A Digital Museum that Brings Together Cultural Content - Term Paper Example

l Digital Museum Project Proposal Name: Unit: Course: Supervisor: Date of submission: Introduction The 21st century has experienced great technological advancements. The hallmark of the today’s society is that life is increasingly mobile, and many businesses and social activities are being digitised. Lives have been made virtual by technologies that have personalised services, and through mobile phones, an individual can access many online sites all over the world (Falk & Sheppard, 2006). These advancements in technology have resulted in a paradigm shift in the way things are done, and as digital experiences continue reshaping the world, cultural experiences cannot be wished away and neglected, instead they need to be made to match new technology. According to Dins and Hecht (2007), cultural experiences from many decades have been put in the form of artefacts and are mainly found in books, national archives and museums. As the effects of globalisation continue to be experienced, there is a need for the society to really be a global village. This can be achieved through learning each other's culture. Learning can be increased if the way of storing cultural artefacts is revolutionised to ensure that more content is stored on websites (Falk & Sheppard, 2006). It is worth noting that websites can be accessed from all over the world with a simple click. This paper is a proposal for designing a website that will serve as a digital museum that brings together cultural content from different communities and cultures from all over the world. Overview of Museums Since the 18thcentury, cultural artefacts have been the main form of understanding and appreciating the cultures of different communities. The best way to get a glimpse of cultural artefacts has been through visiting a museum that is affiliated with the given community in which the visitor is interested. With the emergence of globalisation, there have been changes in information technology that have made it possible for an individual to access information over the Internet (Hanman, 2009). Notably, over the past two decades, there have been inevitable changes in both society itself and technology. These changes have reshaped the world; museums, being an integral part of society and the preservation of culture, have not been spared. There are evident changes in how museums function and deliver cultural experiences. Museums have been adopting technology in order to reach more people. However, (Raskin, 2008) noted that museums have not fully exploited modern technology, thus limiting their audience, and to a large extent have not matched the pace of globalisation. There is, thus, a need for museums to come up with new ways to narrate stories and ensure that the stories are not confined only to buildings. The best way to tell stories to the global community is over the Internet, and an efficient way is to have a website that includes cultural contents across the diversity of communities. Museums need to evolve with ever-advancing technology and meet the needs of global citizens, at the same time being responsive to modern economic realities. For instance, there is a growing demand for cultural artefacts such as paintings, but the accessibility of these cultural artefacts has been limited to physical museums (England & Finney, 2007). Thus, it may be a noble undertaking to ensure that artefacts can be viewed by as many people as possible. Objectives In the modern world, museums are faced with the challenge of a decreasing number of visitors; notably, very few young people are visiting museums (DMPE, 2009). This has limited the presentation and learning of cultural information and related artefacts to few events such as festivals and cultural events. Therefore, using a website will change this trend and expand the audience through the online platform. According to Hanman (2009), the future of museums will remain dependent on the adoption of a variety of trends that are shaping the modern society. For instance, changes in social and cultural trends have greatly influenced the types of experiences people expect. In addition, competition has been the hallmark of modern society; for museums to continue operating efficiently, they have to be profitable by attracting many people and continuing to be inclusive. Therefore, for museums to withstand competition, there is need to devise a website that puts museums a notch higher in the presentation of experiences (Anable& Alonzo, 2010). The main aim of this proposal is to put forward a plan for a clearly designed website for digital museums. The objectives of the proposal for the digital website are: to establish digital museum content that can reach different people in society. to ensure that the digital museum reaches many people and accommodates the needs of young people who desire to have digital museum interfaces as part of their experience. Rationale Over the last 20 years, there has been an increase in the number of people using the Internet: since 2000, with the advent of social media, the number of Internet users has doubled (Burg, 2008).Accordingly, many organisations have opted to shift from the traditional way of reaching clients to an online platform. This proposal would provide an interactive platform that would further act as a basis for networking and the exchange of ideas. Therefore, a website for digital museum is the best option for ensuring that museums are accessed by many people. In addition, the move towards having a digital museum has great significant for the ways the content for the website would be sourced, exhibited and explored. Some museums have already adopted new technology and have been marketing their cultural artefacts through social media and other online platforms. However, this technological adoption only serves as a marketing tool and aims at creating awareness (Linda & Lanham, 2002). In the current age of technology, museums require a shift away from just advertising and selling their content through a website where a client can log in for a fee and access different artefacts from different communities. People have become more accustomed to technological empowerment; technological-savvy people are shopping online, which has led to online shopping malls and stores. Museums thus need to follow suit and start using a website to convey cultural stories and engage online visitors in the curation of the museum content. Ensuring that cultural artefacts are digitised and accessible over the Internet will boost the number of visitors (Hanman, 2009). A statement on the angle A digital museum which incorporates cultural artefacts from different communities; each artefact with a narration that explicitly explains its origin and cultural orientation to bring a new dimension which has not been the case museum. Description of the Project Museums have played the role of curators of experiences and acted as platforms for cultural exploration. The website for the digital museum would ensure that it preserves these unique roles and would provide a platform that is easy to navigate and that has descriptive information about the various artefacts. In accord with the advances in technology, the website will incorporate YouTube and integrate features that allow visitors to obtain artefacts online. This will entail incorporating 3D images that can be printed through the application of 3D printing techniques (Watt, 2007). In addition to these features, the images for general viewing will be formatted as photo slides that will appear across the website’s main page, with descriptions attached to them. The images will be designed and put into different categories the visitors can access easily. In each category, a site will be created that provides information on the specified categories; this site will be designed so that an individual can connect through social media. Key to the information will be the source of the artefact and a brief description of the cultural artefacts and practices. The digital museum will source information from community museums, and the information in the museums will be digitised using high-resolution cameras. In addition to the images, the digital museum will include cultural practices in the form of songs, dances and general way of life. This will bring a new dimension to museums, and through YouTube, the cultural practices will be accessible audio visually by online visitors. Animations will also be used on the website to demonstrate certain cultural functionalities and events that cannot be showcased in detail through static images (Watt, 2007). For example: The following is an example of digitised binoculars (MA182) presented to Australian Archive Museum in 1883. The digital museum will include narrations in addition to the image. Another important feature for the website for digital museums is a provision that would allow the active participation of the visitors; the digital media will connect to the visitors and give them an opportunity to participate in the creation and curation of cultural content. This will be possible through links to social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, each of which allow the posting and sharing of images. The website will be designed such that, upon clicking on a link on a social media site, users will be redirected to the digital museum site, where they can view other images and products. The ability to share information in this way through social media and networking will allow for the distribution of the website’s materials and media content to a wider audience. The Website Design The design of the website will be done using applications such as Adobe Photoshop. Members of the selected communities whose artefacts are to be included in the digital museum will assist in the identification and collection of the cultural artefacts and video shooting of the cultural practices. In addition, the collaborating museums will also approve the artefacts that are to be digitised. Summary of the Research In website design, several types of sites can be used. Sites can be simple and static; resembling advertisements such as those for the Yellow Pages, while other sites are dynamic, with a variety of content that is constantly changing, depending on the visitor's choice. According to Raskin (2008), a digital museum should entail an interactive website, and the website should be easy for users to navigate, because a website that is difficult to navigate discourages users from further exploration. Slatin (2003) noted that navigation around the site is a crucial consideration in the design of any website. In order to establish a simple-to-use site, the design should entail a simple but inclusive dashboard arrangement of features that have clickable menus. To achieve the desired features, Hoffman, Grivel and Battle (2011) pointed to the importance of arranging the various topics in an outline format, easing navigation from one category or site to another and making submenus easily accessible. For a digital museum, there would be many images of the artefacts, animations and video clips. These contents should, thus, be arranged so that they do not over shadow each other; this would ensure the quality and clarity of the content. Overall, the website content should be informative and interesting, in order to keep visitors coming again. Therefore, the language, tone and presentation of information should relate to the type of message being communicated. According to Linda and Lanham (2002), construction of a website should be based on a dialogue that informs, effectively communicates, interacts and entertains visitors. Conclusion For many years, cultural artefacts have been curated in traditional museums to which people have had to travel physically in order to access information. In contemporary society, technological advancements in information technology have revolutionised the way people access information. Through Internet applications, information is just a click away. Thus, this revolution in information technology underlines the need to have digital museums. The current proposal seeks to establish a website in which cultural artefacts can be shared with a wide audience. The rationale of the project is that individuals from different cultural backgrounds will be able to visit the museum and get its content from their mobile phone applications or desktops. To facilitate this, the project aims to design a website that will present content in the form of images, audio, animations and video clips from different cultures to different cultural communities across the globe. The aim of the digital museum is to ensure that many people using the internet can access the museum. This will be achieved through digitisation of the content to make accessible through features such as YouTube, photo slides and short video clips. This will be designed through modern application of web design such as Adobe Photoshop. The content is to be collected through high resolution cameras and edited using modern technology. References Anable, S., and Alonzo, A. (2010).Accessibility techniques for museum web sites. Toronto: Archives and museum informatics. Burg, J. (2008). The science of digital media. New York: Prentice Hall. Din, H., and Hecht, P. (2007). The digital museum: A think guide. Washington, D.C: American Association of Museums. Digital Museum Project Extension (DMPE). (2009). National science council digital museum project summary: Digital museum project. Extension. National Science Council (1)1. http://mars.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~dlm/plan/1st/intro12.htm England, E., and Finney, A. (2007). Managing interactive media: Project management for web and digital media. Michigan: Addison Wesley. Falk, J. H., and Sheppard, B.K. (2006). Thriving in knowledge age. New business models for museum and other cultural institutions. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press. Hanman, K. (2009). Becoming digital. Bulletin of the American society for information science and technology, 30 (5), pp. 11–13. Hoffman, D., Grivel, E., and Battle, L. (2011). Designing software architecture to facilitate accessible web applications. IBM systems journal, 44 (4), 2674–83. Linda, M., and Lanham, M. (2002). Building websites for multinational audiences. London:Routledge. Raskin, J. (2008). The human interface: New directions for designing systems. London: Engineering Library. Slatin, J. (2003). Maximum accessibility: Making your web site more usable for everyone. Boston: Boston University Library. Watt, H. (2007). Designing SVG web graphics. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders. Read More