A
virtual museum is a
museumA museum is a building or institution which houses a collection of artifacts.Museums collect and care for objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary...
that exists only
onlineONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
. A virtual museum is also known as an online museum, electronic museum, hypermuseum, digital museum, cybermuseum or Web museum. The term used depends upon the backgrounds of the practitioners and researchers working in this field.
The virtualization of physical museums can increase interest by students learning about their collections: “Virtual visitors to museum websites already out-number physical (on-site) visitors, and many of these are engaged in dedicated learning”.
Virtual museums include museums that hold art originally created digitally, such as Net art,
Virtual RealityVirtual reality is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, whether that environment is a simulation of the real world or an imaginary world...
and
Digital artDigital art is an umbrella term for a range of artistic works and practices that exploit digital technology. Since the 1970s various names have been used to describe what is now called digital art including computer art and multimedia art but digital art is itself placed under the larger umbrella...
.
A
virtual museum is a
museumA museum is a building or institution which houses a collection of artifacts.Museums collect and care for objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary...
that exists only
onlineONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
. A virtual museum is also known as an online museum, electronic museum, hypermuseum, digital museum, cybermuseum or Web museum. The term used depends upon the backgrounds of the practitioners and researchers working in this field.
The virtualization of physical museums can increase interest by students learning about their collections: “Virtual visitors to museum websites already out-number physical (on-site) visitors, and many of these are engaged in dedicated learning”.
Virtual museums include museums that hold art originally created digitally, such as Net art,
Virtual RealityVirtual reality is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, whether that environment is a simulation of the real world or an imaginary world...
and
Digital artDigital art is an umbrella term for a range of artistic works and practices that exploit digital technology. Since the 1970s various names have been used to describe what is now called digital art including computer art and multimedia art but digital art is itself placed under the larger umbrella...
. The term is often used to refer to a
museumA museum is a building or institution which houses a collection of artifacts.Museums collect and care for objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary...
that takes advantages of the Internet to display digital representations of its collections.
Pioneers (online before 2000)
The following online museums were pioneers. At that time,
web pageA webpage or web page is a document or resource of information that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a computer screen....
s were simpler,
bandwidthIn computer networking and computer science, digital bandwidth, network bandwidth or just bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bit/s or multiples of it ....
was scarce, the concepts of the online museum were still developing, and there were limited
multimediaMultimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which only use traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material...
technologies available within
web browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
s. Some online museums began in other (not web site) electronic forms, or were established by existing physical museums. Some online museums have become significant sources of scholarly information, including extensive
citationLoosely, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source . More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression Loosely, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not always the original source). More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated...
s within
WikipediaWikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its name is a portmanteau of the words wiki and encyclopedia...
.
- Museum of Computer Art (MOCA) - Founded 1993. Directed by Don Archer, a non-profit corporation under charter from the Department of Education of New York State (US). MOCA was awarded .museum top-level domain (TLD) status by the Museum Domain Management Association (MuseDoma) in 2002 and is hosted on the Web as http://moca.virtual.museum.
- Web Museum, Paris - Founded 1994, online 1994. A pioneering virtual or web museum hosted by ibiblio
ibiblio is a "collection of collections," and hosts a diverse range of publicly available information and open source software, including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politics, and cultural studies. As an "Internet librarianship," ibiblio is a digital library and archive...
is the Web Museum, Paris created by Nicholas Pioch in 1994.
- The Lin Hsin Hsin Art Museum
The Lin Hsin Hsin Art Museum is notable as a very early example of a virtual museum.This online art gallery website was originally established by the digital artist and poet Lin Hsin Hsin from Singapore in 1994 during the initial expansion of the World Wide Web. The site presents Lin Hsin Hsin's...
- Online 1994.
- Virtual Museum of Computing
The Virtual Museum of Computing is an eclectic collection of links and online resources concerning the history of computers and computer science . It includes links to other related museums, both real and virtual, around the world, as well as having its own virtual galleries of information...
- Founded 1994. This is an eclectic collection of links and online resources concerning the history of computers and computer science.
- The Museum of the History of Science in Oxford
The Museum of the History of Science, located in Broad Street, Oxford, is home to an unrivalled collection of scientific instruments from medieval times to the 17th century. Its collection of 18th and 19th-century instruments is also substantial...
- Opened 1683, online 1997 - Located in one of the earliest purpose-built museum buildings in the world, the Museum was able to initiate a website relatively early because of the advantageous networking facilities and expertise available in their university environment.
- Virtual Museum of New France
The Virtual Museum of New France was established by the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation on January 22, 1997. As an entirely virtual museum, it has no physical exhibits and only exists on the World Wide Web at . The mission of the museum is to promote awareness of all facets of life in...
- Online 1997. Established by the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation.
- The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County opened in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, USA in 1913 as the Museum of History, Science, and Art. The moving force behind it was a museum association founded in 1910. Its distinctive main building, with fitted marble walls and domed and...
- Founded 1910, online 1998. The museum is the largest natural and historical museum in the Western United States and an active research center.
- [ WebExhibits] - Founded 1999, online 1999. WebExhibits is an interactive, web-based museum that encourages visitors to think about and explore scientific and cultural phenomena in new ways. Exhibits include “Investigating Bellini’s Feast of the Gods,” “Causes of Color,” “Color Vision & Art,” Pigments through the Ages,” “Butter,” “Van Gogh’s Letters,” and “Poetry through the Ages,” “Calendars through the Ages,” and “Daylight Saving Time.”
- the Science Museum
The Science Museum on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. The museum is a major London tourist attraction.-Origin:...
in London - Founded 1857, online 1999. One of the major science museums in the world was able to establish an early web presence partly due to the proximity of Imperial College, but was also spurred on by the fact that the Natural History Museum, which is next door, had recently established the first dedicated museum web server in the United Kingdom.
- ibiblio
ibiblio is a "collection of collections," and hosts a diverse range of publicly available information and open source software, including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politics, and cultural studies. As an "Internet librarianship," ibiblio is a digital library and archive...
- Founded 1992, online 2000. An online exhibition with the backing of the Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress and is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books. The head...
, ibiblio hosted EXPO Ticket Office with exhibits including a Vatican Exhibit and even a virtual "restaurant" and "post office". This looks very simplistic now, but was novel in 1991.
Other online museums
Most physical museums now have an online presence, with varying degrees of online information. At one end of the spectrum, museums provide simple contact and background information, and a listing of exhibitions (brochure museums). On the other end of the spectrum are museum with extensive online exhibits, interactive online features, multimedia, and searchable or browsable collections (content museums, learning museums, virtual museums).
The following are a few other museums online:
- UK's
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
24 Hour MuseumCulture24is an online guide to public museums, galleries, libraries, archives, heritage sites and science centres in the United Kingdom. It was a relaunch on 11 February 2009 from the previous site, 24 Hour Museum...
- Online guide to public museums, galleries, libraries, archives, heritage sites and science centres in the United Kingdom.
- Hampson Virtual Museum - Allows visitors to digitally "check out" the museum's virtual objects for analysis and study. The museum consists of hundreds of high-resolution, laser-scanned representations of Native American pottery. The objects can be viewed and downloaded in formats that include Adobe's 3D PDF, "obj" and VRML/X3d. The museum also provides free access to downloadable software that can be used to conduct metric analysis of the digital objects. The digital objects can be freely reused under a Creative Common's 3 license.
- Virtual Museum of Canada
The Virtual Museum of Canada is Canada's national virtual museum. With over 2,500 Canadian museums, the VMC brings together Canada's museums regardless of size or geographical location ....
is Canada's national virtual museum. With over 2,500 Canadian museums, the VMC brings together Canada's museums regardless of size or geographical location.
- Museum With No Frontiers
Museum With No Frontiers , an international non-profit organisation founded in 1995 as a result of the Barcelona Declaration by Eva Schubert, with the goal of launching a formal partnership between the European Union and its Mediterranean neighbours, which recently resulted in the constitution of...
launched its international website in 2007.
Research and scholarship
The digitalization of museums is task that has combined efforts, budgets and research from many museums, cultural associations and governments around the world. For the last few years, there have been projects related to
Information Society TechnologiesInformation Society Technologies is one of the thematic priorities in the European Union Sixth Framework Programme for research and technological development set for the period 2002-2006....
dealing with: preservation of
cultural heritageCultural heritage is the legacy of physical and intangible attributes of the past of a group or society that are selected from the past, and inherited, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...
, restoration and learning resources. Some examples of contributions in the field of digital and virtual museography: Euromuse.net (EU), DigiCULT (EU), Musings, Digital Museums Projects.
The leading international conference in the field of museums and their websites is the annual
Museums and the WebThe annual Museums and the Web conference is the leading international conference in the field of museums and their websites. It has been organized by Archives & Museum Informatics each Spring in North America since 1997....
.
In establishing virtuality and promoting cultural development, the goal is not merely to reproduce existing objects, but to actualize new ones. Information and communication technologies are not merely tools for processing data and making it available, but can be a force and stimulus for cultural development.
Interactive environments
There are several types of interactive environments. One is to re-create 3D space with visual representations of the museum by a 3D architectural metaphor, which provides a sense of place using various spatial references. They usually use
3D modelling3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
, VRML (
Virtual Reality Modelling LanguageVRML is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional interactive vector graphics, designed particularly with the World Wide Web in mind...
) and now
X3DX3D is the ISO standard XML-based file format for representing 3D computer graphics, the successor to the Virtual Reality Modeling Language . X3D features extensions to VRML X3D is the ISO standard XML-based file format for representing 3D computer graphics, the successor to the Virtual Reality...
(successor to VRML) for viewing. There have been introduced various kinds of imaging techniques for building virtual museums, such as infrared reflectography,
X-RayX-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 10 to 0.01 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays...
imaging, 3D
laser scanningThe potential of laser scanning for saving time and money together with its ability to enhance the design process and reduce data collection errors makes it an attractive alternative to traditional data collection techniques...
, IBMR (Image Based Rendering and Modeling) techniques. In the case of EU-funded projects, the ViHAP3D, a new virtual reality system for scanning museum artifacts, has been developed by EU researchers. Another interactive three dimensional spatial environment is QTVR. Being a pre-rendered, fixed environment it is more restricted in regards to moving freely around in 3D space but the image quality can be superior to that of real-time rendered environments. This was especially the case in the mid 1990s when computing power and online speeds were limited.
Domain names
Museums have a variety of
top-level domainA top-level domain or domain name is the highest level of domain names in the root zone of the Domain Name System of the Internet. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the label that follows the last dot of a fully qualified domain name...
names. Most are
.orgorg is a generic top-level domain of the Domain Name System used in the Internet.
org is sometimes pronounced in word form as 'org', 'dot-org', or 'dot-oh-are-gee '. It is derived from the word organization....
. Some are
.govgov is a sponsored top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is restricted for use by government entities in the United States. The gov domain is administered by the General Services Administration , an independent agency of the United States federal government...
, or governmental domains for other countries. A few are
.eduedu is the sponsored top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet for educational institutions, primarily those in the United States. Although not officially mandated for much of the domain's existence, in practice it has been used primarily for U.S.-based four-year...
, either as part of a larger educational institution, or grandfathered in when .edu regulations changed (e.g. with the
ExploratoriumThe Exploratorium is a museum in San Francisco full of hundreds of hands-on exhibits, most of them made onsite, that mix science and art. It is also a leader in the movement to promote museums as informal education centers. Founded in 1969 by the noted physicist and educator Dr...
). The
.museummuseum is a sponsored top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet used exclusively by museums, museum associations, and individual members of the museum profession, as these groups are defined by the International Council of Museums . In joint action with the J...
domain name used by some museums; e.g. see
online list from MuseDoma.
See also
- Virtual Library museums pages
The Virtual Library museums pages form a leading directory of online museums around the world. The resource was founded by Jonathan Bowen in 1994, originally at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory in the United Kingdom. It is supported by the International Council of Museums and Museophile...
- Museology
Museology is the study of how to organize and manage museums and museum collections. More generally, museum studies is a term used to denote academic programs, generally graduate programs, in the management, administration, or theory of museums.A variety of careers exist within the discipline of...
(also called museum studies) is the study of how to organize and manage museums and museum collections.
External links