Sunday, February 7, 2010

Fort Vancouver Mobile: Project timeline

As the Fort Vancouver Mobile project now emerges from incubation, it's time to start putting some specific goals and a timeline in place. Here are the plans right now for 2010, but these mostly are rough dates, which likely will be adjusted as we go:

Feb. 24 -- Initial meeting to bring together all of the interested participants in one room. This critical session will provide an overview of the project, start making connections among the partners, lay out the resources available, start the brainstorming of specific content production, set goals and make plans for what's ahead.

March 14 -- Choose the initial historic storyline in The Village, upon which to base the first round of mobile interactive narrative tests. Begin in-depth research on that storyline and organizing the script, storyboard, production and distribution models.

March 15 -- Dissertation research question formalized.

March 23 -- Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant application due.

May 1 -- Dissertation preproposal due.

June 1 -- Complete the script and storyboards for first test project, with production and distribution models in place.

June 19-20 -- Bridgade Encampment, special event at the fort. Complete the third and final segment of the user survey. Use that information to tailor and adjust the story in progress.

July 1 -- Gather feedback on script and storyboards. Refine, refine, refine.

July 17-18 -- Soldier's Bivouac, special event at the fort.

Aug. 1-23 -- Major content creation period, plus editing, implementation and testing. At the end of this period, there will be something significant to use as a proof of concept.

Aug. 18 -- America's Historical and Cultural Organizations / Media Makers grants, through the National Endowment for the Humanities are due.

Aug. 23 -- WSU Vancouver digital storytelling class, focused on the development of the Fort Vancouver Mobile project, begins.

Sept. 18 -- Campfires and Candlelight Tour, special event at the fort, the most attended annual event, with a crowd of about 5,000 expected. Beta test project, if ready.

Oct. 9 and Oct. 23 -- Tales of the Engage, the first major fort event based in The Village area; our goal is to at least have something really solid and ready to continue beta testing during this event, preferably test on Oct. 9, then retest on Oct. 23.

Dec. 11 -- Christmas at the Fort, special event.

Dec. 13 -- WSU Vancouver digital storytelling class ends.

Dec. 15 -- Doctoral coursework complete.

3 comments:

ASchilling said...

Brett -
I like the detail in your timeline. You appear to have mapped out requirements and expectations and well as identified on paper times when you will be extremely busy.

I am curious from a content standpoint, what formats will you be using to collect feedback on the events? With the events in Oct, will the beta test and evetns carry through Nov, or will this be more a time where you are working on your final coursework?

Brett Oppegaard said...

I think what happens after October will be determined by what happens before. I suspect, though, that beta testing in some form will continue through the end of the year, at least. Feedback collection likely will be in the form of surveys, focus groups, interviews, and the like, but I will need to determine what specifically we want to know before deciding on the tool to gather it, and that clarity won't develop until later in the year.

Unknown said...

It's good to have an overall timeline; it helps me plan from our end, too. Thanks!