Conversation in the museum: experiments in dynamic hypermedia with the intelligent labelling explorer

Abstract We outline experience with the Intelligent Labelling Explorer, a dynamic hypertext system developed at the University of Edinburgh, in collaboration with the National Museums of Scotland. First, we indicate a number of ways in which labels on museum objects ought to be tuned to take into account types of visit, the interests of visitors, and their evolving knowledge during a visit. Secondly, we sketch the general architecture of our system, and then focus on the conversational effects which the system can create. We then briefly indicate future directions of research, before critically discussing the applicability (or otherwise) of the spatial metaphor to flexible hypertexts.