Powered By Adobe Technology, New California Legacy Trails Feature Makes State History and Culture an Engaging Online Experience
ADOBE MAX 2008
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–California First Lady Maria Shriver and Adobe Systems Incorporated Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch today unveiled the California Legacy Trails, a new interactive feature of the California Museum Web site that brings the State’s history and culture to life online. The California Legacy Trails use AdobeÂŽ FlashÂŽ and other Adobe technologies to create engaging digital paths that highlight iconic Californians and how their innovative achievements impacted the world at large.
In keynote remarks delivered today at MAX 2008, the annual designer and developer event hosted by Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE), Shriver and Lynch debuted the new interactive feature, created to appeal to a global audience as a way to experience Californiaâs living history. Bringing together rich, engaging digital experiences with educational resources and teaching tools, the California Legacy Trails create a vibrant new online community.
The site, built and designed by Euro RSCG, enables visitors to experience âOnly in Californiaâ stories in a captivating new format. The inaugural trail, âRemarkable Women,â was envisioned and financed by the Womenâs Conference. This trail mirrors the âCalifornia Remarkable Womenâ exhibit at The California Museum, which highlights women who have made accomplishments that have shaped Californiaâs culture and history. Visitors can experience the new interactive feature at www.californiamuseum.org.
âCalifornia represents innovation, creativity, diversity and pioneering trailblazers â and Iâm proud to partner with The California Museum to launch the first-ever California Legacy Trail to highlight the best of California in an interactive, fun and engaging way,â said Shriver. âThe California Legacy Trails provide an incredible tool and a practical way to learn about California no matter where you are. And itâs my hope that now we will bring the inspiration of whatâs âOnly in Californiaâ into the homes and lives of not only the people of this great state, but to the entire world.â
âThe California Legacy Trails is to the California experience as the MP3 player is to music and e-mail is to communication,â said California Museum Executive Director Claudia French. âThe Museum is proud to partner with Adobe and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation to make Californiaâs vibrant stories and real places accessible to anyone anywhere â in a captivating and innovative online destination.â
âAdobe has a long history of enabling people to create engaging experiences in virtually every medium and weâre excited to help realize the vision for California Legacy Trails,â said Lynch. âThis is a powerful example of how technologies such as Flash and new kinds of rich digital experiences can transform teaching and learning by inspiring people to do more than just passively watch. Whether itâs for education, entertainment or e-commerce, engaging experiences are critical to reaching and connecting with your audience.â
Interactive Features
Built using Adobe Flexâ˘, Flash and Adobe Creative SuiteÂŽ, the California Legacy Trails feature cutting-edge technologies and interactive elements including:
– Customized e-postcards featuring iconic images to share
– An e-passport of landmarks throughout California
– Exciting audio and visual multimedia components
– Areas with user submitted content and social networking features.
Interactive features of the California Legacy Trails enable site visitors to post their own California stories, pictures and comments, and share profiles with friends, creating a dynamic online community. Shriver has posted her own âRemarkable Woman,â as has activist Dolores Huerta.
Plans for future development include a Learning Lab, a rich Internet application based on AdobeŽ AIR⢠technology. Targeted at educators, students, professionals and visitors to California, the Learning Lab will be an automatically updated desktop application that can be used both online and offline; future support for mobile devices is also planned. The Lab will enable educators to log on and select projects for students; students will be able to complete assignments such as quizzes, essays and photography projects.
Educational Resource
The California Legacy Trails will provide a unique e-learning resource where teachers worldwide can:
– Customize an on-line program for history, culture and geography class lessons
– Encourage students to use the historical data from the trails for projects and reports
– Use stories of remarkable Californians to inspire students
– Collaborate with other teachers in the Teachersâ Lounge, an innovative on-line feature that allows teachers to share and develop ideas with peers.
“The Teachersâ Lounge enables the sharing of new ideas, encourages teamwork, and helps channel group energies to deliver high performance results,” said Jens Egerland, managing director of Accenture’s California Public Service practice, the company that teamed with the Museum to build the Teacherâs Lounge using Accentureâs Collaborative Innovation Solution. “We are proud to work with the Museum to offer this tool to the education community and help them develop their best ideas into real, tangible solutions.”
About The California Museum
The California Museum â home of the California Hall of Fame and California Legacy Trails â is a cultural destination dedicated to telling the rich history of California and its unique influence on the world of ideas, innovation, art and culture. We advance our mission to inspire through educating school children through dynamic exhibits and educational programs, as well as serving as a public forum and international meeting place. The California Museum is located at 1020 O Street, (Corner of 10th Street), downtown Sacramento. For more information 916.653.7524, info@californiamuseum.org, www.californiamuseum.org.
About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information â anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.
2008 All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Adobe AIR, Flash, Flex and Creative Suite are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners
