Abstract
Virtual communities have become increasingly popular for the general public, using electronic mailing lists, newsgroups, web-based forums, chat rooms, etc. However, it appears that online forums are not well integrated in the sphere of museums. Curators have therefore not capitalized on widening their mandate and engaging visitors as well as museum professionals themselves in effective online interaction.
This paper presents a survey of existing museum-related forums available for discussion by museum professionals and the general public with an interest in museums. Some of the software available to museums for the installation and maintenance of mailing lists and web-based discussion forums, often freely available is also explored. An experimental museum discussion forum facility has been established (see http://forums.museophile.net) using open source software. The experience of installing and maintaining this facility is discussed. An associated questionnaire has been installed and advertised on some of the existing major museum electronic mailing lists. The results of this survey are presented in a companion paper with a view to improving museum forums in the future.
Keywords: discussion forums, mailing lists, museums, newsgroups, online communities, weblogs, World Wide Web
A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world.
Edmond de Concourt (1822-1896)
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