Mobilizing digital museum with Chinese digital archive

Abstract

Many museums have been digitalizing their collections and disseminated them to the world through the Internet. On the other hand, cloud computing and mobile communication technologies will further enhance the penetration capability of digital information, enabling mobile users surfing the wave of information world at anytime and anywhere. Nevertheless, both technologies have their own limitations, especially in handling Chinese artifacts that may hinder their applicability to the digital museums. We use the National Palace Museum (NPM) as a reference museum for the application of cloud computing and mobile communication technologies to mobilize digital museums with Chinese digital archives. A set of design guidelines specific to the NPM's services is formulated and a few prototype systems are implemented based on these guidelines: (1) Qingming Painting and Mao Gong Ding Inscription graphical exhibition and edutainment systems; (2) Mobile Digital Museum Explorer. By mobilizing, the NPM and other museums will be able to lift their world-class services to another level for the benefit of all.1