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Abstract -- Building On-Ramps to the Information Superhighway: Designing, Implementing and Using Local Museum Infrastructure Users Track
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Building On-Ramps to the Information Superhighway: Designing, Implementing and Using Local Museum Infrastructure

Helfrich, Paul M. ( helfrich@fi.edu)

Abstract

This paper focuses on the processes and strategies for designing, implementing, and using local museum infrastructure to facilitate the creation and viability of online museums. It is based on my experience with The Science Learning Network project. What does the Internet promise to deliver initially to museums? The Internet can be perceived by different museum departments in a variety of ways based on their unique ways of doing business. Educators and teacher/trainers may see the promise of new inquiry-based resources and enhanced communication, exhibit developers may think in terms of exhibit analogs, marketing staff may think in terms of the online museum store, etc. However, these traditionally parochial museum departments (education, exhibits, programs, design, marketing, curatorial, etc.) all begin melt away in the face of an enabling technology that fosters the creation of networks of individuals who can communicate and collaborate, both within a single institution as well as between institutions.

We have arrived at a wonderful moment in the history of telecommunications and museums. It is a time when anything seems possible, given adequate time, resources, and ideas. The Internet holds the promise of providing museums with an onramp to the Information Superhighway. Will we find dirt roads populated with potholes and road-kill or will we find a new means to extend our mission-based activities to the online world? >