Madrona | The Open Source Museum Collection Management System

Madrona May Update

Hello all,

So what has been happening with Madrona Community? It is currently at internal version 0.8. That means that it is not quite to the stage that we can recommend it for the day-to-day collection management needs of our cultural partners, but it is nearing feature completion.

Over the last couple of months we have improved search to return more relevant results, improved the reporting engine and added a number of canned reports, and developed the first version of the REST API, to allow for integration with other tools (such as on-site kiosks, etc).

Through its 3-year plus history, Madrona’s development has been entirely funded by zero one design. With our clients in the Galleries and Museums sectors (especially in British Columbia) going through a “lean time”, we have had to focus our energy on nurturing and keeping paying clients — at the expense of Madrona. We are not prepared to put out an inferior product (you only get one chance at a first impression!), so this means that Madrona development has slowed down considerably.

We are still optimistic for a 2010 launch, but much of that will depend on how our sector rebounds over the next few months. Hopefully, for all of us, museums and galleries will have a better 2010 than 2008/2009…

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Madrona Update

Alas, despite the best efforts of our team, we are delaying the launch of Madrona.  After extensive beta testing with over 50 museum professionals (thank you!), we found the program needs a little more work and we are postponing the launch of Madrona Community until 2010.  The underlying structure is solid, but the interface still needs work to make it absolutely intuitive to users.  We know that many in the museum world will have no trouble using Madrona but we also need to make sure the product works for smaller museums that don’t have the resources for a step learning curve.

We apologize for the delay - we know some of you out there are very keen to start using Madrona, but we want to make sure that it is as perfect as we can before we launch it.

Watch this site for more information on launch dates in 2010.  As always,  if you have questions about Madrona, please contact us at zeroone@zeroonedesign.com.

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What’s a Madrona?

We’ve been asked a few times  as to what Madrona means.   For us, of course, it means a collection management system - but where did the name come from?

When we set out to name this project, we wanted a name evocative of where we live and the product we created. Madrona is a type of tree …

any of several evergreen trees belonging to the genus Arbutus, of the heath family, esp. A. menziesii (Pacific madrone) of western North America, having red, flaky bark and bearing edible reddish berries.
Thanks Dictionary.com!

The tree, also known locally as the Arbutus, is distinctly Pacific Northwest - it is about as “us” as a tree could be.  It also is a nice metaphor for a collection management system with roots, branches and leaves.  As well, it gives us room to grow as we expand Madrona into a fully functional museum system - Sitka, Garry Oak, Pacific Willow all fodder for the next product.

Finally, there are some great instances of Madrona or Arbutus trees in art:

Sophie Pemberton’s Straits of Juan de Fuca and Arbutus Trees
http://collection.aggv.bc.ca/explore/14638

Emily Carr’s Arbutus Tree
http://collection.aggv.bc.ca/explore/19644

Walter Joseph Phillips’ Windblown Tree, Long Bay
http://collection.aggv.bc.ca/explore/7228

Tags: Arbutus, art, collection management system, emily carr, Madrona, pacific northwest, trees
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Madrona T-shirts

The t-shirts have arrived - so added incentive to become one of our beta testers! Beta test the program and we’ll give you a beautiful - no, stunning Madrona t-shirt and you will be the belle of the collections ball. Yes, we are ridiculously happy that the t-shirts have arrived - because they were the easiest of the tasks we have before us. Thanks to Caroline Davies Posynick for the slogan idea.

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Madrona Beta Testing

We are on our third batch of beta testers this week and the comments on Madrona have been good.  Not always glowing - but this is why we beta test.

We started this project wanting to create a new type of collection management system - one that would be ‘built’ by museum professionals, one that would be affordable to small museums, one that would reduce the work flow for people using it and one that would integrate with the new batch of great Web 2.0 tools that are available on the web.  It’s a tough order but we are almost there.

Our beta testing began with a small group of museum contacts that we had worked with in the past.  This group saw the very rough beginnings of Madrona - very rough.  We then opened it up to a remote test group - museum people that were recommended to us or those not geographically close to us that we had worked with previously.  This group saw a more polished - but definitely not finished version of Madrona.  We made a few more changes - specifically areas that this group had highlighted as issues - and opened it up to our third beta group.  This group is again museum people hand picked by us - and again a very small group.  In August we open up a much more polished version of Madrona to a much much larger group of museum people.  And that’s when it will get really interesting!

Some of the comments we have received so far:

“I am excited about what it will do to help us organize our records.”

“Wow. This could be big stuff, and I am well-pleased to be one of the very first beta testers.”

” I thought the overall look and feel was terrific”

Interested in being a beta tester?  Let us know at zeroone@zeroonedesign.com.

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Hello Madrona!

Welcome to the home of Madrona – one of the very first open source museum collection management systems.   This is a labour of love for the Madrona team – nearly three years in the making and we expect to launch the first version of the program in late 2009.  We are presently in the midst of beta testing and have a group of museum professionals who have been kicking around the program and letting us know what they think.  If you are a museum professional interested in being part of the beta test or have suggestions as to how to make a better collection management system, send us an email at zeroone@zeroonedesign.com.

Watch this space for news on the program, the launch and little hints on features to be included.  You can also join the Madrona community on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

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