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Smartphone technologies are now used to deploy audio and multimedia guides in cultural spaces, including historic churches. It is important to measure what effect the use of such technologies has on visitor experience of the cultural space and the usability and user experience of the guide. An “in the wild” study was conducted to investigate visitor experience in a historic church, with two versions of a multimedia iPhone Guide and with a traditional paper guide. The Church Experience Scale (CES) and the Multimedia Guide Scale (MMGS) were used to measure the experience of 59 visitors to Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, known as Shakespeare’s church. A total of 40 visitors used an iPhone guide, 21 a free choice version and 19 a guided tour version, and 19 visitors used a paper guide. Results showed that participants with a smartphone guide had a significantly more positive visitor experience and spent significantly longer on their visit to the church. There was a significant correlation between length of visit and the Enjoyment, Intellectual Stimulation, and Curiosity factor of the CES, but further work is needed to understand the direction of causality in this relationship. The usability and user experience of the multimedia guide conditions did not differ from each other, but the results of the MMGS showed that both guides could be improved in terms of general usability and quality of interaction. Challenges of conducting a study “in the wild” of a smartphone app in a cultural space are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the four major categories of activity identified in the mobile advertising initiative of the GSM Association (GSMA) in London, England. The initiative works towards creating and implementing national codes of conduct to establish common ground rules that reflect the national culture and consumer expectations. According to the author, advertisers must understand what their canvas is before they can understand the opportunities and add their creative input to the new environment. They should also address the issue of fragmentation within the mobile industry.

Using original research materials of in-depth interviews with community network development workers, multimedia and graphic designers, public authority man- agers, and a number of case studies (a Bangladeshi Electronic Village Hall, Manchester Multimedia and Networking Centre, the Manchester Community Information Network, and Virtual Manchester) this article traces out the views of interviewees on the trajectory of community and civic net provision in the city. Sources of discontent were found in: commodification of local civic nets, a prevalent middle-brow approach to web page design, the influence of 'cultural intermediaries' in and on publicly funded telematics and multimedia software development agencies, the impact of an entrepreneurial ethos in local authority policy formation, and pedagogic and patronizing attitudes towards local communities on the part of local area net development agencies. The article argues that, alongside structural corporate ICT power and the technological and scientific ICT R&D professions, these problems have a telling impact on the nature of civic and community net development. As well as criticism of the prevailing nature of city nets, the article more positively prompts a call to local authorities to adopt a form of 'critical regionalism' in order to put the control of civic nets back with the communities they are supposed primarily to be aimed at. This means empowering community ICT nodes, involving them directly in the development process, and moderating the impact of corporate ICT and cultural intermediaries within publicly funded ICT agencies. Given the renewed role for local governance in conditions of globalization such policies would aid the development of thriving and viable local community networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the schedule of events related to multimedia communications from May through July 2006. A Symposium on Technology, Knowledge and Society will take place in Montreal, Quebec to discuss the relations between technology and citizenship. On the other hand, the 10th International Conference on Information Visualization of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in London, England will focus on such topics as Semantic Web visualization, multimedia and human-computer interaction for information visualization.

The article provides information on the multimedia course about European community to be offered by Open University in Milton Keynes, England in January 1974.