Development and Design of Virtual Museums
Make-MyMuseum – The Web Portal to Virtual Museums
(Museums on the Internet)
WHO ARE WE?
Make-MyMuseumis the web portal to virtual museums, constructed by the singular project e-mymuseum.com, specializing in the construction of virtual museums (museums on the internet). This project is founded and managed by Dr. Ofra Keinan, who – in her capacity of academic professor, museum director, and chief curator – has specialized in the subject of museums and virtual museums. The project manager – Ms Riki Leshem – is in charge of marketing, public relations, and customer service. The project consultant – Mr. David Keinan – is CEO of the I2I Company for Israel India relations. Ms Bracha Sawari our consultant has accumulated many years of managerial experience. We work with firms specializing in the design and programming of prominent web sites.
Our project is in constant contact with professional entities in the domain of museums and virtual museums in Israel and abroad.
WHAT IS A VIRTUAL MUSEUM?
We chose to quote Jamie McKenzie's classic definition:
Virtual museums live on the World Wide Web… The Internet.
The door to the virtual museum is electronic.
You drive up for a visit on the Information Highway,
but you need no car.
A computer and an Internet account serve as your
entrance ticket and transportation combined.
Jamie McKenzie 1997))
What place does the virtual museum occupy in the information society?
The virtual museum has become a highly important cultural and social instrument in the information society several years ago. The educational virtual museum is a museum on the internet consisting of a culturally significant collection which is permanently displayed for the benefit of the surfing public. It owns museal characteristics, such as a programming design, permanent exhibitions and temporary exhibitions, and explanations (textual subtitles) to the collection items. Educational virtual museums can reflect physical museums or they can only be internet museums.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF A VIRTUAL MUSEUM?
We can point out several significant characteristics of the virtual museum:
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A.
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Accessibility – The virtual museum can be accessed by anyone, at any time of day, any day of the week, and of course anywhere on the planet. The visitor does not have to go to the museum; it is rather the museum that comes to the visitor / surfer.
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B.
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Dynamism – The virtual museum is a dynamical tool. The exhibitions may change from time to time according to the materials or the new information received by its creators. The dynamism of the virtual museum enables it to become a learning / educational institution, capable of responding to new developments and adapting to changes occurring in the scientific and educational spheres.
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C.
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Interactivity – The virtual museum permits the visitor / surfer to become an active factor in the creation process of the museum. The surfer is at the same time a passive viewer and an active partner in the creation of the virtual museum. First of all, by sending in various items to enrich the contents of the virtual museum, and secondly, by becoming an active partner in conversations, discussions, encounters, etc., which could take place at the virtual museum, at the café, and in the guest book.
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D.
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The Campfire – The virtual museum engenders social processes on a virtual level as well as a physical one. It brings people together either by a common past or a mutual creation, or by turning into something of a campfire gathering for the ever growing community around the virtual museum. In other words, the virtual museum has the potential of becoming an important instrument towards the progress of an interested audience, to constitute a "shop window" for the surfer, thus enhancing his/her sense of pride and self confidence.
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E.
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Example – A good example demonstrating the function of the virtual museum as a campfire gathering is our virtual museum called "Our Alumot" -
A community of people, who were forced to abandon their homes on the beautiful Giv'at Alumot (Upper Bitania), has realized that the virtual museum could to a great extent become a way to preserve their heritage.
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FOR WHOM WAS THE VIRTUAL MUSEUM CREATED?
In the central circles: The family, the local community or the historical one, organizations and institutions, present customers and potential ones, members of the organization and its employees.
In the peripheral circles: Close friends, interested people, and the broad public.
The web portal is a platform for the virtual museums erected by the
e-mymuseum.com project.
The portal consists of various types of virtual museums:
- Communal museums, like "Our Alumot";
- Personal – family museums, like "Shnei Haverim" (Two Friends);
- Narrative museums, like "INDIA".
The platform of Make-MyMuseum is capable of offering the customer a variety of services:
- A designing and programming platform to construct his/her own virtual museum;
- Consulting services towards the construction of the museum's vision and goals, its content characteristics, its design and programming;
- Composing the programming design for the museum and its exhibitions;
- The actual construction of the museum with the assistance of professionals.
- An in-depth acquaintanceship with internet technologies;
- Expertise in the domain of virtual museums and their evolvement into a tool capable of yielding an experience;
- Extensive experience in the domains of museal treasures, programming design for exhibitions and frontal training, be it personal or collective;
- Supporting and instructing a large variety of end users of various populations and age groups;
- Experience in solving interface, methodological, and logistic problems of the internet system.
Best regards,
Dr. Ofra Keinan
972-3-6172797
972-54-5535444
Development and Design of Virtual Museums
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