Omeka.org - Publish Exhibitions and Collections Online

In Swahili, “omeka” means to display or lay out goods; to speak out; to spread out; to unpack. Now apply those terms to a concrete website. Omeka allows cultural institutions and private users to publish exhibitions and collections online. The program is easy-to-use (it is designed with non-IT specialists in mind), supports a variety of rich-format images, and gives users creative control of the final product. Integrated into the program are multi-lingual capabilities and web 2.0 functions such as tagging, blogging, and syndicating. Ultimately, the project wants to provide an easy-to-use, low-cost publishing platform, allow users to share multimedia in multiple contexts, and to engage audiences.

“Omeka is a web platform for publishing collections and exhibitions online. Designed for cultural institutions, enthusiasts, and educators, Omeka is easy to install and modify and facilitates community-building around collections and exhibits. It is designed with non-IT specialists in mind, allowing users to focus on content rather than programming.”

Omeka is a professional looking application that is readily being adopted by their target market (there are already a variety of memorial exhibits, including pages devoted to the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita). The site is funded by those that know the market best- the institute of museum and library services, in collaboration with the Minnesota Historical Society, so the final product should be catered to their very specific needs, in addition to a wider audience of collectors and enthusiasts.

Although the site expresses the importance of creative freedom, most of the exhibitions that have used the application have a similar layout and text format. Is that a result of similar thinking, or of a static product?