Main fundraiser photo

Send Softalk/FactMiners to Museums & Web

Donation protected
I need your help to attend the Museums and the Web 2014 annual conference in Baltimore, April 2-5, 2014 to do a demo of The Softalk Apple Project and the FactMiners social-game design and to learn as much as I can about the state of the art regarding the preservation and presentation of on-line digital cultural heritage material. I am especially interested in learning as much as possible about the OpenData movement which is transforming the nature of on-line museum visitor engagement and research support.

The budget for my attending this important museum informatics conference is $3,520 (see breakdown below). My amazing wife Timlynn and I are on a limited, fixed income so this will be a considerable extraordinary expense for us. But we are determined to send me if at all possible. Your help, however, will be forever greatly appreciated.

Our proposal to demonstrate The Softalk Apple Project archive and its innovative FactMiners social-game ecosystem has been selected by the Program Committee as part of the Demonstration track of the conference.

My name is Jim Salmons and I am the Research Director of The Softalk Apple Project (STAP), the definitive on-line digital archive of Softalk magazine. STAP is a community-based grassroots project with the mission to preserve, explore, and extend the content legacy of Softalk.

The STAP digital archive is designed and chartered to be far more than a simple collection of human-readable document downloads. As part of the STAP project we are envisioning and building the FactMiners social-game community and support ecosystem to use crowdsourcing and game dynamics to capture all the facts (elementary information 'bits') in Softalk magazine as its 48 monthly issues chronicled the dawn of the Microcomputer Revolution.

Museums and the Web is the premiere conference where hundreds of museum and archive professionals from around the world gather to exchange ideas, train newcomers into the field (that'd be us), and network to establish collaborations that will empower their research and visitor agendas throughout the year.

This conference is the BEST place to establish valuable collaborative relationships to support The Softalk Apple Project and the FactMiners social-game platform.

My projected budget is based on a full week in Baltimore, travel, meals, and of course, the fee for the conference and an important workshop introduction to OpenData in museum applications. Here's how the $3,520 budget breaks down:

  *  MW2014 Full Conference registration: $700
  *  Intro to Museum OpenData workshop: $175
  *  Airfare Iowa-B'more plus bag check: $343
  *  Hotel w/ taxes: $1,393
  *  Meals and incidentals: $455
  *  Softalk/FactMiners Meetup hosting: $200
  *  GoFundMe fee (approx): $155
  *  Payment processor fee (approx): $100
  *  TOTAL: $3,520

As a donor/backer of this campaign you will be helping our grassroots project to achieve our goal of honoring the unique impact that Softalk magazine had on the lives of its creators and readers. And your support will be helping us to 'pay it forward' by spawning the FactMiners social-gaming community as a gameplaying crowdsource resource available to all museums and archives as we race into the 21st Century.

Thank you for your Consideration and Support,
--Jim Salmons--
on behalf of The Softalk Apple Project
and the FactMiners Ecosystem

5 March 2014
Cedar Rapids, Iowa USA

Organizer

Jim Salmons
Organizer
Cedar Rapids, IA

Your easy, powerful, and trusted home for help

  • Easy

    Donate quickly and easily

  • Powerful

    Send help right to the people and causes you care about

  • Trusted

    Your donation is protected by the GoFundMe Giving Guarantee