What else do you want to know about MNopedia?

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Submitted by Erica Hartmann on August 16, 2011 - 10:17pm
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Project Details

MNopedia is paid for by Minnesotans through the Legacy Amendment's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, so the project team at the Minnesota Historical Society is making every effort to be transparent. Ask your questions here, and we'll do our best to answer them. (Also check out the About page above.)

John Ferman

August 24, 2011 - 1:35pm

Will there be iOS apps for this 'pedia?

Jim Ockuly

August 24, 2011 - 3:24pm

That's a strong possibility. From the beginning, we've thought that the "heart" of this project is the content itself, and we want to learn -- specifically from those who actually use and appreciate that content -- how best to deliver it. This may eventually mean many different channels for MNopedia. (For a lengthier description, see this blog post).

Of course, one of the advantages of iOS and other operating systems that exploit GPS is that, once we actually have a more comprehensive resource on our hands, the History Near You concept could be more fully realized through them, as could so-called augmented reality features.

We also have a keen eye on the classroom (and other learning environments) and want to be there for teachers and students as they evolve in their use of technology in education.

Mary Hinkle Shore

September 28, 2011 - 8:46am

Will we be able to log in, bookmark links, and otherwise save and return to elements of research if we're working on a larger project?

Jim Ockuly

September 29, 2011 - 10:56am

Thanks for the question, Mary. We're very much interested in how to make MNopedia content as useful for research as possible, and have put some thought into whether this means more built-in tools, or if there are ways we can make it work better with tools outside of MNopedia.

We're hoping to learn about this from our users themselves.

You're suggesting that MNopedia users might appreciate being able to save a self-selected collection of articles, images, audio, and video files in MNopedia itself, so that group of things would be readily available upon return visits. Great idea, and under consideration.

If others reading this have opinions about what direction we should take, we'd love to hear them.

John Burton

October 31, 2011 - 9:54pm

I don't know about the feasibility or the programability, but perhaps each member could have a "folder" in the member profile area where links to articles throughout the project could be saved for future reference. That would eliminate the need for bookmarks, coping/moving whole articles, etc.

Molly Huber

November 4, 2011 - 11:56am

The encyclopedia team has discussed much the same thing, thinking it would add to the value of the experience for users, and are currently exploring how that might be done. Thanks for proposing it!