I received this on an education discussion list I'm on. It seemed appropriate to the popular discussion of museums presence on the web...so here is a view from a non-museum professional (although he does volunteer) who looks at things from an eductional perspective. Lisa Falk ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 14 Dec 1995 05:33:22 -0500 From: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Thoughts on Setting up Museums Online... Moderator's Note: Phil sent this to me this morning to express some thoughts about bringing museums onto the Net. It was Classroom Connect's recent story about Online Museums (p. 9 of the October issue) that got him thinking... Enjoy! -- Tim Mc. <[log in to unmask]> -------------- In my free time I do some volunteering at the Capital Children's Museum, here in Washington DC. I was excited to hear last week that the museum will be soon setting up a home page on the world wide web. The ramifications of such a web page could bring a profound new dimension to the museum's work. This museum already has a large following and fan club. With a public presence on the web, the museum's fan club is bound to grow exponentially. This particular children's museum happens to be much more than a museum. The museum actively involves youth of the city in various creative projects, including the creation of video documentaries (amongst other things). The museum gives teens access to a full video production facility that was donated to the museum. Students plan, shoot, and edit their own documentaries - - - sometimes even adding their own computer generated animations. The museum is everything a museum should be, and more. It takes seriously its mission to celebrate human culture and creative expression. It excels at helping young minds awaken to the wonders of the world. Yesterday I was explaining to a friend how hugely significant it is for the museum to set up a presence on the web. The very existence of a home page will let the metropolitan community know that the museum is comfortable extending its presence into cyberspace. And the existence of this home page is an implicit invitation to all interested persons to help support the further construction of the page. (And to help support the mission of the children's museum in general.) To be sure, it's a bit scary to contemplate how much incoming e-mail this web page might generate. The museum's hard-working staff already puts in long hours of work. Having to answer an extra 30 to 40 e-mail messages per day is no small undertaking. And the volume of e-mail arriving at the museum could rise to 80 to 90 messages per day within just a few months. I admire the leadership of the museum for their foresight and courage in setting up a web page. Since the web is such a new creation, there are few precedents about what happens when a popular museum sets up a web page. For families and schools in the metro area, the museum's web page is sure to be a treasure. People will be able to plan their visits to the various exhibits at the museum, whetting children's interest before the kids even set foot in the museum. To help you picture the Capital Children's Museum, imagine a huge three story red brick structure with dozens of exhibit rooms and oodles of nooks and crannies. This museum is so large that I quite regularly get lost traveling from one end of the museum to the other. What makes this museum so interesting to me is that the museum has a certain magical aura. Soon after the museum's doors open each morning the sound of children's laughter and giggling fills the air. Almost all the exhibits include discovery-based learning activities. And now this museum is on the web. What will the museum's home page help the museum accomplish? In some respects a web page is an ongoing, ever growing newsletter. News about events and happenings at the museum can be easily disseminated to anyone interested in such. Solicitations for specific volunteer help can be posted on the museum's web page each and every week. If the museum needs help with a project involving desktop publishing, the museum staff can post an appeal for help on the museum's web page. Chances are good that some kind soul in the greater metropolitan community will step forward to assist with such an appeal. The opportunities for "remote volunteering" abound when a museum sets up a web page. The desktop publishing volunteer mentioned above is just one service that remote volunteers could offer to the museum. And the nice thing is that the museum can express their appreciation for completion of volunteer tasks by expressing their gratitude right there on the museum's web page - - - in public, for all the world to see. Do you think local businesses might take a greater interest in supporting the museum once the museum has a web page set up? I suspect they might. I do believe that might be the case. The aspect of this story that fascinates me the most, though, is the possibility that the museum could choose to exhibit local youth's creative work on the museum's web page. Since a web page is theoretically a museum with unlimited wall space, this possibility tickles my imagination. It would not be difficult at all for the museum to put out an appeal to all school art teachers in the metropolitan area to submit (in electronic form) the best of their student's graphic art work. A similar appeal could go out to school music teachers in the metro area to submit digitized samples of some of their students' most creative work. And English teachers could be asked to submit in ASCII form some of the most creative writings of their students. The museum could assemble a large collection of these submissions and exhibit them for all the city (and all the world) to appreciate. Imagine that. A museum with limitless wall space celebrating the creative spirit of the city's youth. The social ramifications of having a museum on the web are just beginning to be understood. I'm quite sure, though, that many positive things are going to be happening soon at this museum. The museum's original mission, which it has succeeded so well in fulfilling, is going to explode into a whole new dimension. Phil Shapiro The author takes a keen interest in technology access issues. He can be reached at: [log in to unmask] and http://users.aol.com/pshapiro/