTML5 is more revolutionary. It allows a greater level of search engine accessibility, easier rendering across browsers and overall makes it easier to elegantly add and change site content.

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Hugh Wallace, NMS's head of digital media, gave us the low-down on the practical application of the change.

"The innovation makes for slicker, faster pages as it means less use of graphics, due to new CSS3 techniques. The site should also be eminently more findable too as it's structured for the way Google reads pages - but I appreciate those are quite subtle examples. The big difference is for mobile users as we start to move away from Flash and plug-ins, e.g. iPhone and iPad users get to experience interactive elements (such as on our homepage) that wouldn't be visible in Flash. It's not just an Apple love-in - we're conscious of delivering the same content over multiple platforms and with Microsoft announcing more and more emphasis on HTML5 in the last couple of weeks we're very much considering what the future user experience will be across the board."

HTML5 has been used for both mobile applications and online video.

It's far from an unknown quantity, but large public organizations are not often prime movers in adoption of new technology. In fact, the only other museum that Wallace's crew could find that has fully implemented the language is The American Sport Art Museum and Archives.

However, Wallace believes HTML5 will prove to be the direction most will move in.

"I suspect it's already on a few of the bigger organisations' roadmaps as it's necessary for orgs like ours to be considering how the public will be consuming content and adhering to standards wherever possible."

For those using older browsers, the museums' use of HTML5 should still result in good access.

"(O)our development process has used the techniques of Progressive Enhancement and Graceful Degradation."

If there's any better description of a museum's mission than "progressive enhancement and graceful degradation" I've not heard it.

Read our walk-through of HTML5 testing.

Discuss

My Dad sent me this video today. Apparently it's been doing the rounds since 2009 but I'd not seen it. The video is from the TV show Ukraine's Got talent and contains eight and a half minutes of astounding 'sand animation' by Kseniya Simonova.

Take a little break and watch the performance of 'The Great Patriotic War' here. Link to large size video, which I recommend. 8:30 long.

There are three exceptional things about this video. One — it's great art — enthralling performance, emotional themes, beautiful imagery. Secondly, the performance itself is technically amazing, yet, apparently the artist has only been doing this for one year. Finally, all of this is being achieved with some plain sand on a flat (backlit) surface. The tools for art don't get much simpler.

And yet…this is exactly the type of real-time, subtle, organic, sensual and fast art I always imagine computers could be capable of. Unlike many swooshy multitouch demos, this is not art for art's sake, instead the animation covers very human topics; one of every four people in the region died in WWII's Eastern Front. And she's using every last creative aspect of sand, from brushing, to finger and palm painting, throwing sand and scraping with the edge of her palm.

Two Hands are Better Than One
So this is how great it can be with some sand. How about some silicon? Matt Gemmell wrote a great piece on iPad application design I enjoyed. On the topic of the iPad's large, multitouch area, he writes…

The important point is that there are other, more obvious ways to accomplish these things; the two-handed input features are conveniences and power-user features. They’re useful and time-saving and possibly discoverable, but they’re not the only way to accomplish those tasks. We’re only just beginning to come to terms with the possibilities of dual-handed input; essential functionality shouldn’t require it yet.

You can see in the video that Kseniya rarely uses two hands. My stopwatch recorded only 1:15 minutes of two-handed use in the eight-and-a-half minute performance. That is, she only uses two hands simultaneously in this performance — 15% of the time. When she does, it's to do something quickly like clear an area. She also seems to use two hands when she's wants to draw symetrically, like the hair at 3:43.

 The matter is not that simple though. Many times she switches hands in the performance because she wants to draw on the far left (she appears right-handed) or because she wants a particular shape, or needs to approach from a particular side. 

Sometimes she switches for speed, and artistic effect; alternating left and right throws.

 

Just the Tip(s) of the Iceberg
I love this video because of the richness in the interaction. It's an encyclopaedia of gestures, from a single finger-painting, to multi-finger dabbing, parallel lines with thumbs and middle-inger. French-curve arcs with a palm, broading erasing strokes with the whole hand and intricate air-brush effects with sand released from above. I agree with Matt: we are at the beginning of this whole wonderful adventure. I'm going to keep Kseniya performance in mind as something to strive for. This is a great interface. 

 

Of Tandoori and Epicuration (JP Rangaswami) -- Curation is the process by which aggregate data is imbued with personalised trust.
Siri -- a personal assistant iPhone app, like IWantSandy but with voice recognition.
Evaluating the Reasons for Non-use of Cornell University's Institutional Repository -- great lessons for all open data projects. The reward structure established by each discipline largely defines the motivation behind faculty behavior. As eloquently stated by the economist, "While we are going through a digital revolution - in the way we teach and communicate with each other - the reputation of being published in the print journals is still the strongest incentive for motivation." This position was largely echoed by the engineer, who stated "what is holding us to the journal is the promotion procedure. This is about a problem of measurement with how Cornell evaluates my work." That said, there are real risks associated with changing one's practices, especially when one assumes the role of an early innovator. As the communication faculty member summarized, "There has to be a better way than the current system, but I'm not willing to be on the leading edge in using that system." (via JHW)
Google Voice Transcriptions Annotated as Poetry -- found art that reminds us that it's hard to wreck a nice beach.
WHATEVER THIS IS (Caller: My friend Christina)

Hey mister
it's Christina
just left you a message and then
I got your message and realized
you're stuck out

but I'll try you.

But yeah, just trying to be tomorrow
(if you get the chance)
And if you're a few Karen in China the next day
Council lot more
eating minnows on the step
and give me a little

I'll be hanging around then and I am
well,
whatever this is.