Web 2.0 Technologies and the Museum

Abstract

While the definition of a museum is often contested, it appears that the notion of the museum has shifted and expanded from that of a storehouse or temple of objects to that of a visitor-centered educational repository of objects and information (Schweibenz 1998). This paradigm shift is evident in such books as Eilean Hooper-Greenhill’s Museums and the Interpretation of Visual Culture and Gail Anderson’s Reinventing the Museum: Historical and Contemporaly Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift. Although many of the essays in Anderson’s book exhibit the shift from being a collection-driven institution to a visitor centered one, it is Hooper-Greenhill’s book that leads to ideas for the future of the museum, especially when it entails the use of computer technology in order for the museum to “play the role of partner, colleague, learner (itself), and service provider” (Hooper-Greenhill 2000).