SCALEX - Scalable exibition server
http://www.scalex.inFO/

SCALEX is an application server FOr the publishing of digital content in exhibitions, museums and educational institutions. SCALEX is an interface that will facilitate museums in the task of preparing and realising exhibitions, especially with multidisciplinary - and a combination of real and virtual - content on site and online. The SCALEX interface consists of a structure-editor, a storyliner and a player and synchroniser.

SCALEX is being developed as an easy-to-use toolbox FOr museums and curators, allowing the addition of digital/virtual media to traditional exhibition objects or the production of entirely digital/virtual exhibitions that may be shown in various locations in parallel, attaining a high level of the interactive possibilities of digital media.

SCALEX is developed in cooperation with traditional and technical museums and providers of digital content ("media labs"), who will use the product FOr the presentation and publication of their assets. The interface will be tested and refined with model exhibitions, the first to take place in the Technical Museum in Vienna in 2003.

SCALEX endows the visitor of an exhibition with the ability to modify its content by selecting storylines leading through the exhibition and by browsing additional content connected to the individual exhibition objects, thus custom-tailoring the exhibition to their own needs and interests. SCALEX recognises user behaviour and presents customised content to specific user groups and individuals, with respect to such factors as age group, language or knowledge level.
The SCALEX-enhanced exhibition is based on a multidimensional map of the topics and the media of the given exhibition. The exhibition is conceived as a sequence of views on this knowledge map from the perspective of different user interests and access levels. In the digital exhibition, the knowledge base is projected into a set of different and selectable storylines.
SCALEX uses state-of- the-art Internet technology as a base FOr components tailored FOr the specific requirements of museums and exhibitions, allowing the publishing of exposition content also on the web.

The SCALEX project brings together technology partners, content providers, exhibition specialists and specialists FOr the design of advanced digital media in a content publishing framework. It uses existing and adapted Internet technology, while implementing a model of user-oriented and knowledge-based design of digital exhibitions. The success of SCALEX will be measured in terms of both the perFOrmance of the resulting system with respect to the technical goals as stated above, and in terms of its commercial relevance.

The main intention of the SCALEX project is to achieve a product that suits the needs and possibilities of museums and exhibition authors/curators. The prototype is developed FOr model exhibitions, and tested and evaluated by the curators and indirectly by the visitors of these exhibitions. In parallel, the specification, development and evaluation of the product is supervised by scientific consultants: experts in digital storytelling, visitor- behaviour analysis and software and interface usability.