Posts tagged google
via museumnerd This could be quite interesting. I put this into Austrian google and it offered me: 
From Museumsandstuff.org
“Museums are there for the masses”, “Museums are cathedrals for the modern era” and “Why are museums important?” Can anyone offer any other languages?
Amit Sood - Google’s Group Marketing Manager - is the brain behind the Google Art Project. In this Ted Talk he presents the project, talks about how it came about and why access is important to him.
Chances are that you are already familiar with the project, even so it’s still worth a listen (hey, it’s less than six minutes of your life!) to hear him talk about how the project is not designed to replicate the museum-going experience, but to supplement it.
There is an education section, that includes a “Look like an expert” section, which asks questions of the ‘visitor’, leading them to look more closely at the artwork and consider it within the larger context of art history, genre etc. Essentially, it offers guided learning in much the same way museums do (or could/should). The possibilities seem endlessly exciting; the integration of other open source content from around the web (youtube, iTunesU, podcasts, google books, etc.), as well as the links to relevant online resources and collections that already exists.
Does anyone know of any examples of schools/museums/universities etc using the collections function as a teaching tool or assessment tool?E.g.:
- Asking students to put together an annotated collection as a virtual exhibition?
- Putting together a collection as a ‘reader’ for a course os that students can get up close and personal?
- Seen examples of innovative collections or uses of the Google Art Project?
Indoor Google Maps help you make your way through museums
In the past, navigating through museums could be an art form in and of itself. But Google Maps for Android has got wayfinding inside your favorite museums down to a science. With indoor maps and walking directions for U.S. museums now available on your Android phone or tablet, you can plan your route from exhibit to exhibit, identifying points of interest along the way, including between floors.
Today, we’ve added more than twenty popular U.S. museums to our collection of over 10,000 indoor maps that we launched in November: the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cincinnati Museum Center, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History and 17Smithsonian museums—plus a zoo!
Google’s Art Project has been expanded to include new museums (including the Imperial War Museum - my personal favourite).
You can search for museums by location or name, artist, or simply browse through the featured collections. If you have a google account you can also create and share your own galleries. There’s an education section and background info available too. An enjoyable way to while away time.
thomasbrushwood: RED BULL STREET ART VIEW
This has so much potential. I can’t wait to see how it develops.
Googles NGrams
Since 2004, Google has digitized more than 15 million books, mostly to build its Google Books service. But yesterday Google Labs released a nice little spinoff product, the Ngram Viewer, that provides a window into how we have historically used words, and what these usages say about our culture.
This new visualization tool lets you map out the usage of a given word, or series of words, over a 200 year period (1800 – 2008). For example, the Ngram Viewer shows us that we think less about “war” these days, as compared to the 1940s and 1960s, and more about “terrorism.” (Click the links to “war” and “terrorism” and you will see what I mean.) Similarly, the English speaking world has recently renewed its love affair with the dog vis-a-vis cats. And if you invested in salsa and bailed on ketchup in 1980, you would be a pretty wealthy person right now.
Overall, the Ngram database contains roughly 5.2 million books (a subset of the larger Google Books database), with some 500 billion words, and it features texts in Chinese, English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish. Get more details here.
via @webacion and @eugenephoto
An Epic Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railroad
Google and the Russian Railways recently joined forces to create a virtual tour of the historic Trans-Siberian railroad. It’s the longest railway in the world, moving from Moscow to Vladivostok, cutting across two continents, 12 regions and 87 cities. Now, you can take the six-day journey from the comfort of your own home. Through a special page on Google Maps, you can watch video of the trip unfold, as if you were a passenger, and also enjoy classic Russian literature, music and photos along the way. As you roll out of Moscow, start listening to a free audio version of Tolstoy’s War & Peace (in Russian, of course) and ease into the 150 hour trip.
How’s that for an epic virtual journey?
The personal blog of Jennie Carvill
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