The Big Internet Museum

by Startacus Admin

Opening its’ ‘doors’ last week to the public, The Big Internet Museum, launched online and attracted over 13,000 visitors in its’ first day, making it a virtual success story that Startacus thought best to report...

On the odd occasion when looking at new startups, inventions, ideas - you get that immediate sinking feeling - “why didn’t I think of that?!” or a questioning glance to oneself of “didn’t that exist before?”

Well with The Big Internet Museum, whilst we are unsure whether the creators want this to be more than a pet project, we love this innovative approach to telling the tale of the internet.

It makes complete sense - an online museum to explain the history of the internet, since firstly you can’t really display ‘virtual’ things and secondly, it would a little too ironic to use anything but the internet to exhibit the best and often forgotten parts of internet history.

Seeking to educate and inspire visitors from all over the World (the beauty of the internet in itself really) it displays work from 1969 when the precursor of the Internet was first developed through to the current date, walking through all major internet developments from email, .GIF, HTML, Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

However, and this is the real beauty of the site - you can offer up suggestions for what should be included and added to the museum and then vote to get your favourites in. Making this a collaborative project is the potential money maker for the site, as getting this to be a ‘go to’ site for all things internet, could mean that traffic, interest and community inclusion continues to grow.
(although the 4 Dutch founders say this has not been done for the money at all!)

Their promise of a ‘gift shop’ further down the line is not only a clever nod to a physical museum but is also a good opportunity to commercialise the site, and taking this theme further, perhaps some kind of tea room (chat room) and toilets (??not too sure what yet!) could mean that this project not only looks good, but becomes a revenue maker too.

We love this innovative and impressive looking site and we offer up a massive and virtual “high five” to The Big Internet Museum for their troubles too...

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Published on: 18th December 2012