Bringing the Ocean to the People
Firm helped the Smithsonian create an online community of people excited about the ocean and who care about its future.
Can you imagine a museum’s Web site that is just as thrilling, just as intellectually and emotionally captivating as the museum itself? The Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History could, and it turned to Booz Allen Hamilton to help make that vision a reality.
In September 2008 the museum opened the Sant Ocean Hall, a remarkable exhibition that allows visitors to explore the past, present and future of the Earth’s seas. The Smithsonian wanted a Web site to complement the Ocean Hall – but not one that simply mirrored the exhibit.
It sought to create a true online exhibition, a highly interactive and immersive doorway, or “portal,” to the Smithsonian and its partners throughout the world. With the most innovative Web technologies, the Portal would allow the public to see marine life in every ocean habitat, and even go behind-the-scenes to watch oceanographic researchers at work.
With the Ocean Portal, the Smithsonian hoped to build a community of people—particularly middle school students and teachers, and young adults—who were excited about the ocean and cared about its future.
Before soliciting bids for a contractor to build the Ocean Portal, the Smithsonian asked for Booz Allen’s assistance in preparing a request-for-proposal—a highly detailed description of the work to be done.
Booz Allen has a special relationship with the Smithsonian, and was happy to lend its expertise pro bono. The firm has long recognized and applauded the Smithsonian’s unique role in educating the public, and has provided the museum with assistance in wide variety of other pro bono endeavors.
“They wanted this to be a showpiece,” says Booz Allen Vice President Judi Dotson, who along with Senior Vice President Dave Aldrich led a team that assisted the Smithsonian with its plan. “They wanted something that educators and the public could use, and that would feature the latest technology, including Web 2.0 interactive learning systems.”
Booz Allen helped create tangible requirements outlining the look and feel of the Ocean Portal, as well as the underlying Web architecture.
Says Dotson, “We helped them think through what the user experience was going to look like.”
As a portal, the site would connect users to a variety of sources, including universities and other organizations. The museum wanted to provide users with a “richness of information” – but also needed to ensure the integrity of all the sources and information, says Dotson. Booz Allen helped the museum develop a data-management strategy to “strike a fine balance,” she says.
The Booz Allen team also helped the Smithsonian think through how the Ocean Portal could be a larger framework that would support future Web sites the museum has planned, says Dotson.
It was a very collaborative process, she says. “The Smithsonian staff was highly involved in this – it really was a partnership,” says Dotson. “We really blended in together.”
Booz Allen’s pro bono assistance also included:
- Market Research – benchmarking Web sites with goals similar to those of the Ocean Portal.
- Business Plan Gap Analysis – identifying gaps in the Ocean Portal Business Plan’s functionality, architecture and processes that needed to be addressed.
- Alternative Analysis – preparing and reviewing high-level architectural alternatives.
story posted February 12, 2009
