Approach to Medialab-Prado: Julian Oliver

The MLP has been an important hub for me and my work in Madrid. It's been an indispensable site for the sharing and development of ideas, learning, teaching and socialising with others of common interest. With the affordances of more space in the new building the MLP has has an opportunity to expand. I'd like to see the MLP grow and/or improve in these areas:


Project hosting at the MLP:

Like sourceforge - but focussed around the MLP's creative community - makers can host projects with MLP, resourcing the MLP's knowledge pool, getting assistance in technical and creative direction, host a project website, email account, mailing list, wiki and code repositories. Working with an online calendar, they could arrange meeting times at the MLP and organise project related activities without conflicting other groups and events. They would have the option to 'flag' their project 'public team' or 'private team' so public would know whether they can just drop in and join a meeting.

Open Licensing centre at the MLP:

One area sorely lacking in the media-arts is advice on licensing. The MLP could provide an 'open licensing centre'. It would have a Frequently Asked Questions page regarding open licensing more generally, multiple-choice License Selector and perhaps a mailing list to which those familiar with open licensing would be invited to subscribe.

Publishing at the MLP:

Using publishing software hosted at the MLP (like flossmanuals or 'bookie') people can author books collaboratively and perhaps organise book-sprints at the MLP building itself.

Cafe at the MLP:

More than just a coffee bar or hang out, the cafe at the MLP should be considered an important public interface, a 'first contact' site for many that have no idea about the MLP or media-arts more generally. Thin-clients with quality screens would provide access to a directory on the MLP's file-server allowing visitors to browse recorded talks, videos, manuals, digital books and copy them to storage devices like USB sticks etc. Perhaps these kiosks could be rear-projected multi-touch tables, developed in a workshop. These kiosks will also have a page introducing the MLP to those that have just dropped-in without any prior knowledge of the place, a "what's on?" alerting them to events and talks happening that day or the next.

The cafe would offer round tables for people to spread out and have meetings. It could become an important cultural and social hub in Madrid.         

Secured, secluded work areas with time-sharing calendar:

A desk in a public area often isn't enough for a person to feel comfortable working at a space every day. Some level of privacy is needed. The addition of a locker (like those at schools) a large desk with powerpoints and ethernet ports in a slightly secluded, quiet area would attract groups and individuals to work at the MLP on their projects. By working with an online calendar (or even a physical/projected one in the space), people could organise working times in the rooms/spaces.

Future-proof, searchable project archives:

More emphasis could be put into documenting and preserving the less visible outcomes of MLP workshops in a way that is 'future-proof', tagged and thus easily searchable. Such material might include project sketches, ideas, working titles, code (branches, forks), photos and third-party references.

This material should not be collected into PowerPoint, KeyNote or other proprietary presentation software, nor should it be externally hosted, but should be standardised into an intuitive, simple Wiki CMS solution (drag and drop, easy file upload, WYSIWYG editing) linked to the code repository, MLP file-server and externally visible to internet users. When makers/participants are presenting their work they would present from their project's Wiki.

It should take no more than an hour or two to get used to using the Wiki. Foswiki, TRAC or flossmanuals are some possible solutions.