Beijing established a big data platform for museums to mark this year's this International Museum Day (May 18). This platform combines government, business and public services, and break the limitations on regional and inter-museum communication. The public can enjoy collections of cultural relics free of charge at any time whenever they log on to the platform, the
Beijing Youth Daily reported.
This is indeed a convenient platform for most people, since the public still needs to spend lots of time and energy to visit real museums, especially during public holidays, wrote Feng Haining, a commentator for the Beijing Youth Daily.
Feng also pointed out the advantages of virtual museums in terms of the broader scope of spreading culture. Virtual museums are not constrained by space and save time.
On the grounds of security, many museums only exhibit certain cultural relics, and lots of cultural relics are in storage. If the museum exhibits its collection on a big data platform, it can eliminate security worries and reduce the cost of management. At present, there is no traditional museum that can open 24 hours a day, but virtual museums can, Feng said.
Whether virtual museums will become popular around the country depends on whether different levels of government have the awareness of using the internet and big data to spread traditional culture and then are able to invest in it.
But it is not easy to establish a virtual museum. First, there should be strict professional standards for the photography of cultural relics. This means there is no difference between online and offline visual appreciation as far as possible. Then, introducing cultural relics in various ways, including voice and text, is needed. Also, some cultural relics that cannot be exhibited in the brick-and-mortar museums should be shown online.
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