Models for a New Visitor-Centered Museum: Using the Web to Create Community and Continuity for the Museum Visitor

New technologies make it possible transform the occasional visitor to a museum into a life long client. By creating structures which embed the visit itself into an elecronic web of resources, community connections, discussions, and activities, the museum can create a personalized and long-lasting relationship with the individual visitor. The visitor can 'own' a personal portfolio that connects her or him with the on-going activities of the museum, and also enables her/him to develop a personally inflected store of experiences and information. The msueum can create special events reaching from the museum out into the world, and fine-tuned to the needs of specific visitors.