From Picassos to Sarcophagi, Guided by Phone Apps

I was reading the New York Times online and stumbled across an article called, "From Picassos to Sarcophagi, Guided by Phone Apps." It reminded me of a discussion we had in class two weeks ago about museums. We talked about whether museums were useful anymore if everything was put on the Internet. This article shows that the idea of museums going online is becoming a reality. The American Museum of Natural History has recently introduced their own iPhone app that tells you your location in the museum, gives you directions and provides you with texts and pictures of major objects. The Museum of Modern Art has an iPhone app as well, which is a short-cut entry into it's audio tour system. Other museums such as Louvre in Paris and the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia have apps that show off their collections. This goes to show that at some point there will be no need for physical museums. We are in the midst of a media revolution and museums are changing along with everything else.