about virmuze
V
irmuze is a network of virtual museums, both official ones representing physical institutions, and those created by passionate people about any subject of interest. Museums are composed of exhibits containing videos, images, surveys, timelines, 3D models, sound clips, social media posts, and discussions specific to each exhibit.
Virmuze users can follow subjects of interest and specific museums to be kept up to date on additions, changes, and discussions.
People can create Virmuze museums which might never exist in the real world! Users might pay a visit to 65 million-year old dinosaurs, wander over to the museum of soft drinks, spend time at the museum of hurricanes, and end their tour at the latest modern art exhibition in New York City.
The goal of a museum is to tell a story, and we’re psyched to see what stories people will tell.
A Virmuze museum is a digital version of either a live museum, or an entirely virtual museum that exists only online. It's composed of exhibit pages, museum information, reviews, and comments.
A live museum is a museum on Virmuze that is also a traditional museum - one you can physically visit.
A bizarre quirk of English is that it's easy to describe something that exists in the "virtual" or "cyber" world, but there doesn't seem to be a word to mean the opposite! You can take an "online class", but can you take an... "offline class"?
We considered "real-life", "real-world", "offline", "physical", "natural", "brick-and-mortar" and "totally not just on your phone" before deciding on "live". We're hoping it'll become a thing.
Anyone! Just like on most social media and publishing platforms, signing up is quick, and can also be done through Facebook or Google one-click signup.
Creating and editing museums and exhibits requires a desktop browser.
Established museums and notable people can request a verification checkmark to show their accounts are authentic.
Browsing museums can be done without signing in. However, creating an account allows you to like and follow specific interests and museums, participate in exhibit surveys, view age-restricted exhibits, and create your own content.
No, although 360° video and 3D models can be embedded as part of an exhibit.
Most current "virtual museums" exist as panoramic set of photos moving through a museum, like an interior version of Google Street View. However, a 2016 study which we're entirely making up shows that this kind of "virtual walking tour" - while kind of neat - has never been very popular.
There are over 55,000 museums in the world today, and few of them have a high quality online presence, other than listing locations and visiting hours. Many people also maintain private collections that wouldn't be visible otherwise.
While amazing resources like Wikipedia offer a massive amount of information on a topic, it's not easily digestible as an exhibit that tells a story.
People all over the world will be able to view their collections, including those people without the ability to travel and visit. Lesser known museums can connect with larger audiences, and world - class museums can make popular exhibits viewable online to balance overwhelming crowds.
Many museums suffer from a lack of exhibition space; only a small part of the world's collections are on display. Virtual exhibitions don't have this problem, and can fit in the palm of your hand.
Virmuze is free for both users and museums.