International Mail: The Online Museum of Persian Stamps

To be honest, I've never really understood how people get into stamp collecting.  Sure, stamps can have interesting images on them, but spending time and tens of thousands of dollars to acquire what are essentially stickers seems a little strange to me.  And now that mail volume is plummeting as people choose to do more and more over the internet, stamps seem to be less and less relevant.  But they still are fun to look at, and sometimes they can tell stories.  At least, this is what I got from the Online Museum of Persian Stamps.

A project of FarsiNet, this museum is compiled from personal collections and visitor submissions.  The stamps cover a wide time period, from 1889 to the 2003 earthquake.  Through the images on the stamps you can trace Iran's modern history: as a battle site during World War One, as a dynasty rules by the Shahs, and finally as an Islamic republic.

Most of this information, though, you'll have to glean from the stamps themselves.  The museum is frustratingly sparse on information, with text accompanying fewer than half of its image galleries.  The information that is presented is good, and there are a couple of links to outside sources, but for the most part you are left gazing at stamps without explanation.  It would really benefit the museum to have interpretation explaining just why all these stamps were considered important enough to display.

To the layperson, this is frustrating.  But I suppose that the philatelists among us, who enjoy stamps for their pure physical form, would be much more appreciative of this museum.  I really want to like the idea of a museum telling a nation's history through stamps, because it's a fascinating concept that our mail can tell our stories.  To the non-stamp collectors, I would recommend keeping this museum open in one tab while simultaneously clicking through a history of Iran on a more informative website.


The Online Museum of Persian Stamps
Website:  www.farsinet.com/tambr

Children's Play: The Helen Keller Kids Museum

This is the first time I've come across a virtual children's museum, and I've got to say I'm not sure how I feel about the whole concept.  I work at a children's museum with a physical space, and everyday I encounter kids running through out exhibits, exploring, touching everything and learning by doing.  The idea of a children's museum where the only tactile thing visitors do is click from one page to the next seems like the exact opposite of my expectations.

The Helen Keller Kids Museum, no matter what its form, would never really lend itself to interactive exhibits.  The subject here is a historical figure who is mainly known through her life story and her writings.  Perhaps, then, the internet is the best place to display a museum devoted to this fascinating subject.  And since so many children learn about Helen Keller during their elementary school days, it is nice to have a lot of information on her life gathered in one kid-friendly place.

A project of the American Foundation for the Blind, the Helen Keller Kids Museum delivers the story of Helen Keller's life in segments that focus on the different stages of her development (her childhood, for example, or her activism work).  Each of these sections are broken down further into small chunks of text accompanied by photographs.  The writing is pretty well suited for children, and the photographs are never paired with too much text.  I like how the information is conveyed, in a way that's easy for children to understand.

This is what the Helen Keller Kids Museum does well - but that's about all they do.  There is a section where Helen Keller's great-grandniece answers questions that people send in, but there are no other parts to this museum.  A few games or other interactives would be nice - perhaps something that conveys just what living in a dark, noiseless world would be like.  And what about deaf, blind children who are living today?  What are their stories?  There is a lot of potential to make these disabilities relevant to today's children, but the museum doesn't follow those paths.

The Helen Keller Kids Museum is very informative in a child-centered way, and I can see it being a great resource for the countless children who are tasked each year with writing Helen Keller biographies.  I'm also grateful to the museum for making me aware of the possibilities of bringing children's museums online and breaking down barriers to learning.  The model that the Helen Keller Kids Museum presents, though, is not really analogous to physical children's museums.  Kids need to be able to explore and play alongside gaining knowledge, and I don't see that happening with this museum.  With just a few changes and additions, though, this museum could lead the way in virtual children's museums.


Helen Keller Kids Museum
Mission:  The American Foundation for the Blind designed the museum to teach kids about Helen Keller's remarkable life.
Website:  www.braillebug.org/hkmuseum.asp

King Me: The Online Museum of Checkers History

I'll admit I don't know much about checkers, aside from what colors are represented on the board.  That's probably because I don't really have the patience to play slow games - heck, I don't even like puzzles because they take too long.  So it would be nice to have a museum at my fingertips that could explain the game and its history in a format that would allow me to choose how much I want to learn.  So I'm sorry to report that although it tries very hard to be helpful, the Online Museum of Checkers History doesn't even come close to fulfilling that desire.

The online museum started as a way to save the contents of the International Checker Hall of Fame, which burned to the ground five years ago.  It seems that this site is the work of a few dedicated fans, with contributions from several players.  It's a noble effort, but the execution of the online museum leaves a lot to be desired.  Many pages are way too long and contain mountains of text in various sizes, colors, and fonts.  There's an abundance of all-caps typing and ellipses, which makes you very unwilling to read more than a few words.  Combined with scrolling text and some very weird graphics, the online museum resembles one of those long-lost Geosites personal webpages.

Some of the galleries on the museum are informative, like the images of old game boards and rosters of players from tournaments past.  I also find it interesting that the museum's administrators are trying to crowdsource its content by asking visitors to submit images and artifacts.  But the information is hard to glean from the terrible formatting, and in some cases I'm not even sure it's reliable.  In the Timeline section, for example, there are plenty of events whose date is listed only as "???" - which is not just unhelpful but also unprofessional.

I admire the creators of the Online Museum of Checkers History for their dedication to rebuilding a physical museum into a new format, and for soliciting the expertise of their fellow players in creating content.  Their effort, though, has produced a mish-mash of words, text, and dubious information.  I can imagine that a checkers enthusiast would enjoy this museum, but not many others could say the same.  So until this site makes some serious changes, I would recommend finding your checkers information somewhere else.


Online Musuem of Checkers History
Website:  www.online-museum-of-checkers-history.com

Greener Pastures: The Environmental Art Museum

I know what the environment is, and I know what art is, but it was hard for me to picture what those two words together mean.  Does an environmental artist have to work solely in recycled materials?  Do they create their art in nature?  Are there carbon offsets involved?  It turns out the the term "environmental art" covers a wide range of projects, and the Environmental Art Museum showcases an interesting selection of examples.

According to the museum's page of definitions, environmental art "is art that helps us improve our relationship with the natural world".  That seems like it could cover a lot of the art that's been made throughout human history, doesn't it?  The definition continues, explaining that environmental art is often "ephemeral", site-specific, and involves partnerships with non-artists.  That narrows it down a little bit, but it's still a pretty broad definition - which explains why the art featured here is so diverse.

There is, for example, a disc which claims that the column of air extending above as independent from any nation.  There's also a lace canopy that serves as an irrigation system for the grass seeds planted within it, and a landfill that was made into colorful crop circles.  For each of these works you can read about the artist and their explanation for each piece, and there are many links to the artist's website and to external information.  You can also view images of the art at different sizes, which really helps in getting a sense of location and context for these pieces.

If you're interested in more information about environmental art in general, there are in-depth guides for how you can this art to a classroom, a park and your community.  There's also a well-written section on the working methods of environmental art, so that you could (in theory, at least) create your own piece.  If you're searching for a more academic take on environmental art, there are several essays written by the museum's volunteers, though I found them a little too long and dry for popular consumption.

The only thing I wish I could change about this museum is the way the artists and art are presented.  There are a few featured artists strewn around the homepage, but otherwise you have a navigate through a sidebar listing all the artists alphabetically.  Maybe it's because I think in categories, but I wish these artists has been grouped in some sort of logical way - perhaps by medium or working location.  Scrolling through a list and hoping to come across something you find interesting is not the best way explore a new form of art.

In some sense, I wonder whether this website is contradictory to the terms of environmental art.  After all, if environmental art is about location-specific work subject to the ravages of nature, why is it being preserved on the internet?  Although viewing images on a screen does take something away from each piece, it is interesting to see and learn about art you may never get to experience in person.  I would recommend poking around at the Environmental Art Museum, but keep in mind as you browse that you're only seeing a part of the whole.


Environmental Art Museum
Mission:  Our goal is to inform, inspire and connect people through environmental art and encourage the creation of new work that serves communities and ecosystems.
Website:  www.greenmuseum.org

From the Great Beyond: The Museum of Talking Boards

And what, you're probably asking, is a talking board?  It's a category of games that includes Ouija Boards and all other game boards that purport to answer any question we ask of them.  As a child I was told that these types of games were tools of the devil, so I know next to nothing about them.  And while I maintain a healthy skepticism about the power of these games, it was interesting to learn about them, even from an obviously biased source.

The introductory screen of the Museum of Talking Boards is rather off-putting, because it consists of a large block of text with only one link to the museum's content.  You have to navigate through the museum's site map to find everything on the website, and many of the sections here are also word-dense.  You might not want to read everything, but you can glean plenty of interesting nuggets of information.  There's Ouija Board lore, for example, as well as a history of talking boards in the movies and a description of their "therapeutic" uses.

The best section of the museum is the gallery of boards.  Here you can find images of dozens of boards from the past, each with information on when it was made and the company that manufactured it.  For some of the boards you can view larger images along with a more detailed description.  This section is nice because it not only illustrates the museum's content but also places these boards in a historical context.

I wish, though, that the museum was more objective.  I guess it's almost inevitable that a museum devoted to Ouija Boards would slant in favor of their supposed powers, and indeed this one believes in them so much that there it includes information on how to use and care for talking boards.  The only nod to disbelief is an article on automatism (the idea that unconscious hand motions control the board's message indicator) and how it stacks up to the ideas of spiritualists.

So although the Museum of Talking Boards is quite interesting and can help answer some questions for those of use who are unfamiliar with talking boards, I wouldn't recommend it for those seeking concrete answers.  Psychologists have addressed automatism and its relation to our subconscious in countless research studies.  Those might make a nice companion to viewing this museum, bringing together a history of modern spiritualism with a rational explanation of how talking boards work.

Museum of Talking Boards
Wensite:  www.museumoftalkingboards.com

Chips and Wafers: The Intel Online Exhibits

It seems that many online exhibits (or at least, many of the ones I've encountered so far) center around technology.  Whether these museums are about cameras or computers or software, they are likely to be awash in jargon and technical drawings.  This is no doubt due to the nature of these museums' subjects - if you enjoy putting together computers or designing new image capture programs, you're probably more inclined to also work on a virtual exhibition.  The Intel Online Exhibits are another entry in this virtual exhibit genre, although this may be the one case where I wish there was more information.

There are four virtual exhibits you can explore at Intel's website:  From Sand to Circuits (which explains how silicon chips are made), a biography of co-founder Robert Noyce, an explanation of Moore's Law, and a presentation on the 4004, Intel's first proto-computer.  From Sand to Circuits was probably the best exhibit, because it has several different layers you canto engage with.  The opening screen provides a layman's description of how computer chips are made.  You can also choose to look at the Fun Facts section, which is an even briefer explanation, or download a PDF that contains everything you could ever want to know about Intel's chips.  It's nice that all this information isn't crammed together but is instead presented in a way that allows you to choose how much you want to learn.

The Robert Noyce biography is rather on the short side, and I wish they had concentrated on his legacy and his posthumous contributions to the field of informal science (though I might be biased in that case). There are photos and videos of him included in this exhibit, but I could go to Wikipedia and get almost the same experience.

The Intel 4004 section is more comprehensive than any of the other exhibits, but it's short on practical information.  Here you can view photos and historical documents (like technical drawings and manuals), which I suppose can appeal to historical computer nerds.  In terms of explanation for the rest of us, though, this exhibit could use some help.  It took a lot of searching and reading to figure out just what was special about the 4004, and I'm still not entirely clear on its role in the computer pantheon.

I was excited to see there was a section on Gordon Moore, because I'm actually familiar with the prediction he's most famous for.  The essence of Moore's Law is that computers will get faster, smaller and less expensive as time goes on, and this has been exactly what's happened to technology in the 47 years since Moore first made this prediction.  But that's not how Intel explains it - instead, they quote Moore directly and then fail to really explain what this law means.  It would help to have some kind of discussion of the implication of Moore's Law - for example, how has this law driven industry?  And can we expect it to continue on indefinitely, or is there a limit?

I guess if there is one thing the Intel Online Exhibits taught me, it's that I do have some underlying curiosity about technology.  I actually would like to know more about the 4004, the life of Robert Noyce, and what Moore's Law tells us about the future.  From Sand to Circuits points out the way to answer these questions for visitors:  construct exhibits as layers of information, and let us choose what we want to explore.  This, I think, could be an excellent way to bring computer expertise to the masses and break down the barriers to knowledge about technology.


Intel Online Exhibits
Website:  www.intel.com/about/companyinfo/museum/exhibits

Play Your Heart Out: The Virtual Instrument Museum

A good percentage of us probably played an instrument, either willingly or under duress, as a child.  Some of you might still play in a band or as a hobby, or you might consider yourself a music connoisseur.  But do you have any idea how an idiophone works?  Or what a sarangi is and where it originated?  Neither did I, until a few minutes ago, when I visited the Virtual Instrument Museum.

The Virtual Instrument Museum is a digital archive of Wesleyan University's World Music Collection, and it's admirably thorough.  You can search for instruments by their different compositions (chordophone, aerophone, membranophone, and the above-mentoined idiophone), materials, region they come from, or alphabetically.  Besides defining all these musical terms, any of these search options brings up lists of instruments in each sub-category.  Instruments have their own pages of information, most of which include photos.  Some instruments have accompanying audio and video clips, and a select few include 3D images that you can rotate.  There's also an interactive map that allows you to view all the countries that have instruments in the archive.

That's about it - there's really no exhibits, and besides adding new instruments every so often, nothing seems to change.  But that's fine.  This is the type of collection that really benefits from an online presence, because it's rare and exciting.  How many people would trek up to Wesleyan to see musical instruments?  Not many (I'm not even sure where Wesleyan is).  But having images, information and sound files easily available can draw people in who might otherwise never see a collection of worldwide musical instruments.

I only hope that Wesleyan can create more 3D images and post them online.  They're really cool, and they're the next best thing to seeing the instruments in person.


Virtual Instrument Musuem
Website:  www.wesleyan.edu/vim/