ABSTRACT
The World Wide Web (the Web) has provided an easy way for museums to reach their many audiences, publishing a range of materials about their institutions and collections, and creating spaces for their varied constituents to engage with each other, and with the content of collections. Following its release in 1993[1] the Web was rapidly adopted by museums (a development traced in the proceedings of the Museums and the Web conferences (1997-). Today, 15 years after its release, having a Web site is considered a necessity by museums. This rapid adoption of the Web by museums reflects the fit between museum needs for widespread dissemination of multimedia content and the ease with which the functionality embodied in the Web supports programmatic needs.
