Virtual Museums - An Overview
Virtual museums created trough user engagement
Both some physically existing museums and a number of entirely net-based virtual museums have started experimenting with interactive homepages where users can participate by creating a personal profile, exhibiting personal stories and/or pictures and entering a dialogue with other users through blogs or chat. These virtual museums ideally evolve through the users engagement within a framework made available and eventually edited by the administrators.
Example: u.l.k. – young people’s art laboratories
The u.l.k. is an independent homepage hosted by the Young people’s art laboratories at the Danish National Gallery.
It is directed at young people who would like to participate in a creation and exchange of knowledge about art together with other youngsters.
The page, which is in Danish and English, has three entries: ‘go create’, ‘go explore’ and ‘go participate’. Under ‘go create’ users can create a profile and then place pictures, statements, comments, links to other profiles etc. on the page.
Example: Example: Museu da Pessoa – Museum of the Person
The Museu da Pessoa portal is a Brazilian virtual museum in Portuguese and English that collects personal life stories, statements, images, audio, video, and historical collections posted by the users.
In the extensive Portuguese version of the site users can communicate with each other and with other users making comments etc. on the exhibited statements.
In this way the Museum of the Person systematizes an unprecedented source about contemporary society’s multifaceted history. The mission of the museum is “to promote the democratization of social memory by valuing life stories in order to contribute to the construction of a more just society based on the respect of the other”.