Thanks to Ideum and our team of beta testers, we’re now officially open, and the community is already beginning to grow! We invite all of our museum colleagues and friends to join up, contribute, and help build ExhibitFiles into a rich, collective resource. The blog will remain open for now, and we look forward to hearing users’ perspectives. Many thanks to Jim Spadaccini, James Kassemi, Geoff Escandon, Kemper Barkhurst, Chris Gerber, and all the others at Ideum who’ve been responsible for design and software development–and to the National Science Foundation for their support.

We were at Museums & the Web in San Francisco last week, getting feedback on ExhibitFiles in the usability lab. Many thanks to Michael Twidale and Paul Marty, who led the process, and Richard Urban, who played the role of user. We’re taking their comments into account in some last-minute adjustments we’re making to the beta site before opening next week. Meanwhile, the core group that’s been advising on development has started setting up accounts and posting case studies and reviews (and reporting bugs), so new users will be able to explore before jumping in. We already have a mix of old and new, large and small, funky and classic, science and art, with more in the works. We hope to see you on the site, Monday, April 23, when ExhibitFiles goes live.