Dan –

 

Are you crazy? Definitely not!

 

In actuality, your proposed organization is still a “site” that requires human resources and labor. It still collects physical things. Although digital is minute, it still has a physical presence on a hard disk, which in turn is a physical entity stored on physical servers. Yes, the digital information age is different, but is it really non-physical? It seems many contemporary museum practices will continue to apply, and intellectual property rights will be of great importance on the front end.

 

Best of luck with your endeavor!

 

-- Bertram Lyons

 

 

Does anyone know of any virtual museums that are honest to goodness, independent, non-profit, collecting institutions that have no physical collections or infrastructure other than the servers they’re housed on?  I’m working with a group that wants to organize such an entity to collect and digitize photographs, film and video that documents the history of a local community, and then create web sites, virtual exhibits and video productions as well as an on-line archive to make the material accessible. The actual film/photos would either be returned to the donors or passed along to another institution that curates these types of items.

 

The questions are:

 

1) Is there any organization operating on this model already?

2) How might the legal complexities of obtaining unrestricted rights to a copy of someone’s film but not the actual film be handled in the language of the deed of gift (we’re talking about people’s home movies, old corporate film and video, old TV news video, etc so we may be dealing with both individuals and corporations as donors)?

3) What other complications regarding access, use and licensing can you think of?

4) Are we crazy?

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

 

Dan Bartlett

Curator of Exhibits and Education

Logan Museum of Anthropology

Beloit College

(608) 363-2678