That is to say, it opened the Virtual Test Zone gallery with the world's first exhibits that were developed through an open source process, under a Creative Commons license, and prototyped in Second Life. Although other museums have experimented with letting visitors modify, evaluate or contribute content to their exhibits, the Tech is the first to throw the doors of its content creation process completely open to the public.

And what, you ask, of quality? Well, the exhibits in the Tech Virtual Test Zone answer that decisively. These seven exhibits are innovative, engaging and first-rate. To sense this for yourself, take this video tour. Credit for this goes first of all to their authors, whose exhibits were selected from a large field of contenders. Credit also goes to the acumen of Nina Simon, the Curator-pro-tem of the exhibition, and to the skill of The Tech's remarkable engineers, for turning bits to atoms. Simon and the engineering staff reinterpreted the virtual exhibits into steel, wood and plastic, transforming some of them almost beyond recognition. For a side-by-side comparison of virtual and real exhibits, see this page.

To celebrate this milestone, The Tech organized a Summit on Digital Democracy in Exhibit Design on the same day. The program had two keynote speakers. First Peter Friess explained how, when hired as the Tech Musuem's President, he was charged with renewing its galleries on a regular basis because, in Silicon Valley, visitors expect to see the "latest and greatest" innovations. He explained how he came up with the idea of "open sourcing" the curation process to meet this business need.

Opening of the Virtual Test Zone gallery	Summit attendees in SL watch Philip Rosedale watching them

Then Philip Rosedale, Chairman of Linden Labs, spoke. He described how building a Star Trek-style door for his childhood bedroom provided the inspiration to create the Second Life virtual world. In Second Life, the residents or "avatars" are encouraged to build whatever they like and provided free tools to do so. Every object they create can be scripted, to make the world dynamic and interactive. These are the very qualities that make Second Life ideal for rapidly prototyping museum exhibits. The keynotes were being streamed into the virtual Tech Museum in Second Life. There was standing room only in both real life and Second Life, and between the two about 130 people attended the Summit. As Rosedale spoke, he referred frequently to this virtual part of his audience. Occasionally he read aloud the chat comments coming from Second Life, displayed on a flat panel monitor at the front of the auditorium: "You tell 'em, Philip, I'm in-world 18 hours a day and it's my regular job."

Rosedale had strong praise for The Tech Virtual:

What's happening here at The Tech is just incredible ... in terms of the evolution of virtual world technology.
All intellectual production will soon move into cyberspace... I can't thank you guys enough because you're doing it. You're proving it. You're making the point, this is exactly the proof point that you look for.
I can't tell you how excited I am to be here and see what's been built at The Tech.

After the keynotes, one of the exhibit designers, Marie Crandell, recorded a video tour of the Test Zone gallery, demonstrating the exhibits and interviewing several of the other designers. At the end of her tour she was joined by Philip Rosedale and Nina Simon, who provided more details about some of the exhibits. Commented Rosedale: "It is so amazing that this happened so fast - I just can't believe it. I thought it was going to be, like, two to three years."

Dear Tech Virtual exhibit designers,

I cannot fully express in words the extent to which you have inspired, impressed, and overwhelmed me with good feeling over the last eight months.  I came into this project in November with one question in my mind (well, one BIG question): Can a group of creative amateurs create exhibits that are as fun, content-rich, and unique as those designed by museum professionals?

You see, I'm not just a community person.  I want wonderful diverse people working together AND high-quality products.  I knew that this project could only be considered a success by the museum world (and in my own heart) if we could create exhibits that truly represented a step forward.  At the end of the day, when the exhibits are on the floor and kids are banging on them, the process by which they were created is just a charming footnote.  If the exhibits aren't good enough, the process won't survive.

I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was.  You have answered my questions and doubts with a resounding YES.  YES your creativity is as valuable as "professional" expertise.  YES your exhibits represent new thinking about experiential museum exhibits.  YES you are generous, smart, energetic people and I feel blessed to have worked with you. 

I'm moving on to work with other museums on participatory design experiences.  I will carry the lessons you taught me everywhere, and hopefully you will be an inspiration not only to The Tech, but to museums all over the world.  You can see more of the lessons I learned from this project here.

You can find me anytime at Museum 2.0 or nina (at) museumtwo (dot) com. 

With affection,

Nina