If there’s a museum to its name, it has certainly created history. But the Internet, a product that belongs very much in the here and now, and one that is still in a stage of evolution, wouldn’t strike as something that deserves a chronicle. Yet, if one were to visit the Big Internet Museum, it becomes obvious that it is precisely because of its accelerated speed of transformation that it requires to be preserved in all possible forms.
If you are part of the 90s generation, you might be aware of what a dial-up modem looks like, but chances are your children won’t. Also, chances are you don’t know that the Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet, was created by Robert William Taylor of NASA way back in 1969. The website offers up such interesting nuggets, faithfully documenting every step in the development of the World Wide Web. And all this is a crowd-sourced initiative, meaning it is a public work, both in terms of funding and content. This website, essentially a work-in-progress, is a fitting tribute to the Internet on – where else – the Internet.
Neatly divided into wings dedicated to the most visible aspects of the internet – audio/visual, social media, technology, peripherals, gaming, meme and history – the museum is easily navigable and encourages contribution from the lay-reader as well. What’s more, you can even turn curator by voting on what pieces should be displayed in this museum – and you have a gamut of ‘works’ to choose from, ranging from portraits of SOPA and Wikileaks to profiles on ‘Trolling’ and DeviantArt.